Umbraco 8 reached end of life in February 2025. If your organization is still running on it, you already know the clock is ticking. Security patches have stopped. The community has moved on. And the upgrade path to Umbraco 13+ is steep enough that many organizations are asking a different question entirely: should we move to WordPress instead?
The answer, for most small-to-medium organizations, is yes. But the path from Umbraco to WordPress is not a simple migration. It is a complete change of technology stack, from ASP.NET and C# on Windows servers to PHP on Linux.
There are no automated tools for this. No plugins that handle it. Every Umbraco to WordPress migration is a ground-up rebuild.
"Though we call these migrations, my philosophy is that they're rebuilds. They may be pixel-perfect rebuilds, but they are rebuilds."
That's the starting point for every migration conversation we have, and it's especially true for Umbraco. Understanding what this project actually involves will help you budget accurately, set realistic timelines, and hire the right team.
Why Organizations Leave Umbraco
Umbraco is a solid CMS. We're not going to pretend otherwise. It gives developers a lot of flexibility, the editing experience is clean, and for organizations with .NET development teams, it makes sense.
But most organizations running Umbraco don't have .NET development teams. They have a website that was built years ago, and now they have to find increasingly expensive specialists whenever anything needs to change.
The talent pool is the first problem. WordPress developers outnumber Umbraco developers by a wide margin. When you need to hire someone to maintain your Umbraco site, update a feature, or fix a bug, the pool of qualified candidates is small, and the hourly rates reflect that. WordPress development talent costs $75 to $200 per hour. Umbraco specialists typically run $100 to $250 or more per hour, and there are fewer of them to choose from.
The second problem is the ecosystem. WordPress has over 60,000 plugins covering virtually every functionality you can imagine. Umbraco's package ecosystem is a fraction of that size. Features that require a plugin installation on WordPress require custom development in Umbraco.
The third problem is Umbraco 8's end-of-life. Without security updates, your site is exposed to known vulnerabilities that will never be patched. Extended support contracts exist, but they are expensive stopgaps, not long-term solutions.
And upgrading to Umbraco 13 is a significant development effort in itself, requiring code changes, testing, and potential breaking changes to your existing customizations.
If you're going to invest in a major rebuild, WordPress gives you a broader ecosystem, a larger talent pool, and a platform that powers 43% of all websites on the internet.
What Makes an Umbraco to WordPress Migration Different
Not all CMS migrations are created equal. A Drupal to WordPress migration is challenging because of content model differences. A Sitecore to WordPress migration is challenging because of enterprise complexity.
Migrating from Umbraco to WordPress is challenging because you're changing everything underneath the hood.
The Complete Technology Stack Change
This is not just a content management change. It's a server environment change.
Umbraco runs on:
- ASP.NET framework (C# programming language)
- Microsoft SQL Server database
- Windows Server with IIS web server
- .NET runtime and dependencies
WordPress runs on:
- PHP programming language
- MySQL or MariaDB database
- Linux with Apache or Nginx web server
- PHP runtime and dependencies
Every line of template code, every custom function, every server configuration needs to be rewritten. Your hosting environment changes completely. If your current hosting is a Windows server, it cannot run WordPress. You need a Linux environment, which means a new hosting provider or a new server configuration.
This is why no automated migration tool exists for Umbraco to WordPress. The two systems share almost nothing at a technical level.
Content Mapping: Document Types to Post Types
Umbraco's content modeling is built around Document Types, which define the structure of your content. Each Document Type has Properties that hold the actual data, and Data Types that define what kind of data each Property accepts.
In WordPress, the equivalent concepts are Custom Post Types and Custom Fields. The mapping looks straightforward on paper:
- Document Types map to Custom Post Types
- Properties map to Custom Fields (typically using Advanced Custom Fields)
- Data Types map to ACF field types
- Media Library transfers to WordPress Media Library
- Templates require complete rebuilds (from .NET Razor views to PHP theme files)
- Macros become Shortcodes or Gutenberg Blocks
- Members map to WordPress Users with appropriate roles
The challenge is in the details. Umbraco's nested content, grid layouts, and block list editors don't have direct WordPress equivalents. A property that uses Umbraco's rich text editor with embedded media macros needs to be carefully translated to WordPress's block editor or a custom ACF layout.
