Drupal 7 has been around since 2011. If you have used Drupal extensively, you could easily have a familiarity with D7 that has lasted more than a decade. That's a long time in software years.
But only two years after Drupal 7 was introduced, work was already underway on the next generation of the platform. Completely rebuilt on the Symfony PHP framework, the new Drupal marked a significant shift in the platform's development philosophy, transforming it from a traditional content management system into a versatile and extensible framework capable of integrating with a wide range of technologies.
If you are using a different CMS and looked at Drupal 7 some time ago – or even if you have never been exposed to Drupal – a review of Drupal 10 could be revelatory.
If you are using Drupal 7 now, you will need to upgrade to Drupal 10 (or Drupal 11 later this summer). Drupal 7 will be officially retired on January 5, 2025.
That might sound ominous. But it's really not. While there will be a data migration involved in the upgrade process, there is light at the end of that tunnel. You end up with a more feature-rich, powerful, secure set of tools.
Drupal 10 introduces improvements that make life easier for content editors compared to Drupal 7. The upgraded platform provides a more intuitive interface, better content authoring tools, and enhanced capabilities that streamline editorial workflows.
Let's explore 9 key functional features in Drupal 10 that weren't available in Drupal 7 core – plus one more cool factor to round it up to 10.
1. Layout Builder
One of the standout features of Drupal 10 is Layout Builder. This drag-and-drop page building tool allows content editors to visually design pages, arrange components, and create custom layouts in content edit mode. The framework of a page is defined by sections (comprised of one or more columns) and you position blocks within those sections. You can start with pre-defined templates and then customize the layout using a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) interface.
1. Layout Builder
One of the standout features of Drupal 10 is Layout Builder. This drag-and-drop page building tool allows content editors to visually design pages, arrange components, and create custom layouts in content edit mode. The framework of a page is defined by sections (comprised of one or more columns) and you position blocks within those sections. You can start with pre-defined templates and then customize the layout using a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) interface.
2. Media management
Drupal 10 includes a robust media management system out-of-the-box. You can upload, manage, and reuse media assets like images, videos, and documents directly through the administrative interface. The media library provides an intuitive, centralized way to browse, search, and select existing assets to embed into your content. You can also add captions, alt text, and other metadata. This integrated media functionality saves time and improves the content authoring experience compared to Drupal 7's reliance on several contributed modules and configuring them to work together.
3. Views in core
One of the most popular contributed modules in Drupal 7, Views, now ships with Drupal core. This integration provides a powerful tool for creating custom lists, grids, and other displays of content without needing custom code, enhancing site-building capabilities and reducing the need for additional modules. Even if you are a content editor who rarely or never builds or edits lists in Drupal, the optimizations and integrations with other core systems Views has gained from its presence in core will ultimately improve how site visitors experience your work.
3. Views in core
One of the most popular contributed modules in Drupal 7, Views, now ships with Drupal core. This integration provides a powerful tool for creating custom lists, grids, and other displays of content without needing custom code, enhancing site-building capabilities and reducing the need for additional modules. Even if you are a content editor who rarely or never builds or edits lists in Drupal, the optimizations and integrations with other core systems Views has gained from its presence in core will ultimately improve how site visitors experience your work.
4. Content moderation workflows
For editorial teams, Drupal 10's expanded content moderation tools are a major step up. You can set up customizable workflows to manage the content review and approval process. Define different states like Draft, In Review, and Published, and assign user permissions for each transition. Content editors can easily move articles through the workflow stages. Notifications alert stakeholders when actions are required. The system tracks revisions and allows you to schedule content changes. This streamlined workflow functionality was not available in Drupal 7 core.
5. Enhanced rich text editor
The rich text editor in Drupal 10 is significantly more powerful than its Drupal 7 counterpart. The integrated WYSIWYG editor, CKEditor 5, offers a cleaner interface and more formatting options. You can easily add tables, special characters, horizontal lines, and text styles. Paste from Word, Google Docs, and other sources with better fidelity. The upgraded editor also supports embedding media, files, and snippets directly inline.
