What Is Umbraco Used For? Real UK Examples

If you've come across Umbraco and are trying to work out whether it fits your project, the honest answer is: it depends on what you're building. Umbraco isn't a tool for every job. But for the right kind of project — complex, integration-heavy, content-rich, or heavily customised — it's one of the most capable CMS platforms available.

This article works through the main use cases for Umbraco, grounded in real projects 16i has delivered for UK organisations. Rather than listing abstract features, we'd rather show you what Umbraco actually looks like when it's doing its job properly.

What is Umbraco, in plain terms?

Umbraco is an open-source content management system built on Microsoft's .NET framework. It's been around since 2004, powers over 750,000 websites worldwide, and is used by organisations ranging from small charities to global enterprises.

Unlike WordPress, which started as a blogging tool and has been extended outward ever since, Umbraco was designed from the ground up as a developer-first platform. There are no forced templates, no mandatory content structures, and no plugin sprawl. Developers build exactly what's needed for the project — no more, no less.

Unlike WordPress, which started as a blogging tool and has been extended outward ever since, Umbraco was designed from the ground up as a developer-first platform. There are no forced templates, no mandatory content structures, and no plugin sprawl. Developers build exactly what's needed for the project — no more, no less.

Corporate and manufacturing websites

Grant UK

Heating manufacturer · Multiple Umbraco sites across UK, France, and Northern Ireland

Grant has been manufacturing heating systems — from oil-fired boilers to renewable heat pumps — since 1970. When they came to 16i, they needed more than a brochure website. They needed a digital ecosystem: a main corporate site that could be deployed across multiple international markets, plus a secure installer portal and a customer support platform.

Umbraco handled all of it from a single platform. The main Grant UK website is built on Umbraco and has been iterated and extended over many years of development. Separate instances for France and Northern Ireland share the same CMS architecture, keeping development and maintenance manageable across markets. The content team can update product information, news, and technical documentation without developer support.

Umbraco handled all of it from a single platform. The main Grant UK website is built on Umbraco and has been iterated and extended over many years of development. Separate instances for France and Northern Ireland share the same CMS architecture, keeping development and maintenance manageable across markets. The content team can update product information, news, and technical documentation without developer support.

Trade portals and business applications

Grant UK G1 Installer Portal

Bespoke trade portal · 1,000+ active installers · Integrated with Grant’s back-office systems

Separately from the corporate website, 16i built Grant UK a bespoke installer portal — the G1 — that sits at the heart of their trade operations. More than 1,000 registered heating engineers use it to register products, check warranties, manage their customer records, and receive service reminders.

The portal integrates directly with Grant's back-office systems, so data entered by an installer flows through to Grant's internal records in real time. There's also a companion iOS and Android app — built by 16i — that lets installers submit registrations on the go, even without a data connection when working in rural locations.

This is Umbraco being used as something more than a CMS — it's the backbone of a business-critical trade platform. That's possible because of .NET's enterprise capabilities and Umbraco's open architecture, which lets developers build custom database logic, authentication, integrations, and business rules on top of the CMS foundation.

PIPA

Industry inspection body · Bespoke safety data platform

PIPA — the Professional Inflatable Play Association — is an industry body set up to ensure children's inflatable play equipment meets recognised safety standards (BS EN 14960:2019). They came to 16i needing a new platform to replace an ageing system that could no longer support the complexity of their inspection data.

The platform 16i built on Umbraco handles the full inspection lifecycle: gathering safety test data from inspectors, storing and organising it against specific equipment records, and producing structured reports for operators and the HSE. It's a database-driven application, not a content site — but Umbraco's extensibility made it the right foundation for a system that needed to be robust, maintainable, and straightforward for a small administration team to operate.

PIPA is a good example of Umbraco being used for what might be called a 'specialist platform' rather than a public-facing website. The CMS layer means the administration team can manage content and records without needing developer involvement in day-to-day tasks, while the custom application layer handles the industry-specific logic.

Luxury travel and hospitality

Dynamic Lives

Luxury travel specialist · Tailor-made holidays and VIP corporate travel · Client since 2012

Dynamic Lives has been a 16i client since 2012 — one of our longest-standing relationships. They offer bespoke luxury holidays and VIP corporate travel, with a portfolio of handpicked villas and properties across summer and winter destinations.

The challenge with a luxury travel site is that it needs to do two jobs simultaneously: inspire and convert. The photography and editorial content need to feel premium and aspirational. The enquiry and booking process needs to be simple, reliable, and fast. Umbraco handles both because it imposes nothing on the front-end design — the development team can build exactly the visual experience required — while giving the Dynamic Lives team a clean content management interface for adding new villas, updating availability, and managing editorial content without developer support.

