diff --git a/RELEASE_NOTES b/RELEASE_NOTES
index 590c5db69f2..9d2bef5bef9 100644
--- a/RELEASE_NOTES
+++ b/RELEASE_NOTES
@@ -7,6 +7,39 @@ The latest version of easybuild-easyconfig provides 20,561 easyconfig files, for
 incl. 41 different (compiler) toolchains.
 
 
+v4.9.4 (22 september 2024)
+--------------------------
+
+update/bugfix release
+
+- added example easyconfig files for XXX new software packages:
+  - Biotite (#21026), chopper (#21418), CLUMPP (#21329), cramino (#21382), dub (#21378), ESM3 (#21026), GOMC (#21008),
+    MOKIT (#21352), nanoQC (#21371), phasius (#21389), PyBullet (#21356), rnamotif (#21336), versioningit (#21424),
+    xskillscore (#21351)
+- added additional easyconfigs for various supported software packages, including:
+  - awscli 2.17.54, BiG-SCAPE-1.1.9, ccache 4.10.2, CLHEP 2.4.7.1, CREST 3.0.2, decona 1.4-2024073, dftd4 3.7.0,
+    GATE 9.4, Gdk-Pixbuf 2.42.11, Geant4 11.2.2, Geant4-data 11.2, Ghostscript 10.03.1, GitPython 3.1.43,
+    GObject-Introspection 1.80.1, HarfBuzz 9.0.0, ImageMagick 7.1.1-38, JasPer 4.2.4, joypy 0.2.6, Julia 1.10.4,
+    LDC 1.39.0, Leptonica 1.84.1, Markdown 3.7, MPICH 4.2.2, NanoComp 1.24.0, nanoget 1.19.3, nanomath 1.4.0,
+    NanoPlot 1.43.0, Pango 1.54.0, PCAngsd 1.2, Pillow 10.4.0, python-isal 1.7.0, pocl 6.0, PROJ 9.4.1, protobuf 28.0,
+    protobuf-python 5.28.0, R-tesseract 5.2.1, RepeatMasker 4.1.7-p1, RHEIA 1.1.11, RMBlast 2.14.1,
+    scikit-build-core 0.10.6, sleuth 0.30.1, SNAP-ESA 10.0.0, tesseract 5.3.4, Triton 2.1.0, TurboVNC 3.1.2,
+    VirtualGL 3.1.1, zlib-ng 2.2.1
+- minor enhancements, including:
+  - enable support for Apache ORC to Arrow v14.0.1 and v16.1.0 (#21056)
+  - use proper dependency for tensorboard in easyconfigs for TensorFlow v2.15.1 (#21337)
+- various bug fixes, including:
+  - account for crates for easyconfigs using Cargo-based easyblock when determining checksums for patches in easyconfigs test suite (#21419)
+  - avoid missing symbol in mclust extension of R-4.0.3 w/ foss/2020b (#21429)
+  - fix build of librosa 0.10.1 in some environments by removing "python -m build" for soxr extension (#21434)
+  - fix repeated sanity check runs in manta easyconfigs (#21435)
+  - fix test_easyconfig_locations when easyconfigs index is present (#21394)
+  - use proper dependency for libnsl in git-annex (#21441)
+  - avoid writing into ~/.stack directory during build for git-annex (#21452)
+- other changes:
+  - remove exts_default_options from TensorFlow 2.3.1 (#21290)
+
+
 v4.9.3 (14 September 2024)
 --------------------------
 
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 47b7fc09bd1..a2774a7bbe2 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -44,7 +44,7 @@
 # recent setuptools versions will *TRANSFORM* something like 'X.Y.Zdev' into 'X.Y.Z.dev0', with a warning like
 #   UserWarning: Normalizing '2.4.0dev' to '2.4.0.dev0'
 # This causes problems further up the dependency chain...
-VERSION = '4.9.4.dev0'
+VERSION = '4.9.4'
 
 MAJ_VER = VERSION.split('.')[0]
 MAJMIN_VER = '.'.join(VERSION.split('.')[0:2])