Many of the concerns of companies that use Umbraco services are related to migrations or to the lack of expertise and knowledge of this powerful CMS.

With the Arrival of Umbraco 9, you're probably wondering... What have been the main changes compared to Umbraco 8? How does this change affect me? Do I need to update my website? Will Umbraco 8 stop working?

Below, we detail the Most significant changes in Umbraco 9 and we answer the most frequently asked questions from Umbraco users.

Major Umbraco 9 improvements:

Increased performance and scalability 

Each project has different needs and requirements, so Umbraco 9 has greater flexibility to support different websites, from small and simple to large and complex.

Software thinking for the future 

With new improvements made “under the hood”, Umbraco is now easier to use, maintain and develop than ever before. You'll find improvements to all APIs and services, as well as new advantages specific to .NET 5 such as MSDI (Microsoft Dependency Injection), Hosted Services, Razor TagHelpers, or .NET CLI.

Improvement in architecture 

The structure and architecture of Umbraco has also been improved. In the new version, it's easier to find what you need and they have been even more aligned with framework conventions such as Microsoft Configuration and Dependency Injection.

More tool options and cross-platform capabilities 

The fact that it is a true .NET 5 CMS and ASP.NET Core means that you have a greater possibility of choosing how you want to program in Umbraco and what tools you use. Ahora you can benefit from the multiplatform capabilities built into .NET 5.

With Umbraco 9, they wanted to approach professionals wherever they are, regardless of their operating system or their technological universe. For example, you could program from a Mac with a colleague who works on Windows and publish the web to a Linux server.

This makes the CMS accessible to more developers who can now work their magic on Umbraco from their preferred platform.

If you want to test Umbraco 9, you can now do so by running a 14-day trial from the Umbraco Cloud or by installing it on your computer:

From Umbraco Cloud: 

Umbraco Cloud will make your life easier by allowing you to install Umbraco 9 with a single click.

Umbraco 9 also brings several advantages to Umbraco Cloud projects with an improved project structure, multiplatform development capabilities, new construction steps, and much more. The official add-ons, Umbraco Forms and Umbraco Deploy have also been updated to work with .NET 5 and are part of all your Umbraco Cloud projects.

Umbraco 9 projects in Umbraco Cloud have all the features you're probably already familiar with, in fact, you won't see much difference in the Umbraco Cloud portal, except for the main version number, which is 9 instead of 8. Now you can work with multiple environments, synchronize content and schema, benefit from automatic updates and all the other cloud features you're used to.

Installation on your computer:

You can also install and configure Umbraco 9 on your own machine and set up any type of deployment workflow and hosting options you need (as long as they are compatible with .NET 5).

With this option, when you clone a project to your local machine, you can notice a significant change in the structure of the project and in the files.

Most frequently asked questions about Umbraco 9:

Here are some of the Most common questions about Umbraco 9 and migrating data from Umbraco 8 to Umbraco 9.

How will the new structural changes affect my Umbraco projects? 

This depends on the type of functionality your project contains and how closely linked the implementation is to the .NET Framework.

You'll see that many of the Umbraco features you know are the same, or similar, so getting started with Umbraco 9 should be a familiar experience.

Will the backoffice editing experience change? 

No, the migration from Umbraco to .NET Core focuses on getting the backend and source code updated to run on the new framework. The backoffice will look the same and the editing capabilities will be on par with Umbraco 8.

Will I be able to upgrade my current website to Umbraco 9? 

You won't find an upgrade button, but you can migrate existing projects to Umbraco 9. This is true both for the open source CMS and for projects on Umbraco Cloud (the Uno and Heartcore projects will be automatically upgraded to Umbraco 9 at a later stage).

If you want us to advise you or review some points with you, you just have to write to us (add email address).

How can I migrate projects from Umbraco 8 to Umbraco 9? 

All projects can be migrated, but the magnitude of the task will depend on your current project configuration. The biggest change is the move from ASP.NET to ASP.NET Core, so the decisive factor in migrating your projects is how closely it is linked to ASP.NET and the .NET framework.

Here are some of the main areas that need your attention during migration:

• Content migration

• Your content will simply work, as there are very few changes to the database (and there are automatic migrations for this).

