At WordPress VIP we help you focus on being creative and innovative, while maintaining a high level of security and reliability on which to build.
Part of providing the highest level of service is ensuring that your software stack, including WordPress core, Jetpack, and PHP are kept on recent versions. That is why today we are announcing some upcoming changes to our policy on version upgrades for WordPress, Jetpack, and PHP.
Starting on July 20th, 2021, we are taking some steps to ensure all customers are able to take advantage of the latest features and security provided by utilizing the latest software available
WordPress
VIP supports the current version of WordPress, and one major version behind.
Currently, most sites, regardless of WordPress version, are upgraded to the latest version on release day. This is the strategy we recommend for the highest security and to benefit from any new features.
Occasionally, some of our customers need additional time to test compatibility, and we’ve delayed upgrades for these on request. In order to ensure we can support security updates, we are limiting the length of time for these postponed upgrades.
Delaying Upgrades
Customers will only be permitted to remain on the prior major version of WordPress, and those will be subject to immediate point updates (normally, security related).
For example, at the moment, WordPress v.5.7 is the latest version, so the WordPress VIP platform would support v.5.7, plus v.5.6.*. Once WordPress v.5.8 is released (expected on July 20, 2021), customers who requested to remain on v.5.6.* will be upgraded to v.5.7 or v.5.8 within 2 weeks; VIP will coordinate this change with customers to minimize any impacts.
If a minor update is issued, all customers will be updated immediately: 5.8 to 5.8.1, and 5.7.2 to 5.7.3 for example.
This applies to all environment types – both production and non-production.
If you have environments currently running versions older than 5.7.x, and have questions, please contact your account team.
Why one version? Security.
According to the WordPress core team, only the latest active version of WordPress is actively supported.
The WordPress core team attempts to backport security updates to older versions when possible, but there are no guarantees, and no timeframe for updating older releases. This can mean that sites running older versions cannot benefit from important security measures that may be publicly known. Point (minor) releases, in particular, are often security releases, or contain important security updates and bugfixes.
In any case, the security of our customers’ sites is our highest priority and we will apply security upgrades immediately and without notice.
Sites in “branch” or “trunk”
WordPress VIP offers two options for testing upcoming versions of WordPress on your non-production environments: trunk and branch.
“Trunk” is used for the latest development version of WordPress. It is the newest possible version, but not necessarily a stable version. It includes Alpha and Beta versions and changes often.
“Branch” is used for Release Candidates, and is upgraded as new release candidates are made available. These two versions are often used for testing in develop or preprod environments.
Going forward, any environments on “branch” sites will be upgraded to the release version on release day; environments running trunk will continue to track trunk until explicitly changed.
Jetpack
VIP supports the current version of Jetpack, and one major version behind.
For example, at the moment, Jetpack 9.7 is the latest version, so the WordPress VIP platform would support v.9.7, plus v.9.6. Once Jetpack v.9.8 is released (expected on June 3, 2021), customers on v.9.6.* will be upgraded to v.9.7 or v.9.8 within 2 weeks.
Plugins
We recommend that customers use the latest version of any plugin, for enhanced platform compatibility and security.
To learn more about plugin updates, please see our documentation.
PHP
We support a single version of PHP which is defined platform-wide.
Currently that is v.7.4.18. We remain aligned with the official PHP team and only use versions of PHP which have Active Support.
Node.js
We support all Active LTS or Maintenance LTS releases, and the next Active LTS candidate of Node.js.
For example, currently, this includes Node.js 12, Node.js 14, and Node.js 16.
Pinning to non-major versions (e.g. 14.16.1) won’t be supported, and minor upgrades will be applied as soon as they’re made available.
Platform-Wide Upgrade Schedule
You may be interested in the proposed timeline or roadmap for VIP Go updates.
Our platform-wide upgrade schedule can be found here.
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