From v12 to v14 in One Year: What the Upgrade Opened Up for TAE

In 2026, the Technische Akademie Esslingen (TAE) moved its highly customized TYPO3 site from v12 to v14—two major versions in one year, with the only notable issue fixed in two days.

TAE grew out of the Radio Club Esslingen in 1955 and runs 800–1,000 seminars, courses, and conferences a year. Its website is a full booking platform: participants pick a course, and HR or purchasing teams book it online, without a customer account. TAE has relied on TYPO3 for around 20 years and has worked with b13 since 2020.

At the start of 2026, TAE's site still ran on TYPO3 v12. The goal: reach v14 within the year, so the team could use new TYPO3 features soon after release.

That's harder than it sounds on a site like TAE's. Booking, reviews, waitlists, credit card payment, and the interface to the TC Manager training database are all custom-built, with many elements, patches, and plugins tailored to TAE. On a site like this, any upgrade can break something in an unexpected place—an image that no longer shows, an element that renders slightly off. “With every upgrade, things come up that no longer work for us, simply because the technical complexity is there,” says Robin.

TAE found b13 through a recommendation: Roland Bach, then head of electrical engineering and IT at TAE, had followed b13's work for Bosch on Deepfield Connect. In 2020, b13 took over TAE's TYPO3 site, rebuilt it on v10, and completed the relaunch in 2022, including a custom two-way interface to TC Manager.

Since then, b13's Evergreen service keeps the site on the current TYPO3 version as an ongoing service rather than a one-off project. At the start of 2026, the site still ran on v12. By autumn, it was on v14.

Each upgrade followed the same pattern. b13 handled the upgrade, TAE tested intensively and reported back, and b13 fixed what came up. Most issues were small: an image not showing, an element rendering slightly off. The only notable problem during the v14 upgrade affected the review form. “We solved that within two days and didn't lose a single review,” says Niklas Pahl, Marketing and Communications Specialist at TAE, who manages the website.

Niklas sees the trade-off clearly. “When you build something new, it rarely works the first time. But because we iterate quickly with b13, problems always get solved fast.”

“We solved that within two days and didn't lose a single review.” 

— Niklas Pahl, TAE

The move to v14 also opened the door for new features. b13 added Mail Queue, which runs on TYPO3 v13.4 and v14. It makes every outgoing email visible in the backend and lets the team fix a mistyped address and resend the email in one click—an early warning system after repeated outages of an outside mail server.

TAE now runs its booking platform on TYPO3 v14, and upgrades have become a plannable service. “With Evergreen, we know the costs at the start of the year and can plan for them like a subscription,” says Robin. On top of that, TAE can use new TYPO3 features soon after they're released.

For the editorial team, v14 made daily work easier. Forms in particular are now handled very differently and are easier to manage. “With the v14 upgrade, the backend is much clearer and much more user-friendly,” says Niklas.

“With the v14 upgrade, the backend is much clearer and much more user-friendly.” 

— Niklas Pahl, TAE

And with Mail Queue on v14, outgoing email is no longer a blind spot. “Now we have the full picture whenever a technical problem comes up again,” says Robin.

TAE's list of ideas for 2027 is already long. Staying on the latest TYPO3 version means each one can build on current core features instead of working around old ones.