Drupal Version History – Latest Releases & Future Scenario

Drupal is a flexible CMS that suits small, medium-sized, and large sites with specific needs. Furthermore, Drupal has evolved into a powerful yet results-driven content management system.

The story does not stop here, as users have experienced several key features, improvements, updates, and transformations of websites, as well as how developers can develop and manage them.

This blog post offers in-depth insights into Drupal version history, including details on various releases and updates.

Drupal Version History – (Drupal Version List)

This section will provide a detailed discussion of the Drupal version list using a simple table. Additionally, users can explore various old versions of Drupal in one place without any hassle.

According to the Drupal version history table above, the old versions of Drupal are equally crucial and beneficial as the Drupal latest versions.

Drupal Version History (How the Journey Began)

Dries Buytaert, a Master’s student at the University of Antwerp, developed Drupal to facilitate communication among him and his dorm mates while they worked on their degrees online. The journey started as a simple messaging channel and transformed into an impactful content management system over time.

Drupal Version History (Brief Summary)

• The Drupal latest version is Drupal 11 and was released in July 2024.
• Drupal 11, Drupal current version will receive security updates in mid-2026, coinciding with the release of Drupal 12.
• Drupal 9, a Drupal previous version, was supported until November 2023; thus, we recommend that users update to a previous version of Drupal as early as possible.
• Drupal 8 was supported till November 2021. Drupal 7 was supported until January 2025.
• The upgrade or advancement from Drupal 7 to Drupal 8 is intricate. Consequently, there are various Drupal 7 websites.
• Upgrades from Drupal 8 onwards, such as from Drupal 10 to 11 (11 is Drupal latest version), are relatively straightforward.
• A version upgrade should nevertheless never be rushed, as there could be incompatibilities in modules.
• The history of Drupal dates back to 2001.

The above summary includes information surrounding the current version or Drupal latest release. It also comprises Drupal previous versions and other crucial information.

Timeline of Drupal Version 11

Drupal 11 is the latest release, focusing on scalability and security with the help of various powerful features, including stable Directory Components (SDC), an enhanced administration UI with a new navigation module, a contemporary technology stack with Symfony 7 and PHP 8.3, improved workspaces for content staging, and more.

Timeline of Drupal Version 10

Drupal 10 introduced the Olivero default theme to users, a significant upgrade designed to enhance the visual appeal of websites. Users also benefited from this theme in Drupal 9. Likewise, Drupal 10 also delighted users with the Claro administration theme that smartly replaced the older ‘Seven’ theme.

Timeline of Drupal Version 9

Drupal 9 was built on the foundation of Drupal 8, relishing on clean code, enhanced performance, and seamless upgrades. This latest version of Drupal denounced older code to ensure future compatibility.

Timeline of Drupal Version 8

Drupal 8 marked a significant advancement for developers compared to Drupal 7. For instance, it features an advanced and responsive design that comes with a modern user interface, alongside responsive design capabilities, which suit mobile-first development.

Timeline of Drupal Version 7

Drupal 7 introduced a significant overhaul to the user interface, accumulating various helpful features such as improved security, enhanced scalability, and a more flexible field system.

Timeline of Drupal Version 6

This was one of the key Drupal releases that primarily emphasized usability improvements and launched impressive features, such as the actions and triggers system. Moreover, this previous version of Drupal improved support for several languages.

Timeline of Drupal Version 5

Drupal 5 reached a crucial milestone with an overhauled administration interface and improved performance. This previous version of Drupal was upgraded to a more flexible system for content types, which made it easier for node access modules to work together flawlessly and add configurable content types. Likewise, Node rendering was improved to work with structured arrays, offering more control and flexibility in content management.

Timeline of Drupal Version 4

Drupal 4 was a significant update and considered one of the vital Drupal releases, concentrating on security and scalability, which set the stage for large-scale sites and enterprise use. One of the most important changes was the overhaul of the theme system, introducing the PHPTemplate theme engine to replace the Xtemplate engine.

This transition involved converting existing themes, such as bluemarine and pushbutton, to the new PHPTemplate engine, thereby enhancing the flexibility and performance of theme customization. It was the latest version of Drupal at the time.

Timeline of Drupal Version 3

Drupal 3 revamped its underlying design to the next level. Moreover, the previous version of Drupal introduced the node-based system as its core. Consequently, it streamlined content management and enhanced long-term stability.

Numerous advanced modules were launched, including caching support for scalability, an access module for role-based permissions, a poll module, and a blog module. Additionally, it included a page module for developing static and dynamic pages, a help module for centralized documentation, a forum module for integrated forums, and a book module for collaborative handbook writing.

Timeline of Drupal Version 2

Drupal 2.0.0 included support for multiple virtual hosts and directories, a user rating system similar to SlashCode’s Karma, and an enhanced search infrastructure integrated into the administration pages. The release also brought translation, localization, and internationalization support, enabling multilingual websites.

Timeline of Drupal Version 1

The first release of Drupal announced the core framework and basic content management functionalities, laying the foundation for a community-driven model and subsequent versions. This was the humble beginning of Drupal history three decades ago.

Does Drupal Also Use PHP Like WordPress?

Drupal and WordPress primarily rely on LAMP stacks, and the core of these platforms is written in PHP; their contributed modules and extensions are also written in PHP. That said, in Drupal 8, Acquia introduced Symphony to its core to isolate front-end developers from introducing security blunders to a site developed with the platform.

Drupal 8 theming is primarily dependent on Twig, a language integrated with PHP code from modules. What TWIG offers in place of PHP is a robust language that a ‘themer’ can use for redesigning the default output of a page, module, or view.

A themer can benefit from Twig when fine-tuning the layout of a website, depending on the design needs (such as a wireframe from a marketing team), without modifying PHP variables. This enables site owners to improve the security of their websites, significantly increasing their stability.

PHP remains a crucial aspect of Drupal module development, and to a lesser extent, in theme development. Every module in the Drupal 8 catalog today has been developed with PHP, and the more compliant modules will also make them available to front-end designers using Twig templates.

Wrapping Up

We hope you will enjoy our blog post, which thoroughly explains the Drupal version history. Drupal is one of the leading content management systems (CMS) alongside WordPress. Drupal 11 encourages users through an appealing navigation, enhanced and much-needed flexibility with recipes, and easier component-based development.

Additionally, the framework has been updated to Symfony 7, along with PHP version 8.3, which is now a system requirement.