In the past, choosing between Liferay CE vs DXP felt like a binary bet: go with the free open-source platform and be ready to bear all the operational burden, or pay for the enterprise version and get safety, features, and support.
But with Liferay’s new CE annual release alignment and evolving DXP roadmap, the calculus is shifting. What this means for developers, architects, and decision-makers is profound and if you’re guiding a digital experience (DX) roadmap, you need clarity. Let’s break it down.
Why the release change matters: CE now tracks DXP LTS
Here’s what changed: Liferay announced that going forward, Liferay Portal Community Edition (CE) will follow an annual Long Term Support (LTS) release cadence aligned with DXP’s LTS cycles. Liferay
In practical terms:
- You won’t see the CE you know as a continuously evolving “latest build,” but rather a stable annual release.
- New features are still visible in the master branch, but production users of CE will expect the same predictability and stability as DXP customers.
- Liferay is also exploring optional managed services (e.g. security-plus, hosting) even for CE users.
What this really means is that the gap between CE and DXP narrows – not in features or support, but in the rhythm of updates. That shift changes the way you plan migration, maintenance, and feature investment.
Liferay CE vs DXP: head-to-head on features, risk, and cost
Here’s a structured look at where they differ:
Note: the above draws heavily from Liferay’s CE vs DXP comparison guide.
Key feature differentiators you must weigh
- Personalization & segmentation: these are core to DXP (audiences, custom segments) but not part of core CE.
- Workflow and process orchestration: enterprise workflow modules give DXP a decisive advantage for business logic.
- Analytics, metrics, and A/B testing: only DXP offers built-in tools to track content performance and user behavior.
- Headless / API-first: CE has decent foundation but DXP tends to expose more advanced APIs, integration connectors.
- Scalability & clustering: DXP is tested and optimized for high throughput, distributed caching, clustering, CE can scale but with more manual tuning.
- Security, compliance & patches: DXP gets timely patches, backports, and vendor accountability, CE is dependent on community fixes or your team.
So when someone talks about “ Liferay DXP enterprise feature,” many organizations assume it’s optional bloat but it’s what opens up ROI for use cases like omni-channel delivery, controlled workflows and conversion optimization.
What the new CE annual strategy changes (for you)
Let me walk you through how this change affects planning, divergence, and migration decisions.
1. Predictability becomes easier for CE users
Before, CE users felt like they were chasing the master branch to get new features. Now, you’ll know exactly when your CE baseline will update once a year. That allows better release planning, QA cycles, and alignment with teams downstream.
2. Reduced divergence pressure
Since the CE and DXP LTS cycles align, your customizations and plugins are less likely to fall out of sync. That means smaller delta work when migrating from CE to DXP.
3. Clarifies upgrade vs migration decisions
If you’re debating whether to stay CE a little longer or move to DXP, the alignment means the window for “safe CE years” is more visible. You can project when CE patch support ends and plan a migration window.
4. A chance for “CE as stepped stone”
With more predictability, some organizations may choose to start in CE and gradually migrate to DXP, reducing upfront cost while preserving future upgrade options.
Liferay CE to DXP Migration Guide: what to plan, how to execute
Migrating from CE to DXP is not trivial but done right, the ROI justifies the effort. Below is a high-level guide with developer-focused steps and gotchas.
Migration phases
- Assessment & strategy
- Inventory all custom modules, themes, hooks, and integrations
- Identify feature gaps: which CE features are missing or need enhancement under DXP
- Estimate data volume, content types, workflow complexity
- Sandbox/baseline alignment
- Spin up a DXP environment of the same version (or target version)
- Align your CE-derived customizations to the version’s APIs
- Data migration & import
- Many migrations use custom plugins that read data from CE and push via DXP APIs
- Migrate user accounts, roles, assets, content, and relationships
- Ensure referential integrity (e.g. assets → categories → tags)
- Configuration migration
- Move system configurations, properties, OSGi configs, property files, etc.
