Do I Need to Upgrade Craft 4?
Craft 4 receives security updates until April 2026, but planning your Craft 5 upgrade now ensures you stay current without rushing.
Craft 4 is still supported — it gets security updates until April 2026 — so you're not in the same spot as anyone on Craft 2 or 3. You have time. But it's worth starting to plan the move to Craft 5.
The timeline
Craft 4 reaches end of life in April 2026. As of writing, that's roughly 18 months. In practice, the earlier you upgrade the smoother it goes. Leave it late and you risk plugins dropping Craft 4 support before the official date, or hosts nudging you toward PHP versions that push you onto Craft 5 anyway.
Why not wait
Upgrading while Craft 4 is still supported means you can take your time: test properly, handle plugin compatibility methodically, and fix any custom code without a deadline.
Craft 5 is also a decent upgrade in its own right — Twig 3, the redesigned element editor, better permissions, and a cleaner authoring experience.
What's involved
Craft 4 to 5 is less disruptive than previous major upgrades. Most template code transfers directly. The main thing to watch is Twig 3 compatibility — older patterns need small adjustments, nothing dramatic.
Plugins are the usual consideration. Check each one has a Craft 5 release. Most active plugins updated quickly; anything unmaintained will need replacing. Custom modules need a look — the plugin API shifted slightly between 4 and 5.
When to upgrade
Good moments:
- You've got other site work planned and can combine it with the upgrade.
- Your plugin stack has caught up to Craft 5.
- You've got time to test properly in staging.
Andrew is Technical Director at Mutual, a Craft CMS Partner agency. He has been building with Craft CMS since its public beta in 2012 — working through every major version from Craft 1 to Craft 5 — and has delivered over 100 sites for clients including Apple, Transparency International, and Arts University Bournemouth.
He writes about Craft CMS on the Mutual blog and has contributed to net Magazine. At Mutual, he leads development of Mutual One, a marketing platform built on Craft CMS as its foundation.
He has spoken about Craft CMS to undergraduate students at the University of Brighton and Canterbury Christ Church University, and appeared on the Devmode.fm podcast. He has also trained development teams at other agencies in working with the platform.
