CRAFTED LABS - UPGRADING YOUR UMBRACO WEBSITE

Umbraco End of Life. 

With Umbraco CMS, there are two phases for its major releases, the Support Phase and the Security Phase.   

In the Support Phase, Umbraco will fix bugs, regressions, and security issues, and after this phase ends, the release will go into a Security phase where Umbraco will only fix security issues and will no longer work on patch updates or bug fixes.  

At the end of the Security phase, Umbraco versions are considered End of Life (EOL). This is the last stage in the version’s lifecycle and means that support is no longer given at all.  

Technically, you can still use Umbraco after the EOL date, but if you decide to continue using a major that has reached EOL, there are a number of issues that you might face. These include: 

It’s important to note that once a version of Umbraco reaches its EOL, they’ll also no longer recommend using it and as such, you’ll need to think about upgrading to a newer version.  

Depending on the version that you’re on, this can sometimes be a pretty straightforward process, but for others, it’s a little more difficult.  

So, let’s look at some of the most important versions that have either reached their EOL or will be reaching it soon. 

Umbraco 7 End of Life. 

After nearly 10 years, in July 2021 Umbraco 7 entered the security-only phase and on the 30th September 2023, Umbraco 7 became EOL.  

As such, anyone using Umbraco 7 is no longer supported with security patches. Technically it doesn’t mean that your website will stop working. However, Umbraco does not recommend hosting websites running on Umbraco 7 after that time. As such, if you're using it for your website, you’ll want to start thinking about an upgrade.  

Umbraco 8 End of Life. 

For those using Umbraco 8, there are also some important dates coming up that you’ll need to prepare for.  

In February 2024, the final minor version of Umbraco 8 (8.18) stopped receiving support. This means that it has moved into the security phase of the lifecycle for an additional year. This means that you’ll now only receive fixes for security issues and updates.  

At the end of this phase, Umbraco 8 will reach EOL on February 24th, 2025. Once again, Umbraco will no longer recommend using Umbraco 8 once it reaches its EOL.  

For those using it, it’s time to start thinking about upgrading to a newer version.  

What is the End of Life plan for current Umbraco releases?  

For the other active releases of Umbraco, here’s the plan for when each will enter the support phase, when they’ll enter the security phase, and when they’ll reach their EOL.  

For anyone using Umbraco 12, it entered the security phase in March 2024 and shortly after, in June, it’ll be reaching EOL.  

For those on Umbraco 8 & 10, both will be reaching EOL in 2025.  

With each of these, it’s time to at least start planning for your next upgrade.