Difference Between Drupal 10 and Drupal 11

Drupal 11 is still in development, but there are several expected and confirmed difference between Drupal 10 and Drupal 11. Compared to Drupal 10 the following are in Drupal 11; easier content modelling reusing existing fields and creating new one made easier. Faster real and perceived page performance including interface preview and lazy loading.

Here are some points to describe the difference between them :-

1. Core Dependencies and PHP requirements

• Drupal requires PHP 8.1 or higher.
• Drupal 11 likely to require PHP 8.2 or higher, reflecting the latest PHP advancements.
• Drupal 11 with align with the latest php versions, offering improved performance and security features.

Key Difference :- Drupal 11 will assign with the latest PHP versions, offering improved performance and security features.

2. Symfony Upgrade

• Drupal 10 uses symfony 6.2
• Drupal 11 expected to adopt symfony 6.3 or higher taking advantage of new feature and deprecation removed in symfony 6.x.

Key Difference :- Upgrading to a newer Symfony version will enhance performance, developer experience, and compatibility with modern web standards.

3. Twig Template Engine 

• Drupal 10 uses twig 3.x.
• Drupal 10 expected using twig 4.x.

Key Difference :- Twig 4.x introduce new features, better performance, and security improvements, making theme development more efficient.

4. Front-end Modernisation

• Drupal 10 focused on progressive enhancement, including olivero as the default theme.
• Drupal 11 expected to further modernize front-end developer with enhancement to component-based themeing, potential
  adoption of modern javascript frameworks, and supports for design system.

Key Difference :- Drupal 11 will continue to push for modern front- end practices, potentially integrating new tools and methodologies.

5. CKEditor 5 

• Drupal 10 introduce CKEditor5 as the default WYSIWYG editor, replacing CKEditor 4.
• Drupal 11 will continue to enhance CKEditor 5 with more customisation, plugins, and tighter integration with core.

Key Difference :- Improved editing experience with more features and better stability in CKEditor 5.

6. API and Developer Experience Enhancements 

• Drupal 10 introduce several APIs for decoupled/ headless architectures, including JSON and graphQL support.
• Drupal 11 expected to streamline and enhance API management, introduce more GraphQL improvemnet, and possibly new API feature for easier integration with external system.

Key Difference :- Drupal 11 aims to make decoupled and headless implementations more powerful and easier to manage.

7. Module and Theme Capability

• Drupal 10 has Many contributed modules and themes are compatible with Drupal 9, with some requiring updates for Drupal 10.
• Drupal 11 is a stronger push towards backward compatibility and ease of upgrading from Drupal 10 to 11, with deprecations handled more gracefully.

Key Difference :- Easier upgrade paths and better compatibility for modules and themes in Drupal 11.

8. Security Improvements

• Drupal 10 has introduced automated updates (experimental) and other security enhancements.
• Drupal 11 has expected to fully integrate automated updates, enhance core security measures, and improve dependency management.

Key Difference :- Drupal 11 will focus on making the platform more secure by default, with enhance support for automated security updates.

9. Performance Improvements 

• Drupal 10 continues to optimize performance, with improvements in caching and database handling.
• Drupal 11 expected to introduce even more performance enhancements, possibly through better use of PHP features, improved caching strategies, and streamlined codebases.

Key Differnce :- Drupal 11 is likely offer better out-of-the-box performance for high-traffic sites.

10. Content Authoring Experience

• Drupal 10 significant improvements in content authoring, including the new admin theme, Claro, and improved layout builder.
• Drupal 11 expected to enhance the content authoring experience further, potentially introducing more intuitive interfaces, better media handling, and improved workflows.

Key Difference :- Continued focus on making Drupal a powerful, user-friendly CMS for content creators.

11. New Initiatives

• Drupal 10 Introduced several new initiatives like Project Browser and Automatic Updates (in experimental stages).
• Drupal 11 expected to build on these initiatives, potentially making them stable and introducing new initiatives focused on user experience, decoupled architecture, and site- building.

Key Difference :- Drupal 11 will expand on the innovations introduced in Drupal 10, making them more robust and widely available.

12. Upgrade Path

• Drupal 10 Provides tools like Upgrade Status and Rector to help transition from Drupal 9 to 10.
• Drupal 11 expected to provide an even smoother upgrade path from Drupal 10 to 11, with better tooling and fewer breaking changes.

Key Difference :- The upgrade from Drupal 10 to 11 is expected to
be more straightforward, reducing the burden on developers and site maintainers.