Hire Drupal Developers: Upgrade, Migration or New Build

If you plan to hire Drupal developers in the next few months, check one thing before you write the job ad: which Drupal version your site runs. Drupal 10 security support ends on December 9, 2026. Drupal 7 has been past end of life since January 5, 2025.

The version your site runs picks the hire. A Drupal 10 site, a Drupal 7 site and a brand-new build call for three different hires, with different tests, rates and contracts. Here is how to tell which one you need, what it costs by region, how to vet for it and which hiring model fits.

What kind of Drupal developer do you need to hire?

Your starting point decides it. A Drupal 10 site needs an upgrade engineer to move it to Drupal 11. A Drupal 7 site needs a migration engineer to rebuild it on a current version. A new site, or a replatform, needs a site builder working in Drupal CMS. Each one is vetted, priced and contracted differently.

Here is how the three hires compare side by side:

Upgrade engineer (Drupal 10 to 11)

An upgrade engineer takes a working Drupal 10 site to Drupal 11. Much of the work is fixing deprecated code, which is code marked for removal in the next major version. The rest is getting contributed (contrib) modules ready, the community add-ons most Drupal sites depend on.

A Drupal 10 to 11 move is an in-place upgrade, not a rebuild. Drupal.org's Drupal 10 to 11 upgrade guide updates the existing codebase and database, after the Upgrade Status module has flagged the code that needs fixing. The site must be on Drupal 10.3 or later first. Don't let anyone sell you a rebuild without naming the blockers that force it. Post the role as "Drupal Upgrade Engineer (Drupal 10 to 11)".

Migration engineer (Drupal 7 to 11)

Moving a Drupal 7 site to Drupal 11 is a rebuild. Content moves across through the Migrate API, Drupal core's tool for moving content from an old site into a new one. The theme and custom features are rebuilt on the new version.

So the fear that an "upgrade" is secretly a rewrite is justified here: on Drupal 7, it is one. Anyone who calls it "just an update" is the wrong hire. A fixed price quoted before anyone has mapped your content model is a guess.

Title the posting "Drupal Migration Engineer (Drupal 7 to 11)". The title alone filters out people whose only experience is minor version updates.

Site builder on Drupal CMS

Drupal CMS 2.0, released January 28, 2026, runs on Drupal core 11.3. It makes Canvas, its visual page builder, the default editor, and ships optional AI tools. A site builder works mostly in recipes (prepackaged feature sets), components and content types, with little custom PHP.

That answers a common worry: paying a developer for every page change. A good site builder leaves your editors able to build pages themselves. Post it as "Drupal Site Builder (Drupal CMS, Canvas)".

If the site is a product your team will keep changing, plan for building and maintaining a web product with a remote team from the start. And if Drupal is one hire among several on your roadmap, How to Hire Software Developers in the Age of AI Agents covers the wider process.

Why does the Drupal 10 end-of-life date change who you hire?

Drupal 10 security support ends on December 9, 2026, and Drupal 12 is scheduled for the week of December 7, 2026 (as of November 2026). A Drupal 10 site that has not moved runs without security fixes from that date, so it needs an upgrade engineer now. A Drupal 7 site needs a migration engineer.

Security support is the period in which the Drupal project publishes security fixes for a version. Here is where each version stands and what it means for your hire:

Dates come from the Drupal core release schedule.

Don't make Drupal 12 a hiring requirement yet. A new major version is only useful to you once the modules your site depends on support it. Ask candidates how they track that readiness instead.

How many sites are still on Drupal 7?

More than you might expect. As of November 13, 2026, Drupal 7 runs on 28.6% of the Drupal sites W3Techs detects, the largest share of any single version. Drupal 10 follows at 27.6% and Drupal 11 at 24.5%.

If your site is one of them, it has gone without security fixes from the Drupal project since January 2025. Hiring for a platform past its end of support is its own problem, and Hire Xamarin Developers: Keep Apps Running, Move to MAUI works through the same situation on a mobile stack.

What should a Drupal 10 site do before December 9, 2026?

Plan the move to Drupal 11, which is supported until early December 2028. The first paid task is a readiness check: which contributed modules and custom code block the upgrade, and what each fix involves.

We'd start there before anyone quotes a fixed price for the upgrade itself. The same support-date logic runs through other stacks too; Hire ASP.NET Core Developers: Rates, Roles and Screening applies it to .NET.

