All things come to an end, and some stay around way longer than planned… Internet Explorer 11 is one of these. And so, we are finally ending support for Internet Explorer 11 in Avada. Read on to find out the why and what of this change, and what it means to you if you have a site that’s regularly viewed on IE11.

Since the release of Avada in 2012, browser compatibility has been and continues to be a cornerstone of our development roadmap and evolution. As a team, we have made the decision to end IE11 support for Avada as of the release of version 7.4.

The most commonly used internet browsers are Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Microsoft Edge, Interner Explorer, and Opera. Browser compatibility is about how a website page or post looks in each of these browsers. In the field of website development and maintenance, compatibility is essential for a reliable end-user experience. Firefox will render a website differently than Chrome or Internet Explorer will. Hence, it is crucial to ensure that your website is compatible across different browser types. Each browser type will interpret the document (code) differently when it converts it into HTML language that results in a well-formatted web page for users to interact with.

Ensuring that Avada is cross-browser compatible is crucial so that your website’s features and functionality is highlighted correctly to your visitors that will invariably use different browser-OS combinations, devices, and assistive tools.

If it were practical to do so, it would happen; however, it isn’t. Most modern internet browsers are predictable in their behavior because of the various organizations that create the browser developers’ coding standards. The time it takes for development teams to bring their browser up to these standards through iterated releases can differ significantly. It is also not practical (for various reasons) for browser developers to alter their old (deprecated) browsers to meet evolving standards and web technologies, and when you view a web page in an old browser, it may look or behave differently than intended by the website developer.

In short, because it is important to us that anyone that works with Avada on WordPress or visits an Avada powered website has the best possible user experience. IE11 does not provide the website visitor with a modern and reliable experience.

Because web standards and technologies are continually evolving, and so too is the Avada Website Builder, it is important for our team to direct their efforts where it matters most; In this case, modern browser rendering. Browsers like Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Opera and even Microsoft Edge, are evolving and continually being updated and improved to match web standards and this is a good thing. Internet Explorer on the other hand is not evolving. In fact, Microsoft advises against using this browser as the deault browser choice. Futhermore, the Microsoft 365 Apps team is saying goodbye to IE11 by August 17, 2021.

WordPress.org is also in active discussion about when to end support for Internet Explorer 11 (IE11) and will likely be fairly soon. As summarized in this post the current state of Internet Explorer usage among WordPress users and references three metrics that clealy indicate a decline bringing it down to below 1%:

Standards, technologies, and requirements are continually changing. With these changes come improvements for modern web browsers that allow website and framework developers to continue pushing the envelope on what is possible. At Avada HQ, this mindset is at the core of what we do and envisage for Avada.