Umbraco - clean CMS based on ASP.Net MVC 4.
July 08, 2015

Umbraco - clean CMS based on ASP.Net MVC 4.

Filip Witkowski | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Software Version

4,6,7

Modules Used

  • Courier, ArcheType, uModesty, Countour

Overall Satisfaction with Umbraco CMS

Umbraco is used for custom projects (websites) for various clients. It is used as as framework (ASP.MVC 4) and content management system. It allows fast development of new websites, created from scratch. It allows non-professionals to create and manage content. Unlike PHP-based Drupal, Umbraco is based on ASP.Net and well fits into our company infrastructure.
  • Quick to learn. For most if cases, developer needs to know Razor coding.
  • Doesn't require back-end programming.
  • Has build in users management (developers, content managers) and members management consoles (users of the site).
  • Clear admin tool (especially in version 7)
  • Fast.
  • Creating code from scratch, so it is easier to create clean code.
  • Courier plugin, used for staging is not always working well. Tool is used to push changes (database and some files) between stages of website (dev QA staging production, or whatever the configuration is set by developer. The tool is not 100% reliable.
  • Rare incidents of publishing error.
  • Doesn't have build in support for SASS, LESS, ..., so if one of those is used, needs to be done outside admin tool.
  • Small community of developers
  • Little documentation, video tutorials are not free
  • Not many plugins for extended functionality
  • CMS is free
  • Support form Umbraco HQ is not expensive, can include Courier or other functionality
  • For most cases does not need back end developer
  • For trained Umbraco developers (Razor coding, using admin tool), developing medium site, takes a few weeks max
There is not really an alternative when it comes to CMS based on ASP.Net (MVC4 with Razor). There are a few frameworks, like Booststrap; however framework is not content management system.
I will compare it to Drupal, because the second one is well known. Against Drupal, Umbraco is very clean and fast framework/CMS. It does not have as much of big community, support or range of plugins as Drupal.
Umbraco is suitable when you need a clean code website with CMS or something that will work well on mobile devices. It is very scalable, [can even be ] used for a large website (100+ pages). When a company relies on ASP.Net environment, this is the CMS to go with.

Umbraco CMS Feature Ratings

WYSIWYG editor
10
Code quality / cleanliness
9
Admin section
9
Page templates
7
Library of website themes
1
Mobile optimization / responsive design
9
Publishing workflow
9
Form generator
3
Content taxonomy
9
SEO support
Not Rated
Bulk management
6
Availability / breadth of extensions
4
Community / comment management
3
API
6
Internationalization / multi-language
7
Role-based user permissions
7