Drupal to Headless CMS Migration
Retire the Drupal frontend. Migrate content to Sanity or Contentful and rebuild with a modern stack.
Why leave Drupal?
- Drupal expertise required for all maintenance
- Module update complexity and breaking changes
- Declining developer talent pool
- Slow frontend performance
- High total cost of ownership
What you gain
- Modern headless CMS with excellent tooling
- React frontend any developer can maintain
- Faster editorial interface than Drupal admin
- Significantly lower maintenance overhead
Full Drupal migration vs headless Drupal
There are two ways to move off Drupal''s frontend. Headless Drupal keeps Drupal as the backend and replaces the theme with Next.js or Astro. This is less disruption but you still maintain Drupal.
A full migration moves content from Drupal to a modern headless CMS — Sanity, Contentful, or Storyblok — and rebuilds the frontend from scratch. More work upfront, but you end up with a significantly simpler stack with better tooling and a larger pool of developers who can maintain it.
Migrating Drupal content types
Drupal''s content types map to CMS collections in Sanity or content types in Contentful. Paragraphs (Drupal''s structured content module) map to block-based content in Sanity or rich text fields. I write migration scripts that transform every Drupal node into the target CMS format, preserving all field data and media references.
The migration process
Discovery & Audit
We map every page, post, media file, redirect, and plugin. Nothing gets missed.
Architecture Plan
New stack designed for your content structure, SEO requirements, and performance targets.
Staged Migration
Content migrated in batches. Each batch verified before the next begins.
SEO Preservation
301 redirects, canonical tags, sitemap, robots.txt — every ranking signal carried over.
Launch & Monitor
DNS cutover with zero downtime. 30-day monitoring period included.
Drupal vs Sanity / Contentful + Next.js
| Metric | Drupal | Sanity / Contentful + Next.js |
|---|---|---|
| Developer availability | Limited (Drupal) | Large (React/Next.js) |
| Module/plugin updates | Complex, breaking | Simple, managed |
| Editorial interface | Drupal admin | Sanity Studio / Contentful |
| Lighthouse (mobile) | 40–70 | 90–100 |
Common questions
Which headless CMS should I migrate Drupal content to?
Sanity for developer-first teams who need maximum flexibility. Contentful for enterprise teams that prioritise stability and integrations. Storyblok if your editorial team wants visual page editing. I assess your content model and team workflow before recommending.
How complex is migrating Drupal Paragraphs?
Drupal Paragraphs are structured content blocks. They map well to Sanity''s portable text or Storyblok''s components. The migration requires mapping each paragraph type to its CMS equivalent — this is the most complex part of a Drupal migration but fully achievable.
Will we lose any content in the migration?
No. I write migration scripts that validate every node before and after migration. Content counts, field values, and media references are all verified. Nothing is published until validation passes.
How long does a full Drupal to headless CMS migration take?
Depends on content complexity. A site with 10-20 content types and under 10,000 nodes takes 6-8 weeks. A large enterprise site with 50+ content types and 100,000+ nodes takes 12-20 weeks.
What happens to Drupal workflows and moderation states?
Content workflows (draft, review, published) are rebuilt in the target CMS. Sanity and Contentful both support multi-state content workflows. User roles and permissions are reconfigured to match your current Drupal access control setup.
Ready to migrate?
Free assessment. We'll audit your current site and give you a clear migration plan — no commitment.
Let's build
something together.
Whether it's a migration, a new build, or an SEO challenge — the Social Animal team would love to hear from you.