Current on-prem is XP 10.5, published 5 August 2026. Mainstream runs to 31 December 2029. It still targets .NET Framework 4.8.1. You can go there direct from 8.1.0+. SitecoreAI is a different product. We will tell you whether to climb XP or leave it.
Australian .NET team. We look at the farm before anyone talks about a rebuild.
01
What you have
02
What is safe to keep
03
Upgrade or move
The site still works. That is why it has been left alone.
Sitecore Experience Platform and Experience Manager are the on-prem / PaaS .NET line. A lot of the farms we hear about were built on 9.x or early 10, with Helix modules, pipelines, and a forms product that is now in the archive list. Then the person who understood xConnect left.
You might recognise one of these:
You do not need a new brand, or an AI-DXP pitch. You need a clear read on the farm you already have.
Sitecore XP is still a real product. 10.5.0 shipped 5 August 2026. It adds Windows Server 2025 and SQL Server 2025, and drops Windows Server 2019 container images. An XP upgrade does not exit Framework.
Sitecore’s support table (KB0641167): about three years Mainstream, then Extended to year six, then Sustaining to year eight. On 21 August 2026 the Mainstream on-prem versions are 10.4 and 10.5 only. 10.5 Mainstream ends 31 December 2029; Extended 31 December 2032; Sustaining 31 December 2034. 10.3 is already in Extended. 10.0 and 10.1 Extended ends 31 December 2026. 9.1 Sustaining ends 31 December 2026. 9.0 and 8.2 Sustaining already ended. 9.2 and 9.3 are in Sustaining — no security updates at any price. Upgrade assistance is only provided from a version still in Mainstream, Extended, or Sustaining to a version in Mainstream.
10.5 is still Framework 4.8.1. SitecoreAI is not this installer.
Sitecore updated the support model. In Extended, production-incident assistance and security updates are paid extras. They used to be bundled. Sustaining: no security updates at any price. A farm can still “have a contract” and not have patches.
Assemblies moved from 4.8 to 4.8.1. That is not ASP.NET Core. The official 10.5 upgrade guide lets you go directly from XP 8.1.0 or later; anything earlier must hop to 8.1.0 first. Since 10.1 the method is side-by-side: upgrade databases, install 10.5 beside the existing farm, attach the DBs, deploy the solution, then post-upgrade steps. On-prem only. Customisation — pipelines, Helix modules, SXA, SPEAK, WFFM — is still the work. WFFM is on the 10.5 download Archive list. Forms are a rebuild.
Sitecore announced SitecoreAI on 4 November 2025 as the SaaS evolution of XM Cloud. Vendor language about a seamless XM Cloud to SitecoreAI move applies to those customers. An XP 9 or 10 farm is not already on SitecoreAI. Solr 10 with Basic Auth, SQL 2025, and Server 2022 or 2025 are 10.5 prerequisites, not polish. Host OS must leave Windows Server 2019 containers before 10.5.
None of that makes the content, media, or information architecture worthless. It does mean “we are on SitecoreAI after a DLL upgrade” is the wrong first sentence. The site does not switch off on an Extended or Sustaining end date.
We start with the farm, not with a destination.
XP or XM version, CM / CD / xConnect / Identity / Solr / SQL topology, Helix modules, pipelines, WFFM or other archived modules, and whether commerce is in the same conversation. We will tell you what a 10.5 climb covers, and what is a rebuild.
There are three honest outcomes. We recommend one, not all three.
Content databases and the pages people actually use come across. Archived modules, old SPEAK apps, and custom pipelines do not become 10.5 features by themselves. Commerce stays a separate product conversation.
Source, a short record of what changed, and a farm someone else can understand.
We will not tell you 10.5 is modern .NET. We will not tell you WordPress is the answer to every XP farm. If you already know you want to stay on Sitecore forever, a Sitecore-only partner may be a better fit. If you want an honest fork in the road, talk to us.
A URL and a rough version is enough to start.
The first call is 30 minutes. You leave with a recommendation you can take to a manager, not a rebuild estimate pulled from thin air.
We have taken over and modernised ageing .NET systems for Australian organisations, including work with Data#3, Hastie, NESS, and NSW Health. That is related Microsoft web work, not a published Sitecore XP or SitecoreAI case study. We do not hold a Sitecore partner badge. A 9.x or 10.x farm still starts with its own assessment. We will not pretend it is a project we have already published.
Thirty minutes. Bring a URL and a version number if you know it. We will tell you whether to climb to 10.5, look at SitecoreAI, or leave Sitecore — and we will not call an XP farm SitecoreAI.
Book a free 30-minute discovery call