How much does it cost to hire a Drupal developer?

Freelance Drupal rates run from $12 an hour for a junior developer in the Philippines to $127 for a senior developer in the US, as of November 2026. Region and seniority set the Drupal developer hourly rate; the job sets how many senior hours you buy. The figures are indicative, built from marketplace and salary-survey data.

A Drupal 7 rebuild needs more senior hours than a Drupal 10 to 11 upgrade, so price the job first. Here are the bands by region and seniority:

Source: freelance rate benchmarks published by a developer-hiring marketplace, November 2026. Most regions are modeled from national salary data rather than observed contracts, so use them as a guide, not a quote.

The US Drupal developer salary picture is a separate figure. US salary-survey data as of November 1, 2026 puts the median base wage for a Drupal developer with 2 to 4 years' experience at $57 an hour, with the middle half between $52 and $62. That is employee base pay before benefits and payroll taxes.

The US mid-level freelance band ($62-100) sits above that wage for a reason. The freelance figures start from salary data and add what a contractor pays for themselves: payroll taxes, insurance, leave and the unbilled weeks between contracts.

What pushes a Drupal rate up or down?

Within any one region, these move a quote:

• The job: a Drupal 7 rebuild needs far more senior time than a minor upgrade.
• Module count and custom code: every contributed and custom module is one more thing to check, update or replace.
• Multilingual or multisite builds: more configuration to carry across and test.
• Integrations: CRM, search, payments and single sign-on each add work.
• Time-zone overlap: asking for hours that match your team's day narrows the pool.
• Engagement model: an agency adds its margin on top of the developer's rate.

Collect two or three quotes inside the same model before you judge any of them.

What sits on top of the rate?

The hourly rate is only part of the bill. Work out what a developer costs beyond the hourly rate before you set a budget.

If you employ someone abroad, add an employer of record's monthly fee per employee to the salary. And if you are still deciding how far from home to hire, Onshore vs Offshore: Which Model Fits Your Business 2026? sets out the trade-offs.

How do you vet a Drupal developer for your specific job?

Give each candidate a short paid work sample cut from your own site and matched to the hire: a readiness report for an upgrade, a mapping plan for a migration, or a built component for a site builder. Then ask them to walk you through it. Strong candidates explain trade-offs. Weak ones list modules.

One question works for all three: "Which Drupal version did you last ship on, and what broke?" No story means no hire.

Keep the repository, hosting and admin accounts in your company's name from day one. Hold back production access until contracts are signed, and read up on how to protect company data with remote hires before the trial starts.

Upgrade engineer checks

Hand over your module list and three of your custom modules, then ask:

• First checks: "What would you check first?" A strong answer starts with a readiness scan of modules and custom code.
• Stuck modules: "What do you do about a contributed module with no Drupal 11 release: patch it, replace it or wait?"
• Testing: how they test the site before and after the upgrade.
• Rollback: what happens if the upgrade fails once it is live.

The red flag is a date and a price before they have seen your code.

Migration engineer checks

Ask: "Which parts of our Drupal 7 content model won't map one to one, and how do you keep our old URLs working?" This is the hire where a wrong answer costs the most.

A strong answer covers repeatable test migrations before cutover and a redirect plan, so search rankings and bookmarks survive the move. Ask for a past migration with its content volume and what did not map. If they say "it's just an update", end it there.

Site builder checks

Ask them to build one landing-page type in Canvas that an editor can change without them. Watch for a custom module written for something configuration already covers.

Which answers should end the interview?

Across all three hires, walk away when you hear:

• No version history: they cannot name the last Drupal version they shipped on.
• No upgrade or migration story: for a job that is an upgrade or a migration.
• No testing plan: changes go straight to the live site.
• Day-one production access: they want it before a contract is signed.

If this is your first technical hire, 5 Steps to Find and Hire the Right Developers for Startups lays out the full process. The paid work sample is a contract in itself, so read Can a US Company Hire a Foreign Independent Contractor? before you sign one with someone abroad.

Should you hire a Drupal freelancer, an agency or a dedicated developer?

