There’s no single answer to when you should upgrade your ExpressionEngine installation, but there are several clear signals that tell you it’s overdue. Most business owners don’t think about this until something goes wrong. By then, the upgrade is usually more involved than it would have been if it had been done earlier.
ExpressionEngine versions have PHP requirements. If your hosting server is running a newer version of PHP than your EE installation supports, you’ll start seeing errors, or worse, silent failures where things stop working without any obvious error message. PHP 8.x has become the standard for most hosting environments, and older EE installations simply aren’t compatible with it.
This alone forces a significant number of upgrades we carry out. The hosting company upgrades PHP, the site starts breaking, and the business owner is suddenly dealing with an urgent problem rather than a planned improvement.
Every software product accumulates security vulnerabilities over time. ExpressionEngine is no different. Older versions stop receiving security patches, which means any vulnerabilities discovered after that point go unaddressed. If your site handles any kind of customer data, payment processing, or login functionality, running an unpatched CMS is a genuine risk.
Third-party addons are a significant part of most ExpressionEngine sites. These are typically maintained by independent developers who eventually drop support for older EE versions. When a critical addon stops receiving updates or becomes incompatible with a newer server environment, you’re faced with either replacing it or upgrading EE to a version it supports.
The honest answer is that many businesses wait too long. A site that was built on EE 2 or EE 3 and has never been touched since launch is now multiple major versions behind. That’s not a quick update, it’s a significant migration that requires proper planning, testing, and often involves rewriting certain parts of the site.
The cost of that migration is directly related to how long it’s been left. A site that’s two versions behind is a manageable project. A site that’s five versions behind, with outdated addons and undocumented customisations, is something else entirely.
The right time to upgrade is before you’re forced to. Ideally as part of a planned maintenance schedule rather than in response to a crisis. If you’re not sure where your site stands, a health check audit is the sensible starting point. It tells you exactly which version of EE you’re running, which addons are out of date, and what the risks are if you leave things as they are.
If your ExpressionEngine site hasn’t had any attention in two or more years, the question probably isn’t whether you need to upgrade, it’s how soon.
If you are not sure whether your ExpressionEngine site is due an upgrade, get in touch with Karl for a straight answer.
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ExpressionEngine has changed hands several times over the years. The current owner, Packet Tide, acquired the platform and has been responsible for its ongoing development. If your business runs on ExpressionEngine, understanding who owns the platform and what their priorities are is worth knowing.
If your website is running on ExpressionEngine 4 or 5, it may look fine on the surface. But underneath, you are carrying costs that most business owners do not see until something goes wrong. This is not about upgrading for the sake of it. It is about understanding what your current situation actually means.
Delaying an ExpressionEngine upgrade is easy to justify. The site still works, the budget is committed elsewhere, and nothing has broken yet. But delays in this area follow a predictable pattern, and the costs accumulate in ways that are not immediately visible.
Most clients come to us when their site has started to feel like a risk rather than an asset. Whether the agency relationship has ended, an upgrade has been delayed, or the site has simply grown beyond what it can handle, a conversation costs nothing.
Get in touch with KarlTrusted by established businesses and growing brands across the UK
Expression 37 works with a small number of clients at any one time. These are some of them.
Karl founded Expression 37 in 2007 and has worked exclusively with ExpressionEngine and Craft CMS ever since. He does not take on work in other platforms and does not hand work to other developers. Expression 37 is deliberately small, because the kind of support that matters to clients with business-critical sites is specific to their site, not something that scales in the conventional sense. If you work with Expression 37, you work with Karl.
Find out how we workKarl's expertise in maintaining our Craft CMS site has been invaluable to Potton Homes. His thorough understanding of our needs and proactive approach to updates and support have significantly improved our website's performance and user experience. With Karl on our team, we can confidently focus on helping our clients realise their dream homes, knowing that our online presence is in excellent hands.
James Seber
Potton Homes