Migrate from Drupal to Headless
Replace Drupal's monolithic architecture with a headless CMS and modern frontend for faster pages, better DX, and lower hosting costs.
Migration: Drupal to Headless
From Drupal to Headless CMS + React
Why Migrate
- Performance: Static generation and CDN delivery replace Drupal's server-rendered pages, delivering sub-second load times globally.
- Developer Experience: Modern JavaScript frameworks replace Drupal's PHP templating, attracting better talent and enabling faster development.
- Lower Hosting Costs: JAMstack hosting on Vercel or Netlify costs a fraction of managed Drupal hosting with better performance.
Migration Roadmap
- Content Audit (1–2 weeks): Catalog all Drupal content types, views, taxonomies, and custom modules. Select a headless CMS and design the content model.
- Content type inventory
- CMS selection recommendation
- Content model design
- Build & Migrate (4–8 weeks): Build the frontend in Next.js, configure the headless CMS, and migrate all content with metadata and media assets.
- Next.js frontend application
- CMS configuration with content types
- Migrated content with SEO metadata
- Testing & Cutover (1–2 weeks): Validate content parity, implement redirects, test forms and integrations, and execute zero-downtime DNS cutover.
- Content parity validation report
- Redirect mapping (301s)
- Production deployment
Risks & Mitigation
- Complex Drupal Views and custom modules are hard to replicate: We analyze each View and module to determine if the logic moves to the CMS, the frontend, or a serverless function — ensuring feature parity.
- Content editors lose familiar Drupal admin interface: We select a headless CMS with an intuitive editorial experience and provide training sessions to ensure a smooth transition for content teams.
Estimated Scope
Hours: 160–320 | Cost: $320–$640 | Timeline: 6–12 weeks
Frequently Asked Questions
- Which headless CMS should we use?
- We recommend Contentful for enterprise needs, Sanity for developer flexibility, or Strapi for open-source self-hosting — depending on your team size, budget, and content complexity.
- Will we lose Drupal's content editing flexibility?
- No. Modern headless CMSs offer structured content modeling, preview, scheduling, and workflows that match or exceed Drupal's editorial capabilities.
- Can we keep some Drupal functionality during migration?
- Yes. We can use Drupal as a headless CMS temporarily via its JSON:API, allowing gradual frontend migration without disrupting content workflows.