Road Map

Stable Release

  • Initial Release Our stable releases are created by periodically taking a development version and 'hardening' it by focussing only on bugfixes.
  • Point Release Each month we create a new point release for our stable version. These releases contain no new features, only bug fixes.
  • Packaging Here we tag the release and make it available for packaging on different platforms.
  • Installers available The exact period between packaging and the availablility of installers varies by platform as maintainers prepare their packages. See the download pages for updates on availability.

Development Version

  • Active development This is the open stage for accepting new features.
  • Feature freeze During feature freeze, no new features are accepted, only bug fixes and code clean ups.
  • Packaging Here we tag the release and make it available for packaging on different platforms.
  • Installers available The exact period between packaging and the availablility of installers varies by platform as maintainers prepare their packages. See the download pages for updates on availability.

Releases and development of QGIS follow a timebased schedule (roadmap).

  • Even version numbers (2.18, 3.2 etc) are release versions.

  • Odd version numbers (2.99, 3.1 etc) are development versions.

A new release will happen every four months. In the first three months, new development is taking place. In the last month before a release, a feature freeze is invoked and the final month is used for testing, bugfixing, translation and release preparations. When the release happens, a branch with an even release number is created and the master branch advances to the next odd version. After the release a call for packaging is issued.

Every third release (starting with 2.8) is a long-term-release (LTR) that is maintained until the next long-term-release occurs.

Development phase

In the development phase, developers work on adding new features for the next release. Early adopters can use the nightly builds we have for all major platforms to see the development progress, do preliminary testing and provide bug reports and their thoughts to help with development.

Feature freeze

In the feature freeze phase, new features are not allowed in anymore and the focus of everyone moves from enhancing QGIS to stabilizing it. This also turns the nightly builds effectively into prereleases.

Users should start extensive testing of these prereleases in their environment to verify that there are no issues, they wouldn’t want to see in the upcoming release. All such issues should be reported (see Bugs, Features and Issues). Everything that goes unnoticed, will also end up in the next release. Only in case of serious problems backports to a latest release will occur. Therefore testing of the prereleases and reporting issues is very important.

In the feature freeze, developers monitor the bugtracker and start working on fixing the reported issues and update the visual changelog with the features they added.

With the start of the feature freeze, the translation files will be updated so that translators can start their work. Note that this might be an incremental process as although the features are frozen, bug fixes might still introduce translation string changes.

Two weeks before the release, a hard freeze is initiated after which only fixes to severe problems and regressions introduced after the feature freeze are allowed in.

The release manager announces this on feature freeze.

Release

On major and minor release dates, the release branch is created and the release is tagged and tar balls are prepared. Point releases are just tagged and tar balls are created.

The packagers are notified that packaging can begin.

Once some packages are available the release can be announced and the website is updated accordingly.

Release schedule

The schedule is aligned to produce roughly the same dates for each year given our four monthly releases with LTRs entering the LTR repo in late february.

Beginning after 2.12 the development phase is always 12 weeks and the freeze phase is at least 5 weeks. Remainders are used to extend the freeze phase of LTR releases.

Point releases will happen every month on the latest release branch branch, if there are backports. Beginning with the 3.28 release point releases are only done with new latest releases.

In the first four months after its release, a new LTR is also the current LR. In this phase, the new LTR doesn’t replace the previous LTR in the LTR repositories. This happens as soon as a new LR is released.

This schedule is also available as “iCalendar”.

Schedule

EventLatestLong-Term RepoFreezeDateWeek #Weeks
LTR/PR3.28.03.22.122022-10-21434
PR3.28.13.22.132022-11-18474
PR3.28.23.22.142022-12-16516
PR/FF3.28.33.22.153.292023-01-2755
EPR3.22.162023-02-036
LR/PR3.30.03.28.42023-03-03104
PR3.30.13.28.52023-03-31144
PR3.30.23.28.62023-04-28184
PR/FF3.30.33.28.73.312023-05-26224
LR/PR3.32.03.28.82023-06-23264
PR3.32.13.28.92023-07-21304
PR3.32.23.28.102023-08-18344
PR/FF3.32.33.28.113.332023-09-15386
LTR/PR3.34.03.28.122023-10-27444
PR3.34.13.28.132023-11-24484
PR3.34.23.28.142023-12-22524
PR/FF3.34.33.28.153.352024-01-1935
LR/PR3.36.03.34.42024-02-2384
PR3.36.13.34.52024-03-22124
PR3.36.23.34.62024-04-19164
PR/FF3.36.33.34.73.372024-05-17205
LR/PR3.38.03.34.82024-06-21254
PR3.38.13.34.92024-07-19294
PR3.38.23.34.102024-08-16334
PR/FF3.38.33.34.113.392024-09-13376
LTR/PR3.40.03.34.122024-10-25434
PR3.40.13.34.132024-11-22474
PR3.40.23.34.142024-12-20514
PR/FF3.40.33.34.153.412025-01-1735
LR/PR3.42.03.40.42025-02-2184
PR3.42.13.40.52025-03-21124
PR3.42.23.40.62025-04-18164
PR/FF3.42.33.40.73.432025-05-16205
LR/PR3.44.03.40.82025-06-20254
PR3.44.13.40.92025-07-18294
PR3.44.23.40.102025-08-15334
PR/FF3.44.33.40.113.452025-09-12376
LTR/PR3.46.03.40.122025-10-24434
PR3.46.13.40.132025-11-21474
PR3.46.23.40.142025-12-19514
PR/FF3.46.33.40.152026-01-1635

Event legend

LTRLong term release, begin of new development phase
LRRegular release, begin of new development phase
FFFeature freeze, end of development phase
PRPoint release of latest release and LTR branch
EPRExtra Point release
currentcurrently supported releases: 3.34.6 and 3.36.2
nextnext releases

Location of prereleases / nightly builds

PlatformLocation
WindowsOSGeo4W
LinuxDebian/Ubuntu
MacOSMac OS