Date:December 17, 2025
Umbraco vs WordPress: The Better Choice for You
When Danish companies need to choose a CMS for their next website, the decision often comes down to two well-known platforms: WordPress and Umbraco.
Both systems are open source and offer strong features, but they are aimed at different needs, skill sets, and strategies.
Open source, but vastly different technologies
Both WordPress and Umbraco are open-source platforms, but they are built on vastly different technologies. WordPress uses PHP and MySQL and has a global market share of approximately 43% of all websites and 60.5% among CMS solutions (WordPress, 2025). This means it is easy to find developers, themes, plugins and documentation.
Umbraco, on the other hand, is built on .NET and C#, making it a natural choice for companies that already use Microsoft technologies such as Azure, Active Directory and Dynamics 365. The platform typically uses Microsoft SQL Server or SQLite as its database, which fits well into organizations with an existing Microsoft environment. The close integration with Microsoft’s ecosystem is a major advantage in sectors such as finance, where license management and compliance play a significant role.
WordPress: Flexibility, ecosystem and fast time-to-market
WordPress is known for its flexibility and its vast plugin ecosystem. It is possible to build everything from simple landing pages to advanced e-commerce solutions with multisite setups, multilingual support and integrations with external systems.
The intuitive interface and the large amount of documentation make WordPress attractive to marketing teams that want to work independently with content.
One of WordPress’s biggest advantages, however, is its community. With over 43% of all websites and 60.5% of all CMS solutions globally built on WordPress, there is an enormous amount of tutorials, best practices and support forums available. This makes it significantly easier and cheaper to get started, especially for companies that do not have large internal technical teams.
WordPress is free to use, and PHP developers are often more readily available and typically less expensive than .NET specialists. This means that more companies can allocate their budget to what creates tangible business value.
However, flexibility also has a downside. The large plugin ecosystem opens up many integration possibilities, but also potential security vulnerabilities and performance issues if architecture, maintenance and security are not handled in a structured way. It is therefore important to carefully consider who you choose as a partner.
WordPress is often highlighted as an SEO-friendly platform, especially when combined with well-designed themes, a solid content structure and the right tools. Plugins such as Yoast and Rank Math make it easy for both editors and marketing teams to work with metadata, keywords, sitemaps and technical SEO without having to code. That said, performance and technical SEO depend heavily on the choice of hosting, theme and plugin discipline. With the right setup, WordPress can provide a solid foundation for companies where visibility, traffic and content marketing play a strategic role.
Umbraco: Structure, scalability and an enterprise focus
Umbraco is built with a strong emphasis on structure, scalability and security. This makes it particularly well suited for larger B2B solutions and enterprise environments where there is a need for custom backend logic, compliance, advanced permission management and deep integrations, such as with Microsoft Dynamics 365, Active Directory, Azure or ERP systems.
The deep integration with Microsoft technologies is a significant advantage for companies that already operate within Microsoft’s ecosystem. This is especially relevant in regulated industries such as finance, insurance and the public sector, where licensing models, documentation and governance play a central role. In these cases, Umbraco can be a strategically and technically sound choice.
Umbraco is particularly well suited for solutions with high requirements for security, access control and technical compliance. Compared to WordPress, Umbraco has a smaller and more controlled ecosystem of third-party extensions, which some organizations find easier to audit and maintain. This allows for greater control over code, data and user roles and can make it easier to meet GDPR requirements and documented IT security standards.
However, precisely because Umbraco offers such a high degree of control and flexibility, it also places greater demands on technical expertise. Although the editor interface has improved in recent years, working efficiently with Umbraco typically requires training, both for editors and developers. There is not the same volume of plugins and visual “quick wins” as in WordPress. Many features must be built from the ground up, which increases development costs and extends time-to-market.
Scaling, support and ecosystem
Although both WordPress and Umbraco are open source, they differ significantly in how they scale, both technically and organizationally.
WordPress has a massive global ecosystem of freelancers, developers, themes and plugins, making it easy to find help, upgrade functionality and adapt the solution over time. This creates a low barrier to entry and enables rapid adaptation. It also makes WordPress an obvious choice for companies that work agilely and want to test and launch quickly, for example in marketing or campaign contexts.
In the past, WordPress had a reputation as a “lightweight solution,” primarily suited to small businesses with simple needs. That perception no longer holds. Many large international brands, such as Disney Experiences, The White House, Microsoft News, Facebook Newsroom, NASA, and Salesforce now use WordPress for their websites (WordPress, 2025). This demonstrates that the platform is fully capable of supporting complex, scalable solutions without compromising performance. With the right technical setup and an experienced development agency, WordPress can compete with larger CMS platforms such as Umbraco and Magento, even in terms of complexity, integrations and performance. It simply requires a solid understanding of the system’s principles and a structured approach to architecture and maintenance.
At the same time, WordPress’s great flexibility places demands on the technical architecture when a solution needs to scale. Over time, many WordPress installations become burdened by technical debt, unstructured plugin usage and performance issues. That is why it is important to work with a partner who not only builds the solution, but also considers scalability and operations from the outset.
