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Kentico Xperience 13 will reach end of life on 31 December 2026. From January 1st, 2026, the platform has entered a “security hotfix only” support phase. From 1st January 2027, support will cease entirely.
For organisations currently running Xperience 13 or older, this now requires active planning to ensure a smooth transition to Kentico’s versionless digital experience platform (DXP), Xperience by Kentico. Kentico provides a structured migration pathway to Xperience by Kentico, including automation tooling and a phased roadmap designed to reduce disruption.
This article outlines:
Remaining on an unsupported CMS rarely causes instant disruption. The risk builds gradually and often invisibly.
Once full support ends, vulnerabilities will not receive comprehensive remediation. For organisations managing member data, payments or regulated information, that becomes a governance concern rather than a purely technical one.
CRM platforms, marketing automation tools, analytics systems and payment providers continue to evolve. Unsupported CMS versions can struggle to maintain compatibility, increasing maintenance effort and fragility.
Cybersecurity and data protection expectations continue to rise. Operating on unsupported infrastructure can complicate assurance conversations with boards, auditors and regulators.
From January 2027, there will be no further vendor fixes or escalation routes available. The objective is not urgency for its own sake. It's to avoid deadline-driven delivery later in the year.
Xperience by Kentico is a substantial platform shift from Xperience 13. The big changes are a modernised .NET-based architecture, a hybrid headless content model, and a more centralised editor/developer experience built around content hubs, channels and APIs.
One of the biggest differences is the content hub approach. Xperience by Kentico supports reusable content items, taxonomy/tagging, and channel-specific content, which makes it easier to author once and publish across multiple experiences.
The platform adds first-class headless support, including dedicated channels and API-driven delivery for omnichannel use cases. This makes it easier to publish the same content across websites, apps, and other digital touchpoints from a single system.
AIRA is Xperience by Kentico’s native AI assistant. It provides context-aware recommendations, content help, image-related automation, and a chat-style interface for getting guidance without leaving the platform. AI support within the platform is expanding to house a suite of specialised agents that can handle different parts of the marketing workflow, e.g. content strategy with built-in roles and permissions so teams stay in control.
Begin with a structured assessment.
Clarify what functionality is actively used, which integrations are business-critical, where custom modules have been introduced and what technical debt has accumulated. Kentico’s migration guidance emphasises assessing content, integrations and customisations before beginning the transition.
This phase is more than technical housekeeping – it's often the point at which organisations rationalise their digital estate, simplifying structures and reducing complexity as they modernise.
Avoid treating this purely as a compliance exercise.
Xperience by Kentico introduces a modernised architecture and SaaS options. Aligning the migration to wider strategic objectives ensures the investment delivers measurable value.
Migrations affect infrastructure, editorial teams, governance leads and senior stakeholders. Kentico recommends involving marketing, IT and leadership early in the preparation process.
Kentico strongly recommends a phased approach to minimise disruption. The typical journey includes:
This structure allows your organisation to remain operational while development and validation occur in controlled environments.
Kentico provides a supported Migration Toolkit designed to automate significant portions of the structured content and data migration process.
In practical terms, the toolkit allows organisations to programmatically migrate structured content types, associated data, and media libraries while preserving relationships between content items. This reduces reliance on manual re-entry and lowers the risk of human error during transition.
However, it's not a single-click lift-and-shift. Content rationalisation, validation and structured testing remain essential. Many organisations use the Migration Toolkit alongside a phased migration strategy, particularly for larger estates, ensuring content is cleaned and verified before go-live.
Best practice includes:
Used correctly, the Migration Toolkit reduces delivery time and risk, but governance, validation and QA remain essential.
Kentico advises creating a copy of the production environment, establishing staging instances, validating integrations and APIs and conducting full QA and SEO testing before launch.
Downtime risk can be mitigated through controlled soft launches and carefully managed content freezes during final migration phases.
Testing shouldn't be compressed. It protects user experience, search visibility and internal confidence.
Post-launch should include performance monitoring, editorial training and iterative optimisation. Xperience by Kentico is designed to evolve continuously with ongoing feature updates and refreshes available to customers.
The migration establishes the foundation, but long-term value is realised through optimisation.
A structured migration programme allows you to manage risk, align costs with strategic priorities, and modernise your platform on your own terms rather than under deadline pressure.
If you’d like help with:
Our expert consultants are here to guide you through every stage.