Over more than a decade of iterative development, the Umbraco platform has grown alongside the business — adding functionality, refining the user journey, and integrating with operational tools as the business has evolved. That longevity and adaptability is characteristic of well-built Umbraco sites.

Elmore Court

Cotswold wedding venue and luxury treehouse stays · Historic estate, established 13th century

Elmore Court is a Gloucestershire estate that opened for events in 2013 and has grown to include a full wedding venue operation and, more recently, six luxury treehouses as part of the Rewild Things project. 16i were brought in after their previous supplier was unable to deliver the technical requirements of a full site refresh.

The site needed to communicate prestige and warmth simultaneously — a country house with genuine character, not a corporate venue catalogue. Umbraco's front-end freedom meant the design team could build an experience that felt entirely bespoke: rich photography, editorial storytelling, and a booking journey that matched the quality of the physical venue.

When Rewild Things launched, 16i built a separate Umbraco site for the treehouse brand — distinct enough to feel like its own product, but connected to the same client relationship and platform approach. That kind of brand extension, where a parent organisation launches a new product with its own digital identity, is a common use case Umbraco handles well.

Arts and culture venues

Arts organisations have some of the most demanding CMS requirements of any sector: high-volume event catalogues, real-time ticketing data, accessibility information, multiple audience types, and a need for the back office to be usable by non-technical content teams. Umbraco handles this well, and it's an area where 16i has built particular depth of experience.

Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham

800+ performances per year · 718-seat Frank Matcham auditorium, built 1891

The Everyman is Gloucestershire's theatre — a Grade II listed Frank Matcham building that has been at the centre of Cheltenham's cultural life since 1891. With over 800 performances a year across the main auditorium and the Irving Studio, the website is genuinely business-critical infrastructure.

16i have been the Everyman's digital partner for many years, building and iterating their Umbraco site to drive online ticket sales, improve the booking experience, and handle the complexity of a high-volume programme. A recent phase focused on moving online ticket sales from 25% to 75% of total sales — achieved through specific, targeted changes to the booking journey rather than a full rebuild.

The Subscription Rooms, Stroud

Grade II listed, built 1833 · Migrated from WordPress to Umbraco · Spektrix integrated

The Sub Rooms are a vibrant community arts venue at the heart of Stroud, running a wide-ranging programme of concerts, comedy, theatre, workshops, and exhibitions across several spaces. Their site was originally built on WordPress, but when they needed a proper integration with Spektrix — their ticketing platform — WordPress couldn't deliver it cleanly.

16i migrated the site to Umbraco, built the Spektrix integration so that event data and ticket availability update automatically, and redesigned the catalogue and event pages to make browsing and booking significantly easier. The result is a site that works as hard as the venue does — serving regular gig-goers and first-time visitors equally.

For more detail on Umbraco in the arts sector, see our dedicated article: Umbraco for Arts Organisations.

Industry bodies and membership platforms

Organisations that need to manage members, registrations, accreditations, or inspection data have requirements that standard CMS platforms weren't designed for. Umbraco's extensibility makes it a strong choice here — the PIPA platform described above is a clear example, but the pattern applies across regulatory bodies, trade associations, professional networks, and membership organisations.

The ability to build custom document types, custom database logic, and tailored back-office interfaces means the platform can be shaped around the organisation's actual workflows, rather than forcing the organisation to adapt its processes to fit the CMS.

What Umbraco is not well suited for

Being straightforward about this matters. Umbraco is not the right choice for every project.

• Simple brochure sites with no complex content requirements. If you have a ten-page website that changes infrequently, Umbraco's setup cost isn't justified. A simpler platform will serve you better.

• Projects where speed to market is the primary driver and customisation isn't important. WordPress or a hosted CMS can be faster to launch if you're willing to work within their constraints.

• Organisations without any developer resource, ongoing or otherwise. Umbraco sites need proper development to get started. The back office is intuitive once configured, but configuration requires a developer.

• Teams on PHP stacks who don't work in .NET. Umbraco is a .NET platform. If your development team works exclusively in PHP, the overhead of working in an unfamiliar stack may outweigh the platform's benefits.

If you're uncertain whether Umbraco is the right fit, the most useful thing is a conversation about your actual requirements rather than a generic platform comparison. We do an initial consultation as a standard part of our process, specifically to help answer that question.

Working with 16i on your Umbraco project

16i is an accredited Umbraco agency based in Cheltenham. We've delivered hundreds of Umbraco projects across more than two decades — from corporate sites and trade portals to arts venues, industry platforms, and luxury hospitality brands.

If you're evaluating Umbraco for a new project, considering a migration from another platform, or looking to extend or upgrade an existing Umbraco site, we'd welcome a conversation about what's involved.

Get in touch at hello@16i.co.uk or call +44 (0)1242 654 000.