Continuing development with Vue 2 in 2025 and beyond exposes your project to serious challenges:

⚠️ Security Risks

Vue 2 no longer receives official security patches — which means any new vulnerabilities will remain unpatched. For apps handling sensitive user data or subject to regulations like GDPR, this introduces a real risk.

According to IBM’s Data Breach Report, the average cost of a breach is $3.86M.

That said, the actual severity depends on your context. If you’re running an internal-facing tool behind access controls — not a public SPA — the immediate exposure might be limited.

But this isn’t something to ignore. Over time, the unpatched surface area grows, and by 2026 we could be dealing with issues that are harder (and costlier) to patch retroactively. It’s not a fire drill today, but it is a strategic risk. And if your app handles real user data, this alone may justify planning the migration sooner than later.

🔄 Dependency & Compatibility Challenges

Most modern libraries — including Vuetify, Element Plus, and Ant Design Vue — are Vue 3 only. Projects locked to Vue 2 will quickly hit dependency dead-ends, leading to unresolvable version conflicts.

💬 Shrinking Community & Ecosystem

As the Vue community moves on, support for Vue 2 is fading. Expect fewer tutorials, updates, and Stack Overflow answers — making even minor issues harder to resolve.

➡️ If your CI/CD pipeline is becoming harder to maintain or you’ve had to freeze certain dependencies — these are early signs that Vue 2 is limiting your growth.

Vue 3 is more than a version bump — it’s a modern rewrite designed for today’s development needs.

🚀 Better Performance

Vue 3’s Proxy-based reactivity system improves runtime performance by 10–20%. Bundle sizes are smaller, leading to faster load times — especially on mobile.

A great example is the alien-signals update, which can improve computed/ref performance by up to 3.6x and reduce memory usage.

📑 Composition API

A new function-based approach that enables cleaner code organization, logic reuse, and scalability. It’s ideal for large applications and works natively with TypeScript.

Vue 3’s Composition API solves all the drawbacks of mixins — the primary reuse strategy in the Options API — with composable functions.

📃 Built-In TypeScript Support

Vue 3 is written in TypeScript, giving developers type safety, autocomplete, and better tooling out of the box.

✨ New Developer Features

• Suspense for async loading
• Teleport and Fragments for advanced rendering
• Multi-v-model bindings
• Simplified global state patterns

🔌 Future-Proof Ecosystem

Most new tools, plugins, and component libraries are now Vue 3 first — or Vue 3 only. Migrating ensures long-term stability and access to future enhancements.

➡️ If you’ve had to avoid adopting new tools or features because they only support Vue 3 — migration can unblock your roadmap.

Every project is unique. Here are five common migration paths:

1. Best for: Large, actively maintained Vue 2 projects

• Start building new features in Vue 3
• Use vue-compat, micro-apps, or iframe decoupling
• Run Vue 2 and Vue 3 side-by-side during transition

Example: Add a Vue 3 dashboard module to a legacy admin panel, expanding gradually.

2. Best for: Smaller projects or when performance and TypeScript are top priorities

• Create a fresh Vue 3 project
• Port components individually
• Use modern tooling like Vite, ESLint, Vitest/Playwright

Case study: A SaaS team completed their migration in 6 weeks, cut bundle size by 23%, and sped up builds by 40%.

3. Best for: Libraries or projects needing backward compatibility

• Use vue-demi for dual-version support
• Leverage Vue 2.7’s Composition API plugin to refactor gradually

4. Best for: Enterprise-scale applications with multiple teams

• Split app into microfrontends
• Migrate and deploy each independently
• Reduces coordination overhead and risk

5. Best for: Modular applications

• Start with low-risk modules
• Validate in production before touching business-critical features

➡️ For teams with limited capacity, a staged rollout allows early validation without overwhelming dev resources.

• Is your team ready? Familiarity with Composition API and TypeScript helps, but Vue 3 still supports Options API if needed.

• Do your tools support Vue 3? Plan for changes to build tools (Vite/Webpack), test runners (Vitest, Cypress), and linters (ESLint).

• Are your dependencies compatible? Verify that your component libraries and plugins support Vue 3.

• What’s the business cost? Migration can require QA, developer time, and training — but downtime can be minimized with smart planning and isolated deployment.

➡️ Consider timeboxing an internal spike: prototype one Vue 3 feature module and measure impact before committing fully.

