Website is known to be a powerful engine for any person who is running their business. The website plays an important role in increasing the visibility of the brand, driving conversions, and also raising the satisfaction of customers with the help of the website’s high performance, smooth work, engaging user experience, sufficient safety, and many others.
If a website is outdated then this is a major disadvantage as it won’t be able to perform these kinds of tasks. So migrating from Drupal 6 to Drupal 8 is a better option in order to get advanced with the advancement of technology. You can seek the help of various Drupal development services who are responsible and also very reputed.
Some of the options that the Drupal 6 owners are having are given below-
Commercial support
Long-term support for Drupal 6 is there that will help in providing security and also maintaining updates for contributed as well as core models. This is similar to that of the filling of old clothes with patches. However, you will be left behind by your competitors if they migrate to the latest versions. You will be paying for Drupal 6 but this is not the better option as to how long you are going to pay for this version when you are having an option to change it to Drupal 8 by investing some amount with Drupal support services.
Upgrading from Drupal 6 to Drupal 7
Previously upgrading Drupal 6 to Drupal 7 was the best option available but now it is not the best option as this is never a future-oriented choice. There are many Drupal 7 owners who are planning to upgrade to Drupal 8 in order to get the various benefits of Drupal 8. Moreover, Drupal 8 will be Drupal 9 ready but Drupal 7 is not. If you upgrade from Drupal 6 to Drupal 8 then remember that you will be on the right innovative track where you will get all easy and quick upgrades.
Some of the specific reasons why you should upgrade to Drupal 8 are given below-
Easy upgrades
Drupal 9 will be the latest version available and so if you are using Drupal 6 then you are obviously left behind. Those who are using Drupal 8 are always ready to upgrade themselves to Drupal 9. However, in November 2021, both Drupal 7, as well as Drupal 8, will be reaching their end of life. So if you are using Drupal 8 then it will be easy for you to shift to Drupal 9. This is a single time process where you will be upgrading directly from Drupal 6 to Drupal 8 and this will help you to avoid hassles related to upgrades in the near future. All the software application development companies will guide in this process. But choosing an experienced company is a tough job and so it is better than before choosing any company, you see their previous works and also look at the feedback of the company’s previous clients.
Improved editorial experience
A strong focus is there in the case of Drupal 8 for content management. It will play an important role in allowing the CKEditor to create content in a convenient manner, media library in storing as well as using various multimedia, quick editing feature that will help in editing things while on go, enhancing options for content moderations, drag-and-drop layout builder for shaping the pages and many others.
Mobile-first approach
It is important that you are able to provide your customers with a website mobile-friendly experience along with experience of best browsing. So if you are able to shift to Drupal 8 then it is having a mobile-first approach that will be having core themes which are mobile responsive, responsive breakpoint and image modules and various other in-built as well as add-on features for web designing that is responsive.
Multilingual capabilities
If you are ready to change your website to a multilingual one, then it is the best time that you migrate from Drupal 6 to Drupal 8. There are almost around 100 languages are there that have been supported, in a single click interface translations uploaded function is there, multilingual settings are there that are fine-grained and many other features are there that will make it the perfect choice for you. All you have to do is hire a Drupal developer who will be helping you in migrating from Drupal 6 to Drupal 8 in order to get an all-over better experience.
API-first approach
If you migrate to Drupal 8 then it will become an easy job for you to share data and that also with any application. These can be written in GO, Python, Java, etc, as well as powered by Gatsby, Vue, React which are the frameworks of JavaScript. This will therefore help in providing good loading speed along with dynamic experience.
Integration with any software
Changing from Drupal 6/7 to Drupal 8/9 will help you in integrating seamlessly with your solutions of marketing automation, all third-party APIs, CRM platform, and many others.
E-commerce with a new level
Drupal Commerce 2 is available after Drupal 8 which will be having great payment gateway choices, many payment options, product management that is convenient, flexible checkouts, multiple currencies, and many others. These were some of the few reasons why you should e creating an online store with Commerce 2.
Latest libraries with new architectures
In Drupal 8/9 a better performance of the site, high site maintainability, efficient development, clean code, and many more is there. It is basically built on object-oriented programming. Moreover, it will be using the latest Twig template engine, Symphony components, composer package manager, etc. Hire a Drupal Programmer and later you will realize the importance of it.
The above few points will surely guide you about why you should migrate from Drupal 6/7 to Drupal 8/9. Now it's up to you whether you are happy with the old version or you want to shift to the new version.
Kuldeep Kundal Founder at Developers Dev which is an mobile app development company. Mr. Kuldeep Kundal has expertise in Marketing, People Management, Internal Administration and Research & Development. He is responsible for overall Vision, Business Direction, Corporate Initiatives and Goals.He handled many big development projects for clients like Barclay London, Wells Forgo, Ohio, Wikifun, Mobymemory, and many more.