Moving from Adobe Experience Manager to SitecoreAI: a guide for AEM 6.5 teams

31 October 2026
Arcsen

Adobe has set the end of the road for Adobe Experience Manager 6.5. Core support for on-premise 6.5 is planned to end in February 2027, and 6.5 support on Adobe Managed Services was set to end by 31 August 2026. Every way forward from here is a migration: to AEM 6.5 LTS, to AEM as a Cloud Service, or to another platform. This guide is for digital and marketing leaders in the Gulf and Egypt who want to weigh SitecoreAI fairly against the Adobe paths. It covers how AEM maps to SitecoreAI, what moves and what gets rebuilt, how to protect Arabic content and search rankings, and how to compare cost on equal terms.

The short version

All three paths are projects. Upgrading to 6.5 LTS, moving to AEM as a Cloud Service and moving to SitecoreAI each involve code changes, testing and a cutover.
Content moves, and the experience is rebuilt. AEM components written in HTL and Java become Next.js components on SitecoreAI, and content is mapped into new templates in tested batches.
Personalization, analytics and integrations need decisions. Adobe Target activities, analytics tagging and connections to CRM and commerce are reviewed one by one.
Arabic and SEO decide whether the move is a success. Language copies, right-to-left layouts and redirects from AEM’s URL patterns need a plan from week one.
Compare cost over three years. Licences, hosting, the migration itself and the cost of running the platform belong in the same table.

The AEM 6.5 clock

Adobe publishes the 6.5 support timeline in its knowledge base. The dates that matter for planning:

Adobe Managed Services: support for 6.5 was set to end by 31 August 2026.
On-premise: core support is planned to end in February 2027, with service packs supported until 28 February 2027.
Extended support: available until February 2028 for customers with approved extended support, with critical security fixes only on the last service pack.
AEM 6.5 LTS: the continuation of the 6.5 line, running on Java 17 or 21, with some legacy features removed. Moving to it is an upgrade project with its own testing.

The platform keeps running after support ends. What changes is risk: no new fixes, an ageing Java runtime and security findings that stay open. For a bank, a government entity or an airline in the region, that usually decides the timeline.

Three paths, and each one is a project

Path	What it involves	Usually the right fit when
Upgrade to AEM 6.5 LTS	A new Java runtime, dependency and code updates, removed features replaced, full regression testing	You need to stay on your own infrastructure for now and want the smallest change in 2027
Move to AEM as a Cloud Service	Code refactored to cloud patterns, content and assets transferred, optional Edge Delivery Services for the front end	You are committed to the wider Adobe stack, such as Target, Analytics and Experience Platform
Move to SitecoreAI	A platform change: content model redesigned, components rebuilt in Next.js, content migrated in batches, integrations re-pointed	You want a SaaS content platform with AI agents built in, and you are ready to modernize the front end

A fair comparison puts all three side by side on cost, risk and time, with your own estate as the input. That is what a decision memo is for.

What maps to what

Most AEM concepts have a clear home in SitecoreAI. The work is in deciding what to carry over, what to merge and what to retire.

In AEM	In SitecoreAI	Decide before you rebuild
Page templates and HTL components	Page templates and Next.js components on the Sitecore Content SDK, edited in the page builder	Which components to rebuild, merge or retire
Content Fragments and Experience Fragments	Structured content items and reusable partial designs	The content model, designed once for Arabic and English
Multi Site Manager and language copies	Sites and language versions on the same content item	How Arabic is authored, approved and published
AEM Assets	Sitecore Content Hub, or the DAM you already run, connected to SitecoreAI	Whether to move the assets or connect the existing DAM
Adobe Target activities	SitecoreAI personalization and testing	Which activities still earn their place
Adobe Analytics tagging	Your analytics stack of choice, tagged on the new front end	Capture the baseline before cutover
AEM Forms and form handlers	Forms rebuilt and connected to your CRM	Where every submission lands, for example in Salesforce
Workflows	SitecoreAI workflows	Who approves what, in which language, and how fast
Dispatcher, vanity URLs and redirects	A Next.js front end behind a CDN, with redirects managed in the platform	The full redirect map from AEM paths to new routes

How the move works

We run AEM moves with the same factory method and toolkit as ArcShift™, our SitecoreAI migration accelerator. Five stages, in this order.

