installed phpbb3 v3.3.11 with some concerns

[AvianDirectory]

Just installed phpbb3 v3.3.11 on Windows 11.
I have been using my own website for years, which I wrote myself but would like to start again, but building it around phpbb3. I do have a few concerns though.

My concerns are...
How frequent are new versions released?
If a new release is ever installed, will I have to add all the modifications back again, as I assume it will remove any new modifications I make?
Is it safer to update or install later versions manually or using the inbuilt phpbb3 auto section?
The user accounts on my own site can be added to phpbb3 easily enough, but phpbb3 uses a different encryption for passwords, I believe my PHP scrips uses MD5 encryption, but not sure how phpbb3 encrypts passwords.

Just a side note, I have used many forums over the decades, I have even written a couple myself, but I always come back to phpbb because of its reliability. The only downfall at the time was the constant updating and newer versions being released, which meant losing a lot of work. Updates are always great, but can be a real pain in the butt. My main reason for using phpbb3 was because while designing my own forum, I had a LOT of trouble managing images in the WYSIWYG editor.

[warmweer]

My concerns are...
How frequent are new versions released?

There is no fixed frequency.
In Announcements you can see when new versions were released.

If a new release is ever installed, will I have to add all the modifications back again, as I assume it will remove any new modifications I make?
Is it safer to update or install later versions manually or using the inbuilt phpbb3 auto section?

As with all modifications: there is no guarantee these will work with a new version of phpBB as parts of the base code may have changed. This implies that even using the Advanced Update system, it's up to you to verify that your code still functions as you intended, and if not: it's up to you to verify it's functioning and modify if necessary.

[ssl]

There is no fixed frequency.
In Announcements you can see when new versions were released.

And here you can find out about the progress of future versions of phpBB
https://github.com/phpbb/phpbb/milestones

[AvianDirectory]

Thanks for the replies and for the useful info. Much appreciated.

[KevC]

It's worth noting that all approved 'modifications' are now with extensions which are completely separate from the core code so for most boards, updating is simply a case of replacing the core files as per the guidelines.
The only changes you would potentially lose are any hard coded changes you make and it's always been the case that the user is responsible for those. The advanced update procedure takes care of those.