Why Upgrade to Xperience by Kentico

Why Now Is the Time to Upgrade to Xperience by Kentico

Kentico Xperience 13, a trusted platform for managing digital experiences, is approaching its official end-of-life (EOL) date: December 31, 2026. After this date, Kentico will no longer issue hotfixes, security patches, or support for the platform. While your existing solution won’t immediately break, the risks associated with running on unsupported software — from security vulnerabilities to performance limitations — make this a critical time for planning your upgrade path.

What’s New with Xperience by Kentico?

Xperience by Kentico is not just an update—it’s a modern reimagining of the platform. Built from the ground up on .NET Core, it brings an entirely new architecture, interface, and digital strategy toolkit that positions your organization to scale, personalize, and optimize more effectively than ever before.

Key enhancements include:

• AI-Powered Marketing Tools: Automate insights, personalize content, and make smarter decisions with less manual effort.

• Unified Content Hub: Manage all your digital assets, content, and experiences in one centralized system for greater reusability and consistency.

• Customer Journey Orchestration: Create, automate, and analyze omnichannel experiences across the entire customer lifecycle.

• Cloud-Native Foundation: Deploy faster with improved scalability, flexibility, and performance using Microsoft Azure.

Why Upgrade Now?

Waiting until the last minute to migrate could lead to increased costs, rushed deployments, and reduced team readiness. Here’s why acting now makes sense:

• Avoid Security Risks: Once Xperience 13 reaches EOL, security vulnerabilities will no longer be patched.

• Modern Development Stack: Take advantage of .NET Core's performance, scalability, and maintainability.

• Improved Editorial Experience: Empower marketing and content teams with a faster, more intuitive UI.

• Future-Proofing: Stay aligned with Kentico’s roadmap and ensure long-term viability of your digital platform.

How to Upgrade

Upgrading to Xperience by Kentico isn’t a patch — it’s a full platform migration. Here’s a high-level view of how to approach it:

1. Audit Your Current Site: Review your existing architecture, integrations, and content to assess complexity.

2. Plan Your Migration: Define your goals (e.g., performance, personalization, accessibility), and prioritize features and content for the new build.

3. Rebuild on .NET Core: Start fresh using best practices on the new platform, integrating only what’s needed.

4. Retire Legacy Modules: Xperience by Kentico drops support for older features in favor of more modern, streamlined alternatives.

5. Test & Launch: Conduct extensive QA, including performance, accessibility, and security checks before go-live.

Opportunities with Upgrading

An upgrade is more than a technical change — it’s a strategic opportunity:

• Redesign Your User Experience: Leverage the rebuild to improve UX, optimize conversion paths, and align with current design trends.

• Revisit SEO & Accessibility: Clean URLs, semantic HTML, and WCAG compliance can all be optimized during migration.

• Streamline Your Martech Stack: Consolidate redundant tools using Kentico’s expanded native features.

• Empower Your Marketing Team: Use the platform’s low-code/no-code tools to reduce IT dependencies and accelerate campaign timelines.

Next Steps

If you're running Kentico Xperience 13, now is the time to act:

• Engage a Kentico Gold Partner — like Inorbital — to assess your current setup and develop a migration strategy.

• Define your MVP — focus on what delivers the most value and avoid scope creep.

• Plan for a Q4 2025–Q2 2026 launch to beat the EOL deadline and avoid a bottleneck of last-minute migrations.

Future-Proof Your Digital Experience

The shift to Xperience by Kentico is a rare opportunity to modernize not only your platform but your entire digital strategy. Don’t treat this as a technical chore — see it as a launchpad for smarter content delivery, deeper customer engagement, and leaner digital operations.

Want to learn how your organization can make the leap with confidence? Contact us today for a migration readiness assessment.