Liferay DXP Free Tier: Everything You Need to Know
Introduction
Liferay used to offer two different products: Liferay Portal CE (free) and Liferay DXP (paid for businesses, offering more features). This difference is no longer there.
Starting from the Liferay 2026.Q1 release, Liferay will release the same product for subscribers and non-subscribers. There will be one unified modular platform available for everyone, i.e., the same server can be used as both community and DXP, just by deploying the activation key.
This is one of the biggest changes to the Liferay ecosystem we have seen in years as a Liferay User. Here is the full breakdown.
What is Liferay DXP Free Tier
The Free Tier is a no-cost version of Liferay DXP. From now on, Liferay is a unified platform in which DXP and Free Tier will both share the same codebase.
There is no longer a 'Community Edition'; it is the DXP with some limitations.
How to Start the Free Tier Liferay
In the DXP version, an activation key is deployed to start the server; similarly, a key needs to be deployed for the free version, and the server will be started, providing all the features that are available in the free tier.
To download the activation key, go to https://marketplace.liferay.com/p/liferay-dxp-free-tier.
Things to Keep in Mind
- Validity : The activation key will now have a validity of 12 months. So, a new key needs to be generated after 12 months. To generate a new key, follow the same steps used to download the original key.
- Domain Specific : The activation key is tied to a particular domain that is added while downloading the key, during the registration process. For users with multiple instances, they can download the key using only the main instance, and other instances will work without requiring separate keys.
- Same Key for Cluster : No need to get a new key for the cluster; the same key can be used now for clustering.
Benefits of the Unified Model
- Optimized Product : Whenever a new version of Liferay DXP is released, it goes through a lot of testing, tuning, and optimization once the development is completed. All this ensures that an optimized product is released. Hence, even Free Tier users will have an optimized version of Liferay.
- Quarterly Release : The newer version of Liferay will be released in every quarter. So the free tier user can enjoy new updates every 3 months. Although they will not be able to access the patch release, it is significantly faster than the community releases.
- Easier Migration to DXP : Migrating to the paid version is much easier now. In the future, if free tier users feel like moving to the paid version, they just need to update the activation key, and they can enjoy all the features with no hassle.
Limitations of Free Tier
- The Paid user receives the Enterprise support, while the free tier user relies on community support.
- The subscribers enjoy stable patches and security updates, while free-tier users can access only the quarterly releases.
- The subscribers get full compliance, enhanced security, audit frameworks, and SAML. For free-tier users, security is self-managed.
- Better search and personalization for subscribers with enhanced search and search blueprints.
- Subscribers get a graphical workflow designer and metrics.
- The paid version comes with native integration with Salesforce, MuleSoft, OneDrive, and Office 365.
Free Tier Vs Enterprise Subscription
| Capability | Free Tier | Enterprise |
|---|---|---|
| Core platform | Same DXP codebase | Same DXP codebase |
| Updates | rterly Release | Quarterly + patch releases |
| Clustering | Available | Available |
| Support | Community Support | Enterprise Support |
| Security and Compliance | Limited | Full Support |
| Graphical workflow Design | Not Available | Available |
| Native Integrations | Not Available | Salesforce, Mulesoft, OneDrive, and Office 365 |
| SAML/MFA | Not Available | Available |
Key Updates in Free Tier 2026.Q1 vs GA132 (Latest Community Release)
- Liferay CMS :
- Liferay’s headless CMS enables structured content creation and flexible content delivery through APIs. It provides a unified interface to manage content and allows it to be displayed across multiple channels, including Liferay pages and external applications.
- Built on an object-based architecture, content is stored as reusable structured data rather than static pages. Content and file structures define schemas, while spaces help organize and control access for teams.
- Elastic Search 8 :
- The updated version of Liferay no longer supports Elasticsearch 7 as its search engine. While updating Liferay, the Elastic Stack must also be updated to Elasticsearch 8.19 or above.
- Updated AWS :
- Liferay has updated its S3 integration to align with AWS SDK v2. As AWS SDK v2 uses an async HTTP client, support for NTLM proxy and custom signer settings has been dropped. Hence, the older custom configurations may stop working.
Why this change was Necessary
This shift simplifies the Liferay ecosystem :
- There will be no separate Community vs DXP builds.
- Faster access to updates for the free tier.
- Easier upgrade path to enterprise features.
- For developers and organizations, this means working on a production-grade platform from day one.
Features that are Deprecated and in Maintenance
- Message Board : The Message Boards widget was deprecated as of Liferay DXP 2024.Q4 / Portal GA129. It is recommended to transition to the Questions widget for data continuity.
- Traditional CMS : All the traditional CMS components, including Publications, Web Content, Blogs, Documents and Media, Knowledge Base, and Asset Libraries, are in Maintenance Mode now. It is recommended to use Liferay CMS.
Note : In the blog What 'Maintenance' Means for the Traditional Liferay CMS, it is mentioned that “the existing content, sites, and the implementation will continue to work just as they do today”. Therefore, there is no immediate impact.
Upgrade Considerations
- Migration to Free Tier should be a planned technical choice that takes into account stability, upgrade cycles, and the long-term roadmap.
- For new projects, it is recommended to use the latest Free Tier to avoid legacy constraints and access all the latest features.
- If an older version of Liferay is being used, the upgrade is recommended to get fixes, security updates, and new features.
- If the system is stable, heavily customized, or about to be released, avoid migration as it could cause problems and require more work to fix them.
- Before starting the migration, make sure there is enough time for the right staging, testing, and downtime plans to be in place.
Conclusion
The newer versions of Liferay are now unified, i.e., both DXP and Free Tier will use the same codebase; the only difference will be the activation keys. This approach will give a lot of benefits to the free-tier users. The Free Tier is similar to community, but better.
