Lifecycle guide for Node.js from OpenJS Foundation

All releases, patches, maintenance and support periods at a glance

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📅 Last update on 2026-07-19

What is Node.js?

Automate product release and end-of-life management

Node.js is an open-source, cross-platform JavaScript run-time environment built on Chromes V8 JavaScript engine that executes JavaScript code outside of a browser.

The entire lifecycle of Node.js

The following figure shows you the visualised product life cycle of Node.js. You can see all releases with the latest patch version, the long-term support characteristics (orange flag in the green circle, the periods for version provision, maintenance and support.

Node.js (OpenJS Foundation) release, version and end-of-life information

Figure: Release, patch and end-of-life cycle of product Node.js (OpenJS Foundation)

What is the Node.js release strategy?

Major Node.js versions enter Current release status for six months, which gives library authors time to add support for them. After six months, odd-numbered releases (9, 11, etc.) become unsupported, and even-numbered releases (10, 12, etc.) move to Active LTS status and are ready for general use. LTS release status is "long-term support", which typically guarantees that critical bugs will be fixed for a total of 30 months. Production applications should only use Active LTS or Maintenance LTS releases.

Facts and figures about Node.js

Product

Node.js

Vendor

OpenJS Foundation

Latest version

26.5.0

Number of releases

Number of versions

946

Number of unstable versions

Number of versions affected by CVE

828

Licence

MIT Licence

Licence details

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIT-Lizenz

Version command

node --version

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