What is Umbraco?

In the 90s, the first generation of websites began to appear. These were totally different from the websites we know today because their design was simple and text-based. In 1993, web browsers began to support images but the style was still quite limited. 1996 was a year of changes when Internet Explorer began to support CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), allowing for a more advanced design of websites.

The web content management revolution began in the late 90s, but the first recognizable name in this field emerged around the year 2000. Drupal is one of the oldest content management systems (CMS) and was released in January 2001. This release marked the birth of modern CMS and, two years later, the CMS Umbraco.

Why is Umbraco so popular?

El CMS Umbraco is used by more than 500,000 websites and the reason behind this is simple: makes your work easier. Umbraco is special because of its community, which is growing rapidly and is good at listening to what needs to be changed.

La Umbraco community is very active, which is why it is at the core of its success. Not only does it help to improve Umbraco, it also helps to prepare many packages such as Plumber, Doctype Grid Editor or Redirects Viewer.

Because the community surrounding this impressive CMS is so active, Umbraco was able to release eight versions. The most recent version introduces better support for multilingual websites as demand for this feature increases. La Umbraco version 8 presents language variants that have many useful features such as:

Parallel mode:

Editors working with a multilingual website can now compare content between two different languages, which could improve the time needed for translations.

Switch between languages in Preview mode:

Content applications were introduced in the most recent version, which can be used to enter additional information about your content based on Analytics, e-commerce statistics or even carrying out content quality checks. This feature has a lot of potential, from options for managing SEO to managing external content that could be used on that page.

What sets the Umbraco CMS apart from Wordpress?

Umbraco has many ready-to-use functions that allow you to manage and edit content, but it is focused on offering you a good stable base for your project. It's quite a different approach compared to WordPress, which tries to deliver everything to you almost immediately or with a simple plugin installation.

The CMS also supports extensions with the package system, but it's quite different from WordPress. WordPress is a system that allows almost everyone to install any plugin and, in most cases, it will work. At the same time, this is the reason why most websites based on that CMS are not fast and secure, since plugins must be chosen wisely.

Umbraco solved that problem since the package system is implemented by developers, and not by users, avoiding the installation of packages by people who have no technical knowledge, which ultimately causes performance and security problems.

Being designed by developers is one of the advantages of Umbraco. It focuses on offering the best “out of the box” experience, and this means flexibility. That's why Umbraco always adapts so well to different projects when WordPress needs a lot of settings to have the same experience.

In one of our articles you can learn more about Umbraco vs Wordpress.

When does Umbraco fit into your business?

The Umbraco content management system shows its true power when what is most needed is customize a website with lots of options. Umbraco is very extensible, making it perfect for a customized solution, and it won't limit you if you use it as a CMS. Sitecore would be an alternative CMS that comes with built-in customization, but what if your project doesn't need it? In that case, Umbraco has its advantages over other options; it is minimalist and contains no unnecessary features.

One of the times when Umbraco would be a perfect fit for your business is when you can't spend thousands of euros for a license. If you need a CMS that doesn't consume your entire budget to maintain security, Umbraco is a perfect choice, as it undergoes regular screening and security audits carried out by external companies.

Do you need a highly scalable CMS? Umbraco meets this requirement. Do you need to use a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) or a payment gateway? That surely means that you have an e-commerce and Umbraco is the perfect answer. It supports two platforms, U-commerce and Vendr, which can be perfectly adapted to the needs of your e-commerce.

Why choose Umbraco as a CMS?

The new version of Umbraco focuses on improving the editor experience in the same way that they focused on the developer experience in previous years. Umbraco is a perfect base for most projects since is flexible and scalable.

From an editor's point of view, it's a CMS that's easy to learn and use. It will support publishers in creating content since the GRID editor allows them to view the content in place, and the preview functionality allows them to see your website as it will be presented. One of the best features of Umbraco is the infinite edition.

This built-in and customizable feature allows you to create simple workflows that support natural and frictionless editing flows for content publishers, clients and developers.

This means that even if your content and document types are in different sections within the Umbraco back office, you can make changes directly to the content you're editing.

Umbraco is a good CMS but it's not the only option, your choice should be based on your requirements and knowledge. At Novicell, we can help you choose the perfect content management system for your business.

Do you want to know more about Umbraco?

At Novicell (official Umbraco partner since 2011) we have a team of more than 80 certified Umbraco developers. In addition, we are an active part of the Umbraco community, so we are in tune with current trends and in constant learning.

How can we help you?

If you need more information, do not hesitate to get in touch with us.