Difference between Magento releases

Question

Magento offers different releases under download section such as 2.0.x and 2.1.x or 2.2.x.

Many people say that use recent release of Magento but when I browse to Magento download page I see three types of recent releases first 2.0.x, second 2.1.x and third 2.2.x like currently it is ver 2.0.17, ver 2.2.1 and ver 2.1.10, only one difference which I know is ver 2.0.x can be used with PHP 5.6 or 7.0 but ver 2.1.x and 2.2.x only supports PHP 7.0, so now my questions are

If 2.1.x or 2.2.x is better then why 2.x is still in use and available under recent release?

What is actually mean by Magento 2, ver 2.x or 2.1.x or 2.2.x? Is this mean that there are 4 types of Magento releases M1, M2, M21 and M22 LOL, Why they are offering such types of version? Because normally single version is publicly offered and rest are considered as outdated but they are offering 3 types of versions at the same time under recent release. Moreover If we observe version 2.2.1 then 2.0.17 and 2.1.10 must be considered outdated but it looks like it is not. On this point I would like to share recent experience, my client complained me that I am not using recent Magento ver (2.0.10) because recent is 2.1.2 (at that time) and to be frank I was already confused with this.

What is the preferred ver to be used?

Thanks in advance :)

Answer 1

You can find a list of all the changes for each release on the developer documentation site.

• 2.0 Release notes
• 2.1 Release notes
• 2.2 Release notes

You can always check the Magento 2 GitHub repository if you want more information or if you want to know what improvements or fixes are worked on.

I encourage you to always start with the latest stable version if possible and update to the newest version as often as possible.

Each release contains multiple security fixes and enhanced performances (or at least they should).

If you don't know how versions work or what they mean read : Semantic Versioning 2.0.0

The Magento 2 community is very active, new code and pull-requests are made every day.

To get information on a specific release just use the left navigation and make sure to check the proper version :

• Magento Open Source (formerly CE)
• Commerce (formerly EE)
• Commerce Cloud (formally ECE)

To see the major changes in each version make sure to check the Highlights of each release.

Cheers!

Answer 2

Magento tries following SemVer policy. It allows to add new features and doesn't break existing functionality. This policy similar, for example, to PHP releases, each new release has some improvements or features and old releases has only bug fixes.

According to your question:

• 2.0.x - next releases will have only security bug fixes.
• 2.1.x - next releases will have important bug fixes without breaking changes.
• 2.2.x - next releases will have bug fixes without breaking changes, small improvements, no new features.
• 2.3 - release will have new features, like new framework for functional tests, bug fixes, and other changes which in some cases will be with breaking changes.

So lets assume if I am facing any bug in ver 2.0.10 then I should look forward for ver 2.0.11 for possible bug fix, not 2.1.x or 2.2.x, right?

Sometimes impossible to fix a bug in the backward compatible way, that's why some fixes are present in 2.2.x or 2.1.x releases but are absent in 2.0.x. Another case, some bug from a customer or merchant perspective is not implemented from Magento side, that's why such improvement might be only in 2.2.x but not it 2.1.x and older.

More information about Magento versioning.