Technology

Drupal 7 Migration & Upgrade
for businesses in Australia, New Zealand, the UK and the US.

Drupal 7 reached end of life on 5 January 2025. Drupal 8 onwards is a different architecture built on Symfony, so there is no upgrade path, only a migration.

Book a 20-min scoping call
  • Independent No licence commission, no reseller agenda
  • 18+ yrs Building business software
  • Fixed Price scopes, no surprises
  • AU NZ UK US Perth-based, working remotely
Where we fit

End of life, and no upgrade button

Drupal 7 ran a very large number of Australian association, government and education websites. It is now past end of life, which means no security fixes from the Drupal project and a contributed module ecosystem that has largely moved on.

The difficulty is that Drupal 8 and later were rebuilt on Symfony with a different architecture. Content can be migrated. Custom modules and themes cannot simply be carried over.

How it runs

Your Drupal 7 project, end to end

Three stages. Scoped and fixed-price before anything starts, delivered by the founder, and your existing system stays running until cutover.

  1. Week 0

    Read the system as it is

    We go through the existing application and record what it actually does, including the parts nobody documented. You get a written inventory and a fixed price before any build starts.

  2. Weeks 1-N

    Rebuild and run in parallel

    The replacement runs beside the original until the numbers reconcile. The old system stays untouched and switched on the whole time.

  3. Cutover

    Go live and hand over

    Cutover on a date you choose, then thirty days of support. Source code, documentation and credentials are handed to you, in your name.

Founder profile

Kasun Wijayamanna

Founder · Perth, WA · Started HELLO PEOPLE in 2008

18+ Years running HELLO PEOPLE

Founded in 2008. Two decades of technology-driven business transformation across Australia.

100+ Projects delivered

Startups to government agencies across mining, healthcare, legal, education and more.

HDR Researcher · Curtin University

Postgraduate research in Artificial Intelligence and Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG).

MBA Oil & Gas

Deep technical expertise combined with strong business and financial acumen.

Perth Based in WA

Serving businesses across Western Australia and nationally.

AU+TH International experience

Professional background in Bangkok, Thailand before migrating to Perth.

PHF Paul Harris Fellow · Rotary

Former President of Rotary Club of Booragoon. Over a decade of community service.

Read the full bio, research, career, community involvement and how HELLO PEOPLE runs projects.

See full founder page

What the work actually is

Migrate the content, rebuild the custom parts, keep the URLs

Content and files migrate well. Custom modules and themes have to be rebuilt or replaced. The part worth getting right is URL preservation, because losing it costs you search rankings you spent years earning.

What you have now

  • A Drupal 7 site past end of life
  • Contributed modules with no maintained equivalent
  • Custom modules and a custom theme
  • Content and files worth keeping
What we build

Migrate the content, rebuild the custom parts, keep the URLs

Content and files migrate well. Custom modules and themes have to be rebuilt or replaced. The part worth getting right is URL preservation, because losing it costs you search rankings you spent years earning.

See how a project runs

What you end up with

  • Content and files migrated with URLs preserved
  • A supported platform receiving security updates
  • Custom functionality rebuilt or replaced deliberately
What we do

The 5 pieces of Drupal 7 work we are asked for

Most engagements are some combination of these, and most start with the first.

  1. Audit the modules

    Which contributed modules have a maintained equivalent, which do not, and which you no longer need. This usually shrinks the project.

  2. Migrate content and files

    Content types, taxonomy, users and file attachments moved with structure intact and verified against the original.

  3. Decide the destination honestly

    Current Drupal, or something else entirely. If the site is mostly content, Drupal may be more machinery than you need and we will say so.

  4. Preserve the URLs

    Redirects mapped so search rankings and inbound links survive. This is where hurried migrations do lasting damage.

  5. Rebuild what is custom

    Custom modules and themes reworked for the new architecture, or replaced with something maintained.

Where you are now

It works, and nobody will touch it

  • Past end of life since 5 January 2025, with no security fixes
  • Contributed modules abandoned by their maintainers
  • No upgrade path, because Drupal 8 onwards is a rebuild
  • A custom theme nobody has touched in years

After

Supported, documented and yours

  • A supported platform with security updates
  • Content and files intact, with URLs preserved
  • Custom functionality on something maintained
  • A site that can be updated without fear

Scoped and quoted before you commit. You own the code, the documentation and the credentials at the end of it.

Get a fixed-price scope
Common questions

Drupal 7 questions

Can we upgrade Drupal 7 to Drupal 10 directly?

Not as an upgrade. Drupal 8 onwards is a different architecture on Symfony, so it is a content migration plus a rebuild of anything custom. The Drupal project provides migration tooling, which helps with content but not with custom code.

Should we stay on Drupal at all?

Worth asking honestly. If the site is mostly content with a few forms, Drupal may be more machinery than you need. If you rely on complex content modelling, workflow and permissions, it earns its place.

Will we lose our search rankings?

Not if URL preservation is treated as part of the project rather than an afterthought. Every old address needs to resolve, and this is where rushed migrations do damage that takes a year to undo.

Our contributed modules have no Drupal 10 version. What happens?

Each gets assessed: a maintained equivalent, a custom rebuild, or dropped because you no longer need it. The third option applies more often than people expect.

How urgent is this?

More urgent than most things on this list. A public-facing site with no security fixes since January 2025 is a genuine exposure, not a theoretical one.

Tell us what you are running

What the system does, roughly how old it is, and what is forcing the question. We will come back with a straight answer and a fixed-price scope, even if the answer is to leave it alone.

Prefer a quick chat? Call 0425 531 127. We answer the phone in Perth.