diff --git a/goosebit/ui/bff/software/responses.py b/goosebit/ui/bff/software/responses.py
index 62fd771f..e423acf9 100644
--- a/goosebit/ui/bff/software/responses.py
+++ b/goosebit/ui/bff/software/responses.py
@@ -5,7 +5,8 @@
 from tortoise.queryset import QuerySet
 
 from goosebit.schema.software import SoftwareSchema
-from goosebit.ui.bff.common.requests import DataTableRequest
+
+from ..common.requests import DataTableOrderDirection, DataTableRequest
 
 
 class BFFSoftwareResponse(BaseModel):
@@ -23,15 +24,24 @@ async def convert(cls, dt_query: DataTableRequest, query: QuerySet, search_filte
 
         filtered_records = await query.count()
 
-        if dt_query.order_query:
-            query = query.order_by(dt_query.order_query)
+        if len(dt_query.order) > 0 and dt_query.order[0].name == "version":
+            # ordering cannot be delegated to database as semantic versioning sorting is not supported
+            software = await query.all()
+            reverse = dt_query.order[0].dir == DataTableOrderDirection.DESCENDING
+            software.sort(key=lambda s: s.parsed_version, reverse=reverse)
 
-        # if no ordering is specified, database-side paging can be used
-        if dt_query.length is not None:
-            query = query.limit(dt_query.length)
+            # in-memory paging
+            if dt_query.length is None:
+                software = software[dt_query.start :]
+            else:
+                software = software[dt_query.start : dt_query.start + dt_query.length]
 
-        software = await query.offset(dt_query.start).all()
+        else:
+            # if no ordering is specified, database-side paging can be used
+            if dt_query.length is not None:
+                query = query.limit(dt_query.length)
 
+            software = await query.offset(dt_query.start).all()
         data = [SoftwareSchema.model_validate(s) for s in software]
 
         return cls(data=data, draw=dt_query.draw, records_total=total_records, records_filtered=filtered_records)
diff --git a/tests/unit/ui/bff/software/test_routes.py b/tests/unit/ui/bff/software/test_routes.py
index f3053379..a0813765 100644
--- a/tests/unit/ui/bff/software/test_routes.py
+++ b/tests/unit/ui/bff/software/test_routes.py
@@ -8,9 +8,9 @@ async def test_list_software_version_asc(async_client, test_data):
     assert response.status_code == 200
     software = response.json()["data"]
     assert len(software) == 3
-    assert software[0]["version"] == test_data["software_release"].version
-    assert software[1]["version"] == test_data["software_beta"].version
-    assert software[2]["version"] == test_data["software_rc"].version
+    assert software[0]["version"] == test_data["software_beta"].version
+    assert software[1]["version"] == test_data["software_rc"].version
+    assert software[2]["version"] == test_data["software_release"].version
 
 
 @pytest.mark.asyncio
@@ -20,6 +20,6 @@ async def test_list_software_version_desc(async_client, test_data):
     assert response.status_code == 200
     software = response.json()["data"]
     assert len(software) == 3
-    assert software[0]["version"] == test_data["software_rc"].version
-    assert software[1]["version"] == test_data["software_beta"].version
-    assert software[2]["version"] == test_data["software_release"].version
+    assert software[0]["version"] == test_data["software_release"].version
+    assert software[1]["version"] == test_data["software_rc"].version
+    assert software[2]["version"] == test_data["software_beta"].version