• Migrating packages and dependencies

• Your packages and other dependencies will need to work with Umbraco 9 and .NET 5+. Many Umbraco packages are already available for version 9, but in some cases, you may have to look for alternatives or contact the package creator and ask about their plan to upgrade to Umbraco 9.

• Code migration

• As for your own code, there will be a bit of work to be done. For templates, the changes are mainly syntactic, and some changes in the namespace.

Do I need to update my current website?  

If you can, yes. Umbraco 9 is better than previous versions in many ways, including run-time performance.

For projects that are no longer under development and where run-time performance isn't important, we recommend that you consider Umbraco 8's long-term support when considering whether to take the plunge or not.

Umbraco 9 is now the main version of Umbraco, meaning you'll have access to new features and fixes every 6 weeks as part of the cadence of minor versions.

What happens if I don't upgrade to Umbraco 9?  

Nothing.

When the last minor version of Umbraco 8 is released (to be announced in the future), that version will be supported for 2 full years plus an additional year of “security” updates.

So you can be safe in Umbraco 8 for quite some time. After the release of the last minor version of Umbraco 8, no more features will be added to version 8. The security phase began in July 2021 and the end of the useful life will be in September 2023.

Will Umbraco follow the LTS versions of Microsoft. Net?  

Yes. Starting with version 10 of Umbraco (due in the first half of 2022), Umbraco will align with the LTS versions of Microsoft .NET. This means that you can be sure that projects in the LTS versions of Umbraco have access to the necessary bug and security fixes for 24 months + 12 months of security-only fixes.

How easy will it be to migrate from version 9 to version 10? 

The launch of Umbraco 10 is scheduled for the first half of 2022. This date is earlier than the previous major versions of Umbraco, but it reflects the new release schedule and semantic versioning. This plan is based on a larger LTS version every two years, allowing Umbraco to closely monitor the frequency of Microsoft .NET LTS releases. Thus, Umbraco 10 will be an LTS version aligned with .NET 6 LTS.

When Umbraco 10 is released in 2022 it will be an LTS version. So should I wait to migrate or defer new projects? No. Our recommendation is that you migrate to Umbraco 9 to take full advantage of the new framework. Migrating projects from Umbraco 9 to 10 will not be like moving from version 8 to 9. The process will be more like upgrading an old Umbraco 8 minor to the latest version of Umbraco 8 minor. The new major versions will include breakout changes, but they will be kept to a minimum and automatic migrations will be added when possible and, therefore, we expect that the switch between future major versions will be relatively easy - especially if the speed is maintained.

How will Umbraco 9 work on Umbraco Cloud? 

The short answer is: As always. You still have all the great features you're used to in Umbraco Cloud, such as one-click installations, multiple environments with a built-in layout and content synchronization, automatic updates, and much more.

The longer (and most interesting) answer: With Umbraco 9 running on .NET 5 (ASP.NET Core), we seized the opportunity to improve Umbraco Cloud projects both structurally and functionally.

• You now have access to using the .NET 5 command-line tools to manage, build and run your project locally.
• It's much easier to create a Visual Studio solution and collaborate with your colleagues.
• The deployments are based on the .NET building steps and NuGet for a better and more secure experience.

And on top of that, you get all the benefits of a faster, higher-performing Umbraco CMS.

Will Umbraco Cloud projects be in Umbraco 9?  

Of course. Through the portal, you can still create new projects in Umbraco 8 for a while. The creation of projects in Umbraco 8 will be possible until the “Support” phase of Umbraco 8 ends (24 months after the last minor version of Umbraco 8). If you want to migrate an existing Umbraco Cloud project to Umbraco 9, this is possible.

The Umbraco Uno and Heartcore projects will be automatically upgraded to Umbraco 9 later this year.

Will the Umbraco 8 packages work in the new framework?  

No, the packages will have to be migrated to the new version. The amount of work involved in this will be based on the functionality of the package.

If you don't want to worry about any of these aspects, you can contact us, we have been an official partner of Umbraco since 2011 and the only agency in Spain. As Gold Partners, we have direct access to Umbraco support and advice for all our projects. Another aspect to highlight, we can also access all the productivity-improving add-ons offered by this CMS, helping the more than 80 developers specialized in Umbraco to work as efficiently as possible.

Is this the ideal time to start using or migrating to Umbraco 9?

If you need more information, do not hesitate to contact us.