1. Scan the estate and write the decision memo

We inventory pages by template, components, content and experience fragments, language copies, Target activities, forms, integrations and redirects. The memo compares 6.5 LTS, AEM as a Cloud Service and SitecoreAI on cost, risk and timeline, including the honest case for staying with Adobe.

2. Extract and map the content

AEM content is exported through content packages and AEM’s JSON and GraphQL interfaces, then mapped to SitecoreAI templates and imported in tested batches, each language with its pair. SitecoreAI Pathway, Sitecore’s migration tool, now has an “Any website” mode in beta that crawls public sites from other platforms, with a limit of 200 URLs. That suits a small campaign or country site. An enterprise AEM estate needs scripted extraction, so the full content model, metadata and language pairs come across.

3. Rebuild the front end

Components are rebuilt in Next.js from a tested, bilingual component library on an Arabic-first starter, so right-to-left layout, Arabic typography and hreflang pairs work from the first sprint. Logic that lived in HTL and Sling models moves into components and services. Design tokens carry over, so the brand survives the move.

4. Rebuild personalization, analytics and integrations

Each Target activity is reviewed. The ones that move results are rebuilt in SitecoreAI personalization, and the rest are retired. Analytics is baselined before cutover, because history stays in the old tool. CRM, commerce, search and DAM connections are re-pointed and regression-tested.

5. Cut over and protect rankings

AEM URLs often carry /content/ paths, .html extensions and vanity aliases. Every one gets a mapped redirect, checked by script before go-live. Automated visual, accessibility and performance tests run in both languages, then the site goes into hypercare until traffic and conversion hold.

Arabic: where AEM migrations go wrong

Arabic sites on AEM are often language copies that drift from the English master, with right-to-left fixes layered into the CSS over the years. A migration is the moment to reset that. On SitecoreAI, Arabic is a language version of the same content item, components are built and tested in both directions once, and brand kits include a glossary so translation keeps your names and terms consistent. Ask a native editor to review the pages that matter most before cutover, and test on-site search in Arabic. Our guide to Arabic-first Sitecore covers the checks.

Compare cost on equal terms

Licence prices are the easy part of the comparison. Put four lines in the same table for each path, over three years:

Licences and subscriptions, including personalization, search, DAM and analytics.
Hosting and operations, including infrastructure, upgrades and the team that runs them.
The migration itself, including the content, front end, integrations and testing.
Running and improving the platform, including managed services and release cadence.

For SitecoreAI, Forrester’s Total Economic Impact™ study, commissioned by Sitecore, reports a 371% return on investment over three years for a composite organization, with page creation time cut by 60% and developer time on integrations cut by 50%. Treat it as one input. Your decision memo should use your own numbers.

Six questions to ask before you choose

How many templates and components does our AEM estate really use, and how many could we retire?
Which Target activities moved a business number in the last year?
How far has our Arabic site drifted from English, in pages, freshness and search?
Which integrations would break on each path, and who owns them?
What does each path cost over three years, migration included?
Who will run the platform after go-live, and how often will it change?

Frequently asked questions

Can SitecoreAI Pathway migrate an AEM site?

Partly. Pathway’s “Any website” mode, in beta, crawls public sites from other platforms with a limit of 200 URLs and proposes mappings to SitecoreAI. Larger AEM estates need scripted extraction through content packages and AEM’s APIs, so the content model, metadata and language pairs move intact.

How long does a move from AEM to SitecoreAI take?

It depends on the number of templates, languages, integrations and Target activities. That is why the work starts with an estate scan: the decision memo gives a phased, dated plan built on your own estate.

Can we keep Adobe Analytics or Adobe Target?

Yes. Both run on any website through Adobe’s tags, so you can keep them during and after the move. Many teams keep analytics for continuity and decide on Target activity by activity, because running two personalization engines adds cost and complexity.

What happens to our search rankings?

They travel with you when every AEM URL has a mapped redirect, metadata and structured data carry over, and both language versions keep their hreflang pairs. We check the redirect map by script before cutover and watch Search Console through hypercare.

Is SitecoreAI right for every AEM customer?

No. If you are committed to Adobe Experience Platform and use Target and Analytics deeply, AEM as a Cloud Service may be the better path. The decision memo sets out the case for each option, including staying with Adobe.

Moving off AEM 6.5?

Start with an estate scan and a decision memo that compares every path on cost, risk and time, with your own numbers.

Talk to our Sitecore team →or see ArcShift™