When it comes to choosing the right CMS platform for your site, there are so many choices available! It can be difficult to know which one is the best. In this article, we’ll take a look at Umbraco and WordPress, two popular platforms.
Let’s get started!
A Little History & Background
Umbraco is an open source CMS and is one of the oldest platforms out there. It was launched back in 2000 and was develop on a Microsoft-based infrastructure.
This CMS was developed to be a flexible, full customisable content management platform. You might think of it as a white wall that can be personalised as desired.
WordPress, on the other hand, came out in 2003, and was a community-based platform to start with. However, as it evolved, it quickly became one of the most popular CMS platforms online. It fast became known as a CMS that was so easy to use, almost anyone could build a beautiful website.
Today, WordPress is one of the most widely used CMS platforms around. It’s used by individuals, small businesses, and on up to corporate organisations.
The Main Difference
The main difference between WordPress and Umbraco are the people who use these platforms. WordPress users tend to be bloggers and marketers who want an easy, flexible CMS for their sites. On the other hand, Umbraco users tend to be web developers.
The differences in the users is based on the aims of each platform. For instance, with Umbraco, it’s necessary to have a lot of technical & web developer knowledge to use the platform to the best advantage. With WordPress, the platform was created to be easy to use, making it more popular with those who do not have the specialised knowledge to use Umbraco.
Codebase & Developers
When it comes to Umbraco, it uses a framework called ASP.NET, for which users need to have coding knowledge. This is why Umbraco has been more popular with those who have been coding for years.
WordPress works on a completely different framework called PHP. Unlike Umbraco, WordPress is easy to learn and can be used by individuals who have no coding knowledge.
Both WordPress and Umbraco are open-source and free to use. This is a huge advantage that draws many to these platforms.
However, if you choose to go with Umbraco and don’t have web developer knowledge and experience, you’ll have a hard time finding a developer who can help you. On the other hand, with WordPress, you’ll find it much easier to find a web developer who can work on the site.
Content Editors & Ease of Use
Now, we’ll take a look at how usable each platform is. To start with, both platforms offer great content editors, and make it easy to manage content without too much technology knowledge.
In addition, both platforms make it easy and fun to create wonderful pages. Umbraco and WordPress provide the tools you need to create beautiful pages that are natural and make sense. Anyone can manage the content—from a copywriter to a marketing manager, and more.
With Umbraco, you will definitely find the platform was created especially with web developers in mind. You won’t find the same level of functionality here.
WordPress, on the other hand, has been created to be easy to use and access. Everything is right there, in the core software, that you’ll need to customise your site and manage the content.
When it comes to SEO, WordPress offers the better option. The main reason is that Google loves WordPress sites. This platform has the Yoast SEO plugin, which helps ensure you’re using SEO best practices. In addition, WordPress uses tags.
WordPress makes it easy for anyone (novices included) to learn SEO. It even makes it easy to do mass-edits of metadata to optimise link structure.
With Umbraco, expect to put in quite a bit of work when it comes to SEO. That’s as simple as we can put it. If you’re a developer, you’ll know precisely what we mean.
So, when it comes to SEO, WordPress wins hands down. It’s easy to use and comes with everything needed to make sure your site is optimised, and that Google will love it.
Growth & Expandability
Both WordPress and Umbraco come with built-in expandability, which means both are easy to scale. However, Umbraco makes it easier to manage a site that has many pages. And there’s more flexibility when it comes to developing integrations with third-party tools.
WordPress is also scalable and includes a wide range of resources. It’s one of the easiest platforms to integrate. You’ll find a large number of plugins available that can enhance the functionality of your site fairly easily. And if you’re a developer, WordPress includes you, too, as they’ve made it easy to build your own integrations.
While both have similar advantages, they each have disadvantages that must also be considered.
For instance, WordPress makes it very easy to install plugins. That’s great, but too many plugins can make the site slow and even lower its security. One way around these issues is to work with a developer who knows how to keep these issues from cropping up.
Umbraco needs more work on a basic level, making it more difficult to develop functionality and integrations into the site.
Community & Support
Both platforms have large communities that work to support them. So, if you have a problem, it’s fast and easy to reach out for help and support when you need it. WordPress and Umbraco are almost equal here, though WordPress does have a larger community.
Security
Because WordPress is a the most popular CMS used around the globe, it does tend to be a target for hackers. This only makes sense. However, WordPress has a community behind that knows how to build security into the platform. Your site will be very secure by choosing a high-quality hosting platform, and following WordPress coding standards.
On the other hand, Umbraco is seen as slightly more secure than WordPress. Because it’s been built on Microsoft’s .NET platform, it uses Code Access Security. Along with this, the platform also uses identity-based security, which makes it more secure than most CMS platforms.
When it comes right down to it, both platforms are secure if they use the best security methods.
Summing It Up
Both Umbraco and WordPress offer an excellent option for building a website; however, most people tend to go with WordPress. This is because it’s easy to use right of the out box and users don’t need any specialised knowledge to build a site. Plus, it’s easy to find help from developers when you need it.