Upgrading To WordPress 5.0 !? Should I Upgrade Now?

Time to start thinking about Upgrading To WordPress 5.0!

The long-awaited release of WordPress 5.0 is scheduled for release into the wild on December 6.  It has been predicted since this last Spring but has encountered one roadblock and speed bump after another.  It’s sort of surprising as it comes down to it.  With this short notice, I’m sure we are all wondering the same thing.  Do we upgrade right away, or do we wait it out for a while and see how it goes?

You should probably ponder several things before making the decision to upgrade to WordPress 5.0:

• Is now the right time?
• Will everything on the site work well with the Gutenberg Editor?
• Do we/I really need it?

Let’s look at these.

Is NOW the right time for me to update?

We have holidays coming up, as well as the year-end.  If either of those puts adds stress or a burden on you then delay the update for a while.  Nothing’s going away.  Everything should still work well right now if you don’t upgrade.  It will still be staring at you then.  Since it is said that there are already patches planned right now.  Hopefully, it will all be a bit more stable in January and beyond.

Can you and your site work with Gutenberg?

Gutenberg is the big X-Factor that has been prophesied for a while.  WordPress 5.0 introduces the Gutenberg text editor to the masses.  Gutenberg changes the way that posts are made and updated within WordPress.  We have had several months to become familiar with it, but unfortunately, I know of practically no one who has, yet.

Plus, not all of the plugins out there are ready.  As you may know, your WordPress site does most of the really cool things that it does by way of plugins.  These need to be ready before you hit the update button.  Most of the plugins that we use in building a site are ready.  Some I’m not too sure of. Gutenberg is the central issue here.  Will the plugins play well with the Gutenberg Editor?  If they don’t right away, you would need to install and activate the Classic Editor Plugin before you update to WordPress 5.0.

Do You Really Need WordPress 5.0?

Define “Really Need To”.  If there is no compelling reason to update your site(s), then maybe you shouldn’t, right away.  I suggest waiting a while.  WordPress 5.0 should be more stable in January and beyond than it is now.  I am not a big early adopter of software changes on something that isn’t broken.  I do like Gutenberg.  I am liking it more and more as I get into it more.  It won’t be long till I wonder how I’ve ever gotten along without it.

When You do Get Around To Upgrading:

Remember the main important thing when you upgrade or do any work on your site – Backup, Backup, Backup.  Make a full backup.  You never know when something may go wrong.  If you have a staging environment, this is a great place to make use of it.  If your site is critical to your business you need one of those, anyway.