Moodle 4.5 end of support: dates, risks and your options

Moodle 4.5 end of support comes in two steps: general support (bug fixes) ended on October 6, 2025, and security support ends on October 4, 2027. After that date Moodle HQ publishes no more 4.5.x security releases. You have about a year to either upgrade to Moodle 5.3 LTS, which is supported until October 1, 2029, or move to a different LMS.

We build LMS Advisor, a commercial LMS that imports Moodle .mbz course backups and runs in our cloud or on your own server. LMS Advisor is our own product, so weigh our view accordingly. For many 4.5 sites the honest answer is to upgrade, and this guide says when. It also covers what happens after the deadline, the risks of staying, and a quarter-by-quarter plan with the budget lines for both paths.

When does Moodle 4.5 support end?

Moodle 4.5 LTS security support ends on October 4, 2027, three years after its release on October 7, 2024. Every date below comes from the official Moodle releases and support calendar, checked on October 12, 2026. Standard releases get 12 months of bug fixes and 18 months of security fixes. LTS releases get 12 months of bug fixes and 36 months of security fixes.

Notice the 5.2 row. It stops getting security fixes on the same day as 4.5, so an upgrade from 4.5 to 5.2 buys no extra time. If you upgrade, 5.3 LTS is the target. If you are on 5.0 rather than 4.5, our post on Moodle 5.0 end of support covers your options, since that deadline has already passed.

Which Moodle 4.5 dates belong on your calendar?

Four Moodle dates and three PHP dates decide how much room a 4.5 site has. The PHP dates matter because Moodle 4.5 runs on PHP 8.1 and also supports 8.3, according to the Moodle 4.5 release notes, and PHP has its own support clock.

The PHP dates come from the PHP supported versions page and the PHP end-of-life list. A 4.5 site on PHP 8.1 has been on an unsupported language runtime since January 2026, even though Moodle itself is still patched. If that is you, moving the server to PHP 8.3 is the first job, whichever path you choose.

What happens to a Moodle 4.5 site after October 4, 2027?

Nothing switches off. The site keeps running, learners keep logging in, and courses keep working. What stops is the flow of 4.5.x security releases.

You can see what that means on the Moodle security advisories page. In September 2026 alone, Moodle published MSA-26-0042, a blind SQL injection risk rated Serious, and MSA-26-0041, a CSRF risk in XML grade imports, also rated Serious. Both list the affected versions as 4.5 to 4.5.13 (or 4.5.12) "and earlier unsupported versions", and both were fixed in a new 4.5 point release. After October 2027, the next advisory like these will put 4.5 in that "earlier unsupported" group, with the details public and no 4.5 patch coming.

What are the risks of staying on Moodle 4.5?

Until October 2027 the risk is mostly falling behind on point releases. After that it is running known, published vulnerabilities on a system that holds personal data and training records. Roughly in order of how likely they are to hurt:

• Unpatched advisories. Every advisory after the deadline describes a hole your site keeps. Recent ones touched grade imports, user lists and login notifications.
• Plugins moving on. Plugin maintainers follow the supported releases. Over 2027, expect new plugin versions to target 5.x only, including the security fixes for those plugins.
• The PHP floor. The 4.5 release notes name nothing newer than PHP 8.3, and PHP 8.3 security support ends on December 31, 2027. After that, no PHP version named in the 4.5 release notes still gets security fixes from the PHP project.
• Audit findings. Vulnerability scans and customer security questionnaires flag unsupported software. Someone has to write the exception, and it gets harder each quarter.
• A bigger jump later. You can upgrade to 5.3 from Moodle 4.4 or later, per the Moodle 5.3 release notes. Future releases may raise that floor, so waiting can turn one upgrade into two.

Should you upgrade to Moodle 5.3 or move off Moodle?

Upgrade to 5.3 LTS if Moodle still fits how you teach and someone can own the upgrade. Move off if the upgrade work keeps landing on a platform you mostly use for things other products do without plugins. We sell the second option, so here is the case for the first one, stated fairly.

Your situation	Better choice	Why
Academic-style courses built on Workshop, the Database activity, Cloze or calculated questions	Upgrade to 5.3	Those activities have no direct match in most other LMSs, and rebuilding them costs more than the upgrade.
A Moodle admin or developer on staff, or a hosting partner already under contract	Upgrade to 5.3	The skills and the contract are already paid for, and 5.3 runs to October 2029.
Custom plugins your organization wrote	Upgrade to 5.3	Porting a plugin is usually cheaper than replacing what it does elsewhere.
Corporate, compliance or certification training using pages, quizzes, SCORM and certificates	Consider moving	The features you use are standard elsewhere, often without plugins to keep in step.
Proctored exams through a plugin or an outside service	Consider moving	An LMS with exams and proctoring built in removes a dependency from every future upgrade.
Nobody on the team wants to own the server	Either	A Moodle hosting partner or a different platform both fix this. Compare the two quotes.

What does a 4.5 to 5.3 upgrade involve?

