TYPO3 developer for upgrades, extensions and maintenance

Where TYPO3 still fits

TYPO3 handles large page trees, many languages and several sites in one installation, with editor permissions down to page and field level. Universities, public bodies and groups with many brands or country sites use it for exactly that. UK public sector sites also fall under the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018, and Irish public bodies under the national rules implementing EU Directive 2016/2102, so accessibility checks belong in most upgrades.

How long your TYPO3 version gets updates

TYPO3 14.3.0, the first v14 LTS release, came out on 21 April 2026, with free support until 30 June 2029. Version 13 gets security updates until 31 December 2027. Free support for version 12 ended on 30 April 2026, and for version 11 on 31 October 2024. After that, TYPO3 GmbH sells Extended Long Term Support (ELTS): until 30 April 2030 for 12.4 and until 31 October 2028 for 11.5. A site on 11 or 12 without ELTS receives no security fixes.

What I work on

Security updates and ongoing maintenance, LTS upgrades with a clean-up of extensions and TypoScript, moving classic installs to Composer, custom extensions in Extbase and Fluid, site sets and site configuration, multilingual and multi-domain setups, caching and performance, and integrations with CRMs, search or single sign-on. When a migration between TYPO3 and WordPress really fits, I plan it in either direction, starting with a page tree audit and a complete redirect map.

What I avoid

I do not push a WordPress migration when TYPO3 fits the job. A university with many faculties, a public body with strict editor roles or a group running many country sites in one install usually gets more from an upgrade and steady maintenance. WordPress makes sense for a smaller site with a small editorial team, especially when TYPO3 expertise is hard to find locally.

How does a TYPO3 upgrade from 11 to 14 actually run?

I move one major version at a time: 11 to 12, 12 to 13, then 13 to 14, with the site working at each stop. The core ships Upgrade Wizards for two consecutive major versions only, and the documentation asks you to run every wizard of the current version before the next jump. Before touching code I take a backup of files and database, run referenceindex:update from the command line, leave the deprecation log on for a while and run the Extension Scanner in the Upgrade module. The scanner does static analysis, so I read its weak matches by hand. PHP goes up first, to the highest version the current TYPO3 supports, and only then the core through composer require. TYPO3 Rector rewrites much of the deprecated PHP, and Fractor handles TypoScript, Fluid templates and FlexForms. Afterwards I run the Database Analyzer and the wizards, remove old columns and fetch fresh language packs, all on staging first.

What does a TYPO3 extension audit check before an upgrade?

For each extension I look for a release that supports the target version in the TER, on Packagist and in the author's GitHub or GitLab repository. Many extensions cover two major versions, so I first raise each one to its highest release for the current core. Later that tells me whether a fault sits in the core or in the extension. An abandoned extension leaves four routes: a maintained community fork, a replacement, sponsoring the author, or taking the code over. Custom extensions and the site package always need my own work. I also list every XCLASS. TYPO3 allows one per base class and any core change can break it, so I replace them with hooks or PSR-14 events where I can. TYPO3 13 and 14 need PHP 8.2 or newer, and a classic install moves to Composer before the upgrade, as the TYPO3 documentation recommends.

What does a TYPO3 maintenance contract cover?

I follow the TYPO3 Security Team's bulletins on news.typo3.com/security, through the RSS feed and the typo3-announce mailing list. They cover core fixes, vulnerable extensions and extensions left unmaintained with a known hole. When a bulletin affects your install, I take a backup of files and database, update the core or the extension with Composer on a staging copy, test forms, search and backend login, and then deploy to production. The contract also covers minor LTS releases, uptime monitoring and a short deprecation log, which keeps the next major upgrade small. If the hosting belongs to a parent company's IT team in Germany, Austria or Switzerland, I agree access and the patch window with them at the start. When an upgrade has to wait for next year's budget, paid ELTS from TYPO3 GmbH keeps security fixes coming for 11.5 and 12.4, and the upgrade stays on the plan.