How do I create a project based on a specific version of Symfony using composer?

try the Symfony Installer ...

To create a traditional web application :

symfony new --webapp my_project_name

and to build a lightweight app like a microservice, console application or API :

symfony new my_project_name

to install the current LTS version :

symfony new my_project_name --version=lts

to install the latest stable version :

symfony new my_project_name --version=stable

to install the development version :

symfony new my_project_name --version=next

to install a specific version :

symfony new my_project_name --version=4.4

OR with composer :

composer create-project symfony/website-skeleton my_project ^4.4.0

to install a full project in the 4.4.X stable version

or :

composer create-project symfony/skeleton my_project ^4.4.0 

to install a lightweight project with fewer requirements

I tried:

composer create-project symfony/website-skeleton my_project 4.4.0 

but this didn't work. I got following error:

Could not find package symfony/skeleton with version 4.4.0.

Then I tried:

composer create-project symfony/website-skeleton my_project ^4.4.0

and this worked.