Pick Drupal 11 for a new project. Drupal, the open-source system for building structured content websites, now offers 11 as the current major line. Drupal.org says new projects can start directly on that line because Drupal 11.0.0 arrived August 2, 2024, in the Drupal 11.0.0 release notes. Starting there avoids paying for a major upgrade soon after launch.
Table of Contents
- How much supported life do you get?
- Will your hosting run Drupal 11?
- What does Drupal 11 give new builds?
- What if a module or host forces Drupal 10?
How much supported life do you get?
Drupal 10 has a short runway. Drupal.org lists December 9, 2026 as the end of life for Drupal 10 in its core release schedule.
After that date, Drupal.org will make no new Drupal 10 releases, including security fixes. A project starting on Drupal 10 now would need an upgrade within months. Drupal 11 gives support through Drupal 13, according to Drupal.org upgrade and schedule material.
Will your hosting run Drupal 11?
Drupal 11 needs newer platform versions than many Drupal 10 sites use. Drupal.org says it requires PHP 8.3 with zlib, plus MySQL 8.0, MariaDB 10.6, PostgreSQL 16 and SQLite 3.45, in its requirements announcement.
Check these items before you commit: If a host cannot meet those versions, either change plans or delay the build. Do not start on Drupal 10 only to avoid one hosting ticket.
- PHP 8.3 on hosting, local stack and CI
- matching database version for MySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL or SQLite
- updated extensions, including zlib
What does Drupal 11 give new builds?
Drupal 11 ships on Symfony 7, while Drupal 10 uses Symfony 6. Drupal.org release policy ties that change to newer framework security, performance and dependency support.
New-site tooling is also stronger. Compared with Drupal 10.0, Drupal.org reports that Drupal 11 adds Recipes for packaging setup, Single Directory Components for reusable interface parts, and an Access Policy API for access rules beyond roles and permissions. The Drupal Association also launched Drupal CMS 1.0 on January 15, 2025, as a ready-to-use product on Drupal 11 core with nearly 30 Recipes for blogs, events and common needs.
What if a module or host forces Drupal 10?
Use Drupal 10 only as a brief bridge. Drupal 11 removes deprecated Drupal 10 programming interfaces, so older contributed and custom code may need rework.
Drupal.org upgrade documentation says a site must already run Drupal 10.3.0 or later to move to Drupal 11. Pre-10.3 core updates were removed in Drupal 11. Confirm each required module has a Drupal 11 release before you commit.
