Move an Umbraco 7 or 8 site without pretending it is a patch

Umbraco 7 has been end-of-life since September 2023. Umbraco 8 since February 2025. There is no direct code upgrade. We will tell you what content can come across, and whether Umbraco 17 is still the right home.

Book a free 30-minute discovery callTalk through your Umbraco site

Australian .NET team. We look at the site before anyone talks about a rebuild.

Still running Umbraco 7 or 8?

The site still works. That is why it has been left alone.

Umbraco 7 and 8 are classic ASP.NET / .NET Framework CMS installs. From 9 onward the product is ASP.NET Core. A lot of the sites we hear about were built when Grid Layout, Nested Content, and a handful of packages were the CMS. Then the person who understood the Document Types left.

You might recognise one of these:

  • You are on Umbraco 7 or 8, and someone said “just upgrade it”
  • Courier, Contour, a commerce package, or a community add-on is load-bearing
  • The backoffice is full of Grid, Nested Content, macros, or Angular extensions
  • The database is still SQL CE
  • You bought extra long-term support and it feels like a strategy
  • You are not sure whether to stay on Umbraco or leave it

You do not need a new brand, or a WordPress pitch. You need a clear read on the install you already have.

Why these sites stall

Umbraco is still a real product. The current long-term line is Umbraco 17, on .NET 10. The problem is not that HQ vanished. It is two framework breaks between you and that line, and no in-place climb.

Two breaks

Packages

v13 cliff

Cloud EOS

There is no direct 7 → 8, and no direct 8 → latest.

HQ’s upgrade docs say it in those words. 7 to 8 was a product rewrite. 8 to 9+ changed the web framework from ASP.NET to ASP.NET Core. Content can be migrated. Templates and custom code are reimplemented. The documented v8 database path goes 8 → 10, then major to major toward current. A v7 site is not “one upgrade”.

Every package is a separate project.

Forms, Deploy (Courier is end-of-life), commerce, and community packages must exist on the target major. Nested Content, Grid Layout, and macros were removed in 14. The AngularJS backoffice went in 14. A “jump to latest” from v8 is also a rebuild of the editor experience. SQL CE, common on old 7/8 sites, has no official migration path to v10+.

Umbraco 13 is not a 2026 home.

13 is an LTS in its security phase. It ends 14 December 2026. Do not land a project there unless you are using it as a short stepping stone. Umbraco 17 is the current LTS — released November 2025, on .NET 10, end of life 27 November 2028. Umbraco 18 is an STS with a 2027 end date; 16 already ended in June 2026.

On-prem sites keep running. Cloud has a published stop.

After end-of-life, HQ ships no security patches, bug fixes, or official support. They do not recommend hosting on those majors. They do not remotely switch an on-prem site off. Extra long-term support is a paid security-and-compliance bridge — v7 through 1 January 2027, v8 through 24 February 2027 — not a strategy. Cloud end-of-service is later (v7: 1 January 2028; v8: 24 February 2028). After that window, Cloud stops hosting. That is a hosting clock, not “Umbraco dies that day” for every install.

Commerce add-ons have split.

Old Ucommerce Classic is not Umbraco Commerce. Umbraco Commerce is the Vendr product, renamed after HQ acquired Outfield Digital. Vendr 3 itself ended 29 June 2024. If the site sells through Ucommerce, that is a second migration. We will not treat them as one product.

None of that makes the content or the information architecture worthless. It does mean “upgrade v8 to 17 over a weekend” is the wrong first move.

How we work

We start with the install, not with a destination.

1

Look at what you have

Version, Document Types, Grid / Nested Content / macros, packages, commerce add-on, SQL CE or SQL Server, and whether the site is on Cloud or on-prem. We will tell you what content can migrate, and what has to be rebuilt.

2

Decide the job

There are three honest outcomes. We recommend one, not all three.

3

Do the work in stages

Content, URLs, and the pages people actually use come across. Templates, Angular extensions, and packages that have no target-major equivalent do not.

4

Hand it back so the next person can run it

Source, a short record of what changed, and a site someone else can understand.

Three honest outcomes

  • Rebuild on Umbraco 17 LTS — content-migrate, rewrite templates and code. That is HQ’s current long runway, through November 2028.
  • Leave Umbraco for another CMS, a headless setup, or a custom .NET site if the rebuild cost is dominated by features you no longer want.
  • Buy time with XLTS only as a bridge, if a rebuild cannot start this year. Say it plainly: paid security-only, with a hard Cloud end-of-service behind it. Not a destination.

We will not tell you Umbraco 13 is the place to land. We will not tell you WordPress is the answer to every 7/8 site. If you already know you want to stay on Umbraco forever, an Umbraco-only partner may be a better fit. If you want an honest fork in the road, talk to us.

What we need for the first call

A URL and a rough version is enough to start.

  • Which Umbraco version: 7, 8, or already somewhere in 9–13
  • Which packages are custom or commercial (Forms, Courier/Deploy, commerce, community)
  • Whether Grid, Nested Content, macros, or Angular backoffice extensions are in use
  • SQL CE or SQL Server
  • Cloud or on-prem, and whether an XLTS contract exists
  • Hosting today (old Windows server, Azure, Umbraco Cloud)
  • What “done” looks like: stay on Umbraco, leave it, or get a clear picture first

The first call is 30 minutes. You leave with a recommendation you can take to a manager, not a rebuild estimate pulled from thin air.

Related work

We have taken over and modernised ageing .NET systems for Australian organisations, including work with Data#3, Hastie, NESS, and NSW Health. That is related Microsoft web work, not a published Umbraco 7/8 → 17 case study. An Umbraco 7 or 8 install still starts with its own assessment. We will not pretend it is a project we have already published.

FAQ

Can you upgrade Umbraco 7 or 8 in place?
No. HQ says there is no direct path. Content can migrate. Templates and custom code are a rewrite. A v7 site has two framework breaks in front of it, not one.
Should we land on Umbraco 13?
Not as a 2026 home. 13 is already in its security phase and ends 14 December 2026. If you are staying with Umbraco, 17 LTS is the current long runway.
Will HQ switch the site off?
Not on-prem. The site keeps running; it stops getting patches. Cloud is the side with a published end-of-service — January 2028 for v7, February 2028 for v8.
Is extra long-term support enough?
It is paid time. It is not unlimited, and it is not a substitute for a destination. Use it to plan the move, not to postpone the question.
We only have a backup and an old server.
That is common. Bring that.

Talk through the Umbraco site you already have

Thirty minutes. Bring a URL and a version number if you know it. We will tell you whether to rebuild on 17, leave Umbraco, or buy time — and we will not pretend 13 is a long home.

Book a free 30-minute discovery call