The key dates for your Craft 5 Upgrade
If your website is on Craft CMS and you’re yet to explore upgrading to Craft 5, now is the time to get your ducks in a row. Upgrading is not just about taking advantage of improved performance, it’s about ensuring enhanced security and, ultimately, continuity for your brand. With full support for Craft 4 finishing in Spring 2025, here are the key dates and information in preparation for the switch.
Full support for Craft CMS 4 and Craft Commerce 4 ends in April 2025
Craft 4 saw a host of performance and efficiency updates, particularly when editing pages. There was also improved management of, for example, user data and an enhanced author experience. But full support for Craft CMS 4 and Craft Commerce 4 is scheduled to end on April 30th 2025, so there will be no further feature updates or bug fixes.
This means that if you have a Craft 4 site, any bugs encountered may not be easily remedied. If your site uses plugins, for example, you might encounter compatibility issues. If you have an existing Hosting and Craft Maintenance agreement for Craft 4, fixes may not be part of your ongoing contract, so do check this.
In the absence of routine patches and bug fixes, your developer will need to investigate and find solutions to the problems that arise. This may mean allocating more resources to development work. Fixes are likely to take longer because they’re not readily available. As is usually the case with these things, it’s difficult to quantify how and when it may impact your site but we’d recommend building a contingency into your budget.
Craft CMS and Craft Commerce Security support ends in April 2026
On April 30th 2026, full security support for Craft CMS 4 and Craft Commerce 4 ends. We’d always recommend upgrading in good time before this deadline. After this date, Craft 4 sites will no longer receive security patches so they may be vulnerable to security and data breaches. Ensuring that your site is on the latest version of your chosen content management system is one of the best ways to minimise security risks for your brand.
What might my Craft CMS 5 upgrade look like?
While each upgrade has its bespoke requirements, a typical project may look something like this:
- Craft 5 core functionality updates
- Upgrades of your existing plugins
- Replacing non-compatible plugins
- Data transfers
- Full quality assurance and testing before pushing live.
As Craft CMS Specialists, we’ve been busy upgrading our existing clients to Craft CMS and Craft Commerce 5.
As well as managing Craft Upgrade for our clients, we manage migrations for other agencies and brands. We work in partnership and offer a white-label solution for craft upgrades for agencies, as well as working directly with their clients where appropriate. We’ve also managed upgrades for several brands where the technical expertise or capacity of their current agency is stretched and they need a bit of expert guidance.
If you’d like to discuss what a migration or upgrade to Craft CMS 5 might look like for your site, get in touch with us and we can have a chat about the process. Based in Nottingham, UK, we’re a Craft CMS development agency with a global client base.