umbraco
[Breaking change]: One-off licensing model discontinued in Umbraco Forms 17
Description
Starting from version 17, Umbraco Forms no longer supports the one-off (perpetual) licensing model. This means that customers can no longer purchase a license with a single, one-time payment. Instead, Forms will be available only through a subscription-based license, which provides continued access to updates, bug fixes, and support.
An upcoming minor release of Umbraco Forms 13 and Umbraco Forms 16 will include support for the new license model, in addition to the existing one-off license.
Version
Umbraco 17
Previous behavior
In versions prior to Umbraco Forms 17, customers could purchase a one-off (perpetual) license. This allowed them to make a single payment and use that version of Umbraco Forms indefinitely.
New behavior
From Umbraco Forms 17 onward, the one-off licensing model is no longer available. All new licenses are now subscription-based. This model includes access to the latest updates, bug fixes, and ongoing support as long as the subscription is active. Upgrading to 17 or later requires switching to a subscription license.
Type of breaking change
- [ ] Binary incompatible: Existing binaries may encounter a breaking change in behavior, such as failure to load/execute or different run-time behavior.
- [ ] Source incompatible: Source code may encounter a breaking change in behavior when targeting the new runtime/component/SDK, such as compile errors or different run-time behavior.
Reason for change
This change aligns the licensing model for Umbraco Forms with the overall direction of the Umbraco Commercial Products. It also ensures that all users receive ongoing improvements and support throughout their use of the product.
Recommended action
If you are currently using a one-off license for a version prior to Umbraco Forms 17, you can continue using that version without changes. However, if you plan to upgrade to Umbraco Forms 17 or later, you will need to purchase a subscription license. A transition plan will be in place for existing customers.
Affected APIs
N/A
@TvGessel , due to V15 and nearly v16 being out. Do you not think it would better to push this change to v18. This then doesn't mean that projects being built with V15/V16 and V17(LTS) of Umbraco being targeted aren't suddenly being hit by a Licensing change and implied cost change.
Targeting v17 for this change feels like an unexpected financial trap where people are being forced to a subscription model if they want to be able to use the next LTS version of Umbraco (v17).
I second what @NikRimington says, this immediately halts most of the planned migrations to V17 as this cost has not been planned.
All the discussions have been around upgrading the sites to the next LTS, this level of change should be brought in on an STS to allow for the time to discuss alternative options.
And no Umbraco Cloud is not always the solution.
I will definitely agree with @AaronSadlerUK . For non-Umbraco-Cloud clients, a subscription based cost might be a significant obstacle, especially if there are fixed budgets in place. They will definitely start seeking alternative solutions.
I think this is a great choice and a good way of ensuring quality of Umbraco Forms. The one time license is not sustainable if you want to support upgrades and security patches. Also building and maintaining all functionality in forms is way more expensive for end-clients then a subscription depending on the price of course.
This aligns with the goal of Umbraco becoming a lower enterprise solution where more revenue can flow back into the products and the CMS to ensure the quality that goes with lower enterprise.
@TvGessel Umbraco 17 is the next LTS version. So good business ethics would be to wait to Umbraco 18 to implement this license change. Umbraco 14 was useless, and Umbraco 15 is getting to a point where its usable. So only having a standard version supported with Umbraco Forms one-time licenses is not okay. Please reconsider this and be the CMS that actually things about it community and customers.
Postponing it to 18 will in practice mean postponing it to v21 in 2027? Almost no one is using the STS versions in production.
Also the side effect if you want the license to stay one-of means a huge increase in price I assume. The subscription makes sure there is recurring revenue so forms can be developed further. To have the same revenue the annual price would have to include the missing revenue from the annual license. What would be a reasonable one-time forms fee? € 500,- ? € 1000,-?
If you look at the development time saved and the added value of forms to the project it can even be € 10.000,-?
