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Software Upgrades: A Predictable Policy, Not a Surprise Bill



Software upgrades are usually where a support contract's real cost hides. Here's what EvoluData actually commits to, and why that commitment is realistic for Tiki in a way it often isn't for other platforms.

The policy

  • We promptly apply all security patches.
  • We always keep your site on an officially supported version of the software.
  • Instead of a large surprise invoice at each major version change (for example, going from version 29 to 30), that cost is folded into your ongoing support plan, predictable and reasonable.

How it works

  • Updates (minor changes) — implemented as soon as they're available (for example, Tiki 29.4 → 29.5).
  • Upgrades (major changes) — one included every three years, timed to the next Long Term Support (LTS) release. For example, starting on Tiki 27.x means an upgrade to the latest stable LTS (for example, Tiki 30.x) three years later.
  • Before a major upgrade goes live, we set up a test site so you can confirm everything works the way you expect, then schedule the switch for a time that suits you.

Why this is a hard promise to make elsewhere


vs WordPress

WordPress's rapid release cycle isn't paired with a Long Term Support version, so staying on a supported release means upgrading often, and eventually a third-party plugin is likely to break something in the process.


Ask a WordPress shop to commit up front to a multi-year, predictably-priced contract with no feature or data loss. If they can't, or won't, that tells you what you need to know.

vs Drupal

Drupal's contributed-module ecosystem gives it a very large feature set, but upgrades between major versions (6 to 7, for example) are notoriously difficult.


Ask a Drupal provider to commit up front to a fixed price for the next major upgrade, a provider willing to name that number has an incentive to build your site in a future-proof way.

Why Tiki holds up

Because Tiki's features live in one core codebase instead of thousands of independently maintained modules or plugins, this commitment is realistic, not a marketing promise.


Proof point: when Tiki's front end migrated to Bootstrap, every built-in feature was converted together, there's no equivalent event for all 17,000 Drupal modules or 40,000 WordPress plugins at once.

Learn more

See Why WikiSuite Avoids Third-Party Plugins for more on why building features into the core, instead of relying on plugins, is what makes this upgrade policy possible to sustain.

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