Upgrading from Drupal 7

Backdrop CMS acts as though it were the next version of Drupal for the purposes of upgrading, making it so that you can upgrade to Backdrop CMS directly from a Drupal 7 database.

Benefits of Upgrading from Drupal 7 to Backdrop CMS

Upgrading your site from Drupal 7 to Backdrop CMS should result in several instantaneous improvements to your site:

• Lots of new features like content scheduling, and automatic comment closing.
• Pages load faster thanks to a simpler render pipeline and improved caching.
• Improved security throughout, including password improvements.
• Easier editorial experience with clearer interfaces and simpler terminology.
• Faster administrator experience with fewer clicks to achieve the same goal.
• Easier routine maintenance with push-button self-updates.
• More!

For complete upgrade instructions, please see  the step-by-step instructions.

Upgrading from Drupal 6

We recommend using Drupal's built-in upgrade path to go from from Drupal 6 to Drupal 7 (which could be tricky), and then Backdrop's Built-in path to go from Drupal 7 to Backdrop CMS (which should be easy). Currently, there are no tools available to upgrade a Drupal 6 site directly to Backdrop.

Crossgrading from Drupal 8 or 9

We recommend using the same tools that would be used to go from Drupal 8 to Drupal 7 for Backdrop CMS: Migrate module, custom scripts, etc.