Mari Extension Pack 2026 is now available, with support for Mari 8 and later.

It has been three years since the release of Mari Extension Pack 6. During that time, the Series 6 line received numerous updates, greatly expanding its original scope beyond the initial 6 R1 release.

Going forward, Mari Extension Pack will use year-based version numbers.

When we first introduced numbered releases, Mari only incremented its major version every two or three years. Since then, Mari has moved to an annual major release cycle.

As a result, our previous versioning scheme began causing unnecessary confusion. For example, saying "Mari Extension Pack 7 for Mari 8" is both awkward and unintuitive.

In the past, Extension Pack releases were also expanded through R-releases. Version 6 received R2, R3, and R4 updates, while Version 5 eventually reached R9.

Over time, these R-releases grew substantially in scope—sometimes surpassing the original release in both the number of new features and the amount of development effort involved. Despite this, they were often perceived as "just minor updates" because of their naming.

After careful consideration, we have decided to retire the old numbering system and adopt year-based releases instead.

We may still publish minor updates such as 2027.2 or 2027.3, but users can now simply assume that the 2027 edition of Extension Pack is designed for Mari versions current in 2027.

What Does This Mean for Updates?

Are updates still free?

Yes.

Previously, our policy was simple: all R-releases were free updates for customers who owned the corresponding major version. For example, purchasing Mari Extension Pack 6 entitled you to every 6 Rx release throughout its lifecycle.

This provided exceptional value, with some customers receiving free feature updates for more than four years.

With the transition to yearly releases, we are updating our policy as follows:

• Every perpetual license includes one year of free updates. This aligns with the update policies commonly used by many professional software products.
• In addition, we will evaluate each release individually and may extend the update period when appropriate.
• Finally, we guarantee that all Mari Extension Pack 2027 customers will receive at least one major update at no additional cost, even if that update is released after the standard one-year update period.

Our goal is to keep delivering meaningful improvements while maintaining a licensing model that is both sustainable for development and fair to our customers.