I think we have to come to terms with the fact that Umbraco isn't the hacky cheap CMS anymore but it's a cost effective lower enterprise solution. The customers that align with that positioning don't care if they have a yearly license for forms. They can use a calculator and know that if we as a company have to build and maintain something like forms it will cost them thousands of euros a year...
This is not the end of the world. This is a way to make great Umbraco products sustainable.
I'm not sure if this is up for discussion, but I agree with @FransdeJong that this is a great choice going forward. But I also think it should be postponed until v18.
I don't agree that no-one uses STS in production, at least we did until v13. Maybe for 14 and 15, as there has been a teething phase for the new backoffice.
Interesting! Definitely the right move from a sustainability model, forms has always been awesome value.
It would be great to see if there will be a free/cheaper tier available that allows for basic form editing; just off the cuff, but less out of the box workflows, single page forms or no conditionals. Or even a one-off license version that doesn't receive updates.
Accepting that the subscription model for saas is not going away any time soon I wonder if there is an offer that can be made for existing Forms clients who are upgrading to 17? Perhaps the first year highly discounted or even free? Surely this is better than agencies losing clients and losing face?
Certainly most of the sites I'm working on tend to be LTS, so to now have a requirement to add a recurring cost (depending what that cost is, and if there is a tiered element) would very much affect whether sites are upgraded to v17, but I definitely agree that this is the way forward with bolt-on services offered by hq
That the reason for this change, is to align the licensing model with the overall direction of the other commercial products is an interesting claim. Sure, it's alignment in the way that everything needs to be on a subscription model these days to maximize profits, but the pricing of Umbraco's commercial products are pure anarchy and has been for years now 😅
So, there are some ways to do this more ethical.
My personal favorite is to announce that all NEW subscriptions bought after the release of version 17 is on the new subscription model. And that the subscription model pricing wont take a 10x price hike. And that all prior bought licenses will continue to function as always. This would allow us to prepare new customers and projects for a license fee without messing with existing projects. Definitely the smoothest transition if you ask me. Forms has never been the financial backbone of Umbraco, and I see no reason as to why it should be necessary to introduce a change like this in such a brute force manner, if not for unhinged VC greed 🤷
The second best way would be to do what others have already voiced, to postpone this change to Umbraco 18. And add a migration discount for the first year, or something like that. This is better, but not really good, just a bit less hostile this way.
My biggest fear in all of this is definitely the expected price increase. Umbraco is not known for a well thought out price model scaling and I have no expectations of Forms being the trend breaker here.
I do hope that HQ will listen to all of our concerns on this and do the right thing 🙏
Thank you for the feedback. Starting from Umbraco Forms 17, licenses will only be available as subscriptions. This is the same model we use for our other commercial products. It helps us support Umbraco Forms better now and in the future.
Here are a few important points:
- Umbraco Forms 13 and 16 will still support the old one-off license next to the new subscription license.
- Umbraco Forms 17 and later will only work with the new subscription license.
- The subscription price will be fair. In many cases, the yearly cost is about the same as one hour of development work.
- If you bought a one-off license and want to upgrade to Umbraco Forms 17, you still can. There will be a clear and friendly way to move to the new model. You will get the value of your old license as subscription months, starting from the date you bought it.
More information about the license change, pricicing and the migration plan will follow.
Please find below all the information incl. pricing about Forms moving to a subscription model.
What’s changing
- From license file to license key: Starting with Umbraco 17, you’ll use a subscription key instead of a file. For Umbraco 13 and Umbraco 16, both options will work during a hybrid period, starting September 1, 2025.
- On Umbraco Cloud: No action needed. Validation happens automatically.
- Trials: You can still test Forms freely on localhost; a subscription is only required for live domains.
Why this is good news
- Consistency across Umbraco products with one simple, unified model.
- Better long-term development. Subscriptions provide the foundation for ongoing improvements and faster delivery.
- Less hassle, no more juggling license files; just add a key.
- Lower upfront cost for short-term sites, perfect for campaigns and micro sites.
