Migration
Sitecore changed its support terms on 1 June 2026: upgrade XP, move to SitecoreAI, or leave for Sanity?
Short answer
Sitecore says 10.0 and 10.1 leave Extended support on 31 December 2026, and since 1 June 2026 it excludes security fixes by default (Sitecore, October 2026). Upgrading to Sitecore Experience Platform (XP) 10.4 or 10.5 needs no rebuild. SitecoreAI, formerly XM (Experience Manager) Cloud, lacks many XP features (Sitecore Docs, October 2026), so Deploi calls it a rebuild, like Sanity.
- Sitecore 10.0 and 10.1 Extended support
- Ends 31 December 2026Then Sustaining support to 31 December 2028, which has no security updates, per Sitecore's Product Support Lifecycle page (October 2026)Source: Sitecore (Sitecore Product Support Lifecycle)
- Security fixes in Extended support
- Not included by default since 1 June 2026Sitecore's updated model marks them "$": contact your account representative to discuss options. Sitecore publishes no figure for them.Source: Sitecore (Sitecore Product Support Lifecycle)
- Sitecore 10.5
- Mainstream support to 31 December 2029Shipped August 2026, Sitecore's Product Support Lifecycle page says. Sitecore helps with an upgrade only to a version in Mainstream support, which means 10.4 or 10.5 as of October 2026.Source: Sitecore (Sitecore Product Support Lifecycle)
- SitecoreAI (formerly XM Cloud)
- No MVC, xDB or existing personalization rulesSitecore's Limitations page; its Pathway migration app doesn't move page designs, xDB data or personalization, so moving there is a rebuild in Deploi's judgmentSources: Sitecore Documentation (Limitations and restrictions, Migrate a site to SitecoreAI)
Deploi’s call
On Sitecore 10.0 or 10.1, you have two real options before the 31 December 2026 date Sitecore gives for 10.0 and 10.1: upgrade to XP 10.4 or 10.5, which keeps your MVC site, xDB and personalization rules, or rebuild. Once you accept a rebuild, SitecoreAI and Sanity compete on equal terms, so price both before you sign the next renewal.
UpgradeUpgrade to Sitecore Experience Platform (XP) 10.4 or 10.5 when
- Marketers run xDB (Experience Database) personalization, Marketing Automation or EXM (Email Experience Manager) every day, because none of them carries over to SitecoreAI or to Sanity.
- Policy keeps the content database on your own servers, so Sanity, which can't be self-hosted (Sanity Docs, Studio development, October 2026), and SitecoreAI, which is software as a service, are both out.
- Your site runs on MVC (Model-View-Controller) and no front-end rebuild is funded, so 10.5 buys the most time: Sitecore says its Mainstream support runs to 31 December 2029 (Sitecore Support, as of October 2026).
SanityReplatform from Sitecore to Sanity when
- You've accepted a rebuild, so the real comparison is SitecoreAI against Sanity, not XP against Sanity.
- Personalization is light or already runs in another tool, because Sanity stores the variants and an outside service decides who sees them.
- Your developers can own a JavaScript front end, the import scripts and the redirects after launch, so the rebuild has an owner.
What forces the Sitecore decision in 2026?
Two dated changes force the Sitecore decision in 2026. Sitecore's Product Support Lifecycle page says Sitecore 10.0 and 10.1 leave Extended support on 31 December 2026 and move to Sustaining support, which ends 31 December 2028 (October 2026). From 24 October 2026, that leaves 68 days (Deploi arithmetic from the date above). The same page put a new support model in operation on 1 June 2026, and under it Extended support no longer includes security fixes by default (Sitecore, October 2026).
Sitecore Experience Platform (XP) itself isn't ending. Sitecore says 10.5 shipped in August 2026 with Mainstream support to 31 December 2029 (Sitecore, October 2026), and Sitecore still sells XP for on-premises or private cloud hosting to "comply with data sovereignty rules" (Sitecore, Experience Platform, October 2026). So the deadline forces a version decision, not a platform exit. Sitecore can also change its lifecycle terms: changes apply 30 days after posting, and the page was last updated on 20 October 2026 (Sitecore, October 2026).
