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Drupal 9 is end of life

Upgrade Drupal 9 to Drupal 12

Drupal 9 is unsupported, and Drupal 12 is several versions ahead — so this is a multi-step climb, not a single jump. It's also where "just upgrade it yourself" runs into the hardest version of the modern Composer-only reality.

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Drupal 9 reached end of life on November 1, 2023. It no longer receives security patches, so beyond the upgrade effort, every day on Drupal 9 carries unpatched risk. See Drupal 9 end of life for details.

The path: 9 → 10 → 11 → 12

There's no shortcut that teleports a Drupal 9 site to Drupal 12. You climb one major at a time, and while each hop shares the modern architecture (so none is a full rebuild), you repeat the cycle several times:

  1. 9 → 10 — module updates, deprecation cleanup, and the CKEditor 4 → 5 transition.
  2. 10 → 11 — more module updates and deprecations — and the point where UI-based module installation goes away and Composer becomes mandatory.
  3. 11 → 12 — the final, lightest hop.

The friction multiplies because contributed modules each have their own compatibility timeline — some older Drupal 9 modules may have no clean Drupal 12 equivalent, forcing replacements or custom work.

Can I upgrade Drupal 9 to Drupal 12 myself?

Technically, yes. Honestly, this is where DIY gets genuinely hard — and where the forum complaint that "Drupal is becoming too difficult" is most warranted.

Several versions behind = the difficulty compounds. You're doing multiple rounds of module and deprecation work, navigating CKEditor and other subsystem changes, and fully adopting the Composer-only, command-line workflow — all at once. In Drupal 9/10 you could still install modules by uploading a ZIP in the admin UI; by the time you reach Drupal 11/12, that's gone, and everything runs through Composer on the command line.

Doing this in-house realistically requires command-line/SSH access (or a local environment like DDEV), real fluency with Composer and Drush, a Composer-friendly host, and the time to work through module-by-module compatibility. For a simple site with a capable developer, it's doable. For most organizations still on Drupal 9 — which usually means limited in-house Drupal capacity — attempting it solo often costs more in stalled time than it saves.

The question worth asking first

When you're this far behind, the move is already rebuild-scale effort — so it's the right moment to ask the bigger question: is a multi-step Drupal climb the best use of the budget, or is this the opportunity to reassess direction — even whether Drupal is still the right platform? Sometimes the answer is a clean upgrade; sometimes it's a rebuild or a replatform. The point is to decide deliberately, with someone who's done it before.

On Drupal 9 and not sure where to start?

Tell us what you're running as well as any additional tech stack details. From there we can figure out together if an upgrade makes the most sense — or if there's another option best suited for you and your organization.

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Tell us what you need

Share your site and any additional tech stack details. We'll flag your end-of-life risk and hosting setup, and figure out together whether the climb to Drupal 12, a rebuild, or a replatform is the right call for you and your organization. No obligation.

We'll email you back and may follow up if we spot significant issues worth fixing. No spam.

Drupal 9 to 12: frequently asked questions

Can I upgrade Drupal 9 to 12 myself?

Technically yes, but it's the hardest DIY path — a multi-step climb (9→10→11→12) with repeated module and deprecation work, CKEditor 4→5, and full Composer/command-line adoption. For most Drupal 9 organizations, it's a strong candidate for help.

Is Drupal 9 still supported?

No — it reached end of life on November 1, 2023, and gets no security updates.

Should I upgrade or rebuild?

Being this far behind is already rebuild-scale effort, so it's worth deciding deliberately — a clean multi-step upgrade, a rebuild on Drupal 12, or a replatform can all be right depending on your situation.