A structured migration to Xperience by Kentico

By Roel Kuik, 24-02-2026

Kentico Xperience 13 reaches end-of-life on 31 December 2026. That's not a far-off deadline... That's now.

Organisations running Kentico Xperience 13 (or an even older version) face a choice: migrate proactively to a modern, future-proof platform, or wait until the risk catch up with you. Blastic helps you move to Xperience by Kentico: structured, without surprises, and while preserving what you've already built.

After 31 December 2026, Kentico will stop releasing security updates, bug fixes, and technical support for Kentico Xperience 13. Your platform will still function, but without patches.

That may not sound risky, but it is.

Kentico Xperience 13 is built on Microsoft .NET 6; a framework that reached end of support in November 2024. Kentico can't offer long-term support on a foundation Microsoft no longer maintains. So this isn't an arbitrary commercial decision, it's a technological reality.

Any organisation that continues running Kentico Xperience 13 after that date accepts:

• Unpatched security risks

• Growing technical debt

• And a platform that stands still while the market moves on

And if you're on Kentico 12, 11 or older, this isn't a future issue, it's a current risk already.

Moving to Xperience by Kentico (XbyK) isn't a matter of pressing a button. But it's also not a large-scale rebuild from scratch. It's a migration, and that distinction matters. 

XbyK is a completely new platform, built from the ground up on modern .NET technology and a hybrid headless architecture. It shares familiar concepts with Kentico Xperience 13 (content modelling, page types, and the general way of thinking about digital experiences), but the underlying technology, the administration interface, and the capabilities have been fundamentally renewed.

Kentico has developed a Migration Tool that automatically transfer structured content, media, and Page Builder content to XbyK. Custom development, integrations, and code need to be migrated manually and adapted to the new architecture. That requires a considered approach, and a partner who knows where the complexity sits.

If you start in early 2026, time is on your side. There's room for a careful, controlled trajectory: inventory, content sanity check, content modelling, training, and a managed go-live. If you wait until Q3 2026, you'll be operating under time pressure, with all the associated risk and cost.

The experience of Kentico partners worldwide, including Blastic, points to the same conclusion: Migrations that start early and follow a structured approach run smoother, cost less, and deliver more value. Migrations that start late become more expensive, more hectic, and involve more compromises.

There's also a strategic argument. A new platform is the perfect moment to recalibrate:

• Which content still adds value?

• Which processes can be more efficient?

• Which marketing goals are on the roadmap, and how do you configure the platform to support them from day one?

If you wait, you miss that opportunity, or you'll have to do it under pressure anyway.

• Evergreen platform, without disruptive upgrades

XbyK delivers monthly updates ("Regular Refreshes") with new features, security improvements, and performance optimisations. Major, costly upgrades are a thing of the past. Your platform evolves continuously, without disruption.

• Multichannel from a single Content Hub

Content is created once and reused across channels: website, app, email, and more. No duplication for marketers, no workarounds for developers.

• Less dependence on developers

A fully rebuilt, intuitive interface brings content, workflows, personalisation, email, and assets together in one environment. XbyK is more than a CMS, it's a full Digital Experience Platform.

• Hybrid headless flexibility

Combine visual building via Page Builder with API-driven content delivery from one platform. Traditional and headless, without compromise.

• Hosting choice: on-premise or SaaS

Choose your own hosting or a fully managed SaaS solution on Azure. No forced cloud migration, but the option is there when you're ready.

• AI built into the platform

AIRA supports content creation, tagging and metadata; securely within your own XbyK environment, without external AI services accessing your content.

• Lower total cost of ownership over time

Fewer major upgrades, less custom work, and reduced infrastructure overhead. XbyK is designed to be more efficient and cost-effective to run long-term.

A migration to Xperience by Kentico is successful when it's not only technically correct, but also leaves the organisation better than it was before. That takes more than moving files.

• Content sanity check

Before migrating, it's the moment to decide what truly needs to come across. Outdated pages, duplicate content, images without alt text, URLs without a redirect plan etc. This is the moment to clean up. You start XbyK with a clear, well-structured content base and protect SEO value by organising redirects properly.

• Content modelling

XbyK thinks about content differently than Kentico 13. Where Kentico 13 ties content to pages, XbyK works with reusable content items independent of specific channels. A good migration is also a chance to rethink your content structure: What types do you need? How doe they relate? And how do you make them reusable across channels? That work pays back in manageability and scalability.

• Training

Marketers and content editors will be working in a new system. The core capabilities of XbyK (content editing, reusable content, workflows, taxonomies) are best learned hands-on, aligned with how your organisations actually works.

• Marketing optimisation

A new platform is a restart. Which processes are currently clunky? Where is time lost in the content production process? What marketing goals are planned in the short and long term? XbyK provides the tools (personalisation, automation, email, analytics), but the return comes from how they are configured.

• Infrastructure and migration

The technical migration has two layers: automated transfer via Kentico's Migration Tool for content, media and Page Builder data, and manual adaption of custom development, integrations and code to the XbyK architecture. A tested, structured approach with three environments (test, acceptance and producten) forms the foundation.

Organisations that start late pay for it in multiple ways:

• Technical: Less time for careful content modelling and testing custom work. Decisions that would be well-considered in a calm trajectory are made under pressure.

• Financial: Time pressure drives cost up. Suppliers and partners get booked sooner than expected, especially as December 2026 approaches.

• Operational: a rushed migration is more likely to cause post-launch issues that must be fixed after go-live (in production), while the organisation is busy with other priorities.

• Strategic: If you wait, you miss the chance to use migration as an improvement moment. You move what you had, instead of building what you need.

We're a Kentico implementation partner with extensive experience migrating from Kentico Xperience 13 and older versions. We know the tooling, the pitfalls, and the decisions that make the difference between a migration that gets "ticked off" and one that genuinely moves the organisation forward.

Our approach follows four steps:

1. An open conversation about urgency and feasibility 

2. A demo tailored to your use case

3. A detailed walkthrough of the migration process and a concrete assessment of your technical situation

4. Then we deliver a proposal with a clear scope, a realistic plan, and a fixed price.

No hidden cost. No open-ended projects. No surprises.

31 December 2026 won't change. But how you approach that date, rushed or in control, under pressure or with ownership, is still open.

The organisations that start the conversation now have the space to do it properly. Time for a thorough assessment. Time for a proper content sanity check. Time for training that sticks. Time for a go-live without panic.