The foundation of any great marketing website starts with a top-notch content management system (CMS). While there are hundreds of options available on the market, we use Sitecore and Umbraco to power our clients’ websites and help them reach their marketing goals.

Read more about our Umbraco CMS and Sitecore consulting services. 

Even though both platforms offer many of the same features, there are a few unique benefits that make each CMS a wonderful complement to your digital marketing strategy and a great fit for a variety of organizations.

If you are on the cusp of rebuilding your existing website, starting from scratch, or looking to switch up the CMS you currently use, let’s dig into the benefits of both Sitecore and Umbraco to help you understand which might be a better fit for your business.

How do Sitecore and Umbraco compare?

We’ll start with the similarities: Sitecore and Umbraco are both content management systems that help you create, edit, store, and publish content on your website. They were both created in Denmark in the early 2000s and they’re both built on Microsoft’s .NET platform. Both have a great reputation and are used by thousands of businesses.

But Umbraco and Sitecore also have their differences, and it’s important to pick the one that best fits the needs of your organization.

Sitecore (which you can read more about here) is a heavyweight solution designed to handle millions of users or multiple web properties. It’s not the cheapest CMS out there, but it has a host of built-in tools and features that help meet the needs of medium to large enterprises.

Umbraco, on the other hand, is an open-source CMS that’s known for being intuitive and easy to use. It’s flexible, customizable, and can scale with your business.  

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Keep reading for a deeper look into how each platform can help your business reach its goals. 

Benefits of Sitecore CMS

1. Built to handle large, complex, enterprise-level websites on an all-in-one platform.

Sitecore’s platform is designed to handle massive, complex websites, making it the perfect solution for large, enterprise-level companies. Their robust platform is your all-in-one tool for everything related to marketing, website content, and e-commerce.

2. Powerful personalization & automation features.

Sitecore’s powerful personalization and automation features help to create outstanding experiences for customers each time they visit your website. Sitecore’s components allow you to display the most relevant information to site users based on their browsing behavior, all with a few clicks of a button.

3. E-commerce solutions that drive sales.

Sitecore’s Experience Commerce Platform combines all the best in e-commerce and content marketing to help you drive your sales strategy and deliver unique customer experiences. If your business is centered around e-commerce, this platform has you covered.

4. Built-in tools for analytics.

Sitecore's built-in analytics tools help you to make more informed decisions about where to spend your marketing budget and how clicks and traffic to your website turn into conversions.

5. Sitecore’s expanding partnerships and acquisitions means that more features are coming!

Sitecore has acquired a variety of companies in the last year including Four51, Boxever, and Moosend to further position themselves as industry leaders and double down on their market presence. The bonus for you? New and improved features, functionality, and possibilities are being added to the platform to help you further your strategies, grow your business, and reach your customers.

Benefits of Umbraco CMS

1. Open-source and flexible.

Umbraco’s open-source platform and architecture means that their CMS can be customized to fit your exact need and with the help of a developer (or a community-created plugin) you can be on your way to building the perfect user experience on your site. Umbraco’s focus on a great CMS experience means that you can integrate the marketing and e-commerce tools you already use without any friction and customize the platform exactly to your liking.

2. Seamless content editing experience.

Umbraco is a fan favorite of content editors everywhere! The simple content editing experience means that you do not need to have deep, technical knowledge to create, manage and post content assets on your site. Coupled with SEO-friendly features and a simple media managing platform, you can immediately begin sharing content with your customers!

3. Awesome grassroots community with great documentation and community-created plugins.

Umbraco has a great community of passionate developers and marketers who are dedicated to the platform’s success and sharing their findings. The Our Umbraco forum is their community hub full of insights, advice, documentation, and user-created plugins to use on your site. Umbraco calls themselves the “friendliest CMS” and their community certainly reflects that!

4. Cost-effective.

Umbraco is free to download and start using on your site. After downloading, you’ll only need to pay for hosting costs, making this CMS a great low-cost option to get your site up and running so you can begin delivering value to your customers.

Should you use Umbraco or Sitecore for your website?

As you can see, both Sitecore and Umbraco offer many benefits. They’re both top content management solutions that help you provide a great user experience.

When to use Umbraco

We typically recommend Umbraco to clients who are looking for flexible and customizable content editing. For example, Kalahari Resorts enjoys Umbraco’s block editor and multi-lingual editing capabilities.   

When to use Sitecore

Sitecore is our choice for enterprise-level companies who need a robust platform to integrate with their marketing stack. Read about how we implemented Sitecore for The Tile Shop.

Every situation is unique and choosing a CMS requires a team of experts to help you through your journey. Contact our team today to talk over if Sitecore or Umbraco is a great fit for your site!