ExpressionEngine 6 End of Life: What to Do Before 31 December 2026
EE6 security fixes stop on 31 December 2026. What that means for your site, and a practical plan for moving to ExpressionEngine 7 in time.
EE6 stops getting security fixes on 31 December 2026. Your site will keep working, but new vulnerabilities won't be patched. Upgrade to the latest EE7 now. Any EE 2.0+ site will also be able to go straight to EE8 when it ships.
ExpressionEngine 6 reaches end of life on 31 December 2026. After that date it gets no more updates of any kind, including security fixes. If your site runs EE6, or anything older, this is the last window to upgrade on your own schedule.
The official dates
The ExpressionEngine version support table lists these dates:
- EE6 was released on 14 December 2020. Bug fixes ended on 31 December 2025. Security fixes end on 31 December 2026.
- EE7 was released on 3 August 2022 and is the current long-term support (LTS) release.
- EE1 to EE5 are already past end of life. EE5's security fixes ended on 31 December 2021.
Since the start of 2026, EE6 has been in legacy status: no new features, and fixes only for serious security or data-loss problems.
What actually happens on 1 January 2027
Nothing visible. Your site keeps working. The risk is quieter:
- New vulnerabilities stay open. If a security problem is found in EE6 after 2026, no patch will come.
- PHP moves on without you. Hosts retire old PHP versions on their own timetable. EE6 only gained PHP 8.2 compatibility in version 6.4.15, and add-ons often lag behind.
- Add-on developers stop testing on EE6. Updates you need may only ship for EE7.
What about ExpressionEngine 8?
The EE team expects EE8 before the end of 2026. Any site on EE 2.0.0 or newer will be able to upgrade straight to it, it will still support PHP 7.4 and newer, and the team knows of no breaking changes between EE6 and EE8. But with no fixed date, waiting for it risks running EE6 unsupported. More in ExpressionEngine 8: what we know.
Your options
- Upgrade to EE7. Usually the right call. EE6 to EE7 is a direct upgrade; most of the work is checking add-ons and testing every page type.
- Rebuild. Worth it if the site is also due a redesign or has a lot of PHP inside templates.
- Move to another CMS. Sensible if your team already runs WordPress or Craft elsewhere. See ExpressionEngine vs WordPress.
A practical upgrade plan
- List your add-ons. In the control panel, go to Add-Ons and note every one, with its version. Check each developer's site for an EE7 release.
- Check your PHP version. Your host's control panel shows it. Plan to finish on a supported PHP 8 release.
- Make a staging copy. It needs its own database and its own system folder. A staging site that points at the live database is not a staging site.
- Upgrade staging first. Run the EE7 upgrade there, fix what breaks, and click through every template and form.
- Schedule the live switch. Take a full backup, upgrade in a quiet window, and keep the backup until you're sure.
How long it takes
A small EE6 site with maintained add-ons can move to EE7 quickly. Sites with abandoned add-ons, custom extensions or lots of PHP in templates take longer, because each of those needs a replacement or a fix. December is a busy month for everyone, so don't leave it to the last weeks.
The full step-by-step is in our 7-step upgrade checklist, and typical prices are in ExpressionEngine upgrade cost.
If you'd like a second pair of eyes, our ExpressionEngine upgrade service starts with a free audit: we list your add-ons, PHP risks and a fixed price before any work starts.
Frequently asked questions
Will my ExpressionEngine 6 site stop working on 1 January 2027?
No. It keeps running. What stops is security fixes, so any vulnerability found after that date stays open, and hosts will eventually retire the PHP versions it needs.
Should I upgrade EE6 to EE7 or wait for EE8?
Upgrade to the latest EE7 now. The add-on and testing work carries over, and the later step to EE8 is small.
