Umbraco 17 LTS has arrived, bringing faster performance, a cleaner editing experience, and a future-ready foundation. For membership organisations it unlocks better journeys, smarter personalisation, and new opportunities for AI. Discover what’s changed and why it matters.
Umbraco 17 LTS is the most significant release of Umbraco in years - designed to give membership organisations a more reliable website, a smoother editorial experience, and a platform that can evolve as digital expectations and AI-driven experiences accelerate.
If you rely on your website to attract, engage, and retain members, this upgrade brings meaningful benefits across usability, performance, and long-term sustainability.
Members expect instant, seamless digital experiences. Umbraco 17 delivers markedly improved speed, responsiveness, and reliability.
What this means for you:
Pages load faster across devices.
Reduced downtime and fewer performance bottlenecks.
A better experience for prospective members researching your organisation.
Stronger support for content-heavy membership sites (events, resources, learning content etc).
A faster site directly supports member satisfaction and engagement.
Your website team will benefit immediately.
Content Editors gain:
A cleaner, more intuitive backoffice.
Faster publishing workflows.
Fewer bugs, quirks, and workarounds.
Better support for structured content like events, training, news, and membership information.
This means less time wrestling with the CMS - and more time delivering content that matters to your members.
Membership organisations increasingly rely on personalised experiences to support acquisition, retention, and value delivery.
Upgrading unlocks:
Better foundations for personalised content.
Enhanced support for integrating member data (e.g. with D365 or MemEx).
More flexibility to deliver tailored landing pages and segmented content.
This allows you to create clearer pathways: joining, renewing, learning, volunteering, attending events, and accessing benefits.
As AI becomes part of everyday digital operations, flexible platforms will outperform rigid ones.
With Umbraco 17 you can:
Introduce AI-assisted content creation and optimisation.
Improve site navigation with intelligent search.
Automate metadata, tagging, and content categorisation.
Experiment with personalised, AI-powered member journeys.
You don’t need to use AI immediately - but Umbraco 17 ensures your website is ready when you are.
Older versions of Umbraco become harder and more expensive to maintain, and upgrades become more complex over time.
By upgrading now you gain:
A CMS with long-term support (LTS).
More predictable updates, reducing risk and cost.
Improved resilience and security.
A future-proofed platform that stays compatible with modern tools and the wider MemEx ecosystem.
This is about reducing technical debt and ensuring your digital estate remains fit for purpose.
For membership organisations using Dynamics 365, marketing tools, learning platforms, or the MemEx Member Portal, Umbraco 17 offers a clearer, more stable base for joined-up digital journeys.
You benefit from:
More reliable integrations.
A more flexible platform for surfacing member data (CPD, events, benefits, communities).
The ability to create consistent experiences across web, portal, and CRM.
This strengthens your digital ecosystem and supports deeper member engagement.
You should consider upgrading if:
Your website feels slow, dated, or difficult to manage.
You’re planning a redesign or a shift in member experience.
You’re struggling with legacy issues or expensive workarounds.
You want to embrace AI or modern personalisation.
You want a long-term, stable, future-proof platform.
We provide a clear, structured upgrade pathway for membership organisations, including:
Review of your current website and content model.
Upgrade readiness assessment.
Migration plan and risk mitigation.
Full upgrade and optimisation.
Optional redesign or member journey improvements.
Our goal is simple: a faster, cleaner, more flexible website that helps you deliver more value to your members.
Ready to talk?
If any of this sounds like where your own organisation is, we're happy to talk it through - no pitch required.
Reflections from MemberWise Digital Excellence 2026 on why membership organisations are moving beyond basic portal self-service and focusing instead on more connected, personalised, and engaging digital member experiences.
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Wattle are delighted to be attending the latest MemberWise Membership Solutions Day on Thursday 11th June 2026 in London - the data-driven decisions edition.
