Zephyr Squad to Zephyr/Essential Upgrade Guide

If you're using Zephyr Squad, you can upgrade to either Zephyr Essentialor Zephyr —both deliver enhanced performance, greater stability, and advanced features tailored to your needs. This guide will help you explore your options, understand the upgrade and data migration process, and get started smoothly.

Upgrade Options Overview

Feature	Zephyr Essential	Zephyr
UI/UX	Modern, unified UX for streamlined test management and reporting.	Consistent modern experience as in Zephyr Essential, with extra views for AI-powered automation workflows.
Infrastructure	High-performance, robust back end system.	High-performance, robust back end system with enhanced capabilities to support AI-powered features and advanced automation needs.
Key Features	Cross project functionality, test repository, test case versioning, test data and parameters, test plans, multi-level folder structure, improved reporting, faster performance	All Essential features + No-code AI automation, data residency, automatic test case generation using record and play, innovative test-step suggestions, upgrade path to Zephyr Advanced (includes cross-browser testing, parallel testing, email/SMS testing, and 4x more AI test runs)
Best for	Teams seeking improved performance, structure, and reporting that only need test management capabilities.	Teams that need unified test management and automation, plus advanced compliance.

For a detailed comparison, refer to the Product Comparison and Feature Comparison pages. These resources provide in-depth information to help you decide which path suits your team best.

Upgrade Experience

Both upgrade paths use a dedicated data migration UI that provides:

Project-level migration visibility
Progress tracking
Logs and retry capability

Key Differences

Feature	Squad → Zephyr Essential	Squad → Zephyr
Project Selection	Not available (all projects migrate together)	Project-by-project migration supported
Validation Timing	After switching to Zephyr Essential experience	Per project, during or after migration
UI Capabilities	Same UI with limited controls	Full control over projects and retries

App Availability During Migration

Zephyr Squad remains usable during the data migration process. The app is not blocked by default, allowing you to continue creating or modifying data.

If you want newly added or updated data in Squad to reflect in Zephyror Zephyr Essential, you’ll need to re-run the migration, which will overwrite previously migrated data.
Any existing data in Zephyror Zephyr Essential will also be overwritten. Merging or delta migrations are not supported.

The migration UI allows blocking Squad during migration to prevent data inconsistencies. While optional, we recommend enabling this to ensure data integrity.

Environment Options

Production Migration. Fully supported. Zephyr Squad is usable during migration.
Sandbox Migration. Possible, but requires manual setup. Squad data cannot be copied directly from production. Use CSV export/import for test cases and test steps.

Note

The CSV export/import feature supports only the import of test cases and test steps. It does not support importing test cycles or test executions.

For upgrades to Zephyr Essential, once all selected projects are migrated and you switch to the new UX, the Zephyr Squad interface becomes inaccessible.

For detailed, step-by-step guidance on the upgrade process, including UI screenshots and comprehensive instructions, check:

Upgrade to Zephyr Essential – Step-by-step guide
Upgrade to Zephyr – Step-by-step guide

Migrated Data

All primary test management entities are migrated, including:

Test cases
Test cycles
Test executions

The following data is not migrated:

BDD data
Test execution history

For full data mapping details, check Data Mapping Reference. For a list of non-migrated data, check Non-migrated Data Details.

Roadmap for Non-Migrated Data

We are actively working to support migration of currently non-migrated data.

Data Type	Expected Availability
BDD Data	Q4 2025
Test Execution History	Q1 2026

We will update this guide as these features become available. Note that the expected availability timelines are subject to change.

You can track and submit feature requests on our Feature Request Portal.

Time and Effort Required to Upgrade

The backend infrastructure and migration process is the same for both upgrade paths.

In Squad to Zephyr, data migration is done project by project, allowing individual validation.
In Squad to Zephyr Essential, all projects are migrated together, and validation can be performed only after switching to the Essential experience.
- After migrating projects, you can switch back and forth between Zephyr Squad and Zephyr Essential, but you cannot actively work in both environments simultaneously.
- We recommend planning validation activities during periods when no new production data needs to be added or modified in Zephyr Squad to avoid data conflicts or loss.
The REST API endpoints in Zephyr Essential and Zephyrdiffer from those in Zephyr Squad. When upgrading from Squad, you must update your automation scripts to use the new endpoints.
- For details, check the Zephyr Essential API Documentation and Zephyr API Documentation.
- For a detailed comparison of API differences between Squad and Zephyr/Essential, see the API Differences Reference.
Overall time required will depend on the volume of data and number of projects.

Pricing and Licensing

Zephyr Essential: No change to existing license.
Zephyr: Requires a new license. If there are more than six months left to run on the Zephyr Squad for Jira Cloud subscription, a pro-rata discount is available on request. The discount is in the form of a promo code, which you can use to apply a discount on the new Zephyr subscription. You can let the Zephyr Squad license expire.
During the upgrade/UAT phase, we can arrange for dual licensing upon request. We provide a limited free license if you have a paid or commercial license in place. If you have any questions about licenses, feel free to email [email protected]

Register for the Upgrade

If you are interested in upgrading to Zephyr Essential or Zephyr, create a support ticket with our team. Based on your selected upgrade path, our support team will guide you through the next steps.

Known Issues and Troubleshooting

For any open issues, bugs, or ongoing investigations related to the upgrade process, refer to our Migration Known Issues Tracker.

If you encounter any problems not listed there, feel free to contact our support team.

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