In an example embodiment, a specialized software object, called a behavior toggle, is utilized for stateful applications in cloud environments. The behavior toggle, once enabled and used by an entity, is not able to be disabled anymore for that entity, other than by explicit migration. Unlike feature toggles, whose values are expressed using “true” or “false” flags or the like, behavior toggles are enabled by specific version. Specifically, the value indicates which version of the behavior is enabled. The behavior toggle software objects may then be referenced by, or included in, other software objects, to utilize the behavior toggle software objects with the other software objects and have the behavior toggle be applied to the other software objects.