This mapping work is tedious but critical. Miss a property type, and you lose data. Map it incorrectly, and the content displays incorrectly on the new site.
The Umbraco to WordPress Migration Process
Step 1: Content Audit and Export
Before building anything, we need to know exactly what exists on the current Umbraco site.
We use Screaming Frog to crawl the entire site, producing a comprehensive inventory of every page, URL, image, and linked file.
Then we manually review the Umbraco back end to identify all Document Types, their Properties, and any custom functionality.
"The only question I'm asking a client up front is: 'What does your website do?' ... When we get to the end of that part of the conversation, I say: 'Now, do you have any surprises for me?'"
That "surprises" question is particularly important for Umbraco sites. We've seen hidden member portals, custom API integrations, scheduled tasks running through Umbraco's built-in scheduler, and custom .NET code that handles form processing or data validation. All of it needs to be accounted for.
Content can be exported from Umbraco using its Content Delivery API or through custom export scripts that export data to XML or JSON.
This structured export becomes the source material for importing into WordPress, typically using WP All Import.
Step 2: Custom WordPress Theme Build
"We are going to build a custom theme just for you."
The theme build is a pixel-perfect recreation of your existing Umbraco site's design. We extract CSS properties, fonts, colors, and layout patterns from the existing site, then rebuild them into a WordPress theme from scratch.
This is not a matter of finding a WordPress theme that looks similar. It's a ground-up build that recreates your exact visual design using PHP templates, CSS, and WordPress's template hierarchy.
For a medium-complexity Umbraco site with five to eight unique page templates, this phase typically takes two to four weeks of development time.
Step 3: Custom Post Types and Field Configuration
Using Advanced Custom Fields (ACF), we recreate the content structure from Umbraco. Every Document Type becomes a Custom Post Type with the same fields and relationships.
This is where the mapping work from the audit phase pays off. Each Umbraco Property needs a corresponding ACF field with the correct type, validation rules, and display logic.
Step 4: Content Migration
This is the labor-intensive phase.
"Nothing's going to have the quality of a hand-done job of copy-paste and reformatting for SEO and ensuring that every attachment is in place."
For structured data exported to XML or JSON, WP All Import can handle bulk imports into WordPress. But every imported page needs manual review. Images need to be verified. Internal links need to be updated.
Formatting needs to be checked against the original.
For pages with complex layouts, grid content, or embedded media, manual copy-paste is often faster and more reliable than trying to automate the transfer of Umbraco's proprietary layout formats.
Under a thousand pages, the manual approach is absolutely within reason. For larger sites, we have the archiving conversation first.
A migration is an excellent opportunity to retire outdated content rather than pay to move it to a new platform.
Step 5: SEO Preservation
This step is non-negotiable, and it starts before the first line of code is written.
We build a complete URL mapping document: every URL on the current Umbraco site matched to its new WordPress equivalent. Before the new site goes live, every 301 redirect is configured. We use either the Redirection plugin or server-level .htaccess rules, depending on the site's complexity.
"A migration, though it is a disruption, should only improve SEO."
The manual migration process is actually an SEO advantage. Because we're putting human eyes on every page, we fix heading hierarchies, add proper alt text to images, ensure clean HTML markup, and install Yoast SEO with full metadata and Open Graph tags from day one.
Only about 10% of website migrations actually improve SEO performance. The reason ours do is that the manual process forces us to clean up technical SEO issues that have accumulated over the years.
Umbraco to WordPress Migration Timeline and Cost
An Umbraco to WordPress migration typically takes 6 to 12 weeks for a medium-complexity site. Here's how that breaks down:
- Discovery and audit: 1-2 weeks
- Theme development: 2-4 weeks
- Content type and field configuration: 1-2 weeks
- Content migration: 1-3 weeks (depending on volume)
- QA and redirect setup: 1-2 weeks
Professional costs range from $5,000 to $25,000, depending on the site's complexity, content volume, and custom functionality.
The primary cost drivers are the number of unique page templates, the complexity of the content model, custom .NET integrations that need PHP equivalents, and the total number of pages requiring manual migration.
