Many organizations running Liferay DXP ask whether they can move to a free edition to reduce costs. The answer is yes, but the options changed in 2026, and the move is about more than a licence. Here is what you need to know, and the approach we follow with our clients.
What changed in 2026
Until 2025, Liferay shipped two separate products: Liferay DXP with a paid subscription, and the open-source Liferay Portal Community Edition (CE). Starting with the 2026.Q1 release, Liferay moved to one unified platform. Every installation is activated with a key: a subscriber key for enterprise customers, or a free key for the Liferay DXP Free Tier, which gives access to the core capabilities that were previously available in the Community Edition. The source code remains available under the LGPL licence.
What you give up without a subscription
- Updates: Free Tier users receive the first release of each quarterly update, not every fix release.
- Support: there is no official Liferay support; you rely on your own team or a partner.
- Features: some enterprise capabilities are only available with a subscription.
- Licence terms: the Free Tier has its own licence, a 12-month renewable key and a limit on cluster size, and is aimed at development and smaller-scale use.
1. Take an inventory
List every site, application, custom module and integration, record your current version, and note the features your users rely on every day.
2. Run a feature and licence gap analysis
Compare what you use with what the Free Tier or Community Edition includes, and check the licence terms against how you run the portal. For every gap, decide whether to replace it with a standard feature, a custom module, a third-party tool, or to retire it.
3. Plan the version upgrade
If you are on an older release, moving to the 2026 platform is a version upgrade. Recent releases also move from Java EE (javax) to Jakarta EE (jakarta) packages, so custom modules need to be updated. Doing the upgrade in controlled steps keeps risk low.
4. Migrate and test in stages
Upgrade a copy of your database and content in a test environment first. Test functionality, permissions, search and performance, and fix issues before touching production.
5. Plan operations after go-live
Decide who will apply updates, monitor the portal and respond to incidents. A clear support plan is what makes a portal without a subscription as dependable as the one it replaces.
Planning a Liferay upgrade or a move away from a DXP subscription? Our Liferay team can review your portal and give you a clear, step-by-step plan.