Drupal 9.0 will have the same features as the final minor release of Drupal 8 (other than those provided by updated dependencies). Similar to Drupal 8, Drupal 9.1, 9.2, etc. will add new backwards-compatible features to Drupal 9 every six months after Drupal 9.0. The key benefit of Drupal 9 over Drupal 8 is the platform will be supported with security fixes after November 2021. The standout feature of Drupal 9 is its ability to provide as easy an upgrade as feasible from Drupal 8.

Drupal 9.1 onwards will continue adding new features to Drupal core. Project lead Dries Buytaert proposed a few tracks of possible future directions in his keynote at DrupalCon Amsterdam: