Umbraco vs Kentico: which CMS should you choose in 2026?

Umbraco and Kentico are, in many ways, the two most closely matched platforms in the .NET CMS space. Both are mature, both are built on Microsoft .NET, and both are known for being genuinely usable by content teams rather than only by developers. The real decision between them is not about raw capability. It is about a choice of philosophy: do you want an all-in-one platform that bundles content management, marketing, and e-commerce into a single licensed product, or a flexible core that you extend with exactly the tools you need?

This guide compares the two on cost, built-in functionality, flexibility, and ease of use, to help you decide which model fits your organisation.

What is Umbraco?

Umbraco is an open-source content management system built on Microsoft .NET, first released in 2005 and now powering over 750,000 websites worldwide. It is known for flexibility and a developer-friendly, editor-friendly design. Rather than bundling every feature into the platform, Umbraco provides a lean, customisable core that integrates with third-party tools as needed. The core platform is free and open-source; native e-commerce is available as an optional add-on through Umbraco Commerce. The current long-term-supported release is Umbraco 17, built on .NET 10.

What is Kentico?

Kentico, in its current form Xperience by Kentico, is a licensed digital experience platform built on .NET. It has been established almost as long as Umbraco, and takes an all-in-one approach: content management, e-commerce, marketing automation, email campaigns, lead scoring, personalisation, and analytics are built into a single integrated product. This makes it attractive to mid-sized and larger organisations that want a comprehensive toolset from one vendor rather than assembling their own.

Umbraco vs Kentico: cost and licensing compared

Cost is the clearest practical difference. Umbraco's core is free and open-source; you invest in development, hosting, and optionally the Umbraco Commerce add-on for e-commerce. Kentico is a licensed, subscription-based product. As of mid-2026, Kentico Xperience 13 starts at around 12,500 US dollars per year for the Business plan and around 22,300 US dollars per year for Enterprise, while the newer Xperience by Kentico starts at around 11,880 US dollars per year for the self-managed licence and around 23,880 US dollars per year for the fully hosted SaaS option. These figures are before development, implementation, and ongoing maintenance.

The important point for readers is not the exact figures but the model. With Kentico you pay a recurring licence fee that includes a broad suite of features, whether or not you use all of them. With Umbraco you pay nothing to license the platform, and you add paid tools only where you need them.

Umbraco vs Kentico for built-in marketing and e-commerce

This is Kentico's clearest strength. Out of the box it provides marketing automation, email marketing, lead scoring, personalisation, a customer data platform, and built-in e-commerce, all managed from a single interface. For an organisation that wants all of this and wants it integrated from day one, Kentico's all-in-one model is genuinely convenient and removes the need to select, integrate, and maintain separate tools.

Umbraco does not bundle these features. Instead it integrates with dedicated platforms: your chosen CRM, marketing automation tool, and analytics, plus Umbraco Commerce for e-commerce. For organisations that already use specific marketing tools, or that want to choose best-of-breed products rather than accept a bundled suite, this composable approach is an advantage. For organisations that want everything in one place and do not want to manage integrations, Kentico's bundled model is easier.

Umbraco vs Kentico: flexibility and customisation

Both platforms are built on .NET and both are customisable, but they differ in emphasis. Umbraco is designed as a blank canvas: it assumes very little about how your site should behave and gives developers full control over content modelling, templates, and architecture. This makes it particularly strong for bespoke builds and unusual requirements that do not fit a standard mould.

Kentico is customisable too, but its all-in-one nature means you are more often working within the structures and modules the platform provides. For projects that align well with Kentico's built-in feature set this is efficient. For highly bespoke requirements, Umbraco's blank-canvas flexibility tends to give more freedom.

Umbraco vs Kentico ease of use

Both platforms score well for usability, which is part of why they are so often compared. Content editors generally find both intuitive. In G2's comparative research, Umbraco has scored at the top for ease of use, ease of setup, and ease of administration, ahead of Kentico and several other platforms, though Kentico also rates highly and includes 24/7 support within its licensing. For most teams, either platform will be comfortable to use day to day; this is rarely the deciding factor.

Which should you choose?

• Factor

  Umbraco

  Kentico

  Licensing

  Free, open-source

  Subscription, from ~$11,880/yr

  Model

  Composable, add tools as needed

  All-in-one integrated suite

  Built-in marketing

  Via third-party integrations

  Extensive, built-in

  E-commerce

  Umbraco Commerce (add-on)

  Built-in

  Customisation

  Blank canvas, highly flexible

  Flexible within platform structures

  Best suited to

  Bespoke builds, cost-efficiency, best-of-breed

  Mid-market wanting all-in-one from one vendor

  Ease of use

  Top-rated (G2)

  High, with 24/7 support

Choose Kentico if you want a comprehensive, integrated suite of content, marketing, and e-commerce tools from a single vendor, you expect to use most of that functionality, and you are comfortable with a recurring licence fee in exchange for the convenience. Choose Umbraco if you want to avoid licence fees, prefer to build exactly what you need on a flexible core, and would rather integrate best-of-breed tools than adopt a bundled suite. The decision is less about which platform is better and more about which model fits how your organisation prefers to work.

Thinking about a move from Kentico to Umbraco?

Some organisations find, over time, that they are paying for Kentico's full suite but using only part of it, and that a leaner, composable platform would serve them better and cost less. If that is your situation, it may be worth assessing whether Umbraco is a better fit. 16i is an accredited Umbraco agency based in Cheltenham, and we build flexible, cost-efficient Umbraco platforms integrated with exactly the tools each client needs.

We are happy to give you an impartial view of whether the all-in-one model or the composable model suits your needs better. Get in touch with the 16i team for a no-obligation conversation.