HtmlUnit End of Life (EOL) Dates & Support Timeline
Complete end-of-life dates, support windows, and security status for all HtmlUnit versions. Dates read at the vendor's own lifecycle pages (htmlunit.org). Updated at every deploy.
HtmlUnit 5 is supported, with no end-of-life or end-of-support date announced yet. 4 tracked HtmlUnit versions are declared end of life without a published date. The full HtmlUnit lifecycle, with every version's release and end-of-support date, is in the table below.
Running an EOL version? Get matched with support options — free ↓| Version | Latest Release | Release Date | EOL Date | Days | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1.14 | May 22, 2002 | Not published | Past EOL | EOL |
| 2 | 2.70.0 | Apr 7, 2008 | Not published | Past EOL | EOL |
| 3 | 3.11.0 | Mar 19, 2023 | Not published | Past EOL | EOL |
| 4 | 4.21.0 | Apr 1, 2024 | Not published | Past EOL | EOL |
| 5 | 5.7.0 | May 24, 2026 | TBD | Supported | Active |
Live EOL badge for your README — updates automatically at every build.
[](https://endoflife.ai/htmlunit)
HtmlUnit lifecycle status — the real story
HtmlUnit is a GUI-less browser for Java programs, used mostly to drive web tests from JUnit or TestNG and underneath tools such as Selenium's HtmlUnitDriver, Jenkins' test harness and many Java web frameworks' own test suites. It is published on Maven Central as org.htmlunit:htmlunit from version 3 onward; the 2.x line used net.sourceforge.htmlunit:htmlunit and the com.gargoylesoftware.htmlunit packages.
The project publishes no end-of-life calendar. Its security policy fixes vulnerabilities on the current development branch, version 5 requires JDK 17 or later, and the project README says the 4.x line for JDK 8 remains available as-is and will not receive further updates without sponsorship. The 2.x and 3.x lines ended with the move to newer majors; no end day was published for any of them.
Because HtmlUnit parses and runs untrusted HTML, JavaScript and XSLT, an unmaintained copy in a test or scraping pipeline still carries real exposure. The choices are a migration to the current major (the 2.x to 3.x step renames the group ID and every package) or a third-party extended support build for the line you run.
HtmlUnit release and support pattern
Across the 5 release lines with a published release date, HtmlUnit has shipped a new line roughly every 4 years (median interval).
Of the 5 release lines tracked, 4 are past end of life and 1 is still within support; 4 are marked end of life without a published date. The newest line, 5, was released May 24, 2026. No end-of-life date is currently published for the 1 supported line.
Computed from the tracked release data at every build — the figures above are the dates in the table, restated, not an editorial estimate.
What does HtmlUnit end of life mean for your organization?
When a version of HtmlUnit reaches end of life, the maintainers stop issuing security patches. Vulnerabilities discovered after this date are publicly disclosed on the National Vulnerability Database, exploit code appears on GitHub, and your systems remain permanently exposed.
The CVE blind spot: A CVE-based scan does not show the accumulation of unpatched vulnerabilities in EOL software. Some scanners flag unsupported versions of common products, but coverage varies, and none of them give you the date in advance. With a zero-day, nobody knows about the vulnerability. With EOL software, the vulnerability is public — listed, rated, and often weaponized — but no vendor patch is coming. This is one of the most dangerous gaps in enterprise security posture.
Organizations running EOL HtmlUnit should treat it as a vulnerability class in their risk register, apply compensating controls (network segmentation, enhanced monitoring, access restriction), and prioritize migration to a supported version.
Your options when HtmlUnit reaches end of life
There are four realistic paths. Which one is right depends far more on how long the system needs to keep running than on the version you are on today.
| Option | Best when | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Move to a supported version | The system will outlive the current version's support window and you can schedule the work | Budget for compatibility testing, not just the upgrade itself — that is where the real cost sits |
| Replace the component | The project is unmaintained, or a better-supported alternative exists | The replacement has its own lifecycle and its own end-of-life date — you are changing vendors, not escaping the problem |
| Buy extended support | Migration is genuinely underway but cannot finish before the deadline, or the workload is frozen by certification or a third-party application | A bridge, not a destination — every year purchased is a year the migration still has to happen |
| Document accepted risk | The system is isolated, short-lived, or scheduled for retirement | Only defensible with real compensating controls and a written decision — auditors treat undocumented end-of-life software as a finding |
How to choose, in one question: how many more years does this system need to run? Under a year, extended support (where it exists) is usually cheaper than an emergency migration. One to three years, migrate — support purchased repeatedly costs more than doing the project once, and the project only gets harder as the version ages. Indefinitely, migrate now and plan the next migration before it surprises you.
Worth saying plainly, because vendors selling extended support rarely will: extended support is often the more expensive choice over a multi-year horizon. It is the right answer when a deadline is genuinely unreachable, not as a default. Compare the annual fee against the one-time cost of migrating before committing to either.
Formalizing decisions like this across your estate? Our free EOL policy template is a ready-to-adopt policy with risk tiers, remediation SLAs, and audit mapping — no signup, free to use and share.
Extended Support Options
If you cannot migrate immediately, check whether the vendor or a third party sells extended support with security patches for your HtmlUnit version; coverage varies by product and version. Where it exists it is a bridge, not a permanent solution — plan your migration in parallel.
HtmlUnit has 4 versions past end of life — security patches have stopped, but CVE disclosures haven't. The good news: extended support for HtmlUnit exists — vetted vendors ship security patches for years past the official date. Right now that coverage spans HtmlUnit 2.60. Tell us where to reach you and we'll reply with matched options and pricing guidance — or an honest "no vendor covers this."