Why Organizations Are Switching From Umbraco to WordPress

Umbraco 7 went unsupported in September 2023. Umbraco 8 in February 2025. Umbraco 10 in June 2025. Six EOL events in three years, and each version jump required developer time that most organizations running the platform had not budgeted for.

The Version Cycle That Never Slows Down

Launched in 2005 by Danish developer Niels Hartvig, Umbraco built a loyal following in the UK, Scandinavia, and the Netherlands. It is open source, the backoffice interface is genuinely clean, and for .NET development teams it fits naturally into the Microsoft stack. But maintaining a site on Umbraco long-term has become an exercise in perpetual version management that most organizations did not sign up for.

The EOL timeline tells the story clearly. Umbraco 9 was declared end-of-life in December 2022. Umbraco 7 in September 2023. Umbraco 11 in December 2023. Umbraco 12 in June 2024. Umbraco 8 in February 2025. Umbraco 10 in June 2025. That is six versions reaching end-of-life in under three years. On each occasion, sites that did not upgrade on time stopped receiving security patches. And the jumps between versions are not simple updates: the move from Umbraco 8 to 9 required a complete rebuild because Umbraco switched from ASP.NET Framework to ASP.NET Core. There was no direct upgrade path. From Umbraco 13, the new backoffice introduced in version 14 replaced the AngularJS frontend entirely, breaking every package that had an AngularJS-based admin interface.

The Developer Dependency Problem

Umbraco is a .NET CMS. Every Document Type definition, every Razor view template, every custom property editor, and every package integration is written in C# and ASP.NET. Content editors can update existing content through the backoffice without developer help, but any structural change, new content type, template modification, or package update requires a developer who knows the platform.

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.

FatLab Web Support, Umbraco to WordPress Migration, February 2026

Not user friendly. Need to be a programmer to do anything cool. Not compatible with common digital marketing applications. Very cumbersome, blocky. Horrible user interface. I evaluated an upgrade from Umbraco to WordPress or HubSpot CMS and definitely beyond a doubt Umbraco could not compete.

Verified user review, TrustRadius, Umbraco CMS

While Umbraco requires costly custom development, higher hosting costs, and licensing fees for Microsoft technologies, WordPress offers a more user-friendly and economical solution. Unlike Umbraco, which often requires developer support for even minor changes, WordPress enables long-term savings.

XWP, Umbraco to WordPress CMS Migrations, 2024

Umbraco Packages and Their WordPress Equivalents

Every piece of functionality in Umbraco beyond basic content editing is delivered through packages. Packages are .NET NuGet libraries installed into the project, and they break on major version upgrades when the package author has not updated for the new .NET version or the new backoffice UI. For organizations moving to WordPress, every package has an equivalent that is actively maintained, widely deployed, and does not break on platform updates.

For organizations adding community discussion features to their new WordPress site, gConverter implements wpForo 360° AI as part of the migration. Whether the existing Umbraco site had a forum built on a custom Document Type structure, a third-party package, or no forum at all, wpForo 360° AI delivers a properly featured community platform with AI moderation, member ranks, subscriptions, and real-time notifications.

What a Proper Umbraco Migration Involves

An Umbraco site stores its content in SQL Server using a proprietary node-based schema. Content is not stored in simple rows and columns. Every piece of content is a node in a tree, every field value is a property data record, and the relationship between them requires knowledge of the Umbraco database structure to read correctly. A proper migration reads the source database directly and handles each layer explicitly.

Document Types and content nodes

Umbraco content is stored across the umbracoContent, umbracoDocument, and umbracoContentVersion tables, with all property field values in umbracoPropertyData. Each Document Type (content type) has a set of property definitions mapping each property alias to a data type. A proper migration reads every content node per Document Type, maps the property values to their ACF Pro equivalents in WordPress, and creates posts or custom post types that replicate the original content structure. Property aliases, field values, publication status, and author attribution are all preserved. No property is silently dropped.

Content tree to page hierarchy

All Umbraco content lives in a hierarchical node tree stored in umbracoNode. The tree defines the site structure and URL path. A proper migration reads this tree and reconstructs the page hierarchy in WordPress, mapping container nodes to page parents and content nodes to pages or posts. The URL structure defined by the Umbraco content tree is replicated in WordPress permalink settings where possible, and 301 redirects are created for every URL that must change.

