Drupal migration

Most projects aren't greenfield. You have content and data that took years to build, and it has to survive the move.

We migrate content from legacy CMSs, databases, and older Drupal versions, and we use the move to fix structural problems rather than carry them forward.

Your data, better than when it arrived

So long as content can be exported in a structured format, migration is generally straightforward. For complex cases, our team writes custom processors and uses advanced tools to map, transform, and move data.

We run migrations as automated, repeatable processes, so large datasets can be imported, tested, and refined before the final run.

What you get:

  • Content that comes across intact. Your pages, documents, and data arrive in the new site's structure.
  • Search value protected. URL mapping and redirects keep existing links working.
  • A repeatable process. Test runs before the final migration.

Our approach to Drupal migration

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Review and map your content

We review your content and map each type to the new structure, deciding what to keep, merge, or retire.

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Automate the migration

Automated processes make imports repeatable, even for large datasets. For the Therapeutic Goods Administration, we wrote 65 scripts to migrate and transform 71 content types into 49, then ran and tested an initial migration before the final one.

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Handle the complex parts

Custom processors deal with unusual sources such as legacy databases, XML feeds, and external systems. For NSW Food Authority, we extracted content from four sources.

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Protect your links

We map URLs and redirects and update internal links, so visitors and search engines find your content in its new home. For the Australian Energy Regulator, almost every URL changed, and we mapped redirects to keep broken links to a minimum and retain the site's search value.

Frequently asked questions

A migration moves your existing content and functionality onto a new Drupal build, using Drupal's migration API to bring data across in a structured way. A rebuild without migration means entering content by hand, which is rarely practical at scale.

The number of content sources and types, the amount of custom functionality in the old site, and how far the new information architecture and content model differ from the old one. A migration that re-architects structure takes more effort than a like-for-like move, but it avoids carrying old structural problems forward.

The clearest trigger is the end of life of your current version. Drupal 7 reached end of life in January 2025, and its security support has stopped. At that point, migration becomes a security necessity, and a good time to fix accumulated content and structure problems.

Yes. We migrate from legacy CMSs and databases, as long as the content can be exported in a structured format.

We map URLs and set up redirects to protect them. On the Australian Energy Regulator project, almost every URL changed, and we updated internal links and mapped redirects to retain the site's search value.

Case studies

Aerial view of beaches and coastline
Case study

Morpht built the Australian Hydrographic Office's new GovCMS website on a condensed schedule, making charts, Notices to Mariners and tide tables easier to find.
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Case study

Morpht rebuilt the Reef Knowledge System on GovCMS SaaS with a Resource Hub, topic navigation and personalised recommendations. Runner-up in two Splash Awards.
School of fish
Case study

Morpht moved Reef Guardian Schools to GovCMS SaaS with 382 schools and 800+ users, no re-registration, and a secure resource library just for teachers.
AER hero
Case study

Morpht rebuilt the Australian Energy Regulator website on GovCMS, migrating 26,997 pages and 41,815 documents with no data loss, on schedule and on budget.

Latest insights

GovCMS How to: When Migrate isn’t enough
Article

A guide on how to set up content migrations on GovCMS SaaS where the requirements fall outside what is usually handled by the Migrate module.
A visualisation of people creating hyperlinks
Article

Strategies for successfully migrating sites with many bad links leading to an end result where the broken links are healed and content successfully migrated.