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Which vaadin version will be supported long term?

We have a 5 year old application written in vaadin 6. It only uses basic vaadin UI framework functions. If we want to upgrade to a newer vaadin version that will be supported, what is the version we should go to? I understand that moving from v6 to v7 and above requires some rework. Is vaadin 8 the best version to use to complete this UI migration? How long will vaadin 8 be supported? Are the UI framework stable after vaadin 8, i.e. upgrading to higher versions do not require changes in the application? Thanks for some guidance.

Solution

  • Vaadin versions are either incremental or come with long-term support.

    A long-term support version is maintained as an open source product for 5 years after the initial release. Additionally, Vaadin is offering commercial support for another 10 years. An incremental version is only maintained for a short overlap after the next version.

    • Vaadin 7 is already more than 5 years old and thus only supported based on commercial contracts. Commercial support is available until 2029.
    • Open support for Vaadin 8 ends in February 2022, while commercial support is available until 2032.
    • Vaadin 10 is still supported, but there are aren't any good reasons to choose it over Vaadin 14 at this time.
    • Vaadin 14 has free support until 2024 and commercial support until 2034. This is the version generally recommended for new projects today.
    • Vaadin 23 is planned (but not absolutely certain) to be released in the beginning of 2022 with long-term support until 2027. It might be an alternative for new projects to go with incremental versions until that.

    The other side of the coin is how easy it is to update your existing project. Vaadin 7 and Vaadin 8 is roughly the same from that point of view since Vaadin 8 also includes an extensive compatibility package that covers basically everything from Vaadin 7.

    The jump to from Vaadin 6 to either Vaadin 14 or Vaadin 23 is bigger than the jump to Vaadin 8, but there isn't a big difference between 14 and 23 when it comes to the work needed for migrating from 6.