Umbraco upgrades aren’t sexy. If you’re going from version 7 to version 10, like Blesma just did, then they can be freaking time-consuming too. But if you don’t do it, then you risk the content-management version of the sad-face emoji (maybe even the crying one).
Umbraco 7 was given End-Of-Life status in September 2023. It literally died. That means no security patches if an issue or exploit is discovered. It also means you can’t benefit from improved performance, new features, modern plugins or bragging rights at cocktail parties.
Upgrading from 7 to 10 is hard. There’s no getting away from it. We did our part to help Blesma to continue all the great work they do for limbless veterans.
After all that hard work, it can feel a bit galling that outwardly it’s difficult to see any difference. All the changes take place “under the hood”. So, other than a having a strangely smug demeanour while sipping that martini, what do you get from the upgrade?
Speed
Because version 10 uses .NET 6 it’s faster. A lot faster. Like performance gains from hundreds to thousands of percentage points. Smooth.
Convenience
Future upgrades will be much easier. Thank crikey for that. No more massive overhauls, just simple incremental updates.
.NET 6
This provides developers with new superpowers, including native access to Razor TagHelpers, Dependency Injection, and View Components. It’s faster, has long term support from Microsoft, and is finally cross-platform (so you can do the dev on your Mac if you want).
WebP Support
It’s a type of image format, if you didn’t know. Not anything to do with being caught short while browsing and having to dive into an internet lay-by for quick relief. WebP is the gold standard for high-performance web-based images. Small file size and great quality, meaning faster loading and better positioning in SERPs. Sort out those core web vitals, innit.
Cross Platform
In the past you could only host Umbraco sites on Windows servers. Now you can host on Unix ones if you like. They can be a cheaper option.
…with potential for more
Block Grid for even more flexible editing, Headless API to serve content to anything/anywhere and Web Hooks for easy automations.
Jack Guthrie, Lead Developer at Chameleon said:
“Thank god that’s over. I have a newfound appreciation for life’s simple things.”
Jack
Stephen Francis, Senior Operations Manager at Chameleon said:
“The upgrade alleviates the stress of worrying about boring support and security updates. And gives you time back to focus on making the world a better place, by adding enhancements to your website and services.”
Stephen