Kentico Xperience 13 reaches end of support on 31 December 2026: upgrade to Xperience by Kentico or move to Sanity?

What changes when Kentico Xperience 13 support ends on 31 December 2026?

Kentico stops all support for Kentico Xperience 13 after 31 December 2026, security repairs included, and the software keeps running. Through 2026 Kentico ships security hotfixes only; from 1 January 2027 it ceases all support, updates, hotfixes and "repairs (including security repairs)" (Kentico support lifecycle, October 2026). Kentico calls this end of support, not end of life, because the site won't be switched off (Kentico upgrade page; Kentico blog, October 2026). What moves to you is the risk: Kentico says any use after that date is "at your sole risk" (Kentico support lifecycle, October 2026). From 24 October 2026, that leaves 68 days (Deploi arithmetic from the date above). Kentico 12 and older are already unsupported (Kentico support lifecycle, October 2026). The 2026 end-of-life calendar for other content management systems lists the neighboring deadlines.

What does moving from Kentico Xperience 13 to Xperience by Kentico involve?

Moving to Xperience by Kentico is a data migration plus code changes, because Kentico's docs call it "a brand new product, built from the ground up" (Kentico Docs, Upgrade overview, October 2026). The page API (application programming interface) and data structure are "completely different", and Kentico Xperience 13 admin customizations are incompatible with the new React admin (Kentico Docs, Upgrade to Xperience by Kentico, October 2026). Kentico says the new product keeps a large part of the Kentico Xperience 13 API and code patterns, including Page Builder components (Kentico Docs, October 2026). Kentico offers the move "based on mutually agreed terms" and publishes no Xperience by Kentico prices (Kentico support lifecycle; Kentico licensing, October 2026).

Which Kentico features does the Xperience by Kentico upgrade rebuild?

Kentico's own feature guide rates marketing features as the hardest part of the upgrade. It grades each Kentico Xperience 13 feature low, medium or high effort, where high means your team "will need to rebuild this feature" (Kentico Docs, Plan your strategy, October 2026). Content and contacts move well; the contact groups, automation, personalization and email built on them don't. Kentico also says it isn't aiming for "exact feature parity".

When does replatforming from Kentico to Sanity win?

Replatforming to Sanity wins when the site is content-led, its content feeds more than one channel, and the front end is moving to a JavaScript framework anyway. Sanity hosts the content: Sanity Studio is an open-source React application that connects to the Content Lake through Sanity's hosted application programming interfaces (APIs) (Sanity Docs, Hosting and deployment, October 2026). Sanity says your content "is never stored locally" (Sanity Docs, Studio development, October 2026). Your developers build and host the front end, which replaces the Kentico Xperience 13 live-site code. With a JavaScript front end, the Xperience by Kentico path replaces that code too.

One set of documents then serves several sites, apps or brands, the pattern behind running several sites from one content platform. Xperience by Kentico does the same through headless channels, each with its own GraphQL API, on its Advanced tier (Kentico Docs, Headless channels; Kentico licensing, October 2026).

Sanity's re-platforming course says to model what something is, not what it looks like in the front end (Sanity Learn, October 2026). So Page Builder pages become structured content that editors work on through Sanity's Visual Editing. Sanity's guided migration paths don't include Kentico (Sanity blog, October 2026), so you write the import yourself; the Kentico to Sanity playbook covers the move.

Does Sanity replace Kentico's contacts, marketing automation and email?

Sanity doesn't replace them: it stores and edits the content, and contacts, automation and sending stay in other tools. Sanity's pricing page lists seats, roles, datasets, editing, AI and delivery features on its Free, Growth and Enterprise plans, and no contact management, marketing automation or email sending (Sanity pricing, October 2026). Sanity's own patterns pair it with specialist tools. The @sanity/personalization-plugin stores A/B test variants on fields or pages and can pull experiments from services such as GrowthBook or LaunchDarkly (Sanity plugin page, October 2026). Sanity's Klaviyo guide sends email campaigns written in Sanity Studio through Klaviyo, using Sanity Functions (Sanity Docs, Klaviyo guide, October 2026).

Xperience by Kentico keeps those features in the product, on its Advanced tier. Kentico says marketing automation "is available with the Xperience by Kentico Advanced license" (Kentico Docs, Plan your strategy, October 2026), and its Standard tier supports neither main email channels nor advanced digital marketing (Kentico licensing, October 2026). That's the deciding flip, in Deploi's judgment: if your marketers run campaigns inside Kentico today, Xperience by Kentico keeps that work in one product; if they don't, you lose nothing by leaving those features behind.

Can you keep running Kentico Xperience 13 after 31 December 2026?

You can keep running Kentico Xperience 13 after 31 December 2026, because the software isn't switched off, but nobody at Kentico patches it and the risk is yours. Kentico's pages offer no extended support for Kentico Xperience 13 as of October 2026. Kentico's upgrade FAQ advises against delaying the migration past the date, and sends partners whose projects will run over to Kentico's Partnership Team "to minimize risk" (Kentico upgrade FAQ, October 2026). So waiting is a bridge, not a plan, in Deploi's judgment. It's tolerable only when three things are true:

• A move is funded, scheduled and close to launch, with a date you can name.
• Your security team accepts unpatched software and adds compensating controls in front of it.
• Your contracts and insurers accept use "at your sole risk", which is Kentico's wording for any use after the date (Kentico support lifecycle, October 2026).

If any of the three fails, pick a path now and use the remaining weeks to plan it.

When should you move to Xperience by Kentico, stay on Kentico Xperience 13 for now, or pick another CMS?

Move to Xperience by Kentico when marketing runs inside Kentico, to Sanity when the site is content-led, and to another content management system (CMS) when you want free, open-source .NET (Microsoft's development framework). Staying on Kentico Xperience 13 is the fourth answer, only as a dated bridge. Umbraco 17 is one example: a free and open source .NET CMS, in Umbraco's words (Umbraco on GitHub, October 2026), which Umbraco lists as security-only from 27 November 2027 and end of life 27 November 2028 (Umbraco, October 2026). Leaving Umbraco weighs that platform on its own.

How do you compare the cost of staying with Kentico with the cost of moving to Sanity?

Compare both paths as migrations over the same horizon, with the license model and the next forced event in each column. Kentico publishes no Xperience by Kentico prices: it licenses per channel and tier, "without restrictions on the number of admin users or website visitors" (Kentico licensing, October 2026). Sanity's Growth plan costs $15 per seat a month, billed monthly, and Enterprise is custom pricing (Sanity pricing; Sanity for Startups, October 2026), so twenty editors pay $300 a month (Deploi arithmetic from the figures above).