Razor views to WordPress theme

Umbraco templates are Razor views (`.cshtml` files) that use C# and the Umbraco content API. They cannot be ported to WordPress. A proper migration delivers a custom WordPress theme that replicates the visual output of the original Umbraco site exactly: every layout, every content type view, every component, and every responsive behaviour. The result is visually identical to the original site with no dependency on Razor, the .NET runtime, or any Umbraco package.

Members to WordPress users

Umbraco front-end members are stored in umbracoMember with profile field values in umbracoMemberPropertyData. All registered members are imported to WordPress with role mapping. Custom member property values are imported as WordPress user meta. Password hashes use different algorithms between the two systems, so members receive a secure reset link on first login via email.

Umbraco Forms data

Umbraco Forms stores submission data in UFRecordData and related tables. Every form submission including all field values is exported to a structured archive format compatible with Gravity Forms records or a custom post type archive. No submission data is lost during migration.

Media, SEO, and URL structure

Umbraco media files are stored in the umbracoMedia node tree with files physically stored in the /media/ folder. All media is imported to the WordPress Media Library preserving filenames, alt text, and folder structure. SEO titles and meta descriptions stored in Umbraco‘s SEO properties or third-party SEO packages are imported to Yoast SEO. Every URL alias is resolved and either preserved or redirected.

What Bad Umbraco Migrations Look Like

• Property data silently lost. Generic migration tools cannot read umbracoPropertyData correctly because the mapping from property alias to value type is defined in the Document Type schema. They grab the rendered HTML output of each page and miss every structured field: images, dates, numbers, linked content, and custom property types. All structured content arrives in WordPress as a flat text blob or is missing entirely.
• Content tree structure not preserved. The Umbraco node tree defines the URL structure and site hierarchy. Generic tools create default WordPress slugs with no regard for the original URL structure and implement no redirects. All existing inbound links and search rankings break at launch.
• Umbraco Forms submissions lost. Form submission data in the UFRecordData tables is not handled by any standard WordPress importer. Years of contact and inquiry records disappear.
• Media not imported properly. Media files in the Umbraco media tree are stored with node tree metadata. Generic tools do not read the umbracoMedia structure correctly and either skip files or create broken references without updating content that links to them.
• Member profiles incomplete. Umbraco member custom properties in umbracoMemberPropertyData are not handled by generic tools. Members arrive in WordPress with basic account credentials but no profile data, breaking all content that displays member information.
• Razor templates not rebuilt. Some providers copy the rendered HTML of pages into a generic WordPress theme. The result breaks when content is edited, has no template hierarchy, and is structurally incompatible with the WordPress block editor.

GDPR and Your Data

An Umbraco database contains the personal data of every registered member of your site: names, email addresses, hashed passwords, and all member profile field values. The Umbraco Forms submission records in UFRecordData hold every field submitted through every form on the site. If Umbraco Commerce is active, customer billing addresses and order histories are in the commerce tables. For UK and Scandinavian organizations, this data is subject to GDPR and the UK Data Protection Act 2018.

Migrating this to WordPress is a personal data transfer that requires a signed Data Processing Agreement before any provider accesses your database. gConverter is US-registered with full EU and UK GDPR compliance. We sign a DPA before any access, store credentials in AES-256 encrypted vaults, transfer over TLS 1.3, and permanently delete all customer data within 30 days. Read the full GDPR documentation →

What Clients Say

Went FAR above and beyond to help us work through this project. We are thrilled with the final result and they were professional, great to work with, and responsive every step of the way. Would highly recommend.

Anna P., Wilmington NC – Customer Lobby, January 2026

Very few conversion issues on the first pass, and they cleaned it right. Very Impressive.

Stacy C., Katy TX – Customer Lobby, November 2025

The Bottom Line

Umbraco is a capable, well-designed CMS with a genuinely good editing experience and a friendly community. But the version EOL pace has become unsustainable for organizations that are not actively investing in a dedicated .NET development team. Six versions hitting end-of-life in under three years, combined with the ASP.NET to ASP.NET Core rebuild requirement that eliminated the upgrade path entirely, has turned “running Umbraco” into a continuous platform management project that many organizations did not intend to take on.

WordPress is where the talent pool is deep, the plugin ecosystem covers every use case without requiring custom .NET packages, and a content team can publish, update, and iterate without a developer on call. Every Umbraco content node, every form submission, every media file, and every member account can be migrated cleanly to WordPress.