Drupal 7 went unsupported on January 5, 2025. Drupal 8 in 2021. Drupal 9 in 2023. Together they still power over 200,000 live sites now flagged as insecure in security compliance scans.
The Drupal Version EOL Crisis
The most significant pressure on current Drupal users is not a dissatisfaction with the software. It is a forced decision created by three consecutive end-of-life events in rapid succession.
- Drupal 8 reached end of life on November 2, 2021. Unsupported since 2021.
- Drupal 9 reached end of life on November 1, 2023. Unsupported since 2023.
- Drupal 7 reached end of life on January 5, 2025. Still powering approximately 40% of all active Drupal sites at that date.
According to Vital Design (March 2026), Drupal 7 and Drupal 9 together still power over 200,000 live sites, all now flagged as “unsupported” in security compliance scans. Running unsupported software is not an immediate catastrophe, but it is an open invitation for automated exploits, higher cyber-insurance premiums, and “critical” findings in PCI or HIPAA audits.
The deeper problem is what “upgrading” means in the Drupal world. Moving from Drupal 7 to Drupal 10 or 11 is not an update. It is a full rebuild. Every contributed module must be reviewed for a Drupal 10-compatible version or a replacement. All custom modules must be rewritten. Themes built on PHPTemplate must be rebuilt in Twig. Database content must be migrated using the Migrate module. For a complex Drupal 7 site this work commonly takes six to twelve months and costs more than the original build.
What Drupal Users Are Saying
Half-baked modules powered our sites; sometimes a module’s creator would abandon the effort and it would cost us thousands of dollars in lost revenue.
Frontend Engineer, Computer Software company, Capterra review, May 2023
Drupal has a lot of flexibilities and ways to do one thing but you can never be sure which method works the best. Also, the codes do not last forever because Drupal releases major updates which change the functionality of the site.
Verified user review, Financesonline, 2024
Organizations seeking more user-friendly alternatives may explore migration to platforms like WordPress. The move from Drupal 7 is not a simple update but rather requires a complete rebuild. For smaller teams, freelancers, or businesses, this can mean significant time, money, and stress.
MigrateContent.com, December 2024
Drupal still is not as intuitive as WordPress or Webflow. The learning curve is real, and it is not something to underestimate.
LitExtension Drupal Reviews, April 2025
The pattern is consistent across reviews and developer communities. Drupal is genuinely powerful. It is also developer-dependent in a way that has become increasingly expensive. Non-technical staff cannot meaningfully manage a Drupal site without developer involvement. And as the Drupal developer pool shrinks relative to demand, that involvement costs more every year.
Drupal Modules and Their WordPress Equivalents
Every piece of functionality that Drupal provides through its module system has a WordPress equivalent that is actively maintained and widely deployed. The following table covers the core modules that drive most Drupal sites, including the one migration that opens a particularly significant door: moving from the built-in Drupal Forum module to wpForo 360° AI, the full-featured AI-powered forum platform.
| Drupal Module | What It Does | WordPress Equivalent | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Views | Query-driven content lists and data grids without code | WP_Query + ACF / custom loops / Toolset Views | Built in + ACF |
| CCK / Field API | Custom field types on any content type | ACF Pro (repeater, flexible content, relationship) | Free + Pro |
| Webform | Advanced multi-step forms with submission storage | Gravity Forms / WPForms / Fluent Forms | Free tiers |
| Drupal Commerce | Full e-commerce: products, orders, payments | WooCommerce (8M+ active installs) | Free core |
| Drupal Forum (core) | Basic community discussion boards | wpForo 360° AI (full forum with AI features) | Free + Pro |
| Advanced Forum | Enhanced forum display and features | wpForo 360° AI | Free + Pro |
| Pathauto | Auto-generate URL aliases from token patterns | Yoast SEO permalink settings | Built in |
| Metatag | Structured SEO metadata per content type | Yoast SEO (10M+ active installs) | Free + Pro |
| Rules | Event-driven automation and conditional logic | WP Cron + AutomatorWP / ACF conditional logic | Free core |
| Layout Builder / Panels | Drag-and-drop page layout builder | Gutenberg Block Editor + Elementor / Beaver Builder | Built in + plugins |
| Organic Groups | Group-based content and membership management | BuddyPress / BuddyBoss / MemberPress | Free core |
| Redirect | Manage 301/302 redirects from admin UI | Redirection plugin (2M+ installs) | Free |
| Backup and Migrate | Database and files backup management | UpdraftPlus (3M+ installs) | Free + Pro |
| Taxonomy | Hierarchical vocabularies and term references | Categories, Tags, and custom taxonomies (built in) | Built in |
A note on the forum migration specifically. Drupal ships with a built-in forum module and many sites also run Advanced Forum or phpBB Integration. These boards contain years of discussion threads, registered members, and community-built knowledge. Rather than migrating this forum data into a basic WordPress setup, gConverter migrates Drupal forum content directly into wpForo 360° AI, which provides a full-featured, AI-enhanced forum experience with topic subscriptions, member ranks, private messaging, and real-time notifications that the Drupal forum module cannot match.
What a Proper Drupal Migration Involves
Drupal stores content in a node and field model. Nodes are content items. Each content type (article, page, event, product, etc.) has a field set stored across multiple field_data_* and field_revision_* tables in the database. A proper migration reads these tables directly, maps them to WordPress post types and ACF field groups, and handles every layer of the structure. Here is how each element is handled.
Nodes and content types
Every Drupal content type becomes a WordPress post type, page, or custom post type depending on its function. Article and blog content types become WordPress posts. Basic page content types become pages. Portfolio, product, event, and team member content types become custom post types with ACF field groups that replicate the original field structure exactly. Node titles, body fields, author attribution, publishing dates, and node status are all preserved.
