Update

Overview

With Umbraco 8 reaching end of life in February 2025, upgrading to the latest version (Umbraco v13) brings a host of benefits that enhance the functionality, performance, security, and overall user experience of your CMS.

The upgrade process does however require careful planning and execution due to the substantial changes in architecture, features, and best practices introduced in the newer versions.

This guide will walk you through the key considerations, steps, and best practices to ensure a smooth upgrade.

Why Upgrade to Umbraco v13?

  1. End of life (EOL): Umbraco 8 will officially reach its EOL in February 2025, which means that Umbraco will no longer be providing updates, security patches or official support for this version

  2. Enhanced features and efficiency: Umbraco 13 comes with numerous new features, including improved content management, better media handling, and a more intuitive user interface; enabling editors to manage and publish content more efficiently

  3. Improved speed and performance: with a focus on resolving speed issues and increasing platform performance, Umbraco 13 offers optimisations that lead to faster load times, improved responsiveness, and better overall performance

  4. Security enhancements: upgrading to v13 ensures you benefit from the most recent security patches and improvements and helps protect sites from the latest threats and/or vulnerabilities

  5. Community and support: Umbraco v13 is actively supported, providing access to a wide range of up-to-date documentation, community resources, and help for any issues that may arise.

What would typically be included in an upgrade?

  • Technology upgrade: Umbraco 13 runs on the very latest .NET core technology which replaced the aging .NET framework 

  • Custom feature migration: previously tailored solutions aligned to your business requirements upgraded 

  • Security boost: advanced bug fixes and security improvements to protect against threats

  • Advanced testing: thorough testing of the upgraded site in a staging environment, including checks for functionality, performance, and compatibility issues

  • Deployment: full deployment of the upgraded version to the production environment, with no downtime

  • Ongoing maintenance and support: continuous support throughout the entire upgrade process, including ongoing maintenance and monitoring.

Interested in hearing more?

Contact the 16i team.