Simple and predictable annual pricing
- Forms subscription: EUR 100 / USD 130 / GBP 95 / DKK 765
- Extra domain add-on: EUR 65 / USD 85 / GBP 60 / DKK 495
Each license covers one live domain, includes all subdomains, and gives you two dev/test domains at no extra cost. This means lower upfront costs, clear annual budgeting, and more flexibility for projects of any size, whether it’s a long-term platform or a short-lived campaign site.
Migration made simple If you’ve purchased a one-off license recently, you won’t lose out. We will convert your one-off Forms license into subscription time that totals up to 32 months from the original purchase date. The time you have left is simply 32 months minus the age of your license. When you want to migrate to Umbraco 17, you will need to register a subscription (only after 32 months). Once migrated, you will automatically be invoiced annually after the remaining migrated months have expired.
Next steps Applicable from September 1st, 2025
- shop.umbraco.com won't be available anymore for partners and direct customers as of September 1st, 2025;
- For new projects or migrations, request a subscription license at umbraco.com/licenses.
- To migrate an existing one-off license, go to umbraco.com/licenses/migrate-forms.
- If you need to add or remove domains on an active license, choose ‘Modify an existing license’ at umbraco.com/licenses.
FAQ
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Will the one-off model stop working? No, the one-off license file will remain valid as is. It can be used for Umbraco 13 and 16. When these versions go end-of-life then the support for Forms will also stop. When you want to upgrade to Umbraco 17+, you will need to migrate Forms to the subscription model and request a license key.
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Can we still add or change domains on the older one-off license? Yes, while shop.umbraco.com not being available anymore Umbraco partners can go to umbraco.com/licenses and direct customers can go to umbraco.com/products/add-ons/forms/
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Will 17 only support the subscription model? From 17+ Forms will only use the license key (subscription model).
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Can I still buy an one-off license for Forms (we are in the middle of a running project with the customer) Yes, that’s possible. Simply fill out the form here: umbraco.com/licenses.
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My license is older than 32 months, what should I do? The Forms one-off license will remain working for all Umbraco versions below 17 as is. If you are planning to upgrade to Umbraco 17 then you will need to purchase a new subscription license key.
Currently Umbraco Forms is free with a Cloud subscription - will this continue to be the case?
This issue has been mentioned on Umbraco community forum. There might be relevant details there:
https://forum.umbraco.com/t/umbraco-forms-17-subscription-based/5953/2
I still have quite a few pre-purchased perpetual Umbraco Forms licenses in my account which haven't been assigned to a project/domain yet. Most of these licenses were purchased a while ago and are older than 32 months. So these licenses will become pretty much useless, no compensation whatsoever?
Also, since I can't access shop.umbraco.com anymore I am unable to access the full list of licenses that were linked to my account, so there's no way for me to verify which license was purchased when and how many licenses haven't been assigned yet.
Lastly, it would've been nice if customers had received a heads up via email about shop.umbraco.com being taken down on September 1, 2025. Especially since I have purchased a few thousand euros worth of Umbraco Forms licenses that I can now no longer access/utilize, even on current Umbraco 13-16 projects.
Please contact Umbraco Support (go to umbraco.com and open the chat in the bottom right corner). They can provide an overview of all licenses assigned to your account. Licenses with no domain attached can still be assigned a domain and used on all Umbraco 13 and 16 projects because these version are hybrid versions and support the one-off license and the subscription license.
I object in the strongest terms to the cynical change to the licencing arrangements. These licences were purchased on the understanding that they would work in perpetuity. Not all sites belong to huge commercial enterprises nor are built by marketing agencies keen to extract maximum profit from clients. Many are built by the freelancers, i.e. those that helped build and promote Umbraco. They build a site, provide it to the owners then leave them to it. We don't want to be saddled with managing annual subscriptions.
What are you going to do to honour the original intent of the licences purchased prior to V17?
I always purchased a licence to help the cause, so to speak, but if this is not changed, I will no longer. I'll just code up the forms I require.
