You are browsing Nuxt 2 docs. Go to Nuxt 3 docs, or learn more about Nuxt 2 Long Term Support.
If you expect to be using Nuxt 2 beyond the EOL (End of Life) date (June 30, 2024), and still need a maintained version that can satisfy security and browser compatibility requirements, make sure to check out HeroDevs’ NES (Never-Ending Support) for Vue 2 & Nuxt 2 .
On December 31st, 2023, Vue 2 will reach End of Life (EOL), and Nuxt 2 will follow on June 30th, 2024.
After that date, Nuxt 2 will continue to be available on the NPM package manager, but will no longer receive updates, such as security and browser compatibility fixes. After that, if you wish to receive updates, please subscribe to HeroDevs’ NES (Never-Ending Support) for Vue 2 & Nuxt 2 (Core + Essentials package) .
Nuxt 3 is the current, latest major version of Nuxt. It provides a better developer experience, better performance, and contains new features that are not present in Nuxt 2, such as Nitro, auto-import and hybrid rendering,
Nuxt 3 contains breaking changes that make it incompatible with Nuxt 2, so migration will require a certain level of effort depending on your project. Full details are documented in the Nuxt 3 Migration Guide.
Despite the breaking changes, most of Nuxt APIs are shared between the two major versions, so most of your team’s Nuxt 2 knowledge will continue to work in Nuxt 3. In the long run, we also intend to avoid major breaking upgrades like the one between Nuxt 2 and Nuxt 3. Compatibility and ecosystem stability will be our topmost priority for future releases, and new features will be introduced in a way that does not require major migrations.
Whether you should upgrade to Nuxt 3 highly depends on specific project details.
Here are some general guidelines:
Understand what you will gain from upgrading.
Nuxt 2.x remains a powerful framework with great DX. The main benefits of upgrading are more refined TypeScript support, better performance, hybrid rendering, and access to the Nuxt 3 ecosystem and new features.
Ask your team these questions: Is the app stable and working well? Does the app expect innovative features into the future? Is there a pain-point / bottleneck that can only be solved by upgrading? If the app is stable and isn’t experiencing major pain-points caused by Nuxt 2, then upgrading may not be worthwhile.
Understand the cost of upgrading.
Does the app rely on 3rd party dependencies that complicate Nuxt 3 compatibility? Does the app rely heavily on changed behavior between Nuxt 2 and Nuxt 3? Can the team allocate dedicated time for upgrading? Spend some initial research time to gauge these aspects and come up with an estimation. Then, compare that to the expected gain from (1). We will not be able to provide a precise formula, but hopefully this can help with the decision process.
Some teams may not be able to upgrade to Nuxt 3 by this timeline due to limited bandwidth, budget, risk tolerance, or reliance on Nuxt-3-incompatible dependencies. We totally understand this, and want to ensure that staying on Nuxt 2 beyond EOL is a viable option.
From a technical perspective, Nuxt 2 is a stable and battle-tested piece of technology. If it is serving you well now, it will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.
Nuxt 2.17 is the currently maintained release before EOL hits, so if you intend to stay on Nuxt 2, you should at least upgrade to Nuxt 2.17. We probably will ship Nuxt 2.18 before December if we need to address important issues before reaching EOL.
For some teams, the main concern lies in security, compliance, and browser compatibility.
You won’t receive security fixes from EOL software. For the record, Nuxt 2 has had very few security vulnerabilities. That said, you may need a supported version to fulfill regulations or company policies.
If you are shipping your application to customers with SLAs (Service Level Agreements). You will want to avoid including EOL software in your stack.
Browsers sometimes ship changes that break legacy libraries. This is extremely rare, but could happen, in theory.
To address these concerns, we have partnered with industry experts to provide Extended LTS (Long Term Support) for Nuxt 2. This service will provide a version of Nuxt 2 that will continue to receive security and browser compatibility fixes, with SLAs. If you expect to be using Nuxt 2 beyond the EOL date of June 30, 2024, make sure to plan ahead: Learn more about HeroDevs’ NES (Never-Ending Support) for Nuxt 2 .