Umbraco vs WordPress

Wordpress and Umbraco are two of the world’s leading hosting sites and confusion often arises over which is a better fit for individual businesses. Both platforms offer excellent solutions to ecommerce needs, but as they vary in their suitability for different businesses it is important to assess both carefully before making a decision about which one is right for your business. After all, you wouldn’t build a bricks and mortar store that didn’t fit your window displays would you?

Let’s take a look at the Pros and Cons of each…

Umbraco is primarily a content management site and is favoured by developers all over the world. It is a complicated system to set up and most companies benefit from hiring an external web developer to do so for them (unless they have support in-house) but it is entirely extendable and capabilities for growth are practically unlimited.

Key Pros:

Powerful site speeds

Practically unlimited extension capability

Designed as a Content Management System

It’s extremely flexible and can be customised to meet exact needs

Key Cons:

Complicated to set up as it doesn’t come with free plugins rather design and functionality changes require back-end coding

Although it is free to use, it can be expensive to set up due to the need to hire experienced web developers

Wordpress is primarily a blogging site but has evolved over the years and can now be utilised as a content management system. It is ideal for businesses who wish to focus on sharing content as opposed to selling products/services. It is popular due to its ease of use as it has a wealth of free plugins and themes that can be dropped in without the need for technical expertise. However, it has its limitations as you are restricted by the set themes and multiple plugins can result in slow site speeds.

Key Pros:

Very easy to set up

Comes with a wealth of free plugins and themes

Easy to use

Cost-effective to set up and run

Key Cons:

Limitations on design and functionality to themes

Vulnerable to hack attacks and slow site speeds due to free plugins

Both platforms are extremely powerful and are used by eCommerce giants the world over to great effect. Wordpress’s key strength lies in its simplicity of setup and ability to host and present a wealth of content - stemming from its origin as a blogging platform. This makes it ideal for websites that’s main offering will be written content, as opposed to commercial enterprises. If you’re main goal is to sell products or services however, Umbraco has gained a reputation as being stronger in this field. It can cost more upfront but is generally a faster site, meaning customers are less likely to be deterred by slow site speeds and abandon their basket, resulting in a higher conversion rate down the line. The key consideration comes down to what are you hoping to do online - share content or sell products/services? Depending on this Wordpress and Umbraco are the best respective choices.