Drupal 8 vs Drupal 9. Is it Time to Upgrade?

The Drupal system can be classified as one of the safest CMSs on the market. It has a refined structure and a wide range of functions. In this text, we'll take a look at Drupal 8 first. We'll remind you when it was released and what changes it brought when compared to the previous versions. Next, we'll take a closer look at Drupal 9 and then compare both versions.

Drupal releases

Drupal 8 was released on 19 November 2015. Compared to the previous version, that is – Drupal 7, there were as many as 200 new built-in functions, the multilingualism of the platform was improved and, for example, the new page editor and the version for mobile pages were introduced (as a built-in function – no additional domain for the mobile version is required). In terms of differences from the previous version, we can also add the fact that Drupal 8 uses object-oriented programming, instead of the procedural approach used in the previous version. The new version of Drupal uses a different theme engine – Twig, which is based on PHP. This makes it easier for programmers creating new themes because of the simpler syntax.

Another additional feature in Drupal 8 is the ability to edit the content directly from the site's user interface. It's also worth mentioning that the newer version of Drupal has access to the views directly from several administration screens. There's no need to spend additional time on it anymore, as was the case with Drupal 7. Looking from the perspective of a person viewing the page, we can also notice that the page loading speed has significantly increased thanks to entity caching. In addition, the previously viewed content doesn't need to be reloaded because it remains in the system cache. Also, the JavaScript code isn't loaded until it's necessary. After updating Drupal to version 8, you should also pay attention to the new types of fields that can significantly simplify the work for programmers.

What's the difference between Drupal 8 and Drupal 9?

Drupal 9 was released on 3 June 2020. It was built on version 8, so the changelog is shorter and the update from version 8 to 9 is simpler. The most important differences are the removal of almost all deprecated functions. In version 9, they've been replaced by other ones, and those that remained will be removed in the next installment of Drupal. A list of deprecated functions is available at Drupal.org.

Also new in version 9 is the next version of Symfony. Drupal 8 used version 3, but now it's version 4. Additionally, the Twig theme engine version has been updated – has been changed from version 1 to 2. Another difference between Drupal 8 vs 9 is the fact that most of the jQuery UI library dependencies have been removed. In the case of performing tests, in the new version, we rely on the PHPUnit solution (previously, the SimpleTest framework could be used).

The next thing that was almost completely removed in Drupal 9 is the Simple Annotation Parser from Doctrine. However, the required elements were incorporated into the Drupal 9 core. We also need to pay attention to the Apache version, because in the case of Drupal 8 version 2.x was enough, but currently, Drupal 9 requires a min. version of 2.4.7. The situation is similar with PHP – this time a min. version of 7.3 is required, but version 7.4 and 8.0 are also supported (applies to Drupal 9.1.0). In terms of the database and the use of MySQL/Percona, Drupal 9 requires a min. version of 5.7.8; Drupal 8 worked with version 5.5.3. The same goes for using MariaDB and SQLite. These need to be min. versions of 10.3.7 and 3.26 respectively. The previous version of Drupal used version 5.5.20 for MariaDB and 3.6.8+ for SQLite.

Performance

According to the above description of the differences between Drupal 8 vs 9, we can certainly say that the newer CMS release is much better in terms of speed. Using a min. PHP version of 7.3 improved the page loading speed. We can see an example on the PHP Benchmarks page, where all PHP versions are listed – from 5.6 to 8.0. At the very first glance, we can already see that between Drupal 8 and 9 there was an increase in performance of over 10%. This is the perfect reason to consider an upgrade, as each new version of PHP causes an even bigger leap in performance.

The situation is similar with Symfony. Version 3 has been used so far, but Drupal 9 needs the newer, fourth version of the framework. Thanks to it, we can significantly reduce the working time the developers need to create a new module or improve an existing one. The results of comparing Symfony versions from 2 to 5 can be checked on the already mentioned PHP Benchmarks page.

Another point that we can refer to in the context of the performance comparison is the Twig version used. In the case of Drupal 9, the theme engine is about 15% faster than the one used in Drupal 8.

You may also be interested in: Why Drupal Is The Best Headless CMS?

Drupal 8 to Drupal 9 – upgrade

Upgrading Drupal 8 to Drupal 9 is much simpler and less time-consuming compared to the transition from version 7 to version 8. First, we need to verify that we are using the latest version of Drupal 8. It should also be noted that soon (November 2021) support for the older, eighth version of the described CMS will end, so soon we should carefully think over the update process and prepare for updating Drupal.

Once we are sure that we have the latest version of Drupal 8, we can start by updating all modules and skins. In this case, we also need to have their latest versions. At this step, we'll see that most of the modules already support Drupal 9. Next, it's worth using the tool provided by the authors of this CMS to prepare a checklist of things that need to be prepared, so that the update goes smoothly and without complications.

One of the last steps will be to check whether the server on which we plan to install Drupal 9 meets the requirements for PHP, Apache, and database engine versions. We've described the required versions in the previous paragraphs. At this point, we're one step away from using Drupal 9. It only takes a few clicks and some time to go through the entire update process.

Drupal 8 vs Drupal 9 – summary

Due to the upcoming end of support for Drupal 8, the significant increase in system performance, and the relatively simple means of updating to the latest version, we recommend that you complete this process as soon as possible. Thanks to this, you'll avoid any problems after support has ended and complications in the event of updating "real quick" in an environment that's not adapted to this. It's worth planning this process from start to finish and enjoy the much greater transparency of the code and the new possibilities offered by Drupal 9.

If you don't know how to properly update to the latest version, our experienced Drupal support team will be happy to help you.