8.13 getting EOL'ed with ~1 month of notice

[DennisHermannsen]

@WHMCS Carlos I appreciate trying to work with us, but extending it until the end of December is like not extending it. December is one of the the busiest months. There's discounts, more clients, the holidays.

We'll work with what we got, I guess.

[RadWebHosting]

On 10/30/2026 at 8:19 AM, ffeingol said:

We may be 1% of WHMCS users, but we have year end closing processes etc. and my CFO would kill us if we updated WHMCS during that.  WHMCS has also not given us a clear path to stay on LTS.  They way the EOL page stands now we'd have to go to 9.0 (bad idea) and then that would be EOL in either 30 days or EOL at the exact same time as 8.13 goes EOL.

Can't really say it much better than this. Very business-unfriendly move of WHMCS to be fast-tracking the end of support without notice, which happens to coincide with historically busy BF/CM and end-of-year.

What other obstacles can we jump through by end of year?

[WHMCS Carlos]

Fair points on the LTS path, and thanks for being direct about it. We are putting a proper, published release cadence in place so you can plan ahead instead of finding out from the docs.

The next LTS will be 9.2, currently scheduled for GA in mid-December, ahead of 8.13 and 9.0 going EOL. 9.2 builds on 9.0 and 9.1 with refinements and improvements, with stability as the priority, as it should be for an LTS.

We also intend to ship smaller releases, more often. 9.1 introduced Unattended Automatic Updates, which apply maintenance releases on a schedule you set, so staying current takes less effort than it used to.

Where possible, I'd suggest moving to 9.1 now. It will make the transition to 9.2 much easier when it lands.
 

[Damo]

2 minutes ago, WHMCS Carlos said:

9.1 introduced Unattended Automatic Updates, which apply maintenance releases on a schedule you set

There is no way that we will use this feature. Leave that kind of stuff to clients that use your hosted offering. 

[DennisHermannsen]

23 minutes ago, Damo said:

There is no way that we will use this feature.

Oh, we will. Automatic security updates is much appreciated - as long as it doesn't ship with new features.
I know that an automatic update might break something but I'd rather have non-working software than exploitable software.

[Damo]

Maintenance releases include new features. If it was strictly security-related, then it would be referred to as such. 

[DennisHermannsen]

Maintenance doesn't imply new features to me. Sounds like bugfix or security fixes.

Maybe @WHMCS Carlos can elaborate on that.

[WHMCS Carlos]

@DennisHermannsen Unattended Automatic Updates only apply updates for the version you are on that we have marked as safe to apply automatically: security fixes, bug fixes and small improvements, with nothing that requires changes to your hooks, themes or customisations. Anything that needs manual steps is not applied automatically, and moving to a new version (9.1 to 9.2) is always a manual update.

Before each update, WHMCS backs up the files it is about to replace and restores them if the update fails.

@Damo fair enough, it's your call. You can keep automatic updates off, or set your own schedule, under Utilities > Update WHMCS > Configure Update Settings.
 

[AlexVale]

@WHMCS Carlos No further delays in lights of all recent comments ? 

Also, with the release of 9.2 in December, we are going to plan a move to a soon obsolete version, this is just chaotic.  Easier from 9.1 but more work overall. 

With the new security paradigm of this era, it would be clearly appreciated to have a bit of cushion to proceed with the migration and possibly have us land on 9.2. 
I think we all understood it is due to migrate but the time brought is insufficient. 

 

[ffeingol]

@WHMCS Carlos

I try very hard to say professional in these threads (and I don't reply a lot), but I really have to wonder what world the WHMCS management/development team lives in.

Quote

Fair points on the LTS path, and thanks for being direct about it. We are putting a proper, published release cadence in place so you can plan ahead instead of finding out from the docs.

The next LTS will be 9.2, currently scheduled for GA in mid-December, ahead of 8.13 and 9.0 going EOL. 9.2 builds on 9.0 and 9.1 with refinements and improvements, with stability as the priority, as it should be for an LTS.

The next LTS release needs to be out (for a while, so it's fully vetted, BEFORE the previous LTS is retired.  LTS has no real meaning if you can't stay on a LTS release.

Quote

We also intend to ship smaller releases, more often. 9.1 introduced Unattended Automatic Updates, which apply maintenance releases on a schedule you set, so staying current takes less effort than it used to.

This is pretty much exactly the opposite of what we want/need.  WHMCS at it's heart is ordering/billing software.  We want a very slow/stable with minimal changes (especially within the LTS track).  To be honest, I can't really think of a single new feature in the last 3 - 5 years that WHMCS has put out that we have implemented.  There is no way we would implement automated updates until it's been fully vetted (read that as in production for several years).  The risks simply don't make sense.

Quote

Where possible, I'd suggest moving to 9.1 now. It will make the transition to 9.2 much easier when it lands.

