Roadmap and release process

Table of Contents

• Backward Compatibility
• Roadmap
• Feature requests

WooCommerce has a minor release (e.g., 3.1, 3.2) every 3-4 months, typically per quarter. Each cycle consists of:

• 4-6 weeks development (1 sprint per week)
• 2-4 weeks beta testing
• 2-4 weeks release candidate period and feature freeze

Each new release has a corresponding milestone on Github, with a description explaining the main goals of the release, and a planned release date. Example: 3.2 Milestone on Github.

Major releases (e.g., 3.0, 4.0) are less frequent and typically will be announced with at least 3 months warning, with the features already developed and announced separately thus being available for testing as soon as possible.

Patch versions (e.g., 3.1.1, 3.1.2) are released on an as-needed basis, usually to address bugs or regressions. Patch versions are documented on the dev blog and also have a milestone on Github to track issues.

Major new features or updates are developed as feature plugins first before being merged into core. A good example of this is the WC API in which the next major version is developed separately. This allows for:

• Faster feature iteration with less risk.
• More contribution opportunities, including opportunities to manage a project.
• Reduced maintenance burden for core, and less risk of backwards compatibility issues.

Backward Compatibility

Whenever possible, we're committed to ensure releases are non-breaking and fully backwards compatible.

If keeping backwards compatibility is not possible, the feature, the enhancement, or the bug fix will be scheduled for a future release, and we'll make every effort to announce the upcoming change ahead of time.

Experimental features are subject to change and may not be backwards compatible. These features are opt-in, and must be enabled from WooCommerce > Settings > Advanced > Features.

Roadmap

If you'd like a better understanding of upcoming initiatives planned for future versions of WooCommerce, check out our roadmap available on the developer site.

Feature requests

You can request new features on our features request page. Ideas which gain traction will be considered for addition to our roadmap.

If you'd like to request code enhancements, such as few filters or actions, you can open up a new enhancement request here on GitHub.