Kentico Upgrades & Migrations
KX12/13 to Xperience by Kentico, done right
Upgrade & Migration Services
KX12/13 Migrations
Full platform migrations to Xperience by Kentico: content model, data, custom code, and Page Builder components, with URL preservation and a rollback path.
Version Refresh Upkeep
Xperience by Kentico ships monthly refreshes. Upkeep engagements keep you current: scheduled refresh windows, regression checks, and hotfixes applied before they become blockers.
Pre-Migration Audits
A fixed-scope assessment of your KX12/13 solution: what migrates cleanly, what needs rework, what should be retired. The output is a plan with real numbers.
Architecture & Health Checks
For existing Xperience by Kentico sites: performance, content model, and code-quality reviews. We built Sentinel, our open-source scanner, for exactly this.
Our Migration Approach
Audit
We inventory your KX12/13 solution: page types, custom modules, Page Builder components, integrations, and content volume. Kentico's Migration Toolkit covers data; the audit tells us what it will not cover.
Plan
A fixed-scope migration plan: what moves with the Migration Toolkit, what gets rebuilt, what gets retired. URL mapping and the rollback strategy are defined here, not during cutover.
Migrate
Data and content move via the Kentico Migration Toolkit in repeatable passes. Custom code and Page Builder components are ported with our KentiCopilot-assisted workflow, then reviewed by hand. The old site stays live throughout.
Verify
Parallel verification before cutover: content parity checks, URL and redirect validation, performance baselines, and editor walkthroughs. Cutover happens once, when the checks pass.
What an Upgrade Engagement Looks Like
A typical KX13 migration runs eight to sixteen weeks, depending on how much custom code the solution carries. Here is the honest version of how it goes.
- Weeks 1-2, audit. We read the codebase and inventory the content model. Almost every project surfaces custom modules nobody remembers building. The audit prices them.
- Weeks 2-3, plan. Fixed scope, agreed cutover criteria, and a URL map. If a feature is not worth migrating, we say so here.
- The middle weeks, migrate. Content moves in repeatable Migration Toolkit passes, so editors keep working on the old site until cutover. Code is ported component by component and reviewed like any other pull request.
- Final weeks, verify and cut over. Parity checks, redirect tests, performance baselines. Cutover is scheduled, reversible, and uneventful. That is the goal.
What we will not promise: a lift-and-shift. Xperience by Kentico has a different rendering and content model than KX12/13, and pretending otherwise is how migrations fail.
Why Refined Element
Migration FAQ
How long does a KX13 migration take?
Most marketing sites land between eight and sixteen weeks. The variables are custom module count, Page Builder component complexity, and integration surface. The audit produces a real timeline for your solution, usually within two weeks.
Can we migrate incrementally?
Content, yes. The Kentico Migration Toolkit supports repeatable passes, so editors keep publishing on the old site while the new one is built. The public cutover itself is a single, planned event with a rollback path.
What happens to our Page Builder widgets?
They are ported, not copied. Xperience by Kentico's component model differs from KX12/13, so each widget's properties, views, and registration are converted. We use KentiCopilot's migration tooling for the first pass and review every component by hand.
Will we lose SEO rankings?
The plan includes a full URL inventory and 301 redirect map before cutover, plus canonical and sitemap checks after. Rankings survive migrations that treat URLs as a first-class deliverable; they suffer when redirects are an afterthought.
Is Kentico's Migration Toolkit enough on its own?
It moves data well: content, media, users, and settings. It does not migrate custom code, page templates, or Page Builder components. That is the engineering work, and it is where most of the schedule goes.
What about our integrations and custom modules?
Each one is classified in the audit: migrate, rebuild, or retire. Integrations against modern APIs usually port cleanly. Modules built on KX12-era APIs typically need a rebuild, and we price that before work starts.
Start With the Audit
A fixed-scope audit tells you what a migration actually costs before you commit to one.
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