A 4.5 site can go straight to 5.3, but it takes on three releases of change at once. The Moodle 5.0 release notes remove the Atto editor, Chat and Survey, CAS authentication, all MNet plugins and Oracle database support from core. The Moodle 5.1 release notes add a /public directory: the web server's document root has to point to it, and previously installed plugins have to be moved into it by hand. Moodle 5.3 itself needs 64-bit PHP 8.3 or later, the sodium extension and max_input_vars of at least 5000. Its database minimums are PostgreSQL 17, MySQL 8.4, MariaDB 11.4 or SQL Server 2019, so a database upgrade may come before the Moodle one. 5.3 also removes the Classic theme from core, though the MoodleDocs Classic theme page says you can still install it as an additional theme before upgrading. The MoodleDocs upgrade guide asks you to back up the code, the moodledata folder and the database separately, and to test on a copy of production first.

On effort, Accipio, a Moodle Premium Certified Partner that sells Moodle hosting and support, puts a major Moodle upgrade at 15 to 30 hours in a July 2026 article, including backups, staging and plugin testing. That is their estimate, not ours. Treat that as a floor for a jump that covers three releases and a server move to PHP 8.3.

A budget and plan timeline for Moodle 4.5 sites

Whichever path you pick, start the decision this quarter and finish the work by mid-2027, so the October 2027 deadline has a buffer. This is the timeline we would use, with the budget lines that belong in each quarter.

When	If you upgrade to 5.3	If you move off Moodle
Q4 2026	Inventory plugins and themes, and check each for a 5.3 release. Move the server to PHP 8.3. Budget: admin hours, a staging server.	Inventory courses, plugins and records. Run a test import of real course backups on the platforms you are considering. Budget: admin hours, vendor demos.
Q1 2027	Upgrade a copy of production. Replace anything removed in 5.0, rebuild the theme if needed. Budget: developer or partner time, plugin licenses.	Choose the platform and sign. Export grades, completions and certificates. Budget: license, migration services, archive storage.
Q2 2027	Test SCORM, quizzes, certificates, sign-in and reports on staging, then upgrade production in a maintenance window. Budget: testing time.	Import courses, rebuild activities with no match, retest SCORM, connect SSO. Pilot with one group. Budget: rebuild work, SSO setup.
Q3 2027	Apply 5.3 point releases and fix what the first months surface. Budget: routine maintenance.	Cut over, set Moodle to read-only and check the archive. Budget: a few months of running both systems.
By October 4, 2027	Your site is on 5.3 LTS, patched until October 1, 2029.	Moodle is switched off or isolated, with records archived outside it.

Staying on Moodle has a running cost too. The same Accipio article estimates 2 to 6 hours a week of routine maintenance for a small to midsize self-hosted site. Put that line in both columns when you compare the two paths over three years.

How to move off Moodle 4.5 in LMS Advisor

If the table pointed you toward moving, here is how each part of a 4.5 site maps to LMS Advisor features. Our Moodle migration page has the full list of what moves and what stays behind.

1. Back up each course. In Moodle, open the course, then More, Course reuse and Backup. You get one .mbz file per course.
2. Import the backups. LMS Advisor imports Moodle .mbz course backups directly. Start with two or three real courses, one of them quiz-heavy, and compare each result with the original before learners see it.
3. Fill the gaps. Upload your original SCORM zips as SCORM 1.2 or 2004 lessons, rebuild activities and question types with no match in the course authoring tools, and set up certificates in the certificate designer.
4. Connect people. Use SAML 2.0 single sign-on and SCIM 2.0 provisioning, or bring users in with the CSV upload in HR sync.
5. Choose where it runs. Our cloud, or self-hosted on your own server, where updates, database migrations and backups run from inside the app.

The limits matter. We do not promise that grades, attempts, completion history or issued certificates import, so archive them from Moodle first. There is no plugin directory and no access to change the source code. And Moodle's open-source license and community stay out of reach. Our LMS Advisor vs Moodle comparison covers where Moodle wins. To see your own courses come across, request a demo and bring a backup file.

Frequently asked questions

When does Moodle 4.5 end of support happen?

Moodle 4.5 LTS security support ends on October 4, 2027. General support, meaning fixes for ordinary bugs, already ended on October 6, 2025. Between those dates 4.5 gets security fixes only.

Is Moodle 4.5 still safe to use in 2026?

Yes, if you apply the 4.5.x point releases as they come out. Moodle still publishes security fixes for 4.5, as the September 2026 advisories show. Check that your server runs PHP 8.2 or 8.3, because PHP 8.1 is past its end of life.

Can I upgrade Moodle 4.5 directly to 5.3?

Yes. The Moodle 5.3 release notes allow upgrades from 4.4 or later, so a 4.5 site can skip 5.0, 5.1 and 5.2. Plan for PHP 8.3, the newer database minimums, the /public directory change and the features removed in 5.0.

Should I upgrade Moodle 4.5 to 5.2 or 5.3?

Upgrade to 5.3 LTS. Moodle 5.2 loses security support on October 4, 2027, the same day as 4.5, while 5.3 is supported until October 1, 2029. Give 5.3 a point release or two before production, and stay on patched 4.5 in the meantime.

What happens if I keep running Moodle 4.5 after October 2027?

The site keeps working, but new vulnerabilities stay open. Moodle's advisories list unsupported versions as affected without releasing a fix for them, and plugin maintainers move to 5.x. Expect audit and security questionnaire findings as well.

Can LMS Advisor import courses from Moodle 4.5?

Yes. LMS Advisor imports Moodle .mbz course backups directly, so back up each course in 4.5 and test a few before you plan the rest. Re-upload SCORM packages as lessons, and export grade and completion history from Moodle first, because we do not promise it imports.