Umbraco Agency: Upgrades, Builds and Support Planned Around the Release Calendar

Updated November 2026 · Written and maintained by the Progression Agency strategy team

Umbraco 13 reaches end of life on December 14, 2026. Sites on it keep running after that day, but its security phase is over and Umbraco HQ no longer recommends it. An Umbraco agency earns its fee in the months before the date: reading the site’s packages and custom code, deciding whether the move to Umbraco 17 LTS is an upgrade or a rebuild, and keeping editors publishing while it happens. Progression’s team is based in New York, plans Umbraco work with organizations across the US over shared screens, and comes on site when a project calls for it.

December 14, 2026, and the Umbraco 13 sites still running

Umbraco HQ publishes every release date in advance, and the calendar below is the whole planning problem in one picture. Umbraco 13 is the bar ending soonest. Its security phase began on December 14, 2025, and its end of life date is December 14, 2026.

The date is a planning deadline, not a shutdown. A site on Umbraco 13 keeps serving pages on December 15. What changes is that no one at Umbraco HQ is fixing security issues in that version, and the version drops out of Umbraco’s recommendations. For a site that holds member data, takes forms or sits behind a login, that is reason enough to have the move scheduled.

What actually changes on the day?

Support from Umbraco HQ for security fixes in version 13 ends. The site does not stop, licenses do not expire and content stays where it is. The risk is the one every unsupported system carries: a newly found security issue that never gets a fix for that version.

• Page views, forms and editing keep working on the day itself.
• New Umbraco Cloud projects cannot start on a version in its security phase or past it.
• Packages from third parties follow their own authors’ schedules, which are separate from Umbraco HQ’s.
• The longer the gap after the date, the larger the jump to a supported version.

What an Umbraco agency does before an end of life date

The work runs in a fixed order, and the first step costs the least and decides the most: an inventory of what the site actually is. The running version, every package and add-on, every piece of custom code and every integration go onto one list before anyone chooses a path.

From the inventory comes the target version, then the choice between an upgrade and a rebuild, then a staging copy where the move is rehearsed. Editors are trained on what changes, launch is scheduled around their publishing calendar, and a support plan takes over afterward. The plain advice: start the inventory at least two release cycles before the date, because a long-term release gives twelve months of security phase and no more.

• Inventory the running version, packages, add-ons and custom code.
• Choose the target version against the calendar above.
• Decide upgrade or rebuild from the inventory table below.
• Rehearse on a staging copy with the people who publish.
• Launch, then move to a support rhythm tied to Umbraco’s releases.

Umbraco runs on .NET, so the surrounding application work belongs to the same team. See .NET development services for that side of a project.

Why does the inventory come before the quote?

Two sites on the same version can be a weekend apart or a quarter apart, depending on how much custom code and how many packages they carry. A fixed price offered before the inventory is a guess about someone else’s code.

LTS or STS: choosing the version you will live with

Umbraco HQ ships two kinds of major release. Long-term support (LTS) releases get 6 months of Active phase, 18 months of Support phase and 12 months of Security phase, which is how Umbraco 13 and Umbraco 17 reach about three years. Standard-term support (STS) releases get 6 months, 3 months and 3 months, roughly a year in all.

LTS majors follow Microsoft’s .NET long-term releases. When a new .NET LTS arrives, a new Umbraco LTS follows shortly after, and the most recent is Umbraco 17, which supports .NET 10 LTS. Umbraco 18, 19 and 20 are STS releases. Umbraco 21, due December 9, 2027, is the next LTS.

The plain advice: most organizations that upgrade once every few years land on LTS, and a team that ships changes monthly and upgrades often can ride STS. Choose by how often your people are willing to do an upgrade, not by which number is newer.

• Choose LTS when the site changes slowly and upgrades are a project.
• Choose STS when a team upgrades every few months as routine.
• Check the .NET version your hosting supports before picking either.
• Write the next end of life date into the plan on day one.

Why Umbraco 18 is a short stop

Umbraco 18 was released on June 25, 2026 as an STS version. Its security phase begins March 25, 2027 and its end of life date is June 25, 2027, so a site that lands on it faces another move within a year. It suits a team with a habit of upgrading, and it is a poor home for a site that is touched twice a year.

How long do the phases last in months?

An LTS major runs 6 months Active, 18 Support and 12 Security, which is 36 months from release to end of life. An STS major runs 6, 3 and 3, which is 12 months. Umbraco 13’s dates fit the long-term pattern exactly, from December 14, 2023 to December 14, 2026.

Upgrade or rebuild: the inventory that decides

The choice is made one row at a time. Each row of the table below names an item, what to check about it, and which way the answer points. Most sites show a mix, and the rows that point toward a rebuild are the ones to price first.

Each custom extension is checked against Umbraco’s upgrade documentation for the target version. This page states no claim about specific breaking changes, because they differ by version pair and only the documentation for your two versions is the right authority.

Add-ons move with the CMS version

Umbraco Forms, Commerce, Workflow, Engage, UI Builder and Deploy carry version numbers aligned with the CMS and follow the same LTS timeline. An upgrade of the CMS therefore carries an upgrade of each add-on you license, and the schedule for them is the one in the calendar.

Sites still on Umbraco 7 or 8

Umbraco 7 reached end of life on September 30, 2023 and Umbraco 8 on February 24, 2025. A move from either is planned as a migration onto a current version, not as an upgrade. See website migration services for URL and search continuity on a move like that.

