Updated on May 30th, 2024

Need to Know 

  • Drupal announced Starshot, its new second official version that promises a simplified version of Drupal out-of-the-box.
  • But that doesn’t mean the original Drupal is going anywhere — the platform continues to grow and evolve with the addition of automation and AI tools.
  • The CMS landscape has matured, decreasing the urgency of Drupal migrations.


DrupalCon 2024 was certainly different from previous years — but it just might have been the most exciting one yet.

It’s been a few weeks since the Northern team returned from Portland, Oregon, and we’ve been buzzing with excitement about the new ground Drupal is breaking. We had a great time catching up with old friends, clients, and partners, and even squeezed in a little hockey with other attendees (as is tradition at our annual DrupalCon booth).

Amid our enthusiasm for the event, it's important to recognize that the 12 months since we last gathered in Portland were a period of adaptation for many Drupal firms.

The pandemic posed challenges for all sectors, and the rapid shifts in the technology landscape have prompted teams to consider the future of Drupal.

However, this also presents opportunities for innovation and growth within the Drupal community. Drupal wasted no time in tackling these concerns head-on at DrupalCon.

Here are some highlights and key trends you should know about:

Drupal announced Starshot, its second official version meant to simplify user experiences. Drupal founder Dries Buytaert introduced the community to the platform’s second official version in his annual State of Drupal keynote.

Dries explained that the name was inspired by President John F. Kennedy's “Moonshot” speech, in which he famously told the American people that the United States would land on the moon before the end of the decade. This was significant because the U.S. — previously the global leader in the Space Race — was falling behind the Soviets’ cosmonaut program.

He continued that, like the United States of the 1950s, Drupal was part of the “golden era of the web.” It’s been available for 23 years and is part of the web’s very foundations. But with competitor software offering easier and more accessible user experiences that anyone can master, the time has come for Drupal to evolve.

Starshot promises an excellent user experience out-of-the-box, letting site builders easily create a Drupal site without any previous experience with the platform. The goal is to make Drupal even easier to help with more wide-scale adoption from new users.

The team is aiming to launch Starshot before the end of 2024, which will undoubtedly shake up the Drupal landscape.

Foundational Drupal continues to shine. Many organizations are already on Drupal, and will continue using the original version of the platform. Its advantages include the core features of Drupal, including its security, accessibility, scalability, and API-first approach.

The Drupal community continues to innovate with these features, empowering content producers with low-code and automation options that allow them to complete their tasks without help from their technical teams.

AI continues to provide greater value. Since the last DrupalCon, AI has evolved in leaps and bounds. It is now a tool that can assist with content migration, production, search, conversational marketing (also known as chatbots), meta-tagging and personalization.

In just one year, AI has become a crucial part of the Drupal platform, enabling users to complete many tasks at scale.

Many teams have migrated to more modern versions of Drupal, creating a mature CMS landscape. Now that Drupal 7 has been retired and teams have migrated to newer versions of the platform, the urgency to migrate has understandably decreased.

Many organizations are reviewing their current setup and are more concerned about doing more with their existing CMS. We are seeing teams opting less for full rebuilds and more for CMS upgrades, with a focus on user experience (UX), design systems, search engine optimization (SEO) and conversion rate optimization (CRO).

Upgrades within modern Drupal are not necessarily end-to-end builds, so the price point to migrate is also decreasing.

Our team left DrupalCon feeling energized and enthusiastic about Drupal’s future. With core Drupal’s capabilities continuing to evolve, and Drupal Starshot promising to bring new builders into the fold, there truly has never been a better time to start using the Drupal ecosystem.

With a focus on empowering end users, the market is now aimed squarely at enabling ambitious builders to do more with less, creating and managing their own sites without outside help.

We are seeing more opportunities for integration than ever before, and Drupal is now being used as a component in broader digital engagement strategies.

Reach out to our experts if your team is interested in making the switch to Drupal, or if you’d like to chat about whether core Drupal or Starshot is right for you.