Trying to get my head around this. We are running headless, so no templates at all. The site has over 100 DocTypes. That said we do add a .Net GraphQL layer on top of an API. All the v8 content is in Nested Content which we hope to use uSync migrations to get to Block Grid / Block List, and then use the Content Delivery API as a base for the GraphQL layer. Does it make any sense for us to even consider going straight to v14? There is no rush as long as we meet the v8 EOL deadline next year. If we decide to go to v13, what will the upgrade path look like to v14?

Hi Will!

I imagine there will be a way of migrating Block Grid & Block List from v13 to v14. Hopefully HQ are giving this some thought. Is v14 a new .net version?

v14 will be released end of next month, so at that time .NET 8 will still be the newest version of .NET. So both v13 and v14 will target .NET 8.

Not such a major difference in V8 vs V9 (and 10-14)

14 to 15 will probably be super easy (same "new backoffice", probably still net8, no XPath, etc), so the 14 EOL date I'd ignore. Just guessing here, but that's the way it's been historically for pre-8 to 8 and 9-13 to 13. I wouldn't go "via 13" for any pre-13 since 14 is so different from 9-13. We are postponing upgrades currently to let 14+ become "feature complete". Any backend code will likely be the "most manual" part of an upgrade from v8/net4 to v13+/netcore. Expect to have to rewrite all backend code and not be able to use any third-party .NET packages from net4.

I'd recommend going to v13, as it's LTS (longer support, see: https://umbraco.com/products/knowledge-center/long-term-support-and-end-of-life/) and still contains Nested Content... And if you're still on v8 now (2 LTS versions behind, v10 and v13), it indicates to me that this project can't be easily upgraded (either due to technical, operational or budget reasons). Sticking to the LTS release would then make most sense in that regard as well. And regarding migrating Nested Content to Block List: this is already handled by Umbraco Deploy, uSync Migrations and the AutoBlockList package, so I'm not sure whether it will be something the CMS will get built-in migration support for...