Umbraco has a smaller but more focused ecosystem with certified partners and well-documented best practices. Its plugin ecosystem is smaller than WordPress’s, which means that more functionality is often developed as custom modules. This provides flexibility and control but also requires more development hours. That said, there are still third-party extensions available for common needs such as forms and e-commerce that can be integrated into the solution. This makes Umbraco well suited for companies with clearly defined requirements, a long-term digital strategy and a desire for close control over code, data and integrations. However, this is not exclusive to Umbraco, as the same level of control and quality can also be achieved with WordPress-provided that an experienced web agency is chosen, one that works in a structured manner and builds customizations based on best practices, sound architecture and scalability.
WordPress does not offer official support directly through WordPress.org, but instead relies on a large ecosystem of agencies and specialists that provide maintenance, monitoring and SLA-based support. Many companies choose to enter into ongoing partnerships with an agency that handles support and ensures the solution remains up to date and secure. And if needs change, it is easy to switch providers. WordPress’s large community and broad ecosystem mean that there is a wide selection of qualified partners both locally and globally. This provides freedom and flexibility without locking you into a single developer or vendor.
Umbraco, on the other hand, offers official support plans through Umbraco HQ, allowing companies to purchase access to guarantees, response times, and technical assistance directly from the system vendor. Combined with a certified partner, this creates a model that many larger companies and public-sector organizations are familiar with and trust, especially in regulated industries with high requirements for documentation, security and stability.
Community, knowledge sharing and the developer ecosystem
When choosing a CMS, it’s not just about features and technology. It’s also about how easy it is to get help, find inspiration and continue evolving.
WordPress has the world’s largest CMS community. This means there are thousands of developers, designers and editors who share knowledge, build plugins, write guides and help one another. Free tutorials, forum threads, blog posts and courses are everywhere, along with numerous events such as WordCamp, where users meet and exchange experiences. This makes it easy to move forward when you encounter a challenge and just as easy to find specialists if you want to build something more advanced.
WordPress’s popularity also means there is a vast selection of specialists and agencies, both locally and internationally, that work exclusively with the platform. This fosters competition, availability and innovation across the entire ecosystem.
Umbraco has a smaller but more centralized community. The platform is maintained and developed by Umbraco HQ in Denmark, supported by a network of certified partners and developers. Umbraco also hosts its own annual conference, Codegarden, and provides official documentation and community forums. There are ongoing contributions from users in the form of packages and developer tools, but on a much smaller scale than WordPress.
Security and compliance
Both WordPress and Umbraco can be secured effectively, but they require different approaches.
WordPress is the world’s most widely used CMS and, for that very reason, also the most frequently targeted. However, this is not due to the system’s architecture, but rather to poor maintenance by the end user or web agency and incorrect usage. With the right processes, security plugins and technical setup, WordPress is fully on par with other platforms. At Webnorth, we work with thoroughly tested plugins, firewalls, automatic updates and monitoring, and we always advise on security already at the architectural stage.
Umbraco has a more structured and closed codebase with fewer third-party dependencies, which reduces the attack surface. This can be an advantage in compliance-heavy industries where GDPR, documentation and technical control carry significant weight. In practice, however, security largely depends on the individual vendor and how the solution is built, regardless of platform. Security does not come automatically. With the right setup and an experienced agency, it is entirely possible to achieve the same level of control and compliance in WordPress as in Umbraco.
What do we recommend at Webnorth?
There is no single CMS that is the right choice for everyone, it depends on your needs, capabilities, and ambitions. At Webnorth, we are happy to advise you if you are facing a technology decision.
In some cases, Umbraco can be the right choice, for example if a company already has in-house expertise on the platform or is closely tied to an existing vendor. On the other hand, it is a solution with higher costs and a more specialized ecosystem, with fewer developers and partners to choose from. It is therefore important to be aware of what this choice entails in the long term, both financially and in terms of skills and resources.
Webnorth works exclusively with WordPress because we believe in the value of specialization. This allows us to deliver solutions with higher quality, better performance, and stronger long-term support.
We believe that WordPress is the most flexible choice, both technically and organizationally. It is user-friendly, well known, and backed by a vast global community. This also means that many marketing teams are already familiar with the system, and that it is easy to find both sparring partners and suppliers.
At the same time, flexibility must be managed. Like any other system, WordPress can end up with technical debt, poor performance, and security issues if it is not built and maintained correctly. This is where our expertise comes into play.
We know the system’s principles in depth and build solutions that can grow with the business, design-wise, technically and organizationally.
There are many agencies that work with multiple platforms in parallel, but that also means they rarely master them all equally well. For us, it is about craftsmanship and deep understanding. When you truly understand WordPress’s core principles, it can be used for far more complex and scalable solutions than many people realize.
We build solutions that grow with the business. This applies to design, functionality, security, performance and day-to-day operations. We often act as an extension of your internal team, providing ongoing advice, development and support.
If you would like to learn more about how WordPress can be used in practice, even in complex solutions, we would be happy to have a non-binding conversation about your needs.
Sources:
https://docs.umbraco.com/umbraco-cms/reference/common-pitfalls
https://iconiq.dk/viden/umbraco-vs-wordpress/
https://wordpress.com/blog/2025/04/17/wordpress-market-share/