diff --git a/CHANGES/v2.5.md b/CHANGES/v2.5.md
index 5c63c2230ff85fd6e7f0a54fa4461dbb33932e7b..3d822732174cda72d02939d119ab26d955365d1f 100644
--- a/CHANGES/v2.5.md
+++ b/CHANGES/v2.5.md
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 @page CHANGES-2-5 Version 2.5
 
-## Version 2.5 (beta)
+## Version 2.5 (Dec 19, 2018)
 
 This page contains changes that will end up in 2.5
 
diff --git a/VERSION b/VERSION
index 2490e4577f522a517c14a351fc2218de7a9e542e..a2d28c799d12c8cec17e7cea2c3b6d5b0cda4fe5 100644
--- a/VERSION
+++ b/VERSION
@@ -5,4 +5,4 @@
 # (this is same as gromacs)
 # Notice that "plumed info --version" will return only 2.X
 # and "plumed info --long-version" will return the full string
-2.5b
+2.5.0