Echo v5 moves the module path, not just the API, and its Makefile still points at the v4 path

The module path gained a /v5 suffix, and every import has to follow it

Echo sits on Go's standard net/http and interoperates with it through echo.WrapHandler and echo.WrapMiddleware rather than replacing it. The v5 line changes the module identity itself, not just function signatures.

module github.com/labstack/echo/v5

go 1.25.0

// go get github.com/labstack/echo/{version}
go get github.com/labstack/echo/v5

The README states that v5 is the latest major version as of 2026-01-18, and that v4 continues to receive security updates and bug fixes until 2026-12-31, with the policy recorded in ROADMAP.md. The practical consequence is that v4 and v5 are separate Go modules living side by side: a project can depend on both during a migration, and every handler, middleware, and test helper in between has to be converted. The install snippet also carries a first line marked with a C-style comment marker, so pasting both lines into a shell fails on the first one and only the second line is runnable.

v5 handlers take *echo.Context and the logger now comes from log/slog

The example program in the README shows the shape of a v5 handler, and two details are already different from the v4 code most tutorials contain. The handler signature is `func hello(c *echo.Context) error`, taking a pointer, and the logging middleware is registered as `e.Use(middleware.RequestLogger())` with no logger argument passed in, because the example imports log/slog from the standard library and calls `slog.Error` directly when the server fails to start. The panic middleware is likewise `e.Use(middleware.Recover())`, registered with no configuration value. The consequence for an upgrade is that v4 code which supplies a logger or a config struct to those constructors will not compile as written, and the README does not enumerate the old signatures. API_CHANGES_V5.md is the file that carries the public API changes between the two majors plus notes on upgrading, and it is the first thing to read rather than the truncated example.

The core pulls x/net and x/time; every feature beyond that is another repository

The dependency list in go.mod is short. The module requires golang.org/x/net v0.57.0 and golang.org/x/time v0.15.0, with github.com/stretchr/testify v1.11.1 for tests and a small indirect set including golang.org/x/text and gopkg.in/yaml.v3. There is no logging library, no ORM, and no JWT package in there, because the design puts those in modules you choose. What the Echo team maintains is four repositories: echo-jwt for JWT, echo-contrib for casbin, gorilla/sessions, and pprof, echo-otel for OpenTelemetry tracing and metrics, and echo-prometheus for metrics. The feature overview items you might expect to find inside the framework, template rendering with any template engine, a logger whose format you define, automatic TLS via Let's Encrypt, and HTTP/2 support, are extension points rather than bundled code. The consequence is that capability in an Echo service is a function of which separate module you adopted, and every one of them is a dependency you now own.

The third-party middleware table comes with a warning that the team cannot vouch for it

The README splits middleware into what the Echo team maintains and a separate table of third-party repositories, and it opens that second table with a warning worth reading before you copy a line from it. The stated position is that the Echo team does not have the time or manpower to guarantee the safety and quality of the middleware listed there. The entries include oapi-codegen, which generates OpenAPI client and server code, swaggo/echo-swagger for Swagger 2.0 documentation, and ziflex/lecho, a Zerolog wrapper for the Echo logger interface. The consequence is a split trust model: JWT, OpenTelemetry, and Prometheus middleware come from the same maintainers as the router, while the logger wrapper you may want for structured output does not, and neither do the documentation generators. The interface a third-party middleware targets is also the thing most likely to move between v4 and v5, so a middleware written against the old context type is a rewrite, not a version bump.

The Makefile resolves its package list against the v4 path and installs linters at latest

The build tooling has its own rough edges. The package variable that every target expands is set without the version suffix.

PKG := "github.com/labstack/echo"

That value feeds the lint, vet, test, race, and benchmark targets, so on a module whose own path is github.com/labstack/echo/v5, the package list comes from the v4 path instead. The lint target is also a two-step contract: make init installs golang.org/x/lint/golint and honnef.co/go/tools/cmd/staticcheck at their latest versions, and lint then runs staticcheck followed by golint with -set_exit_status. Both tools are fetched unpinned, so the set of complaints your build fails on can change when upstream publishes a release, with nothing in the repository recording which version was used. The default goal is check, which chains lint, vet, and race, meaning a plain make runs the data race detector over the whole package list before any test target is reached.

make test_version requires a TTY, so the container test target stalls in CI

There is a target for checking the module against a chosen Go version in a container, and its default is described in the target's own comment as 1.25, the oldest supported version.

goversion ?= "1.25"
test_version: ## Run tests inside Docker with given version (defaults to 1.25 oldest supported). Example: make test_version goversion=1.25
	@docker run --rm -it -v $(shell pwd):/project golang:$(goversion) /bin/sh -c "cd /project && make init check"

The -it flags allocate an interactive terminal, which is fine on a workstation and a problem in a non-interactive runner, where the command has no TTY to attach to. Inside the container it runs make init check rather than make test, so the verification you get from this target is lint, vet, and the race detector, with the install step re-downloading the linters each time. The consequence is that version-matrix testing here is a manual loop, and the README's separate claim that the latest version supports the last four Go major releases is not something this target checks for you by default.

Errors live in httperror.go and rfc9457.go, and the feature list leaves the payload shape to you

Centralized HTTP error handling is on the feature list, and the source tree shows where it sits: httperror.go and rfc9457.go sit at the repository root next to response.go, binder.go, and renderer.go, with matching test files for each. What the README does not do is state what an error looks like on the wire, or show a handler returning one, so the format your clients parse is decided by your code rather than fixed by the framework's documentation. The same pattern holds elsewhere in the overview: handy functions to send a variety of HTTP responses, a logger whose format you define, and template rendering with any engine are all things you configure. The consequence is a framework that gives you the plumbing and leaves the contract with your consumers undefined, which makes an API design decision yours to write down and keep stable across v5 releases.

Editorial conclusion

Echo suits teams that want standard library interoperability through echo.WrapHandler and a small core dependency set, and that are willing to track a module path ending in v5. It does not suit a project that needs a bundled middleware catalog, because authentication, tracing, metrics, and authorization all arrive as separate repositories, some of which the maintainers explicitly decline to vouch for. Before migrating, read API_CHANGES_V5.md for the API differences, check the ROADMAP.md support policy against your own timeline, and decide now whether you will still be shipping after December 31, 2026, when v4 support ends.

Frequently asked questions

Official sources

1. Official documentation
2. Official README
3. Project repository
4. Release notes