Fields and field data
This is where generic migration tools fail. Each Drupal field type is stored in its own table (field_data_field_image, field_data_field_price, etc.). A proper migration queries each of these tables individually, mapping the field values to ACF Pro equivalents in WordPress. Text fields become ACF text fields. Image fields become ACF image fields. Entity reference fields (used in Views and relationship configurations) become ACF Relationship fields. File attachment fields become file upload meta. No field data is silently dropped.
Taxonomy and vocabularies
Drupal taxonomies are hierarchical vocabularies with terms used to classify nodes. Each vocabulary maps to a WordPress custom taxonomy. Each term, including its parent-child hierarchy, description, and any associated fields, is imported. Term references on nodes are updated to reference the corresponding WordPress taxonomy terms after migration.
User accounts and roles
All registered Drupal users are imported to WordPress with role mapping. Drupal Administrator maps to WordPress Administrator. Drupal Editor maps to WordPress Editor. Custom roles are created in WordPress if they do not have an equivalent. User profile fields (managed by the Profile or Profile2 module) are imported as WordPress user meta. Because Drupal and WordPress use different password hashing algorithms, users are prompted to reset their passwords on first login via secure email, and no passwords are exposed at any stage.
Forum content to wpForo
Drupal forum topics and replies stored in the forum_index and associated node tables are migrated to wpForo 360° AI post and reply structures. Forum containers become wpForo categories. Forum boards map to wpForo sub-forums. Topic nodes become wpForo topics. Comments and replies preserve author attribution and timestamps. Member data flows from Drupal user accounts to wpForo member profiles. The result is a fully populated wpForo 360° AI installation with complete forum history intact.
Views to content queries
Drupal Views create dynamic content displays using a GUI-driven query builder. The output of each View is replicated in WordPress using either a custom WP_Query loop within the theme template, a Toolset Views setup for non-developer editors, or an ACF-powered listing page depending on the complexity. The rendered output of every Views-driven page is preserved visually.
SEO, paths, and redirects
Drupal URL aliases (managed by Pathauto) give each node a clean path. Where these paths can be replicated in WordPress permalink settings, they are preserved exactly. Where the structure must change, a 301 redirect is created for every affected URL using the Redirection plugin. Metatag-generated SEO titles and descriptions are imported to Yoast SEO. No node goes live without its SEO metadata.
What Bad Drupal Migrations Look Like
- Field data silently lost. Generic migration tools import the node body and title but skip all
field_data_*table contents. Custom fields, image galleries, price fields, and date fields simply do not appear in WordPress. Clients discover this after launch. - Taxonomy references broken. Nodes are imported but their taxonomy term references are not resolved, because the tool did not import the vocabulary terms first. All category and tag relationships are empty.
- Views-driven pages missing. Every page driven by a Drupal View (event listings, staff directories, news archives, product catalogs) has no content after migration because Views output is not content. Generic tools import nodes but cannot recreate the query-driven layouts.
- Forum content abandoned. Forum topics stored in the Drupal Forum module are often skipped entirely by migration tools that do not understand the forum node type. Years of community-built content are lost.
- URL structure ignored. Drupal Pathauto-generated aliases carry significant SEO value. Migration tools assign default WordPress slugs and implement no redirects. Search rankings and inbound links drop immediately.
- User accounts dropped. The Profile and Profile2 module user data is in separate tables that generic tools ignore. All user profile data is lost. Only basic account information survives.
- Multilingual content mangled. Sites using the i18n module or Internationalization have translated content in separate database tables. Generic tools import only the default-language nodes and discard all translations.
GDPR and Your Data
A Drupal database contains every piece of personal data collected from registered users: account profiles, comment authorship, webform submissions, forum post history, e-commerce customer records if using Drupal Commerce, and any custom field data captured on user entities. For government portals and institutions running on Drupal, this may include legally protected data under GDPR, HIPAA, or sector-specific regulations.
Migrating this to WordPress is a personal data transfer under GDPR. Every provider you consider should be able to answer these questions in writing before they touch your database: will they sign a DPA, how are credentials transmitted, where is the data processed, when is it deleted, and what is their breach notification procedure.
gConverter is US-registered with full EU GDPR compliance. We sign a Data Processing Agreement before any access is granted. Credentials are stored in AES-256 encrypted vaults, transmitted over TLS 1.3, and deleted within 24 hours of job completion. All customer data is permanently deleted within 30 days. For GC-ExtraSecurity clients, processing happens on a dedicated Hetzner EU server in Frankfurt. Read the full GDPR documentation →
What Clients Say
Went FAR above and beyond to help us work through this project. We are thrilled with the final result and they were professional, great to work with, and responsive every step of the way. Would highly recommend.
Anna P., Wilmington NC – Customer Lobby, January 2026
There were very few conversion issues on the first pass, and they cleaned it right. Very impressive.
Stacy C., Katy TX – Customer Lobby, November 2025
The Bottom Line
Drupal earned its reputation as the enterprise CMS of choice for complex, structured content environments. The node and field model, the granular access control, and the Views-driven content architecture are genuinely powerful. But the version EOL cycle, the developer dependency for routine editorial work, and the cost of maintaining Drupal talent have collectively made the platform difficult to justify for any organization that is not actively investing in a dedicated Drupal team.
WordPress is where the talent pool is deep, where the plugin ecosystem covers every use case, and where content editors can do real work without filing a developer ticket. Every node, every field, every taxonomy term, every user account, and every forum thread on your Drupal site can be migrated cleanly. And if your site runs a community forum, that content moves into wpForo 360° AI, not into a stripped-down bbPress setup.