Umbraco 8 reaches End-of-Life in February 2025: Here’s why now is the perfect time to upgrade

Umbraco is a popular open-source Content Management System (CMS) and has been a real game-changer for many organisations, empowering them to manage their digtial content easily and efficiently. It’s extendable, highly customisable, and user-friendly. As a leading Umbraco Partner, we work with organisations on Umbraco across a whole variety of sectors, including private, public, charity and non-profit. 
 
With Umbraco 8 scheduled to reach End-of-Life in February 2025, now is the perfect time to invest in an upgrade to a newer version, bringing a load of benefits including security, performance, user experience and sustainability, along with a range of new features. 

What does End-of-Life mean?

When we talk about the end of life for software, it means that a major version will no longer be supported by the Umbraco development team. 
 
This means there won’t be minor releases or patches, the team will no longer maintain features or release fixes for bugs or security issues.

Reasons to make the switch 

Security 

End-of-Life (EOL) for Umbraco 8 means no more security patches or official support from the developers, which can put your website under security risk without ongoing updates. By upgrading, you ensure your site is protected by the latest updates.

Performance and functionality 

Besides security, staying on outdated software means missing out on the latest features and performance improvements. Newer versions of Umbraco offer faster loading times, a better and more responsive user and editor experience, and exciting new functionalities. A slow and outdated site can also impact your Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and discourage users.

Sustainability

Newer versions of Umbraco also utilise newer versions of the .NET platform, known for its speed and efficiency. This means sites require less server power to run, reducing energy consumption and their overall carbon footprint. 
 
At Nexer we’ve helped our clients reduce the carbon outputs of their digital estates through upgrades. An example is our work helping NCC Group, whose global emissions we halved through an upgrade to Umbraco 10, gaining a 2023 Umbraco Award nomination for Best Green Solution.

New features 

Umbraco 13 is the newest version of Umbraco with Long-Term-Support (LTS) and comes with a whole host of great new features:   

• .NET 8 and C# 12: Umbraco 13 leverages the latest .NET 8 and C# 12 features to improve performance, scalability and offers new features for developers. Upgrading to Umbraco 13 can result in 1-3% more requests processed per second compared to Umbraco 12, creating a more carbon-efficient digital presence. 
• Dynamic Root: Umbraco 13 introduces a new "Dynamic Root" feature for the Multi Node Tree Picker. This makes setting up dynamic roots easier and more powerful than using the older XPath syntax. It also paves the way for future features that require the back office to bypass the published content cache. 
• No/Low-Code Webhooks: Umbraco 13 introduces Webhooks, a new feature that allows editors to integrate with external systems without needing code. Editors can specify a URL and events that trigger sending data to the URL. Umbraco handles the technical aspects and allows for extending functionality with custom webhooks. This empowers editors and reduces reliance on developers for certain integrations. 
• Nested field limiting and expansion: Umbraco 13 improves their headless Content Delivery API with nested field limiting and expansion. This allows developers to control which data is returned from nested content structures, offering more flexibility and potentially reducing the amount of data transferred. 
• Defining a Layout Block: Umbraco 13 introduces Blocks as an alternative to Macros in the Rich Text Editor. This allows for a more structured and flexible way to create content.
• Minimal Hosting Model: This simplifies how Umbraco applications start up, making it more aligned with the latest Microsoft standards. 
• Updated NuGet Dependencies: This includes an update to ImageSharp, a library used for image processing, which improves both performance and security. 
• Enhanced Media Delivery API: This improves how Umbraco delivers media in headless setups but may require adjustments to existing code due to necessary changes. 
• Concurrent Login Control: This is a new security feature that prevents users from logging in simultaneously from multiple devices. 
• Umbraco Forms: Faster form submissions with "async/await" for immediate confirmation pages. 
• Umbraco Deploy: Streamlined deployments with webhooks for schema transfers and notifications. 

Long term support

Upgrading ensures you continue to receive support and updates, keeping your website future-proofed. Umbraco has a robust versioning and release cadence, with every fourth major version (every 2 years) being a Long-Term Supported (LTS) version and aligned with LTS versions of the underlying .NET framework. 

Planning your Umbraco upgrade

Because newer versions of Umbraco include changes to the core coding for the software, upgrading from Umbraco 8 does mean a full rebuild for your site. This can sound daunting, but our experienced team, including Umbraco MVPs, are here to help and ensure the transition is pain-free.   
 
Newer versions from Umbraco 9 onwards have been designed for a more consistent and seamless upgrade experience, so making the switch now makes things much simpler going forward.  We'll work with you to plan, execute, and test the upgrade to minimise downtime and ensure a smooth transition to the new and improved Umbraco. 
 
Contact us today to discuss your Umbraco upgrade options and ensure your website remains secure, functional, and future-proofed.