The verdict in three sentences
Drupal 7 has had no official security updates since 5 January 2025: for a university in Montreal, staying on it exposes applicant data and the institution's reputation. Migrating to a headless CMS (Strapi, Sanity, Directus or Payload with a Next.js front end) costs 120,000 to 250,000 CAD and takes 5 to 7 months for 2,000 bilingual pages. The payoff is maintenance cut roughly in half, faculty autonomy and fast mobile load times, where 80 % of prospective students browse.
Why headless rather than Drupal 10 or 11
Moving from Drupal 7 to Drupal 10 or 11 is not an upgrade but a rebuild: modules rewritten, theme redone, content migrated. The cost is close to a headless migration without its benefits. Headless separates content (the CMS) from presentation (the site), which simplifies security and lets you reuse content in the campus app or digital signage.
| Criterion | Current Drupal 7 | Drupal 10 or 11 | Headless CMS + Next.js |
|---|---|---|---|
| Security support | Ended (January 2025) | Active | Active |
| Rebuild cost | 0 CAD | 105,000 to 230,000 CAD | 120,000 to 250,000 CAD |
| Annual maintenance | 45,000 to 65,000 CAD | 32,000 to 50,000 CAD | 20,000 to 32,000 CAD |
| Mobile load time (LCP) | 4 to 6 s | 2.5 to 3.5 s | 1.2 to 2 s |
| Attack surface | High | Medium | Low (static front end) |
| Developer availability in Montreal | Scarce | Moderate | Abundant (JavaScript) |
| Reuse in mobile app | Hard | Possible | Native via API |
Budget and schedule for a 2,000-page migration
The most underestimated item is content migration. Of 2,000 pages, 30 to 40 % are usually obsolete (old notices, closed programs, 2015 news). Pruning before migrating cuts both volume and budget.
| Phase | Duration | Indicative budget (CAD) |
|---|---|---|
| Content and architecture audit | 3 to 4 weeks | 12,000 to 20,000 |
| Content modelling and editorial roles | 3 weeks | 14,000 to 25,000 |
| Design (faculty, program and news templates) | 4 to 5 weeks | 22,000 to 42,000 |
| Front end and CMS development | 8 to 10 weeks | 45,000 to 100,000 |
| Migration of 2,000 items (scripts + manual cleanup) | 4 weeks in parallel | 16,000 to 35,000 |
| French and English with Quebec language requirements | Built in | 6,000 to 15,000 |
| Redirects, QA, training 30 editors | 3 weeks | 5,000 to 13,000 |
| Total | 5 to 7 months | 120,000 to 250,000 |
The academic calendar drives the go-live date. The best window is November to January, away from application peaks before the 1 March admission deadlines. A launch in February is a bad idea.
Faculty editorial roles and compliance
With 30 editors across faculties, governance matters as much as technology. A model that works:
- Faculty editor: writes news and pages for their faculty only.
- Faculty reviewer: approves before publishing and checks both languages.
- Communications admin: manages the homepage, menus and admission campaigns.
- IT: accounts, backups and audit log.
On privacy, application and contact forms fall under Quebec Law 25: a designated privacy officer, privacy impact assessment for transfers outside Quebec, consent and retention rules. The Charter of the French Language also requires French to be at least as prominent as English. The static front end stores nothing, which limits the protected scope to the CMS and forms.
Mini case study
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Youssef, IT director of a 6,000-student university in Montreal, pays 55,000 CAD a year to keep Drupal 7 alive (extended support, hardened hosting, on-call contractor). After the audit, 700 obsolete pages are archived, leaving 1,300 items to migrate. The headless project is quoted at 170,000 CAD over 6 months. Maintenance drops to 26,000 CAD a year, saving 29,000 CAD annually. Direct payback is about 6 years, but mobile load time falling from 5 s to 1.6 s lifts the application form completion rate from 2.1 % to 3.4 % in the first cycle, roughly 60 extra applications for 4,500 qualified visitors.
FAQ
Can we keep Drupal as a headless CMS?
Yes, Drupal 10 or 11 can serve as an API for a Next.js front end. It makes sense if your team already knows Drupal, but maintenance stays 20 to 30 % heavier than a native headless CMS.
How do we meet French language requirements?
French must be the default and at least as prominent as English. Planning this in the content model from day one costs 6,000 to 15,000 CAD, far less than retrofitting.
What happens to the 2,000 existing URLs?
Every useful URL gets a 301 redirect to its new address. A good redirect plan keeps traffic loss under 10 % for 4 to 8 weeks.
How long to train 30 editors?
Two 3-hour sessions per group plus a video guide are enough. A well-configured headless CMS is simpler than Drupal 7 for non-technical writers.
Must hosting be in Quebec?
Not necessarily, but Law 25 requires a privacy impact assessment before transferring personal data outside Quebec. Canadian hosting with a CDN keeps response times under 100 ms in Montreal.
Let's scope your project. Tell us your scope, current tools and timeline: we scope the project lot by lot and agree the schedule with you. Detailed quote within 48 h. WhatsApp +221 77 596 93 33.
Mohamed Bah
Fondateur, Kolonell
Passionate about digital and entrepreneurship in Africa, Mohamed has been helping Sénégalese businesses with their digital transformation since 2020. Founder of Kolonell, he believes every SME deserves a professional and accessible online présence.
