The verdict in three sentences
A sports federation website still running on Drupal 7 is now a security risk and an audience killer, since the core has received no official patches since January 2025. A migration to Next.js with a headless CMS costs, as a 2026 order of magnitude, EUR 22,000 to 40,000 excluding VAT for 4,200 pages and 180 clubs, delivered in 14 weeks. The payback shows up quickly: load time cut by more than three, roughly EUR 3,000 a year in patches avoided, and clubs that manage their own pages.
Why Drupal 7 costs more every month
A typical regional federation has years of content: news, competition results, club profiles, rulebooks as PDFs, refereeing and coaching pages. On Drupal 7, every abandoned community module becomes a potential vulnerability. Paid extended support offers exist, but they only postpone the decision.
The symptoms are always the same: slow mobile pages at the weekend (the peak for results), a back office only two volunteers know how to use, and a non-responsive theme patched season after season.
| Item | Maintained Drupal 7 (per year) | Next.js + headless CMS (per year) |
|---|---|---|
| Security and module patches | EUR 3,000 to 4,500 | EUR 0 to 1,500 |
| Third-party extended support | EUR 1,200 to 2,400 | Not needed |
| Hosting | EUR 900 to 1,800 | EUR 600 to 1,500 (CDN included) |
| Headless CMS licence | EUR 0 | EUR 0 to 3,600 depending on vendor |
| Volunteer time lost in the back office | 150 to 250 hours | 60 to 100 hours |
| Average mobile load time | 5.8 s | 1.6 s |
The gap is not only about invoices. A results page that takes almost six seconds to render loses a large share of mobile visitors before the first score appears.
Detailed budget for a 4,200-page migration
The migration breaks down into clear work packages. The most underestimated item is content migration and the 301 redirect plan: across 4,200 URLs, every forgotten page means lost rankings and a broken link in club newsletters.
| Work package | 2026 range (EUR excl. VAT) | Duration |
|---|---|---|
| Audit, content and URL mapping | 2,000 to 3,500 | 2 weeks |
| Design system and mockups (home, club, competition, news) | 4,000 to 7,000 | 3 weeks |
| Next.js development and headless CMS modelling | 8,000 to 15,000 | 5 weeks |
| Content and media migration script | 3,000 to 6,000 | 2 weeks |
| 4,200 301 redirects and SEO acceptance testing | 2,000 to 4,000 | 1 week |
| Club areas (180 accounts, roles and approval) | 2,000 to 3,000 | 1 week |
| Volunteer training and go-live | 1,000 to 1,500 | In parallel |
| Total | 22,000 to 40,000 | 14 weeks |
The low end assumes near-automatic content migration and a simple results interface. The high end includes a connection to the licence database, a fixture calendar filterable by discipline and a map-based directory of the 180 clubs.
The technical choices that make the difference
Next.js pre-renders stable pages (rulebooks, club profiles) and refreshes live pages on demand (weekend results). The headless CMS gives each club restricted access to its own profile without touching the rest of the site.
| Criterion | Drupal 7 | Next.js + headless CMS |
|---|---|---|
| Mobile Largest Contentful Paint | 4.5 to 6 s | 1.2 to 2 s |
| Security updates | No more official patches | Maintained dependencies |
| Per-club permissions | Complex, several modules | Native roles per space |
| Sunday traffic peak | Overloaded server | Pages served from a CDN |
| Accessibility (WCAG) | Theme must be rebuilt | Compliant components by design |
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Mini case study
Nathalie, general secretary of a regional handball league in Nantes, runs a 4,200-page Drupal 7 site for 180 clubs. The league spends EUR 3,000 a year on patches plus EUR 1,800 on extended support. The selected migration quote is EUR 31,000 excluding VAT. After the switch, recurring costs drop to EUR 1,200 a year, a saving of EUR 3,600 a year. The 120 volunteer hours saved, valued at EUR 25 an hour, add EUR 3,000. The project pays for itself in just under five years on savings alone, before counting the increase in mobile visits and online competition sign-ups.
FAQ
Can all Drupal 7 content be migrated automatically?
Usually 85 to 95% of content can be migrated by script from the database. The rest, often pages built with exotic modules, needs a few days of manual work.
Are 4,200 301 redirects really necessary?
Yes, every indexed legacy URL must point to its new address. Without this plan, a federation can lose 30 to 50% of its organic traffic in the weeks after go-live.
Will clubs be able to edit their own page?
Yes, each club gets an account limited to its profile, with league approval if desired. A 2-hour training session is usually enough for volunteers.
How long will the site be offline?
The switch happens in a 2 to 4-hour window, ideally on a weekday with no competition. The old site stays readable until final sign-off.
Do we need to pay for a headless CMS licence?
Some CMSs are free when self-hosted, others charge EUR 100 to 300 a month depending on user count. With 180 clubs, the licensing model weighs on the annual budget.
Let's scope your project. Send us your page count, number of clubs and sporting deadlines: we will price the Drupal 7 to Next.js migration package by package, with an indicative budget and a 14-week schedule. 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.
