Grails upgrades & legacy rescue
Stepwise major-version upgrades, Java 8 → 17, dead plugins replaced, Spring Security and GORM fixed, and the cutover rehearsed before it happens.
Grails since 2012 · Every major version, 2 → 6
Grails apps, brought current. SaaS, built end to end.
I'm Tyler Rafferty, a senior Grails/Groovy engineer since 2012. I've shipped production code on every major Grails version from 2 through 6, and I build SaaS products with Stripe, AWS and AI.
- 2.5.6
- 3.3.18
- 4.1.4
- 5.3.6
- 6.2.3
End of life
Grails 6 reached end of life in October 2025.
If your app runs on Grails 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6, it's on an unsupported framework, usually with an old Spring and Java stack underneath.
I've upgraded two large Grails 2.5.6 applications to 6.2.3 and Java 17, one of them a major version at a time. Both are now in final pre-launch testing. I know where these upgrades break.
- Grails 2End of life
- Grails 3End of life
- Grails 4End of life
- Grails 5End of life
- Grails 6End of life
- Grails 7Current
- 14 yearsin Grails, since 2012
- 2 → 6Production code on every major Grails version
- ~17 minProduction cutover, rehearsed on a restored copy of the database: zero schema failures
- 55 → ~6,600Empty test stubs to test cases on a legacy upgrade
Services
Grails modernization first. The full stack when you need it.
The place to start is a fixed-price upgrade assessment: a written plan for getting your app onto a supported stack, before you commit to the upgrade itself.
SaaS from zero
Multi-tenancy, role-based access, Stripe billing, AWS, reporting and CI/CD, as a senior IC, tech lead or fractional CTO.
JVM data & performance
Large-dataset sync, multi-datasource GORM and throughput tuning.
AI integration & AI-accelerated delivery
OpenAI pipelines built for production scale, and AI coding agents directed with tests and independent verification.
Selected work
Real upgrades, real numbers, honest status.
Own product
MyPetCerts
My own SaaS, live since 2016. Its Grails 6.2.3 / Java 17 rebuild is in final cutover prep, and I rehearsed the production cutover end to end: one pass, about 17 minutes, zero schema failures.
Live since 2016; Grails 6.2.3 v2 in final cutover prep
Co-founded venture
Discoveria
A pre-launch, patient-friendly clinical-trials platform. I took it from Grails 2.5.6 to 6.2.3 one major version at a time, and built an AI content pipeline behind a ~2M-page site built from 500K+ clinical trials.
Pre-launch, aiming to launch before the end of 2026
Client engagement · a commercial property-inspection firm
Multi-tenant inspection SaaS
For a commercial property-inspection firm, I built a multi-tenant inspection, work-order and contractor platform from scratch, solo, on Grails 6.2.3 and Java 17.
Feature-complete, in final QA ahead of a paid launch
Tell me what version you're on and what's breaking.
I'll tell you what the path looks like.