The analogy is weird, yes, but the choice of the right CMS is almost the same. Kentico or Umbraco, which one is right for you, depends on your business needs, budget, scale of your business and the functionalities you need. But we won’t just leave you with that. Let’s compare different capabilities of both platforms so you can decide which one is right for you.
Keep reading to find out.
Overview of Kentico and Umbraco
Both Umbraco and Kentico’s development is different because they have their unique qualities and capabilities.
Kentico is an all-in-one platform which is directed towards larger businesses that might have more than one website, need ecomm, marketing, and analytics tools. Since Kentico is directed toward large businesses, it has options for multiple users, multi-websites, analytics and tracking, customer engagement tools, marketing campaigns tools, and third-party systems which can all be managed from a singular dashboard.
On the other hand, Umbraco is an open-source CMS which is very flexible in terms of design and capabilities and has a simple, developer-friendly interface. It’s a favourite among developers and agencies who want complete control over customisation and prefer to build their custom websites from the ground up. It's a lightweight platform and ideal for small to medium-sized businesses.
Cost Comparison: Kentico vs Umbraco
When it comes to cost, Kentico and Umbraco take very different approaches based on the audience they are targeting.
Kentico CMS operates on both licensing and subscription models. The licence model means you’ll need to pay for the features you need. While the subscription-based model has different pricing for the level of functionality you choose. Other than that, they also offer custom packages for enterprise-level clients that need customised functionalities and features. This makes your life easy since you don’t have to keep track of different prices throughout the year.
On the other hand, Umbraco is an open-source CMS and is technically free to use. But while the core platform is free, there are certain subscriptions that you can purchase. For example, the Umbraco Cloud which is hosted on Azure costs from $40/month. The headless Umbraco Heartcore costs from $55/month, Umbraco support is from $10/year. Umbraco has more flexibility in terms of cost which is what makes it a good option for smaller projects but tracking and maintaining all these can be a bit time-consuming.
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Flexibility and Customisation
Both Kentico and Umbraco have options for customisation and flexibility, but they approach it in different ways.
Kentico’s most of the functionality is built-in, which means that you don’t have to go running around finding external tools and plugins. But if needed, you can do custom integrations and tweak your website as needed through the modular architecture and API. The modular architecture lets you customise and grow your website as your business grows without much hassle.
On the other hand, Umbraco is highly customised and is usually used to build websites from the ground up. This lets companies gain full creative freedom for their website’s structure and is typically used for highly custom, one-of-a-kind websites. Another flexible part about Umbraco is that it doesn’t have many in-built capabilities, rather it allows companies to choose and purchase the features they want in your website.
Content Management Features
Content management is the core of all CMS. Here’s how Kentico and Umbraco are different in this:
Kentico has all features packed at one place and to manage that, it has a singular dashboard that lets you access and maintain all the features from that one dashboard. Its features and visuals are very user-friendly, and you can create, edit and publish your content for all platforms from that one singular dashboard. You can also track your user’s experiences and analytics from your dashboard and tweak your content and marketing strategies accordingly.
Umbraco is also user-friendly and is known for its ease of use. The navigation structures and automated publishing features are very easy to manage, which makes the whole process super easy. Umbraco also has a native feature of form builder, so you can create user-friendly forms with a simple drag and drop tool.
Marketing Automation Tools
Customer management and marketing both go hand-in-hand, and two of the most important pillars for successful user experience.
Kentico has built-in marketing automation features so you can manage email campaigns, ad campaigns and social content from your dashboard, and you can also track user behaviour and customer journeys with the in-built tracking and analytics tools. If you’re not satisfied with the in-built tools, you can also import third-party tools in Kentico to automate your marketing efforts from a singular touchpoint.
Umbraco is not as focused on marketing automation as Kentico, but you can automate the process through third-party integrations and plugins. Since it’s open-source, it doesn’t come with built-in marketing tools, but you can integrate HubSpot, Mailchimp, Zendesk and other marketing and analytics platforms to handle campaign management and leads.
Multi-Language Support
If you are a large business with business in different countries, you must have multilingual sites that allow users from all the targeted countries to access and browse your site.
Kentico wins in this area. You can create different websites with separate multilingual content across all the different websites through a single dashboard. You can create, edit, publish and track the localised content from one dashboard which makes it super easy to capture the local market and increase your conversions.