5. Enhanced rich text editor
The rich text editor in Drupal 10 is significantly more powerful than its Drupal 7 counterpart. The integrated WYSIWYG editor, CKEditor 5, offers a cleaner interface and more formatting options. You can easily add tables, special characters, horizontal lines, and text styles. Paste from Word, Google Docs, and other sources with better fidelity. The upgraded editor also supports embedding media, files, and snippets directly inline.
6. Modern administrative theme
Drupal 10 offers a significantly improved administrative interface. The new default admin theme, Claro, is modern and clean with enhanced accessibility and responsiveness. Another option is Gin, a contributed theme based on Claro that we install as the administrative theme on all our websites. Both of these themes offer better mobile compatibility, improved color contrast, and more intuitive navigation than Drupal 7's now older-looking Seven theme. They also integrate seamlessly with new features like Layout Builder and content moderation, providing a more cohesive and efficient content management experience for administrators and editors.
7. Multilingual capabilities
Built into core, Drupal 10 offers comprehensive language handling, including content, configuration, and interface translation. It supports easy language switching, right-to-left languages, and automated translation workflows. Content can be translated on a field-level basis, and the system handles language-specific URLs efficiently. In contrast, Drupal 7 required multiple contributed modules for similar functionality, often resulting in a complex setup. Drupal 10's integrated approach simplifies multilingual site management, making it more accessible and efficient for content editors and site builders.
7. Multilingual capabilities
Built into core, Drupal 10 offers comprehensive language handling, including content, configuration, and interface translation. It supports easy language switching, right-to-left languages, and automated translation workflows. Content can be translated on a field-level basis, and the system handles language-specific URLs efficiently. In contrast, Drupal 7 required multiple contributed modules for similar functionality, often resulting in a complex setup. Drupal 10's integrated approach simplifies multilingual site management, making it more accessible and efficient for content editors and site builders.
8. Better accessibility
Drupal 10 has a strong focus on accessibility, which was not as prominent in Drupal 7. These improvements include better keyboard navigation throughout the administrative interface, improved color contrast and readability, more semantic markup for better screen reader compatibility, and accessibility checks built into the content creation process. These features help content editors create more accessible content and ensure their sites can reach a wider audience, including users with disabilities.
9. Configuration management
Drupal 10's configuration management system allows for seamless transfer of site settings and structure between environments. It enables developers to version control configuration changes, ensuring consistency across development, staging, and production sites. While content editors may not use this feature directly, they benefit from a more stable and predictable content management environment. It reduces the risk of unexpected changes to content types, fields, or views when moving between environments, and facilitates easier implementation of new features or site improvements without disrupting the editorial workflow.
9. Configuration management
Drupal 10's configuration management system allows for seamless transfer of site settings and structure between environments. It enables developers to version control configuration changes, ensuring consistency across development, staging, and production sites. While content editors may not use this feature directly, they benefit from a more stable and predictable content management environment. It reduces the risk of unexpected changes to content types, fields, or views when moving between environments, and facilitates easier implementation of new features or site improvements without disrupting the editorial workflow.
10. New and improved modules
The complete rebuilding of the platform, launched with Drupal 8 and continuing through Drupal 10 and future major releases, sent a shockwave through Drupal's module ecosystem. Existing modules were rebuilt to run on the new framework – often with new features and improved performance like the powerful Webform suite. And entirely new modules have emerged, notably ECA (Event, Condition, Action), a game-changing rules-based, triggered-actions system for building automated workflows.
Drupal 10 introduces many enhancements that make it easier to create website content, build pages, manage your media, design and manage editorial workflows, and implement new features and site improvements. And it does this faster with a clean, modern, visual interface. Content teams making the move to Drupal 10 will immediately appreciate the intuitive tools and the ability to deploy digital content faster and more effectively than ever before. Everybody wins: authors, editors, developers, designers, and website administrators. And – most importantly – your audience.
Your Drupal 10 website is almost here
Whether you need to upgrade from Drupal 7, 8, or 9 or are entirely new to Drupal, we look forward to making your Drupal 10 website happen.