Drupal Support UK

Drupal versions and deadlines

Drupal is used by councils, universities, charities and larger businesses because of its permissions, structured content and multilingual features. It is also stricter about versions than most CMSs, and the deadlines are firm:

Drupal 8 and later share the same modern architecture (Symfony components, Twig templates, configuration management), so moving from 10 to 11 is an upgrade, not a rebuild. Moving from Drupal 7 is a migration: content, users and files are moved into a newly built site.

How we update Drupal

Modern Drupal is managed with Composer. Updating through the admin UI is not supported for core on Drupal 8 and later, which catches out many site owners whose original developer has moved on. Our process:

1. Back up code, database and files.
2. Run composer update for the core and module packages, resolving any version constraints in composer.json.
3. Run drush updatedb to apply database updates, then drush config:export so configuration in code matches the live site.
4. Clear caches, check the Status report and test key pages, forms and logins.

We watch Drupal Security Team advisories and prioritise anything marked critical or highly critical for your installed modules.

Upgrading from Drupal 10 to 11, or off Drupal 7

For Drupal 10 to 11, we run the Upgrade Status module to find deprecated code in custom modules and themes and incompatible contributed modules. Drupal Rector can automatically fix much of the deprecated code. Contributed modules without a Drupal 11 release need patching, replacing or removing. Drupal 11 also needs PHP 8.3 or newer, so hosting may need changing.

For Drupal 7 sites, the Migrate API can bring content, taxonomy, users and files into a new Drupal 11 build, but themes and custom modules must be rebuilt. For a small site, a move to WordPress can be simpler and cheaper to run. Either route is quoted after an audit; complex builds may be handed to our bespoke team at dijitul developments.

Drupal problems we fix

• White screen or unexpected error: we check watchdog logs with drush watchdog:show or the server log, then fix the failing module or missing dependency.
• Composer conflicts: patches that no longer apply, abandoned packages, or a platform PHP version mismatch.
• Config drift: changes made through the UI on live that are wiped on the next deploy because they were never exported.
• Cron not running: search indexes, scheduled publishing and cache clears silently stop.
• Performance: heavy Views, disabled caching or missing Redis. See website speed optimisation.

Hosting and PHP for Drupal

Drupal is more sensitive to hosting than most CMSs. Drupal 11 needs PHP 8.3 or newer, a recent MySQL, MariaDB or PostgreSQL version, and Composer available on the server or in a deployment pipeline. Cheap shared hosting without SSH access makes Composer-based updates awkward, and some sites end up never updated for that reason alone.

We check the hosting before any upgrade: PHP version and memory limit, database version, whether Drush can run, how cron is triggered, and whether a staging environment exists. If your current host cannot run a supported Drupal version, we will explain what you need. Hosting is available from our sister company, but you are free to stay where you are if the platform meets the requirements.

Drupal support prices

Essential, £25 a month + VAT: Drupal core and module updates applied and checked, daily backups, uptime and security monitoring. Business, £50 a month + VAT: adds one hour of fixes or changes a month and priority support. Complete, £99 a month + VAT: three hours a month plus IT and Microsoft 365 helpdesk for your team.

Ad-hoc Drupal work is £45 an hour + VAT with a 30-minute minimum. Version upgrades and Drupal 7 migrations are quoted. See website maintenance or ask for a quote.

What it costs

Support plans from £25 a month + VAT, or £45 an hour + VAT for one-off fixes. Pick a plan if you want it looked after every month, or pay by the hour for a one-off job.

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