Hi @craigs100, thanks for voicing your concerns (or even frustrations). Please allow me the opportunity to clarify the license changes and reasoning behind them. I'd recommend reading the additional information that was shared by Tom (in https://github.com/umbraco/Announcements/issues/25#issuecomment-3233529519, which was also shared directly to partners), as that already contains an overview with most of the answers. Regardless, I want to clarify a few points that might ease your concerns:
I object in the strongest terms to the cynical change to the licencing arrangements. These licences were purchased on the understanding that they would work in perpetuity.
The existing licenses will keep working in perpetuity on the versions that were available when purchasing it: we're not changing this (and in fact can't change this retrospectively on any released version due to how validation of the license files work). We've announced the change to a subscription licensing model 6 months before releasing version 17, which discontinues support for the one-off license files and unifies licensing between all our commercial products to use license keys. Besides having half a year to prepare for any upcoming v17 projects, we've provided an additional migration period to convert any recent one-off license purchase into a subscription license worth up to 32 months. This means that if you purchased a license when Umbraco 13 launched on December 14, 2023, you can upgrade to version 17 and migrate to a paid-for subscription until August 14, 2026.
Not all sites belong to huge commercial enterprises nor are built by marketing agencies keen to extract maximum profit from clients. Many are built by the freelancers, i.e. those that helped build and promote Umbraco. They build a site, provide it to the owners then leave them to it. We don't want to be saddled with managing annual subscriptions.
The CMS being open-source and free to use certainly helped adopt and promote it among independent developers and freelancers early-on, while at the same time landing them client projects and earn an income. Commercial enterprises and marketing agencies (among others) have since also found the value of Umbraco, invested into our platform as well and everything combined made it possible for us to continue developing the whole platform to what it is today. How you want to do business is up to you, but similarly to completely handing over the site to the owner/client after its built, you can do so for any associated subscriptions, including hosting and licenses: this isn't something we're forcing you to manage. You're also not required to upgrade or start using v17 on all your projects, although there will be many benefits to being on the latest LTS version, like improved performance, a modern architecture, access to the latest features, bugfixes and longest support lifecycle.
What are you going to do to honour the original intent of the licences purchased prior to V17?
As mentioned, they are honored in perpetuity on all versions below 17 and anyone upgrading to v17 can get a paid-for subscription worth up to 32 months from your original purchase date.
I always purchased a licence to help the cause, so to speak, but if this is not changed, I will no longer. I'll just code up the forms I require.
Although I appreciate the gesture of purchasing the one-off licenses: they simply don't give us the predictable revenue we need to sustain ongoing development and support. The subscription model lets us commit to continuous improvement in a way the old model simply couldn't. And here's something worth considering: custom-coded forms typically cost far more than the annual license and leave your clients worse off. When you code forms manually, clients can't tweak workflows themselves, add fields on the fly, or adjust workflows without calling you back. With Forms, they have an editor-friendly interface to manage their own needs. So while custom code might feel cheaper upfront, it often costs clients more in the long run—both in dev hours and ongoing maintenance. The subscription price is designed to be fair to everyone, including freelancers and small sites, while keeping Forms sustainable and reliable.
This change isn't easy for everyone, and we appreciate the feedback. But we're genuinely confident this is the right move for the future of Umbraco Forms.
Hi @ronaldbarendse, Thanks for taking the time to produce such a detailed response. I'm sure it will be appreciated by many, not just myself. The only comments I'd make are:-
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Many sites just need a very simple contact form. Once you've built one for one project, it's a cut and paste into another, so the cost/benefit isn't necessarily quite as onerous. But, if the client needs the editability, then of course, Umbraco Forms is an excellent product for that.
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Historically, Umbraco used to gently persuade us (well me anyway) that they didn't really want to deal with end-users (our clients), and would much rather deal with agencies and partners with accounts. I assume from your penultimate paragraph that you're now happy to engage with end users with regards to them having a subscription account with you directly.