Not every project needs to migrate — at least not right now. If your current Vue 2 setup is stable, well-tested, and not holding back product development, then a full rewrite may do more harm than good.

• Your team is already delivering features on time
• No critical dependencies are broken
• You’re not planning major refactors or redesigns in the next 6–12 months

Then the cost of migration — in terms of developer time, testing, training, and potential regressions — might outweigh the short-term benefits.

Migration fatigue is real.

Your team might already be stretched thin with product demands, tech debt, or hiring gaps. A large migration project could introduce more disruption than it solves.

In these cases, a more pragmatic approach could be:

• Stay on Vue 2.7 with Composition API where possible
• Limit dependencies to those still supporting Vue 2
• Write Vue 3–ready code (e.g., using functional patterns) to ease future transition
• Reassess in 6–12 months when there’s clear business justification

📌 Remember: migration is not about chasing the latest tech — it’s about enabling your team to build faster, maintain easier, and reduce long-term risk. If those aren’t immediate concerns, it’s okay to wait.

Even with a solid plan, migrations can hit unexpected blockers. Here are some common challenges we’ve seen in real projects — and how to prepare for them:

1. Hidden Vue 2 Internals

Many legacy codebases use undocumented behaviors or deep Vue 2 internals (e.g. $children, ._uid, manual event buses). These patterns often break silently in Vue 3 or behave differently.

What to do:

Run a static code scan and identify usage of Vue 2-specific APIs. Prioritize these areas for rewrite.

2. vue-compat Is Not a Magic Bullet

The @vue/compat build can help bridge the gap, but:

• It adds significant bundle weight
• Not all 2.x patterns are supported
• It's a temporary tool, not a long-term solution

What to do:

Use it only for transitional phases, and define a clear exit strategy.

3. Component Libraries Can Block You

Some component libraries might claim Vue 3 support but still rely on unstable APIs or break in SSR mode. Others might not support Composition API well.

What to do:

Audit your dependencies up front. Check GitHub issues, open PRs, and whether the library is actively maintained.

4. Mixed Vue 2 / Vue 3 Code Is Hard to Test

Running Vue 2 and Vue 3 side-by-side sounds great — until your test suite fails, your tooling complains, and your linters need dual configs.

What to do:

Isolate migrated parts behind clear interfaces. Use microfrontends or route-based boundaries if needed. Align your test stack accordingly (e.g., Vitest + legacy Jest).

5. Refactoring Fatigue

Teams often underestimate how many files need updates: not just .vue, but store logic, tests, shared utilities, build configs. It’s easy to lose velocity midway.

What to do:

Break down migration into timeboxed sprints. Celebrate small wins (e.g., “admin dashboard now 100% Vue 3”). Assign a lead to keep momentum.

6. Team Confidence Gap

Some devs may be new to Composition API or TypeScript. Pushing a rewrite without internal buy-in can lead to bugs and frustration.

What to do:

Start with workshops or internal demos. Let devs pair on migrated components before assigning full features.

One of our clients, an EdTech company, had a complex ecosystem of Vue 2 microservices with inconsistent UI and outdated tech.

They needed to:

• Align structure and design across services
• Build a shared UI library on top of Vuetify
• Migrate the ecosystem to Vue 3
• Provide clear documentation for internal developers

Our approach:

We built a reusable component library, customized Vuetify to meet their design system, documented everything in Storybook, and created a boilerplate for launching new services.

The migration was done incrementally — starting with the UI library and then updating individual services — allowing development to continue without blocking.

Outcome:

• Unified UI across all apps
• Vue 3 successfully adopted across the system
• Old tech removed, and developer onboarding improved thanks to shared docs and tooling

If your Vue 2 project is active, growing, or mission-critical, the answer is clear: Yes, start planning your migration now.

If a full migration isn’t feasible yet, consider:

• Using Vue 2.7 with Composition API
• Gradual refactoring with Vue-demi
• Writing migration-ready code

But these are only short-term fixes. Vue 3 is the only sustainable long-term solution.

• Is Vue 2 a security risk? Yes.
• Does Vue 3 perform better? Yes.
• Is migration hard? No — with the right plan.
• Is now the time to migrate? Absolutely.

We help tech teams plan, audit, and execute smooth Vue migrations — without disrupting your delivery schedule.

→ Migration Offer: We’ll review your current Vue 2 setup, identify potential risks, and suggest a tailored migration approach for your codebase — all during a 30-minute call.

Book a consultation to explore how we can help your team migrate confidently and effectively.