Last checked and updated on April 16, 2026
Spring Boot Lifecycle & End of Life (EOL) Policy
Spring Boot maintains a predictable support policy built around major and minor version lines. Major versions receive at least three years of open-source support from their release, provided you stay on a supported minor within that major. Minor versions are supported for a minimum of 12 to 13 months, during which the team publishes patch releases containing critical bug fixes and security updates.
The last minor version of each major line (such as 2.7.x or 3.5.x) receives significantly longer commercial enterprise support, often extending up to seven years or more in total. This structure gives development teams a clear window to plan upgrades while keeping production applications secure and stable through regular patches.
Open-source support focuses on community-driven fixes for critical issues and security vulnerabilities. Commercial support adds expert assistance and extends protection well beyond the open-source end date for qualifying long-term versions.
| Support Type | Typical Duration | What Is Included |
|---|---|---|
| Open-Source (OSS) | At least 3 years for major, 12-13 months for minor | Critical bug fixes, security patches, community support |
| Enterprise (Commercial) | Extended, up to 7+ years for last minor of major | Expert help plus continued fixes after OSS ends |
| End of Life | After support window closes | No official patches or assistance |
Risks of Using End-of-Life (EOL) Versions
Staying on an End-of-Life Spring Boot version leaves your applications exposed in several important ways. Once support ends, no new security patches are released, so any newly discovered vulnerabilities in Spring Boot or its dependencies stay unaddressed indefinitely.
You also lose access to official bug fixes, which means problems that affect stability or performance may never be resolved by the Spring team. Many third-party libraries and Spring portfolio projects eventually stop testing against EOL versions, increasing the risk of compatibility issues when you update other parts of your stack.
Teams in regulated industries frequently encounter compliance challenges because security policies and standards usually require software components to remain under active vendor support. Over time, the lack of updates can lead to higher maintenance costs and unexpected downtime during incidents.
| Risk | Potential Impact |
|---|---|
| Unpatched security vulnerabilities | Higher chance of exploits or data breaches |
| No official bug fixes | Persistent issues affecting reliability |
| Library and dependency incompatibility | Broken builds or runtime errors |
| Compliance and audit failures | Regulatory or contractual problems |
What Happens After Spring Boot Reaches EOL
When a Spring Boot version reaches End of Life, all official maintenance stops. The Spring team no longer publishes security patches, bug fixes, or new releases for that version line. Open-source community support for critical issues also ends at the OSS EOL date.
Your existing applications will continue to run on the EOL version without immediate changes. However, you become fully responsible for handling any future security concerns or bugs on your own. For users with commercial subscriptions, extended enterprise support may continue for certain long-term versions, providing additional time before complete EOL.
Most organizations use the EOL milestone as a firm deadline to migrate to a currently supported release. This keeps the application secure, compatible with modern tools, and eligible for ongoing community and expert assistance.
FAQ
Q1: How long is a Spring Boot major version supported?
Major versions receive at least three years of open-source support, while the final minor version in the line often gets much longer commercial support.
Q2: What does End of Life mean for Spring Boot?
EOL means the official support window has closed and no further patches, security fixes, or community assistance are provided for that version.
Q3: Can I continue running Spring Boot after it reaches EOL?
Yes, the framework will still function, but you will not receive any updates or official help, increasing security and maintenance risks.
Q4: Are security patches available after EOL?
No. After the support period ends, Spring stops releasing security patches for that version.
Q5: How can I avoid being caught by Spring Boot EOL?
Keep track of your current version and plan upgrades well before the support window closes, ideally while still in the active support phase.
Tracking & Monitoring Spring Boot EOL Dates
Effective tracking starts with maintaining an accurate inventory of every Spring Boot version running in development, testing, and production environments. Many teams add this information to their existing monitoring dashboards or configuration management tools.
Schedule regular reviews, such as quarterly checks, to identify versions approaching the end of their support window. Set internal alerts when a version has less than six to nine months of support remaining so upgrade planning can begin early.
Document your upgrade roadmap alongside these dates. Treating EOL as a scheduled project milestone helps ensure smooth transitions without disrupting business operations or compromising security.
How To Check Your Spring Boot Version
Determining the exact Spring Boot version in your project is straightforward and should be done regularly. If you are using Maven, open your terminal in the project root and run the following command.
mvn help:evaluate -Dexpression=project.version -q -DforceStdout
For Gradle projects, use this command instead.
./gradlew properties | grep version
Inside your running application, you can also inspect the version programmatically by checking the Spring Boot banner or using the BuildProperties bean if you have enabled it.
@Value("${spring-boot.version:unknown}")
private String springBootVersion;Run these checks across all your microservices and applications to keep a complete and current picture of your Spring Boot usage.