Your Umbraco upgrade, planned in five steps

What to audit before moving to the latest long-term support release, and how long it really takes.

Umbraco

v7 → v17

If your site still runs on Umbraco 7 or 8, it's on software that no longer receives security fixes. Even newer sites need a plan, because each long-term support (LTS) release is supported for a fixed period. Upgrades go smoothly when they're planned. These are the five steps we follow.

1. Audit what you have

We list every document type, template, package and integration, and check which packages support the target release. Umbraco 7 and 8 run on .NET Framework, while modern Umbraco runs on .NET, so custom code needs porting, not just recompiling.

2. Decide: upgrade or rebuild

Between recent versions, an upgrade is usually done in place. From 7 or 8 it's closer to a migration: the content moves across, but much of the code is rewritten. That's also the right moment to fix the parts of the content model and editor experience that frustrate your team.

3. Move the content

Content, media and members are migrated with scripts, then checked page by page against the old site. AI tools help us map and clean content at scale, and every change is reviewed.

4. Test everything that matters

Forms and integrationsEvery form, CRM sync and payment path tested end to end.

RedirectsOld URLs mapped to new ones so you keep your search rankings.

AccessibilityAutomated and manual checks against WCAG 2.2 AA.

PerformancePage speed measured before and after.

5. Launch, then keep current

We launch out of hours with a rollback plan, then monitor errors and search traffic for the first few weeks. After that, small regular updates cost far less than another big upgrade in five years' time.

The cheapest Umbraco upgrade is the one you do a little at a time.

Not sure where you stand? Tell us your Umbraco version and we'll explain what an upgrade involves.