Last month, a long-term client of mine—running a high-volume WooCommerce store—hit me with a weird question. They were worried that WordPress was “slowing down” because they had only seen two major updates in 2025. They thought the platform was losing steam. I had to explain that while 2025 was a bit of a breather with just 6.8 and 6.9, the WordPress release schedule for 2026 is actually ramping back up to its high-performance cadence of three major releases per year.
The proposal recently discussed over at make.wordpress.org outlines a return to the four-month cycle. This isn’t just about adding features; it’s about the “release early, release often” philosophy. For a developer, this means less “big bang” breakage and more iterative, manageable shifts. But for a site owner, it means your maintenance schedule just got 50% busier.
The Risk of the Two-Release Mindset
I’ll be honest with you: I fell into a bit of a trap myself in 2025. Because the major releases were spaced further apart, I got a little complacent. I assumed I had more time to refactor some legacy hooks in a custom shipping module. Total mistake. By the time 6.9 “Gene” rolled around in December, I realized I’d missed a series of minor deprecation notices that had been piling up in the background. It wasn’t pretty. I spent a weekend chasing logs that I should have been monitoring months ago.
The move back to three releases in 2026 means we can’t afford that complacency. If you aren’t checking your site’s compatibility every four months, you’re going to get steamrolled by technical debt. The “four-month window” is the sweet spot for keeping core, plugins, and custom code in sync without letting the gap grow too wide.
Proactive Logging for the WordPress Release Schedule
To stay ahead of the 2026 curve, you need to know what’s breaking before the “Update” button is even clicked. Standard WP_DEBUG is usually a noisy mess that fills up your disk space. I prefer a surgical approach—specifically logging deprecation warnings to a dedicated file so you can see exactly what the WordPress release schedule is going to break next.
/**
* Custom logger to catch deprecation notices before major releases.
* This keeps your main error log clean for actual runtime crashes.
*/
add_action('deprecated_function_run', 'bbioon_log_deprecations', 10, 3);
add_action('deprecated_argument_run', 'bbioon_log_deprecations', 10, 3);
add_action('deprecated_hook_run', 'bbioon_log_deprecations', 10, 3);
function bbioon_log_deprecations($item, $replacement, $version) {
$log_file = WP_CONTENT_DIR . '/bbioon-deprecations.log';
$message = sprintf(
"[%s] Deprecated: %s in version %s. Use %s instead." . PHP_EOL,
date('Y-m-d H:i:s'),
$item,
$version,
$replacement ? $replacement : 'no replacement'
);
error_log($message, 3, $log_file);
}Trust me on this. If you drop this into your staging environment now, you’ll have a clear roadmap of what needs fixing before the first 2026 release hits in April. It turns a “major update nightmare” into a simple checklist.
Prepare for a Busy 2026
The return to three releases is actually good news. It keeps the platform modern and prevents massive, site-crushing changes from being saved up for a single yearly update. But it requires a partner who actually pays attention to the Core team’s roadmap, not just someone who updates plugins when they see a red notification circle. Period.
Look, this stuff gets complicated fast. If you’re tired of debugging someone else’s mess and just want your site to work through the 2026 cycle, drop my team a line. We’ve probably seen it before.
Is your maintenance plan ready for a release every four months, or are you still catching up on 2025?
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