Umbraco upgrades & migrations
Still on Umbraco 7 or 8? You're running software that stopped receiving security patches years ago, on a version of .NET that did the same. We move sites like yours onto the current version without losing URLs, content or rankings.
Find your version, find your problem
If you don't know which version you're on, log into the back office — it's on the bottom left of the dashboard. Or send us the URL and we'll tell you.
| Your version | Status | What it means for you |
|---|---|---|
| Umbraco 7 | End of life | No security patches. Runs on .NET Framework, which limits your hosting options and gets more expensive every year. This is a rebuild rather than an upgrade — the content comes across, the code doesn't. |
| Umbraco 8 | End of life | No security patches since 2025. Also .NET Framework. Same story as v7: content migrates, templates and custom code get rewritten. |
| Umbraco 9–12 | Out of support | Modern .NET, so this is a genuine upgrade rather than a rebuild. Usually straightforward, occasionally awkward if packages have been abandoned. |
| Umbraco 13 (LTS) | Supported | Fine for now. Worth planning the hop to the current LTS before support runs out rather than after. |
| Current | Supported | Nothing to do. If someone's told you otherwise, get a second opinion. |
Why it matters, in plain terms
Security
Unsupported software doesn't get patched. Known vulnerabilities stay open permanently, and “nobody's attacked us yet” is not a security posture — it's a coin toss you keep winning.
Cost of standing still
Old .NET Framework hosting is getting rarer and pricier. Developers who'll touch v7 are getting rarer too, and they charge accordingly. The bill grows the longer you wait.
Speed and Core Web Vitals
Modern .NET is dramatically faster, and Google measures real-world loading speed as a ranking factor. Migrations routinely cut load times by more than half.
How a migration actually runs
The site stays live the whole time. Nothing switches over until you've seen the new one working.
Audit
We go through what's there: version, packages, custom code, integrations, URL structure. You get a written report and a fixed price, whether or not you go ahead.
Rebuild
New install on the current version, templates rebuilt, custom functionality ported. Content migrated automatically so it can be re-run right up to launch day.
Verify
Every old URL mapped to a new one and tested. Redirects, metadata, structured data, forms, integrations — all checked against the live site rather than assumed.
Switch
Final content sync, DNS cutover out of hours, then a fortnight of watching rankings and error logs closely. The old site stays available to roll back to.
What we commit to
- Every URL keeps working. Old addresses redirect to the right new page — no blanket redirect to the homepage, which is how migrations quietly destroy search rankings.
- All content comes across. Pages, media, members, and the relationships between them. Migrated by script so it's repeatable, not copy-pasted by hand.
- Rollback stays available. The old site stays running until we're both confident, so a bad launch is an inconvenience rather than a crisis.
- Fixed price after the audit. The audit exists so the quote is real. If we've misjudged the scope, that's our problem, not a change request.
- Rankings watched after launch. Two weeks of monitoring positions and crawl errors, with fixes included.
Migration questions
Will we lose our Google rankings?
Not if the redirects are done properly, which is the single biggest risk in any migration and the thing we spend most care on. Expect a small wobble for a week or two while Google recrawls, then recovery. Sites usually end up ranking better afterwards because they're faster.
Can we keep the current design?
Yes. A like-for-like rebuild is cheaper and lower risk than redesigning at the same time. That said, if the design is a decade old, doing both at once often costs less than doing them separately — we'll price both ways.
How long will the site be down?
Minutes, not days. The new site is fully built and tested before anything changes. The cutover is a DNS switch done out of hours.
What about our custom functionality?
It gets ported. Some of it will be replaced by things now built into Umbraco, some needs rewriting for modern .NET, and occasionally something turns out to be unused and gets dropped. The audit tells you which is which before you commit.
Our old developer is gone and nobody has the code. Now what?
Common, and not fatal. If we can get at the database and the running site, the content can be recovered. We've rebuilt from less. Get in touch and we'll tell you what's possible.
How much does a migration cost?
It depends on page count, how much of the build is custom, and what state the current site is in — which is exactly what the audit exists to establish. The audit gives you a fixed price for the migration itself, and you keep the report whether or not you go ahead.
Stuck on an old version?
Send us the URL. We'll tell you which version you're on, what shape it's in, and roughly what a migration would involve — before you spend anything.