Choose by how long the work runs and who owns the site afterwards. We'd put a Drupal 10 to 11 upgrade sprint with a freelancer or contractor. A Drupal 7 rebuild suits a contractor or agency, with an owner lined up for afterwards. A site that keeps changing needs a dedicated developer. Whichever you pick, put code ownership in writing.

The first two options trade off like this:

• Freelancer: quick to start and paid hourly or per milestone. The risk is continuity, because the knowledge leaves when they do. You own only the IP the independent contractor agreement assigns, so write that clause in.
• Agency: delivery is managed and absences are covered, with margin on top. The people on your project can change, and after launch every update becomes a ticket. Check what an outsourced website build costs, and decide early between staff augmentation or outsourcing.

Both work well for a project with an end date. Neither is built to own a site for years.

When should you hire dedicated Drupal developers?

Hire dedicated Drupal developers when the site is a long-lived product with regular releases. One person then owns the codebase, and the knowledge stays in your team.

You can employ them directly, which means employing through your own entity in their country. Or an employer of record (EOR), a company that becomes the legal employer and runs payroll and benefits while you direct the work, can employ them for you. Check the red flags in an EOR contract before you sign one.

How do you pay a Drupal developer abroad?

That depends on the model. A freelancer invoices you and you pay across borders. An employee abroad is paid through local payroll, run by your own entity or an EOR.

The options and their costs are covered in paying a developer abroad. To set every route side by side, EOR vs Contractor vs Direct Hire: Choose the Right Model walks through each. If an agency is still on your shortlist, EOR vs. Developer Agencies: Which to Choose (2026) weighs the two directly.

Where can you find a Drupal developer for hire, and how fast can they start?

Look in four places: the Drupal community, freelance marketplaces, agencies, and direct hiring, including employment abroad through an employer of record. Marketplaces and agencies get someone working fastest. Direct hiring takes longer, but you run every step and the fit is yours to judge.

Each channel suits a different need:

• Drupal community: a contributor's drupal.org profile shows the projects and issues they have worked on. That is public evidence of skill, which helps most for upgrade and migration hires.
• Freelance marketplaces: good for short projects and the paid work sample. Run your own technical test whatever badge a profile shows.
• Agencies: best when you want a delivered outcome rather than a person. Read up on outsourcing website development before you brief one.
• Direct hiring and employers of record: slower, with the most control. Know the differences between an employer of record and a staffing agency before you pick a partner.

If the strongest candidates live in another country, How to Hire Offshore Developers: Contracts, IP and Risks covers the contract side before you make an offer.

What sets the timeline?

Every Drupal hire runs through the same stages: define the job, source candidates, run the work sample, make an offer, start. A vague job definition slows every stage after it.

The start date splits two ways. A freelancer between projects can start once the contract is signed. An employed candidate starts after the notice they owe their current employer, which you do not control. If your site runs Drupal 10, start sourcing before December 9, not after it.

Contractors need access and paperwork ready on day one, and a contractor onboarding checklist keeps that tidy. Budget for the full cost per hire as well: sourcing, interview time and onboarding all land before the first commit.

For an employee in another country, Onboarding International Employees: A Practical Guide lists what to prepare for the first week.

Lower rates in another region are only part of the decision, because time-zone overlap, employment rules and management effort count too. For one market's costs, talent and trade-offs set out in detail, read Benefits of Outsourcing to India for US Businesses.

How can Wisemonk help you hire Drupal developers?

Wisemonk is a leading Employer of Record (EOR) that helps global companies hire, pay, and manage employees, without setting up a local entity. We simplify complex HR operations so you can focus on strategy, not administration.

Here's how we help businesses manage Drupal developer hiring more effectively:

• Mira AI hiring software: post a Drupal role in any country, and a one-sentence brief becomes a job description and scorecard. Score every applicant against your scorecard, run an AI phone screen and track interviews in one place. It is free to start; see pricing.
• Employment through Wisemonk EOR: we act as the legal employer and run payroll and benefits, with no local entity needed.
• Contracts with IP assignment: employment contracts that assign the code and site work to your company, the clause that matters most in any EOR for tech companies.
• Onboarding: paperwork, access and day-one setup arranged alongside the contract.
• Equipment: laptops as an add-on to employment through Wisemonk EOR.

Currently we serve companies in India and are rapidly expanding to US and UK companies. With Wisemonk, you get a reliable partner for your India operations and your broader global hiring journey.