Which Sitecore versions lose support when?
Sitecore says 10.0 and 10.1 drop from Extended to Sustaining support on 31 December 2026, the day 9.1 leaves support entirely (Sitecore's Product Support Lifecycle page, October 2026). On 31 December 2027, the same page says, 10.4 leaves Mainstream, 10.2 leaves Extended, and 9.2 and 9.3 leave support. Sitecore counts each phase from the release date, which means Mainstream ends about 3 years after release, Extended about 6 and Sustaining up to 8. Other vendors' deadlines sit on the content management system (CMS) end-of-life calendar.
| Sitecore version (release) | Mainstream ends | Extended ends | Sustaining ends |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10.5 (August 2026) | 31 December 2029 | 31 December 2032 | 31 December 2034 |
| 10.4 (April 2024) | 31 December 2027 | 31 December 2030 | 31 December 2032 |
| 10.3 (December 2022) | 31 December 2025 | 31 December 2028 | 31 December 2030 |
| 10.2 (November 2021) | 31 December 2024 | 31 December 2027 | 31 December 2029 |
| 10.1 and 10.0 (February 2021, August 2020) | 31 December 2023 | 31 December 2026 | 31 December 2028 |
| 9.3 and 9.2 (2019) | 31 December 2022 | 31 December 2025 | 31 December 2027 |
| 9.1 (November 2018) | 31 December 2021 | 31 December 2024 | 31 December 2026 |
What changed in Sitecore's support terms on 1 June 2026?
Sitecore says that since 1 June 2026, a version in Extended support gets security fixes and help with production incidents only as an option you arrange with Sitecore; before that date, both were included (Sitecore's Product Support Lifecycle page, October 2026). The page marks those cells "$", which its legend defines as "Contact your Sitecore Account Representative to discuss options". Sitecore publishes no figure for that option. Sustaining support has no security updates under either model. So from 1 January 2027, a Sitecore 10.0 or 10.1 site keeps documentation and upgrade help, not patches.
| Support item | Extended, before 1 June 2026 | Extended, from 1 June 2026 | Sustaining, both models |
|---|---|---|---|
| Security updates and fixes | Included | Arranged with Sitecore | Not available |
| Help with production incidents | Included | Arranged with Sitecore | Arranged with Sitecore |
| Hotfixes for product defects | Arranged with Sitecore | Arranged with Sitecore | Not available |
| Help with version upgrades | Included | Included | Included |
What does staying on Sitecore XP involve?
Staying supported on Sitecore Experience Platform (XP) means an upgrade to 10.4 or 10.5, because Sitecore helps with an upgrade only "while the version being upgraded to is in the Mainstream support state" (Sitecore's Product Support Lifecycle page, October 2026). Sitecore says commercial Sitecore modules follow the support phase of the version they run on, unless stated otherwise (Sitecore, October 2026), so each module needs a release for the new version too (Deploi's inference).
The upgrade is also an infrastructure project, because each version supports different Windows Server and SQL Server releases (Sitecore compatibility table, October 2026):
- 10.0 and 10.1 run on Windows Server 2016 or 2019.
- 10.4 still supports Windows Server 2019 and SQL Server 2019, so it's the smaller hop.
- 10.5 supports only Windows Server 2022 and 2025 and SQL Server 2022 and 2025, or Azure SQL, and Sitecore's dates give it two more years of Mainstream support than 10.4.
What you keep is the reason to stay: MVC (Model-View-Controller) renderings, Sitecore's Experience Database (xDB), personalization rules, Marketing Automation and EXM (Email Experience Manager) all stay inside XP. Sitecore Managed Cloud can take over the hosting (Sitecore, Experience Platform, October 2026).
Is moving to SitecoreAI an upgrade or a rebuild?