Umbraco also has a Language Variants feature, which allows for multilingual content. Since the platform is highly customisable, you can create different versions of the same website in different languages. It also has support for fallback language, which means that the content is displayed in a secondary language if the primary one is unavailable.
E-commerce Capabilities of Umbraco and Kentico
The core goal of 90% of business is to increase conversions and make profit. And in the current digital landscape, almost all the websites are created to sell products or services online.
Kentico is designed for enterprise clients so naturally, its e-commerce capabilities are awesome. It has a dedicated e-commerce module with in-built features like PayPal integration, customer rewards, and PCI-compliant payment processing through Authorize.Net, customer behaviour tracking and product data tracking.
On the other hand, Umbraco is dedicated for ecommerce, but the flexibility and customisation allows you to integrate different tools and APIs with platforms like Ucommerce and Tea Commerce. Using these tools, you can manage your ecommerce store but managing these external tools can be a bit of a work.
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SEO and Analytics
The whole point of having a business website is to optimise it for increased conversions and profits. SEO and analytics can help with that.
Kentico is capable of creating custom SEO-friendly URLs, 301 redirects, and has Google Sitemap access, which are all necessary for search engine visibility. Since these are in-built, you can easily use them to optimise your website.
But Umbraco doesn’t have built-in SEO tools. But again, since it's open source, you can use plugins and external tools to use SEO capabilities for your website. Of course, those plugins and external tools come at a cost.
Security and Compliance
When you’re putting so much time and effort into your website, you want to make it super secure, so hackers cannot mess up your work and steal your data.
Kentico has built-in security features to protect your and your customers’ data. As for internal security, it has role-based access control, multi factor authentication (MFA), and data encryption to ensure that only authorised personnel have access to sensitive areas of the website. As for external factors, Kentico follows key industry standards like GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) and ISO 27001, and offers regular security updates and patches.
Umbraco doesn’t come with the same built-in security tools as Kentico, but it does have customisable security measures that businesses can use based on their needs. You can integrate third-party security tools or build custom solutions to protect your data. In this way, Umbraco can be as secure as Kentico, but it may need more technical expertise and effort to maintain that level of protection.
Kentico vs Umbraco: Which One Is The Right Platform
Which one is the right choice for you depends on your business’ requirements, budget, technical knowledge and other things discussed in this guide. Both CMS have their unique capabilities and features and are suitable for different types of businesses and their unique needs. Kentico is ideal for larger enterprises with its in-built ecommerce, marketing, analytics and security features. While Umbraco is more suited for a highly customised website that needs to be built from ground up and needs custom plugins and capabilities.
After assessing your business, you can pick which one is right for you.
If you’re open to options and want to explore different options before reaching a decision, we have different guides on the difference between Kentico and WordPress , the difference between Kentico and Sitecore and the difference between Kentico and Drupal.
FAQs about Kentico vs Umbraco
What is the primary difference between Kentico and Umbraco?
The main difference between Kentico and Umbraco is their approach and suitability for different businesses. Kentico is designed for enterprises with built-in features for marketing, e-commerce, and automation, While Umbraco is suitable for small-med size companies that require a high level of customisation on a budget.
Which CMS is more cost-effective?
Umbraco is more cost-effective for businesses who have a team of developers, as its core CMS is free to use. But additional costs for hosting, plugins, and custom development should be considered. Kentico operates on a licensing model, which can be more expensive upfront but has a comprehensive model, so you will be less likely to purchase additional features.
How do Kentico and Umbraco handle multi-language support?
Kentico has built-in multi-language support, and you can easily manage content in different languages from a single dashboard, while Umbraco also does support multi-language websites, but needs more custom development and third-party plugins.
Which CMS is better for e-commerce?
Kentico is better for e-commerce as it comes with an array of built-in e-commerce features like product management, payment gateways, and customer tracking. Umbraco can also be used for e-com, but requires third-party integrations like uCommerce or Vendr to achieve the same functionality as Kentico.
What are the security features of Kentico and Umbraco?
Kentico has enterprise-level security features, including role-based access control, data encryption, and compliance with regulations like GDPR and ISO 27001. But Umbraco uses integration with third-party tools to ensure compliance with industry standards of security.
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