These numbers reflect a professional migration that includes a custom theme, complete content transfer, SEO preservation, and post-launch support.
Budget options exist, but they typically cut corners on manual QA and SEO. That is exactly where migrations fail.
The American Chiropractic Association: A Real Migration Story
We migrated the American Chiropractic Association's website from an old ASP.NET system to WordPress. Like Umbraco, this was a .NET-to-WordPress migration that involved a complete change of the technology stack.
The association had outgrown its legacy system and was frustrated with the lack of flexibility in its administrative tools. They also knew they would be switching AMS (association management system) platforms within the next few years and needed a website that could accommodate that future change.
We built a WordPress site that was flexible enough to integrate with whatever CRM or AMS the association chose down the road. The key requirement was API compatibility, and WordPress's open architecture made that straightforward.
This case illustrates an important point about association migrations: a website migration is often just one piece of a larger technology transformation. The CRM change, the AMS migration, and the website rebuild are interconnected decisions that need to be planned together.
When Not to Migrate
If your Umbraco site is a simple brochure website with ten pages and a contact form, and you don't have complex content types or custom integrations, a professional migration may not be cost-effective.
"If you have a brochureware site and you don't want to become a weekend warrior of web development in WordPress, then for $35 to $100 a month for various Squarespace plans, just do it."
A small organization leaving Umbraco doesn't necessarily need to go to WordPress. Squarespace or a similar hosted platform might be a better fit if the site is simple and the organization doesn't have the appetite to manage its own CMS.
But if your Umbraco site has custom Document Types, member portals, API integrations, or more than a handful of pages, WordPress is the right destination. The ecosystem, the talent pool, and the long-term cost of ownership make it the practical choice for organizations that take their web presence seriously.
Post-Migration: What Happens After Launch
Every other Umbraco-to-WordPress migration guide skips this section. And it matters more than anything that comes before it.
"Once the flip is switched and the new WordPress site is live, that's when we as a support and maintenance company thrive."
The Overlap Period
We ask clients to maintain access to their old Umbraco environment for one to two weeks after the WordPress site goes live.
The extra month of hosting on the old environment is negligible compared to the value of having that archive available when someone discovers a page that didn't transfer correctly or a PDF that was missed.
Launch day is the first time the entire organization interacts with the new site. The project team and key stakeholders have seen it in staging.
But the receptionist, the chapter leaders, the board members, and the members themselves are all seeing it for the first time. Issues will surface.
The Technology Adjustment
Coming from Umbraco to WordPress is a significant administrative change. The editing experience is different. The media management is different. The way content is structured and organized is different.
"We like to let that just sit and chill for a few weeks before we start making any major changes."
We build in time for the organization to learn the new system before layering on additional features or design changes. The migration needs to stabilize first.
Ongoing Care
A migration agency builds your site and moves on. If something breaks three months later, you're starting a new project with a new invoice.
We're still there. Hosting the site, monitoring security, applying updates, and supporting the team as they get comfortable with WordPress. The migration is the beginning of our relationship, not the end of a project.
That alignment matters. Every decision we make during the migration is informed by the fact that we'll be maintaining this site going forward. We don't cut corners that we'll have to fix later. We build something designed for long-term health.
Making the Decision
If your organization is running Umbraco 8, the decision isn't whether to migrate. It's when and where.
Staying on an unsupported platform means accumulating security risk, narrowing your options for developer support, and watching your technology stack fall further behind.
Extended support contracts buy time, but they don't solve the fundamental problem.
Upgrading to the latest Umbraco version is a viable option if your organization has .NET development resources and is committed to the Umbraco ecosystem.
But for most organizations we work with, the upgrade to modern Umbraco is nearly as much work as an Umbraco to WordPress migration, without the benefit of WordPress's larger ecosystem and talent pool.
A migration is a multi-week project that requires planning and budgeting. It's not something you can execute quickly after a security incident forces your hand.
"This is your chance to make sure that your website is built well. Because you want this investment to last for quite a while."
If you're evaluating your options, the most important step is understanding what a professional Umbraco to WordPress migration actually involves and whether the investment makes sense for your organization's specific situation. Our WordPress migration services overview covers the full picture, and our WordPress development team handles these transitions regularly.