Moving from Sitecore Experience Platform (XP) to SitecoreAI is a rebuild in practice, in Deploi's judgment, because Sitecore's documentation lists XP features that SitecoreAI leaves out. SitecoreAI is the new name for XM (Experience Manager) Cloud, and Sitecore's docs give no rename date (Deploying SitecoreAI; Sitecore's plugin docs, October 2026). Sitecore describes it as a cloud-native, hybrid headless digital experience platform (DXP) delivered as software as a service (Sitecore Documentation, SitecoreAI, October 2026). Sitecore's Limitations page lists what isn't in SitecoreAI (Sitecore Documentation, Limitations and restrictions, October 2026):
- MVC (Model-View-Controller), and SXA (Sitecore Experience Accelerator) with MVC
- xDB (Experience Database) and xConnect functionality, including existing personalization rules; SitecoreAI has its own embedded personalization
- Marketing Automation, Experience Analytics and EXM (Email Experience Manager)
- Sitecore Forms, replaced by SitecoreAI Forms, and custom search indexes
Sitecore's own migration app, SitecoreAI Pathway, is available on request and moves structured content from a Sitecore XM or XP site. It doesn't migrate "page and partial designs", xDB data, email marketing content or personalization, and it needs a source site built on Helix principles with a default layout structure (Sitecore Documentation, Migrate a site to SitecoreAI, October 2026). So an MVC site rebuilds its front end, page designs and personalization rules on SitecoreAI, as it would on Sanity.
When does leaving Sitecore for Sanity win?
Leaving Sitecore for Sanity wins once you've accepted a rebuild and personalization isn't the deciding value. Sanity hosts your content and serves it through APIs (application programming interfaces), and your own framework renders the site (Sanity blog, October 2026). Sitecore's personalization rules don't come with you. Sanity's personalization plugin lets editors "add a/b/n testing experiments to individual fields and page-level experiments", with the experiments defined in an outside service such as GrowthBook or LaunchDarkly (Sanity, personalization plugin, October 2026). Read how personalization and testing work on Sanity before you count on it.
Three situations favor Sanity:
- Your front end is MVC (Model-View-Controller) and would be rebuilt anyway, so SitecoreAI and Sanity both start from a new front end.
- The same content serves several sites, brands or apps, which is the case for running several sites from one content platform.
- Your developers can own a JavaScript front end, the import scripts and the redirects after launch.
Sanity's re-platforming course warns: "Recreating your content structure as-is in a new environment opens the door to recreating your existing problems, just on a new stack" (Sanity Learn, Planning a re-platforming project, October 2026). The Sitecore to Sanity playbook covers the move itself.
When should you stay on Sitecore, or pick a platform other than Sanity?
Stay on Sitecore when marketers run Sitecore's personalization, Marketing Automation or EXM (Email Experience Manager) daily, or when the content database must stay on your servers. Sanity's content store can't be self-hosted, because Studio "always connects to a dataset in the hosted Content Lake" (Sanity Docs, Studio development, October 2026), while Sitecore sells Sitecore Experience Platform (XP) for on-premises hosting (Sitecore, Experience Platform, October 2026). Pick SitecoreAI when you want software as a service (SaaS) and one vendor's suite. The Sanity and SitecoreAI comparison goes feature by feature.
| Verdict | What you do | When it wins |
|---|---|---|
| UPGRADE | Move to XP 10.4 or 10.5 | Daily xDB (Experience Database) personalization or Marketing Automation, self-hosting required, no funded front-end rebuild |
| ELSEWHERE | Rebuild on SitecoreAI | You want SaaS, one vendor and Sitecore's embedded personalization |
| WAIT | Already on XP 10.4 or 10.5: stay put | Sitecore says Mainstream support runs to 31 December 2027 (10.4) or 31 December 2029 (10.5) |
How do you compare the cost of staying on Sitecore with the cost of moving?
