Methodology
Methodology and sources
Rules
- No guessed dates. If we could not confirm a date it is shown as "Unknown" and the page is hidden from search engines until it is verified.
- ERP dates come only from the vendor's own content — Microsoft blog posts and documentation for Dynamics, for example. A third-party list alone is never enough for an ERP date.
- Non-ERP products (operating systems, databases, runtimes) use the open endoflife.date dataset (MIT licence, © endoflife.date contributors) as a starting index. Those dates are labelled "secondary" until we have checked them against the vendor; where we have, the entry is marked as vendor-confirmed (fully or partly).
- Every version lists its sources and the date we last checked them.
Current coverage
| All dates confirmed in vendor content | 146 versions |
|---|---|
| Some dates vendor-confirmed, rest secondary | 8 versions |
| Secondary source only (endoflife.date) | 27 versions |
| No verified dates yet | 3 versions |
Products still being researched (no verified versions yet): SAP S/4HANA (on-premise).
How statuses work
- Supported: before the end of mainstream (or only) support.
- Extended support: after mainstream support, before the end of extended (security-only) support.
- Support ended: after the final support date. Paid extra programmes such as ESU are shown separately and do not change the status.
- Unknown: we do not have enough verified dates to say.
End dates are treated as the last day of support. Statuses are recalculated in your browser from the stored dates, so they stay correct between site rebuilds; the build date is shown in the footer for visitors without JavaScript.
Primary sources
The vendor lifecycle pages we treat as authoritative for each product. Every version page also lists the exact documents its dates were taken from.
- Windows Server (Microsoft): https://learn.microsoft.com/lifecycle/products/?terms=Windows%20Server
- Windows (Enterprise and Education) (Microsoft): https://learn.microsoft.com/lifecycle/products/?terms=Windows
- SQL Server (Microsoft): https://learn.microsoft.com/lifecycle/products/?terms=SQL%20Server
- Exchange Server (Microsoft): https://learn.microsoft.com/lifecycle/products/?terms=Exchange%20Server
- SharePoint Server (Microsoft): https://learn.microsoft.com/lifecycle/products/?terms=SharePoint%20Server
- Office (perpetual licence) (Microsoft): https://learn.microsoft.com/lifecycle/products/?terms=Office
- .NET Framework (Microsoft): https://dotnet.microsoft.com/download/dotnet-framework
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux (Red Hat): https://access.redhat.com/support/policy/updates/errata
- Ubuntu (LTS releases) (Canonical): https://ubuntu.com/project/docs/release-team/list-of-releases/
- Oracle Database (Oracle): https://support.oracle.com/knowledgefs?docId=742060
- PostgreSQL (PostgreSQL Global Development Group): https://www.postgresql.org/support/versioning/
- MySQL (Oracle): https://www.oracle.com/us/support/library/lifetime-support-technology-069183.pdf
- Node.js (LTS lines) (OpenJS Foundation): https://nodejs.org/en/about/previous-releases
- Python (Python Software Foundation): https://devguide.python.org/versions/
- PHP (The PHP Group): https://www.php.net/supported-versions.php
- VMware ESXi (Broadcom): https://support.broadcom.com/group/ecx/productlifecycle
- .NET (formerly .NET Core) (Microsoft): https://dotnet.microsoft.com/platform/support/policy/dotnet-core
- Microsoft Dynamics NAV (Microsoft): https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle/products/dynamics-nav-2018
- Microsoft Dynamics GP (Microsoft): https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics-gp/terms/lifecycle
- Microsoft Dynamics SL (Microsoft): https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle/products/dynamics-sl-2018
- Microsoft Dynamics AX (Microsoft): https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle/products/dynamics-ax-2012-r3
- Dynamics 365 Business Central (on-premises) (Microsoft): https://learn.microsoft.com/lifecycle/products/dynamics-365-business-central-onpremises-modern-policy
- SAP ERP Central Component (ECC 6.0) (SAP): https://news.sap.com/2026/10/beyond-2030-sap-business-suite-7-sap-netweaver-customers-third-party-databases-java/
- SAP S/4HANA (on-premise) (SAP): https://news.sap.com/2022/09/new-sap-s4hana-release-maintenance-strategy/
- Sage X3 (Sage): https://communityhub.sage.com/cfs-file/__key/communityserver-discussions-components-files/490/6557.Sage-X3-Lifecycle-Policy.pdf
Corrections
A monthly job checks the vendor pages we cite for changes; a change opens a review, never an automatic data edit. If you spot an error, the vendor page linked on each entry is the authority.