It's that time when your website needs a complete re-vamp. This is your opportunity to pull out all the stops and develop a new website that is both user friendly to your visitors but also to those administering it.
It may sound simple but the reality is, it isn’t. You are faced with just as many different options as when you are standing at Foot Locker deciding between the endless rows of sneakers. Adidas or Puma? Running White and Silver Metallic?
Choosing a Content Management System (CMS) is no different and can be just as daunting: PHP or .NET? Open source or licensed? What about functionality and integration?
Too many questions?
At Codehouse we have tried to address these burning questions by focusing both our competencies and solutions around the two CMS products we feel provide the best platforms on the market - Sitecore CMS and Umbraco CMS. All well and good but what is the difference between the two, you might ask? Why should you choose one over the other? And, from the often crucial financial point of view, why should you pay for a Sitecore license when Umbraco is open source (i.e. free)?
Well, there is only one right answer and that is down to your needs. So the question about the right CMS can thus be rephrased: What do you need your CMS to do?
Find out more about choosing between Umbraco or Sitecore.
What are your needs?
When would we suggest that you go for a Sitecore solution – and when would we suggest Umbraco?
Both Umbraco and Sitecore are based upon Microsoft’s ASP.NET framework. Both separate the design layouts from the content which makes changes to the design and content respectively both quick and simple to implement. Both offer painless integration to Microsoft Office and both of them are easy scalable and customisable through modules (Sitecore) or packages (Umbraco). The hassles of upgrading to a newer version are practically the same, and both come with new features and functionality relatively frequently. They both have user-friendly UI’s that are easy to navigate around in.
Documentation is comprehensive for both Sitecore and Umbraco and likewise integration to analytical tools such as Google Analytics is extensive for both products. As a marketing tool Sitecore presently has the upper hand with their Digital Marketing System (DMS) which comprises numerous analyses and report tools directly within Sitecore CMS.
Generally, you can state that Sitecore is a more mature product with a longer history than Umbraco. And since Sitecore is a license-based product from a practically global corporation you also buy security in regards to support and potential trouble-shooting.
Just like Sitecore, Umbraco has created a professional support solution for you to subscribe to for a monthly fee. Additionally, Umbraco has probably the most committed community with web developers from around the globe always ready to lend some helping hands (and brain cells).
Sitecore = full-fledged enterprise.
The biggest difference between Umbraco and Sitecore is Sitecore’s inherent position as a powerful enterprise solution. This means that Sitecore can easily be extended with both an intranet, extranet and integrated to an ERP or CRM.
Additionally, Sitecore comes with a powerful tool to setup and customise finely tuned workflows allowing users and content to be linked to different workflows. With workflows the administration of versioned or alternative language content can be automated and it is easy to appoint users to different roles with differentiated authoring and approving rights.
This makes Sitecore very suited for medium to large-scale organisations with large numbers of websites and web editors or where there are many different language versions of the same website.
That said, Umbraco also allows for integration to both ERP and CRM and it is also possible to create both intranets and extranets. The setup of workflows is also possible in Umbraco but have to be built from scratch.
Umbraco = committed community.
Umbraco has one of the most committed communities of web developers who are not afraid to share their code, knowledge and add-on products. The result being a large library of packages which is expanding with hefty speed because everybody is eager to share their creations. At the same time the web developers are quick to utilise the network and ask each other about suggestions for problems encountered. The same type of community does not exist around Sitecore even though there is a developer forum, moderated and contributed to by Sitecore in-house developers, and a collection of open source cms modules accessible to Sitecore developers.
Conclusion.
To most, open source means free. But open source doesn’t necessarily mean cheapest and cheapest doesn’t necessarily mean best. In the case of Umbraco CMS, there is no license fee but this doesn’t mean that a website built on Umbraco will always be cheaper than one built on Sitecore CMS. Truth is that the price tag has more to do with the amount of developer hours needed to provide the best solution – and in some cases parts of that solution comes stock with Sitecore CMS whilst it needs custom development for Umbraco CMS. An entirely different aspect is that with a license-based product like Sitecore you also get security and a safety net in regards to quality control, warranty and support.
Umbraco, on the other hand, is a competent CMS that does what the package says and is flexible enough to offer endless expansion possibilities just like Sitecore. And due to the large community the growth of the Umbraco platform moves at lightning speed right now.
To put it another way, the best solution is all about your needs. In general terms, however, Umbraco is very good for SMB’s while Sitecore is a well suited for medium to large-scale organisations. That said, we at Codehouse would always recommend that you start with finding a technical partner and then, together with your technical partner, decide which solution would best suit your needs.
We will be delighted to help you make the right decision. Feel free to get in touch.