diff --git a/testing/mozharness/scripts/release/postrelease_version_bump.py b/testing/mozharness/scripts/release/postrelease_version_bump.py
index 834355f26dd4..39e0aad26dbb 100644
--- a/testing/mozharness/scripts/release/postrelease_version_bump.py
+++ b/testing/mozharness/scripts/release/postrelease_version_bump.py
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@
 A script to increase in-tree version number after shipping a release.
 """
 
+from distutils.version import StrictVersion
 import os
 import sys
 
@@ -158,15 +159,13 @@ class PostReleaseVersionBump(MercurialScript, BuildbotMixin,
         """Bump version"""
         dirs = self.query_abs_dirs()
         for f in self.config["version_files"]:
-            curr_version = self.get_version(dirs['abs_gecko_dir'], f["file"])
-            next_version = self.config['next_version'].split('.')
+            curr_version = ".".join(self.get_version(dirs['abs_gecko_dir'], f["file"]))
+            next_version = self.config['next_version']
 
-            if next_version <= curr_version:
+            if StrictVersion(next_version) <= StrictVersion(curr_version):
                 self.warning("Version bumping skipped due to conflicting values")
                 continue
             else:
-                curr_version = ".".join(curr_version)
-                next_version = ".".join(next_version)
                 self.replace(os.path.join(dirs['abs_gecko_dir'], f["file"]),
                              curr_version, self.config["next_version"])