Umbraco 13 End of Support is Approaching: Why Now is the Time to Plan Your Upgrade

Organisations running websites on Umbraco 13 face a clear deadline as official support for the platform is scheduled to end in December 2026. 
 
As an Umbraco Gold Partner, Mediaworks works with organisations to build, maintain and upgrade Umbraco websites, so we know how much planning is needed to move from one major version to the next without disrupting performance, content management or day-to-day operations. 

December may seem some distance away, but website upgrades depend on careful planning, testing and execution. Leaving migration work until the final months results in compressed timelines, stretched resources and avoidable security exposure. 

What Does End of Support Mean? 

When Umbraco 13 reaches End of Support (EOS), it will no longer receive: 

• Security patches 

• Bug fixes 

• Platform updates 

• Technical support from Umbraco 

Your site itself will continue to function, but it will no longer be protected against newly discovered issues. Any future vulnerabilities, compatibility problems or platform defects will be yours to manage without official patches or support. Over time, that makes the site harder to maintain, harder to upgrade and more exposed than it needs to be. 

As cyber threats evolve and browser technologies change, unsupported platforms tend to become harder and more expensive to maintain.  

Why Upgrade to Umbraco 17? 

Umbraco 17 is the current Long Term Support (LTS) release and marks a meaningful step forward for organisations thinking about the longevity of their digital platforms. 

The keys benefits of upgrading your CMS version are: 

Security 

A supported version means continued access to security updates and protection against emerging vulnerabilities.  

Performance 

Umbraco 17 builds on the latest Microsoft .NET framework improvements, which translate into faster performance, better scalability and improved efficiency. 

Editor Experience 

Content teams gain a more streamlined and intuitive editing environment, which reduces administrative overhead and makes day to day content management easier. 

Future Compatibility 

Upgrading keeps a platform aligned with modern integrations, hosting environments, third party services and future Umbraco releases.  

Reduced Technical Debt 

Older CMS versions often require bespoke workarounds and unsupported packages. An upgrade simplifies architecture, improves maintainability and lowers long term support costs. 

Why Start Planning Now? 

The effort involved in upgrading a business critical website is frequently underestimated. A successful upgrade usually involves: 

• Technical audits 

• Package compatibility reviews 

• Infrastructure assessments 

• Content validation 

• User acceptance testing 

• SEO and performance testing 

• Deployment planning 

For larger or more complex sites, the work from discovery through to launch can run to several months. It is also worth noting that Umbraco 13 is built on .NET 8, which itself reaches end of support in November 2026, slightly ahead of Umbraco 13 itself. 

Starting early creates room to assess the current environment, surface risks and schedule delivery around business priorities. The alternative, planning against a fixed deadline, removes that flexibility and tends to increase both cost and risk. 

An Opportunity to Improve, Not Just Upgrade 

An upgrade should not just be framed as a technical exercise, but also an opportunity to revisit decisions that may no longer serve the business. 

It is a natural moment to: 

• Improve user experience 

• Strengthen accessibility compliance 

• Increase website performance 

• Review content architecture 

• Reinforce SEO foundations 

• Modernise integrations and workflows 

Many organisations treat a platform upgrade as a catalyst for wider digital improvement, using it to make sure the website continues to support evolving business objectives rather than simply matching its previous state. 

How Mediaworks Can Help 

As an Umbraco Gold Partner, Mediaworks supports organisations through strategic consultancy, user experience design, development and ongoing optimisation. 

Our team has delivered complex Umbraco migrations and upgrades across both public and private sector organisations, with a focus on protecting performance, security and search visibility throughout the transition. 

With Umbraco 13 support ending in December 2026, the months ahead are a sensible window to review your upgrade roadmap and plan a considered move to Umbraco 17.  

Get in touch today to plan your Umbraco upgrade before support ends, so you can reduce future risk and avoid a last-minute migration.