Confusion around KNIME release cycles, LTS visibility, and Server 4.18 compatibility

KNIME Server
1

Dear KNIME Team,

We are experiencing some confusion around the current KNIME release cycles, especially when cross-referencing the download page, release notes, and compatibility matrix. I would like to outline our current setup and observations, and ask for clarification.

Our current setup

  • KNIME Server: 4.18 (Windows)

  • KNIME Executor: 5.4.4 (we always follow the LTS track for executors)

As of 26-JAN-2026, the latest LTS release appears to be KNIME Analytics Platform 5.8.2.

Observations & concerns

  1. LTS 5.8.2 is not listed on the release notes page
    The release notes page does not appear to mention LTS 5.8.2 at all.

  2. LTS 5.8.1 (released 17-DEC-2025) is missing from the compatibility matrix
    Although 5.8.1 was released, it does not seem to be included in the compatibility overview.

  3. Compatibility matrix suggests Server 4.18 only supports AP 5.4 and 5.5
    According to the current matrix, KNIME Server 4.18 does not support AP 5.8.x, which would imply that we cannot upgrade our executors to the latest LTS while remaining on Server 4.18.

  4. Download page lacks release dates
    Neither the latest LTS nor the latest standard releases show release dates, which makes it harder to understand version recency and support timelines.

Questions

  • Since KNIME Server 4.18 is supported until June 2026, will there be:

    • Compatibility updates allowing newer LTS executors (e.g. 5.8.x), or

    • A new KNIME Server release that we should plan to migrate to?

  • If LTS 5.8.x is intentionally not compatible with Server 4.18, could this be explicitly documented in the compatibility matrix, and the release notes?

Request

Could you please:

  • Update the compatibility matrix to clearly reflect the status of LTS 5.8.x,

  • Ensure LTS releases appear consistently in the release notes, and

  • Add release dates to the download page for better transparency?

For reference, the pages involved are:

Thank you in advance for the clarification!

2

@RKrom Thank you for your inquiry. Please note that 4.18 is the last release of KNIME Server, and it officially supports Analytics Platform/Executor (AP/EX) 5.4 and 5.5. I checked with the Product and Development teams and there are no plans to officially support any future versions of AP/EX. They did state that AP/EX 5.8 should work with Server 4.18, but it hasn’t been formally tested and isn’t officially supported.

In regard to release dates, detailed changes for AP/EX including release dates are available in the change logs. The change logs are published/updated for all releases including patch release. You can find the change logs in our online documentation. For reference the 5.8 change log can be found at: Changelog (KNIME Analytics Platform 5.8) | KNIME Documentation

3

Thanks for your response.

Our upgrade process is more complex than the average KNIME Server users as we have many dependencies which need to be thoroughly tested (it takes several weeks to test all workflows).

Initially 5.4 would have been the last supported version for KNIME server 4.18 (communicated by KNIME), so we upgraded to 5.4 as “final version” only to find out a month later also version 5.5 compatible. Thus I would like to know if versions after 5.5 will also be supported to avoid a similar scenario.

In case later versions won’t be supported, I would really like to see this noted on the compatibility matrix. In case compatibility tests are planned it would be great to know, as we would like to upgrade to the latest version to make the migration to the KNIME Business Hub as smooth as possible.