Print
Q:
What is the difference between a Sitecore Alpha, Beta, and production release?
A:
Sitecore uses the terms Alpha and Beta to indicate a pre-production grade release of a future version of Sitecore. Sitecore provides these releases as advanced previews of new features soon to be available in the Sitecore product. The intention is to provide interested parties with the newest Sitecore functionality for feature testing and prototyping purposes.
Sitecore does not guarantee that sites created with an Alpha or Beta release will work with a later production release, nor that an upgrade path will be available to move such a site to a later production release.
The terms have very specific meanings as follows:
Alpha release
An alpha release is a version of the product which has passed initial QA but for which no documentation or support is available. The primary audience for this release is the technically interested and module vendors. Issues may be submitted to support but no reply can be expected. Alpha versions should not be used in production environments.
Beta
A beta release is the alpha version of the product for which documentation is in place and the product is in final QA iterations before release. The beta version number might be identical to the alpha version number. The primary audience for this release are is the technically interested, module vendors and Sitecore Partners. Support is granted for the beta version, but not for urgent production issues. Beta versions should not be used in production environments.
Release
The final release of the product. The release version number might be identical to the Beta version number.
Revision cycle
The last digit in a version indicates the revision of that version (some of the revisions are internal or BETA and not necessarily public releases). If a partner / customer encounter an error for which there can be said to be no workaround (a show stopper), Sitecore will create a fix, and release a new revision after sending the revision through the QA cycle.
Sitecore's QA goal is to only release products for which no show stoppers occur. As with all other complex software products, it is not possible to release a flaw free product (think Microsoft and Windows Update). Sitecore's QA department consists of five resources. All releases of the product are run through QA regression tests and manual user tests according to test plans and best practices.