Announcing Yearly LTS Releases for MariaDB Community Server
In order to give MariaDB community users predictability on when long term maintenance (LTS) versions will be available, MariaDB is standardizing on yearly LTS releases for MariaDB Community Server.
The next major release series of MariaDB Community Server, 11.8, will be an LTS release series. This succeeds MariaDB Community Server 11.4 which was released in May 2024 and is also an LTS release series. Moving forward, users can expect a new LTS version of MariaDB Community Server every May.
What’s new in MariaDB Community Server 11.8
Since our last LTS release series, there’s a lot of exciting new features and functionality planned for the next LTS series, notably vector search, a new open source and native implementation in MariaDB Server that enables retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) for building AI applications. Read more about the latest release here.
Consistent releases and easier to understand version numbering
Following the 11.8 GA release, we will follow with a 12.0 release. Each quarter we will have rolling releases to get innovations out quickly to the community. The LTS release series will be the last in line with the same major version number. Then we begin the cycle anew with another increase in the major version number. Here’s what to expect in the coming years:
| Release Date | Version |
|---|---|
| May 2025 | Community Server 11.8 (LTS) |
| August 2025 | Community Server 12.0 (rolling) |
| November 2025 | Community Server 12.1 (rolling) |
| February 2026 | Community Server 12.2 (rolling) |
| May 2026 | Community Server 12.3 (LTS) |
| August 2026 | Community Server 13.0 (rolling) |
| November 2026 | Community Server 13.1 (rolling) |
| February 2027 | Community Server 13.2 (rolling) |
| May 2027 | Community Server 13.3 (LTS) |
Upgrade to Enterprise
For organizations that have higher level business requirements, we offer better high availability, scalability, security and total peace of mind for your production workloads via MariaDB Enterprise Platform. MariaDB enterprise release series are maintained for much longer and include technical support with an enterprise subscription. Furthermore, our enterprise releases are aligned with the Community Server releases so that customers can stay on enterprise releases without missing any critical new features. Contact us to upgrade from a community version to MariaDB Enterprise Platform.
With these release changes, we are happy to be able to continue to share new innovations on a quarterly basis but at the same time give some predictability on a yearly basis to those community users who are not as interested in being a part of testing new innovations. Linux distributions are also expected to pick up our LTS versions of MariaDB Community Server and we are working closely with them to ensure all distribution needs are met.
