Why Now Is the Right Time to Migrate from django CMS 3.11

Jan. 10, 2026

Support for django CMS 3.11 ends in April. For teams still running it in production, this isn’t just a theoretical deadline — it’s a security, compatibility, and maintenance risk.

django CMS 3.11 Long-Term Support (LTS) ends in April 2026. So does Django 4.2 LTS. This means both Django 4.2 and django CMS 3.11 will not receive security updates any more and you might start collecting tech debt.

The good news? The migration path forward is clearer, safer, and more mature than it has ever been.

With the community completing many real-world migrations of long-running production projects from django CMS 3.11 to CMS 4 (and CMS 5), here’s what you should know — and why delaying further will only make the transition harder.

The Reality of Staying on django CMS 3.11

Once support ends:	In contrast, django CMS 4 or 5:
No security fixes	Actively maintained (5.0 is LTS)
No compatibility guarantees with modern Django (e.g., 5.2)	Support modern Django versions
Increasing breakage with third-party packages	Introduce architectural improvements
Growing onboarding cost for new developers	Foundation for all future CMS development

The Biggest Lesson: The CMS Isn’t the Problem — Legacy Data Is

One of the most important takeaways from a real migration:

Most migration issues are not caused by django CMS 4 itself.
They are caused by years of accumulated custom code and inconsistent CMS data.

Common pain points uncovered during migration:

Orphaned plugins
Corrupted page trees
Custom code relying on specific django CMS 3 design choices
CMS 3–specific template assumptions

These problems already exist in many CMS 3 projects — the CMS 4 migration simply exposes them. Once cleaned up, the migration becomes dramatically smoother.

django CMS 4: A Necessary (and Healthy) Architectural Shift

django CMS 4 introduces meaningful internal changes:

Pages and page content (formerly roughly a "title" object) are now clearly separated
Versioning now is optional — it’s no longer core
Edit and previews are handled differently by admin endpoints
Language handling is more intentional and explicit

Trying to replicate CMS 3 behaviour exactly will cause friction. Embracing the new model reduces it. Once teams adjusted expectations, CMS 4 proved to be stable, predictable, and powerful.

Why You Should Plan for CMS 5 — Not Stop at CMS 4

Here’s the best part:

Once you are on django CMS 4, upgrading to CMS 5 is usually trivial.

In most cases, CMS 5 migration involves:

Updating packages to their latest versions
Running migrations
Removing temporary workarounds used for CMS 4 compatibility

No large conceptual jump. No migration tooling. No data model shock.

CMS 4 is the hard step. CMS 5 is the reward.

Migration Checklist: django CMS 3.11 → 4 (→ 5)

1. Preparation (Do Not Skip This)

Back up your database
Clone production data to a local or staging environment
Upgrade Django first (e.g. to Django 4.2)
Move from djangocms-text-ckeditor to djangocms-text (if you have not done yet). Configure djangocms-text to use the CKEditor4 if you want to avoid user-facing changes.
Ensure your project runs cleanly before touching CMS

2. Clean Your CMS Data Before Migrating

This step prevents duplicated pages and broken trees.

Run CMS integrity checks
Fix the CMS page tree
Remove orphaned plugins
Verify admin and page rendering still works
Revert to this clean DB state before migrating

3. Install Required CMS 4 Packages

Read the how-tos: djangocms-4-migration and these blog posts
- django CMS 4 is just around the corner – what happens to my existing django CMS 3 projects?
- How I Successfully Upgraded a Legacy Django CMS Project to 4.1.4
Install django CMS 4 (preferably 4.1.9 or later)
Install migration helpers
Install required companion packages:
- djngocms-versioning 2.1
- djangocms-alias 2.0
Move to djangocms-stories if you have been using djangocms-blog with django CMS 3.11
Add them to INSTALLED_APPS in the correct order

4. Run Migrations

Run Django migrations
Verify CMS tables migrate correctly
Confirm pages still exist in the database

Schema changes are expected — this is normal.

5. Update Custom Code and Templates

Expect to update:

Direct title object access
Models that use the placeholder field
Old admin URL reversals
page or title extensions
CMS 3–specific template tags
Custom language preview implementations

Most fixes are straightforward once identified.

6. Validate Versions Carefully

Use known compatible versions:

django CMS 4.1.9+
Compatible versioning package
Django 4.2+

Avoid mixing early CMS 4 releases with the newest plugins unless verified.

7. Verify Page Rendering Thoroughly

Test homepage and simple pages
Test deeply nested pages
Test pages with heavy plugin usage
Verify CMS admin tree behaviour

8. Continue to django CMS 5

Some CMS 4 plugin features (e.g. certain alias behaviours) were fixed in CMS 5. Also, it's a lot faster, again.

The Bottom Line

django CMS 3.11 support ends in April — waiting increases risk
CMS 4 migration work mostly involves clean-up and modernization
Once on CMS 4, CMS 5 is a small step
The CMS ecosystem is healthier, clearer, and more maintainable going forward

If your site has been running for years, migration isn’t just about compatibility — it’s about finally paying down long-standing technical debt.

The best time to migrate was earlier. The second-best time is now.

Need help? Join the community on discord!