Background and Umbraco release schedule
Umbraco releases a new major version every 6 months. Every fourth version is a long-term support (LTS) version supported for 3 years, with versions in between supported 1 year from release. For more details, see umbraco.com/products/knowledge-center/long-term-support-and-end-of-life/
Umbraco 13 was released in December 2023 and will reach end of life in December 2026. Once a version reaches end of life, no further security patches or bug fixes will be released, meaning any newly discovered vulnerabilities could leave your website / application vulnerable.
Umbraco 17 was released in November 2025 and is supported until November 2028. We recommend upgrading all Umbraco 13 sites to Umbraco 17 by December 2026.
We generally recommend our customers to stay on the long-term support versions for the stability and less frequent upgrade requirements, unless a new feature in a newer short-term support version is desired to be used.
Upgrading Umbraco 13 to Umbraco 17
Challenges
Umbraco upgrades have become a lot simpler than they were back on version 7 or 8.
This generally holds true for upgrading a site from Umbraco 13 to 17. Backend code is mostly unaffected and upgrading backend packages from .NET 8 to .NET 10 is straight forward.
However, Umbraco have rebuilt the backoffice user interface you see when you log in to the content management area at /umbraco/. This rebuild was released with version 14 and was the last part of the modernisation started with the move to ASP.NET Core as the underlying framework in Umbraco 9.
The rebuilt backoffice has the following impacts:
- Two previously popular built-in editors were retired: Nested Content and Grid. Modern editors with superior functionality exist with the Block List and Block Grid editors.
- Macros were retired and replaced with blocks inside the rich text editor
- Custom plugins will need to be rebuilt using web components (instead of the outdated AngularJS).
- Third-party plugins will need to be upgraded where an upgraded version is available.
The good news is that we have already dealt with Nested Content and Grid if we have upgraded your website from Umbraco 8. We stopped using those editors as soon as we became aware of their planned retirement.
The retirement of macros will only affect some of our customers.
We are also only utilising the most well supported third-party plugins, meaning they can be upgraded to their Umbraco 17 versions.
If your site has custom bespoke editors, dashboards or import interfaces, these will need to be rebuilt to work with the new backoffice.
Opportunities
AI integration
This is where we get excited and believe our clients have a reason to upgrade beside security and compliance.
Umbraco have released official AI components that open up the platform for use with your preferred model. The Umbraco.AI plugin comes with built-in features like image alt text generation, but that is just the beginning: it enables to integrate AI wherever it makes sense to you and your editors to improve your productivity.
Umbraco have implemented AI support in a highly customisable way without prescribing a specific provider or LLM, it can be used with your preferred model.
AI is rapidly evolving and already has many use cases, we see the opportunity of integrating AI in your upgraded site to help you succeed with your online presence.
Brett demonstrated some of the new features at a Umbraco 360° Community Event in Auckland in March 2026 - click here to watch the 15 minute demo.
You can also find out more at umbraco.com/ai/
Performance and scalability
Umbraco have improved support for load-balancing to make it simpler to implement. This can benefit websites with high traffic volumes.
Risks of staying on an unsupported version
Your website would continue to work on an unsupported version. However, any newly discovered vulnerabilities would not receive patches. Your website would therefore become increasingly exposed to unpatched vulnerabilities, which could have severe consequences.
We therefore recommend upgrading your site before the end of life of Umbraco 13 in December 2026.