- Use Liferay’s configuration export/import where possible
- Pay attention to deprecated or changed config keys (e.g. file store settings)
- Custom code upgrade
- Refactor modules to use client-extensions, OSGi, module architecture
- Update third-party libraries, check compatibility with Jakarta EE, APIs
- Test all paths, edge cases, custom workflows
- Integration & interface adjustments
- Reconnect external systems, revalidate APIs
- Review search, caching, logging, security filters, load balancers
- Testing, performance tuning, go-live
- Full regression test, load / stress test
- Monitor performance, tune JVM, cluster settings, indexing
- Plan rollback or freeze period
Practical example (fictional but realistic)
Suppose you have a CE-based intranet with custom document workflows, role-based sites, and an external CRM integration. You spin up DXP 7.4 LTS, adapt your custom workflows to DXP’s native workflow engine, migrate content via a plugin that reads CE’s database and pushes via DXP’s REST APIs and use Liferay’s config-export to move system settings.
Along the way you refactor a hook into a module, remove deprecated APIs and validate performance under load. The result: existing users see continuity, your team gets enterprise features and you now have a supported, upgradeable platform.
Tips & caveats
- Don’t attempt to migrate across too large version gaps in one step – multiple incremental upgrades are safer.
- Watch custom themes: CSS frameworks (Bootstrap version, frontend tools) often need rewriting.
- Some CE customizations might rely on internal APIs or hacks, these may break in DXP.
- Budget for buffer time: test cycles, performance tuning, bug fixing.
Business outcomes you should expect (and demand)
As you, the decision-maker, assess “CE vs DXP” or “CE to DXP migration,” push your teams (or vendors) to promise outcomes, not just features. Here’s where ROI should appear:
- Faster time to results: fewer hours lost in debugging infrastructure, dev ops, patches
- Reduced operational risk: security patches applied, vendor accountability, defined SLAs
- Faster innovation cycles: leverage Liferay DXP enterprise features (personalization, analytics) to drive higher engagement and conversion
- Better total cost of ownership: yes, DXP costs money but when your internal team spends less on support/maintenance, the net TCO often favors subscription
- Future readiness: as DX demands evolve (AI, headless, microservices), DXP gives you more architectural headroom
You can measure uplift in user engagement, conversion rates and reduced downtime. If you treat a migration as purely a cost, you’ll miss the chance to turn your platform into a business accelerator.
When to stay on CE (with caution) and when to migrate now
- Safe to stay CE
- If your usage is internal, non-critical, low scale
- If your team is comfortable with infrastructure, security, upgrades, and risk
- If your roadmap doesn’t require advanced features (personalization, analytics)
- Time to migrate
- When uptime, security, or compliance become business risks
- When your feature ambitions exceed what CE can reasonably support
- When you’re facing painful, manual upgrades or drift between environments
The new annual CE release strategy gives you a clearer timeline. Use it: project when CE support ends, when the next LTS arrives, and slot migration in between.
Final thoughts
The distinction between Liferay Community Edition vs DXP has always been more than just cost – it reflects how much risk you can absorb, how much your roadmap demands, and how confident you are operating a platform. With the new CE annual release alignment, that distinction doesn’t vanish but it becomes more manageable.
If you’re running CE today, now is the time to revisit your roadmap with fresh eyes. What features do you really need in the next 18–24 months? How much risk are you comfortable absorbing? Start planning your CE to DXP migration path early – don’t wait for a forced upgrade window.
Frequently Asked Questions
What’s the main difference between Liferay CE and DXP?
Liferay CE is the free, open-source version without enterprise support or advanced features. DXP adds enterprise capabilities like analytics, personalization, workflow automation, and official vendor support.
How does the new CE annual release strategy change things?
CE will now follow an annual Long-Term Support (LTS) cycle, aligning with DXP’s releases. This gives CE users more predictability and stability for planning upgrades.
Is migrating from CE to DXP complicated?
It depends on customizations and integrations. The process is straightforward if you’re on a recent CE version and follow Liferay’s migration tools and upgrade guides.
Why should a business consider moving to DXP?
DXP offers better scalability, security, and enterprise support – critical for large-scale, customer-facing platforms that demand reliability and performance.
Can I keep using CE for production workloads?
Yes, but it’s riskier. You’ll handle security, patches, and downtime yourself. For mission-critical use cases, DXP is the safer long-term choice.