What an Umbraco project costs

An Umbraco development agency prices an upgrade from the inventory table, not from page count. Pricing depends on scope, is subject to change and is set in the written proposal, with the upgrade or rebuild plan stated first.

Umbraco Cloud plans, Extended Long-term Support and Umbraco’s add-on licenses are priced by Umbraco, and those charges sit outside any agency fee.

• Ask for the upgrade or rebuild decision in writing before the price.
• Keep Umbraco’s license charges and the agency’s fee on separate lines.
• Ask what the staging copy and the editor rehearsal cost.
• Compare proposals row by row against the inventory, not by total.

Umbraco Cloud or your own hosting

Umbraco Cloud is Umbraco HQ’s managed hosting. Its version rules shape the plan: new Umbraco Cloud projects default to the latest LTS, a project can start on any version still in its active support phase, and versions in the Security phase or past end of life cannot be used for new projects or baselines.

Existing projects past end of life may stay hosted under Umbraco Cloud’s End-of-Service policy. The other route is a server you run yourself, on Azure or another .NET host, where your team owns patching and the .NET runtime. The plain advice: decide hosting before the upgrade, because the Cloud rule on versions changes which target you can pick.

Can a new Umbraco Cloud project start on Umbraco 13?

No. Umbraco 13 is in its security phase, and Umbraco Cloud does not allow new projects or baselines on versions in that phase or past end of life.

Umbraco developers on your staff, or ours

Some organizations have Umbraco developers on staff and need an Umbraco agency only for the hard part. Others have a .NET developer who has never touched the CMS, or no developer at all. The work splits three ways, and a project can change models midway.

• Progression runs the whole project, from inventory to launch and support.
• Progression works beside an in-house .NET developer, taking the planning and the parts that need more hands.
• Progression reviews the plan and the code while your developer builds.

The right model depends on how many people on your side can spend real days on the upgrade. For adding people to a team, see hiring dedicated developers, and for the .NET code around the CMS, .NET development services.

Who decides what the editors see?

The editors do, with a developer. Document types and permissions are reviewed with the people who publish, because a technically clean upgrade that moves their buttons around still costs the organization time.

Extended support when the date is too close

Umbraco HQ offers Extended Long-term Support (XLTS) to keep projects secure past the end of life date, and it is available for LTS versions only. That makes it a tool for Umbraco 13 and not for any short-term release.

The plain advice: treat it as time bought for a planned upgrade, not as a home. A site on extended support still has an upgrade ahead of it, and the plan should name the date and the target before the extension is signed. Terms and pricing come from Umbraco HQ.

Is extended support the same as being supported?

No. It is a separate offer for LTS versions past their end of life date, bought from Umbraco, and the standard support phases still end on the dates in the calendar.

Editors keep publishing during the move

An upgrade that stops the newsroom or the marketing team for a week is a failed upgrade, whatever the code looks like. The content freeze is kept short, and a staging site gives editors a place to rehearse before the real launch.

• Agree one freeze window, as short as the work allows.
• Give editors the staging site early, with their real permissions.
• Review workflows and approval steps with the people who use them.
• Plan the first week after launch as a watched week, not a quiet one.

If the move also changes URLs, search continuity needs its own plan, and website migration services covers that.

What do editors need to be told?

Which screens moved, which workflows changed and when the freeze starts and ends. A one page note per role works better than a long manual.

Support after launch on a six week release rhythm

In its Active phase, a major version gets minor releases every six weeks with minor features and bug fixes and no breaking changes. A site that follows that rhythm stays current in small steps instead of one large one.

The plain advice: a patch window every six weeks, a security check whenever Umbraco posts one, and a calendar entry for the next end of life date. An Umbraco support agency keeps that calendar for you. Day to day upkeep of the surrounding site belongs to website maintenance.

Who watches the calendar?

One named person on your side and one on ours, with the end of life date of your version at the top of the shared list.

Versions already past end of life

Several Umbraco versions are past their end of life dates, and a site on any of them is on a version Umbraco HQ no longer recommends. The dates are listed so you can see how long yours has been out.

Versions earlier than Umbraco 7 are no longer supported at all. A site on one of them is a migration, and the inventory above is still where the plan starts.

• Find the end of life date for your version in the table.
• Note how many majors sit between it and Umbraco 17.
• List the packages that stopped releasing along the way.
• Treat anything earlier than Umbraco 7 as a migration.

Does an older site need a stop at an intermediate version?

That depends on the pair of versions, and Umbraco’s upgrade documentation is the place to confirm it for yours. The plan records the answer so the estimate does not assume it.

Releases still to come

Three releases are scheduled: Umbraco 19 on December 10, 2026 and Umbraco 20 on June 24, 2027, both STS, and Umbraco 21 on December 9, 2027, an LTS. Their end of life dates are December 10, 2027, June 24, 2028 and December 9, 2030.

An organization that moves to Umbraco 17 now has until November 27, 2028 before the next forced move. Umbraco 21 gives the following LTS a runway to the end of 2030. The calendar makes the choice between them a scheduling decision, which is why this page starts with it.

• Umbraco 19 and 20 are STS, so each has about a year of life.
• Umbraco 21 is the next LTS and runs to the end of 2030.
• Umbraco 17 covers the gap until November 27, 2028.

Should we wait for Umbraco 19 or 21 before upgrading?

Not with Umbraco 13 on the calendar. Waiting for a release that lands the same month as the end of life date leaves no room for rehearsal, and Umbraco 17 is already an LTS on current .NET.

Frequently asked questions