Compare upgrading Sitecore Experience Platform (XP), rebuilding on SitecoreAI and rebuilding on Sanity over one horizon, counting one-time and recurring costs separately. A fair horizon for an upgrade to XP 10.5 runs to the Mainstream end Sitecore gives it, 31 December 2029 (Sitecore's Product Support Lifecycle page, October 2026). Sitecore doesn't publish prices: its product pages route to "Request a demo" (Sitecore, Content management system, October 2026), so the license and SitecoreAI are quotes you request, and Extended-support options go through your account representative. Sanity's Growth plan costs $15 per seat a month, and Enterprise is custom pricing, as of October 2026 (Sanity pricing; Sanity for Startups, October 2026); see Sanity's plans.
| Cost driver | Upgrade XP | Rebuild on SitecoreAI | Rebuild on Sanity |
|---|---|---|---|
| Software fees | Not published | Not published | $15 per seat a month on Growth, or Enterprise custom |
| Hosting | Windows Server and SQL Server, or Managed Cloud | Software as a service from Sitecore | Sanity hosts content |
| Front end | MVC (Model-View-Controller) site kept | New headless front end | New front end |
| Personalization | Kept in xDB (Experience Database) | Rebuilt in SitecoreAI | Plugin plus an outside service |
| Redirects | None | Where URLs change | Where URLs change |
Deploi’s point of view
- Where we disagree
- Three claims circulate about Sitecore, and Sitecore's own pages contradict each one. First, that XP is ending and the cloud is the only future: Sitecore says it shipped XP 10.5 in August 2026 with Mainstream support to 31 December 2029. Second, that moving to XM Cloud, now SitecoreAI, is an upgrade: Sitecore's Limitations page drops MVC, xDB, existing personalization rules, EXM and Sitecore Forms, and its Pathway app leaves page designs and personalization behind. Third, that Extended support keeps you safe while you decide: since 1 June 2026, Sitecore says, it doesn't include security fixes unless you arrange them with Sitecore.
- What we'd tell you to do first
- List which XP features are switched on and actually used: xDB, personalization rules, Marketing Automation, EXM, Sitecore Forms, SXA, custom search indexes and MVC renderings. Check each against Sitecore's SitecoreAI Limitations page, and check your Windows Server and SQL Server versions against Sitecore's compatibility table. That one inventory sizes the XP upgrade, the SitecoreAI rebuild and the Sanity rebuild.
- What we refuse to promise
- We won't quote hours, a timeline or a total for leaving Sitecore from a call, because each depends on your own templates, renderings and personalization rules and on Sitecore's license and Extended-support options, which Sitecore doesn't publish. Our view of Sitecore rests on its documentation and public sources.
When this answer changes
- Sitecore updates its Product Support Lifecycle page (KB0641167, last updated 20 October 2026; changes apply 30 days after posting)
- Sitecore publishes a price for security fixes in Extended support, or makes them included again
- Sitecore announces a 10.6 release or a new row in its lifecycle table
- SitecoreAI Pathway starts migrating page designs, xDB data or personalization
- Sanity changes Growth's $15 per seat a month or moves features between plans
- 31 December 2026, the date Sitecore gives for 10.0 and 10.1 to enter Sustaining support, passes
Sources
Every source opened and checked on 25 October 2026.
- Sitecore, Sitecore Product Support Lifecycle
- Sitecore, Sitecore compatibility table for Sitecore XP 9.0 and later
- Sitecore Documentation, Limitations and restrictions
- Sitecore Documentation, Migrate a site to SitecoreAI
- Sitecore Documentation, Deploying SitecoreAI
- Sitecore Documentation, Sitecore CLI XM Cloud plugin
- Sitecore Documentation, SitecoreAI
- Sitecore, Sitecore XP: Discover the Power of Sitecore Experience Platform
- Sitecore, Content management system for faster, personalized experiences
- Sanity, Plans that scale with you
- Sanity, Sanity for Startups
- Sanity, The Drupal developer's introduction to Sanity.io
- Sanity Docs, Studio development
- Sanity Learn, Planning a re-platforming project
- Sanity, @sanity/personalization-plugin