Simply put, we can't.  From my understanding/community threads, 9.1 forces us to sign up with the WHMCS marketplace. We have compliance requirements and we need to know exactly what data is shared between our WHMCS install and the marketplace.  We also need to know how this will work since we keep a development and production environment.  We've had ticket RLB-418773 open since 1-Nov-2026 and have received any useful answers.

This is also going to force us to do two major upgrades in a relatively short timeframe.  This is a lot of work for our staff (testing, training etc.) as well as potentially frustrating to customers.

WHMCS really needs to reconsider supporting 8.13 until there is a stable/vetted path to the next LTS version.  WHMCS's sister company cPanel manages to support multiple versions at the same time and I have to believe their codebase is much more complex than WHMCS.

My 2 cents

[Evolve Web Hosting]

On 10/29/2026 at 6:37 PM, WHMCS Carlos said:

The email to notify everyone is about to be sent out, it's currently with the GTM team to go out

@WHMCS Carlos I never saw this email. Did anyone else?

Personally, I have no intention of getting trapped on 9.1 right now. Just a quick glance around this community tells me it still has too many bugs. Your beta period was what, 2 weeks at best? Before I could even download and install it, the GA was available.

[pixelweb001]

1 hour ago, Evolve Web Hosting said:

@WHMCS Carlos I never saw this email. Did anyone else?

Personally, I have no intention of getting trapped on 9.1 right now. Just a quick glance around this community tells me it still has too many bugs. Your beta period was what, 2 weeks at best? Before I could even download and install it, the GA was available.

@WHMCS Carlos

I am also wondering whether an official email announcement will be sent regarding the EOL of version 8.13. When I checked the documentation and saw the updated T.B.D. date, I initially thought it was a typo.

Again, I would have really appreciated receiving at least 90 days' notice, especially with the upcoming holiday season.

[Damo]

18 hours ago, WHMCS Carlos said:

fair enough, it's your call. You can keep automatic updates off, or set your own schedule, under Utilities > Update WHMCS > Configure Update Settings.

I don't see any option to disable this feature.

 

[Damo]

18 hours ago, WHMCS Carlos said:

we have marked as safe to apply automatically: security fixes, bug fixes and small improvements

@DennisHermannsen it is the small improvements that are of concern.  The definition leaves it very open. e.g. a small improvement could be something that improves WHMCS tracking and data sharing or a change to the colour of a label so that it's easier to read.  

[DennisHermannsen]

3 hours ago, Damo said:

I don't see any option to disable this feature.

Are you sure you're on 9.1? https://docs.whmcs.com/releases/9-1/9-1-release-highlights/#unattended-automatic-updates

[Damo]

Yes. 9.1.0. 

I'm also curious to know your thoughts on what constitutes 'minor improvements' that can be applied automatically. 

[Damo]

23 hours ago, DennisHermannsen said:

know that an automatic update might break something but I'd rather have non-working software than exploitable software.

https://docs.whmcs.com/releases/9-1/9-1-release-highlights/#unattended-automatic-updates

If you can schedule these security updates then how does that avoid something exploitable? 

eg. You're updates are set to the 28th of each month but the exploit is published on the 3rd. 
FAIL!

[WHMCS Carlos]

@Damo the option is there .. please check your admin user has the permissions set for it 

[WHMCS Carlos]

45 minutes ago, Damo said:

https://docs.whmcs.com/releases/9-1/9-1-release-highlights/#unattended-automatic-updates

If you can schedule these security updates then how does that avoid something exploitable? 

eg. You're updates are set to the 28th of each month but the exploit is published on the 3rd. 
FAIL!

@Damo The schedule is there because many admins need updates to land in a set window, for example outside business hours or after their backups run. Set it to weekly and the gap is at most a week. When a critical security release comes out, you don't have to wait for the schedule: you can apply it straight away from Utilities > Update WHMCS.

[Damo]

Access is enabled. 
As for timing, if it's a critical security related issue then it should be patched immediately. 
This auto update feature is seemingly becoming more an automated tool to roll out 'features' than critical updates. 

[WHMCS Carlos]

@Damo so you are on 9.1.0, the permission is enabled, and the option still doesn't show? That shouldn't happen. Please open a support ticket so the team can look at your setup

[WHMCS Carlos]

An update on this topic: 
 

 

[Damo]

Yes I'm on 9.1.0. 
Happy to provide details here. Ask away. 

Recent tickets (over the past 12 months) result in copy/paate replies stating that yes we are aware and it will fixed but no timeline is available. Request to escalate have been met with, no that's not possible. 

[WHMCS Carlos]

21 hours ago, pixelweb001 said:

@WHMCS Carlos

I am also wondering whether an official email announcement will be sent regarding the EOL of version 8.13. When I checked the documentation and saw the updated T.B.D. date, I initially thought it was a typo.

Again, I would have really appreciated receiving at least 90 days' notice, especially with the upcoming holiday season.

@pixelweb001 The original email where sent, if possible PM me your email you use with us so I can check if it was on the list