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Migrate from Drupal to Jekyll

Complete guide to migrating your Drupal website to Jekyll. Leave Drupal's steep learning curve behind and get native github pages integration. Free migration tool included.

20-40 minutes
Medium
100% Free
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TL;DR

You can migrate from Drupal to Jekyll for free using LeaveWP. Enter your site URL, choose Jekyll as the destination, and download your content — posts, pages, and media — in minutes. No API keys, passwords, or CLI tools required. Difficulty: Medium. Estimated time: 20-40 minutes.

Official docs: Drupal Documentation

Why Teams Leave Drupal

Enterprise PHP CMS for complex content architectures. Large organizations needing complex content structures and strict access control, but these limitations push teams toward modern alternatives.

Steep learning curve — requires developer expertise

This is the most common reason teams migrate away from Drupal. Jekyll eliminates this issue entirely.

Fewer themes and modules compared to WordPress

With Jekyll, native github pages integration — deploy by pushing to a repo.

Major version upgrades (e.g. Drupal 7→10) are complex migrations

Modern architectures like Jekyll are designed to avoid this from the ground up.

Slow without aggressive caching configuration

After migrating, you'll no longer need to worry about this — Jekyll takes a fundamentally different approach.

What Jekyll Brings to the Table

Ruby-based SSG that powers GitHub Pages. Built with Ruby (Liquid templates), it's developer blogs hosted on github pages with minimal setup.

Native GitHub Pages integration — deploy by pushing to a repo

Mature and battle-tested for blogs and documentation

Large library of themes and plugins

Simple mental model — content in Markdown, layouts in Liquid

Jekyll is open-source and free to use. You own your code and data with no vendor lock-in. Deploy to any host that supports Ruby, or use managed platforms like Vercel and Netlify for zero-config deployments.

Drupal vs Jekyll at a Glance

Side-by-side comparison based on real platform characteristics

MetricDrupalJekyll
Ease of Use⭐⭐ 2/5⭐⭐⭐ 3/5
Performance⭐⭐⭐ 3/5⭐⭐⭐ 3/5
Flexibility⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5/5⭐⭐⭐ 3/5
Cost⭐⭐⭐ 3/5⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5/5
Scalability⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4/5⭐⭐ 2/5
Ecosystem⭐⭐⭐ 3/5⭐⭐⭐ 3/5
LanguagePHPRuby (Liquid templates)
PricingFree (self-hosted)Free (open-source)
Open SourceYesYes

Ratings are based on publicly available data, documentation, and community consensus as of 2026. Individual experience may vary.

What Gets Migrated

A detailed breakdown of how your Drupal content maps to Jekyll

Content Types from Drupal

  • nodes
  • taxonomy terms
  • users
  • blocks
  • media
  • custom entities

Technical Details

Export Method
JSON:API module or Views data export
Source Language
PHP
Destination Format
Markdown/MDX files with frontmatter, organized by content type
URL Handling
301 redirect map generated automatically to preserve SEO equity

What may need manual attention

Custom server-side logic, third-party integrations, and platform-specific plugins will need equivalent solutions in Jekyll. The core content (text, images, metadata) transfers cleanly.

How It Works

Migrate your content in three simple steps

1

Connect

Enter your Drupal site URL — LeaveWP connects automatically.

2

Configure

Select Jekyll as destination and choose content options.

3

Export

Download your migrated content or preview it in your browser.

Is Drupal to Jekyll the Right Move for You?

Migrating from Drupal to Jekyll makes the most sense if you're experiencing steep learning curve — requires developer expertise or outgrowing Drupal's architecture. Jekyll is best for developer blogs hosted on github pages with minimal setup.

You should migrate if: your Drupal site is slow, your hosting costs are climbing, you need developer flexibility, or you want to adopt a modern JAMstack architecture.

You might want to stay if: your Drupal site benefits from powerful content modeling with custom entity types and fields and you don't have Ruby developers on your team.

The migration itself is straightforward with LeaveWP — enter your Drupal URL, select Jekyll, and download your content. The more important question is whether Jekyll's architecture fits your team's skills and your project's long-term needs.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does it take to migrate from Drupal to Jekyll?
Most migrations from Drupal complete in 20-40 minutes. We pull content via Drupal's JSON:API module, then structured for Jekyll. Complex sites with extensive custom fields may take longer.
Will I lose my SEO rankings when migrating from Drupal?
No. We help you set up proper 301 redirects from your old Drupal URLs to preserve search rankings. Jekyll supports clean URL structures that maintain your existing SEO equity.
What Drupal content can be migrated to Jekyll?
Drupal content types like nodes, taxonomy terms, users, blocks are all migrated to Jekyll. Content is converted to Markdown/MDX files or structured for your chosen headless CMS.
Do I need Ruby experience to migrate?
No coding experience is required for the migration itself — LeaveWP handles the export and conversion automatically. However, customizing your Jekyll site afterward will benefit from Ruby (Liquid templates) knowledge. For teams without that expertise, the generated code is well-structured and documented, making it approachable for developers of any level.
How much does it cost to host a Jekyll site after migrating from Drupal?
Jekyll sites can be deployed to Vercel, Netlify, Cloudflare Pages, or any Node.js host — often on generous free tiers. static Jekyll sites can be hosted for free on Vercel or Netlify (up to generous bandwidth limits), which is significantly cheaper than running a PHP server.
Can I migrate Drupal custom fields and metadata to Jekyll?
Yes. Custom fields, metadata, and taxonomies from Drupal are preserved during migration. In Jekyll, these become frontmatter fields in your Markdown/MDX files, which you can extend or restructure to fit your content model.

Related Migration Guides

Explore more migration paths from Drupal or to Jekyll

Drupal to Jekyll Guides

In-depth guides and tutorials to help with your migration

Ready to Migrate?

Start your free migration from Drupal to Jekyll today.

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