Insights

Adobe Commerce 2.3 End of Lifecycle and Upgrading to Adobe Commerce 2.4.4

Randy Kohl

Adobe has announced the end of support for Adobe Commerce version 2.3 as of September 8th, 2022. For those that may be unfamiliar with the process, after that date customers will no longer receive support related to quality fixes and Adobe will no longer release security fixes for that version. In order to receive that support, customers will need to upgrade to a supported version of the software.

Beginning with the upcoming release of Adobe Commerce 2.4.4, the underlying version of PHP upon which the platform is built is being updated to PHP 8.1. The version of PHP used within prior releases of Adobe Commerce (PHP 7.4) has already reached the end of its active support cycle, and security fixes will be discontinued later in 2022.

Since Adobe Commerce 2.3 and 2.4 were built on PHP 7, this means any merchant running an older version of Adobe Commerce will effectively need to upgrade to version 2.4.4, which is built on PHP 8.1. That’s a lot of version numbers to wrap your head around, but the takeaway is that the change in PHP versions makes what would otherwise be noted as a minor Adobe Commerce release much more significant in terms of upgrade path.

For perspective, Adobe Commerce 2.3 was originally released in November 2018, which is a considerable amount of time in software years. However, we understand that priorities and budgets don’t always stay in lock-step with each release and if things are running smoothly there can be a tendency to adopt an ‘if it’s not broken, why fix it?’ mentality. Now, brands in this situation will need to make some important decisions on the best path forward for their all-important owned commerce channels.

Depending on a number of factors, that path forward may not be a straight line. For those merchants currently running Adobe Commerce 2.3.x, the best approach may be to upgrade to version 2.4.3-p2 in the near term in order to get onto a version of Adobe Commerce built on PHP 8, and then select the best option for the business to stay in step with the subsequent 2.4 releases moving forward. Different options will apply to those already running Adobe Commerce 2.3.7-p2, as well as those already on versions 2.4.0-2.4.3, which were also released prior to the platform’s update to PHP 8.

Beyond the critical factor of maintaining quality and security fixes, there are plenty of reasons for merchants to prepare to upgrade to Adobe Commerce version 2.4.4 and stay in sync with future releases. This includes improvements to checkout, catalog rules, price alerts, and search.

We understand that different considerations across the tech stack, including integrations between Adobe Commerce and other external systems, may raise additional questions. If so, please connect with us to discuss your unique situation and how you can ensure you are getting the most out of the powerful Adobe Commerce platform.