End-of-life for Drupal 10 is expected by mid to late 2026. While that might sound far off, it’s safer to start preparing now.
At ICON, we’ve seen firsthand how last-minute upgrades can strain resources, introduce compliance risks, and delay critical communications. With decades of Drupal and GovCMS experience under our belt, we’re helping clients get ahead of the curve.
In this post, we explain why early action is essential, what the risks of delay look like, and how you can use the Drupal 11 upgrade as an opportunity to modernise and de-risk your website.
What’s changing with Drupal 11?
Drupal 11 continues the platform's evolution, removing deprecated code, modernising the development stack, and introducing improvements that enhance security, maintainability, and performance. But this progress comes with trade-offs: custom modules, legacy themes and unsupported tools may no longer work as expected – or at all.
Even for sites hosted on GovCMS SaaS – where Drupal core updates, security patches, infrastructure maintenance, and web protection services are managed centrally – agencies remain responsible for their application-layer components: content models, theme modifications, layouts, user permissions, workflows and any added functionality.
What are the risks of waiting?
Delaying action could expose your organisation to several issues:
- Unsupported modules may become unpatchable, leading to vulnerabilities and broken functionality
- Unexpected scope and remediation work can impact timelines and costs
- WCAG, cybersecurity and policy obligations are harder to meet on legacy systems.
By acting now, you can avoid these pitfalls and maintain your digital service standards.
ICON’s approach: Audit first, upgrade smart
ICON offers a Drupal Audit and Readiness Report as a structured first step. It helps organisations understand their upgrade path, identify risks early, and plan resourcing confidently.
Each report includes:
- A full review of all contributed and custom modules
- A list of deprecated or unsupported functionality
- Specific, actionable recommendations
- Insights into common upgrade blockers (e.g. Panelizer, outdated layout systems).
A chance to modernise
The pathway to Drupal 11 can be more than a technical necessity – it’s an opportunity to modernise. We’re helping clients revisit their content models, improve layout and editorial flexibility, and refresh their designs to align with accessibility and best-practice usability.
Let’s get you ready
Whether you’re running a standalone Drupal site or using GovCMS, now is the time to assess your readiness for Drupal 11. To book your audit or speak to a specialist, contact support@iconagency.com.au