SonarQube Long-Term Active (LTA)

SonarQube LTA release happens approximately every 18 to 24 months. The more frequent releases of SonarQube, where the product progressively introduces new features and enhancements occur every 2-3 months.

The current LTA is SonarQube 9.9 released in February 2023. Check the downloads page and the What’s New announcement section for more information.

Active versions are defined as the following:

• Latest version of SonarQube
• Latest - 1 version of SonarQube
• Long-Term Active (LTA) version
• Long-Term Active (LTA) - 1; up to 6 months after the new LTA is released. 

Below are a few example scenarios.

SonarQube Minor Release Example

When SonarQube 10.5 is released, the following are considered active versions:

• SonarQube 10.5 (latest)
• SonarQube 10.4 (latest -1)
• SonarQube 9.9 LTA (latest LTA)

SonarQube LTA Release Example

When SonarQube 10.9 LTA is released, the following are considered active versions:

• SonarQube 10.9 LTA (latest)
• SonarQube 10.8  (latest -1)
• SonarQube 9.9 LTA (only for 6 months after the release of SonarQube 10.9 LTA)

Organizations on an active version of SonarQube receive several benefits from an operational efficiency, risk management, and strategic standpoint:

• Access to new functionality: Immediate benefits from new capabilities released and continuous product improvements to ensure code delivery meets the highest quality standard – helping organizations stay innovative while improving development productivity and experience. 
• Upgrading is easier: The process of upgrading is simpler and smoother, so less time is spent troubleshooting issues related to compatibility, versioning, etc., and more time deploying new capabilities in production.
• Patch fixes and security updates: LTA and the latest version of SonarQube receive bug fixes and necessary security patches. Issues reported internally or externally that need immediate fixes are promptly addressed and rolled out by the product team via patch releases. Non-active versions don’t receive patch fixes or updates leaving known bugs or security issues unfixed and increasing overall operational risks as a result. 
• Technical Support: Active versions receive technical assistance and troubleshooting support from Sonar team of engineers (some examples include: rapid issue resolution, help with upgrades, onboarding, health checks etc.). This ensures that problems are addressed promptly, minimizing downtime and keeping business operations running smoothly.
• Compliance: To meet the regulatory and compliance requirements, organizations require the use of product versions that are actively supported. Sonar provides all the support and assistance needed on active SonarQube versions.  
• Cost savings: Running a non-active version of SonarQube in production can be costly in the long run since problems encountered (e.g. incompatibility, security loopholes, lower performance) are harder to remediate retroactively. Staying on an active version can avoid such scenarios and save potential costs in the long term.

Unfortunately not. New features are progressively introduced in our cadence of releases every 2-3 months. These eventually round up and are included in the LTA release (happening approximately every 18 to 24 months). If you would like access to a particular product capability, we recommend you upgrade to the latest version instead of waiting for the next LTA release.

Product functionality such as new features or enhancements to existing capabilities e.g. improvements in speed of analysis, the addition of new static analysis rules, UX improvements, programming language versions, or frameworks are not backported to the LTA version. We recommend you upgrade your instance to the latest version of SonarQube to take advantage of the released product capabilities.

Issues reported by customers or found internally that require immediate fixes as determined by our engineering team are addressed and released via patch updates. 

SonarQube LTA and the latest version of the product receive these updates. 

We recommend you get on an active version by following the instructions in this upgrade guide and check out the before you upgrade section prior to starting the process. If you have commercial support included, you can directly get help from our team of technical experts who are ready to assist you or the Sonar Community is a great place to ask questions as well.