Godzilla vs Kong: 2026 Rematch – Umbraco vs Kentico Xperience

This is the 2026 refresh of our heavyweight bout. The story hook stays the same, but the facts are up to date so you can choose with confidence.

Bringing the storyline back

In 2021, we framed Umbraco and Kentico as towering titans—Godzilla and Kong—trading blows across the digital skyline. Five years on, the battleground has shifted, the combatants have evolved, and the stakes for UK SMEs are higher than ever. This 2026 refresh keeps the same cinematic hook while updating the facts: new features, new pricing, new expectations, same heavyweight showdown.

Whether you are building a lean, composable digital stack or want a single-platform marketing powerhouse, the question is unchanged:

Which titan will you trust to protect your digital city?

We’re partners to both platforms, so consider this ringside commentary—not partisan hype.

At a glance

• Umbraco is an open‑source CMS with optional add‑ons for marketing, commerce and an Ai toolkit from growcreate. It’s flexible, editor‑friendly and integrates well with CRM and email tools. (Source: What is Umbraco?)
• Xperience by Kentico is a commercial DXP with a CMS plus built‑in marketing automation, email and personalisation. Monthly refreshes keep features moving fast. (Source: Xperience by Kentico, Product vision)
• Both run on modern ASP.NET Core and scale for serious workloads. (Source: Xperience by Kentico, What is Umbraco?)
• For many UK SMEs, Umbraco’s core is free and Cloud plans start at €42 per month – roughly £37 at today’s mid‑market rate – with optional add‑ons. Kentico uses annual licensing with public listings showing entry plans around US$10.5k–$11.9k per year – roughly £8.5k–£9.7k – plus implementation. Always confirm vendor quotes. (Source: Umbraco pricing, Wise EUR→GBP mid‑market, Capterra Kentico pricing, Slashdot listing)

How to decide fast

• Need an editor‑friendly CMS that fits your stack – and you’re happy to plug in CRM, email and analytics – pick Umbraco. Value is high and teams learn it quickly. (Source: Why the friendly CMS)
• Want marketing automation, email and personalisation under one roof on day one – pick Xperience by Kentico. Marketers can run campaigns without code. (Source: Marketing automation)

Round 1: Editor Experience – precision strikes vs power punches

Umbraco keeps editors in a clean backoffice with sensible workflows. The Block Grid editor gives a visual layout experience and can be tailored to match your design system, which helps teams publish faster with fewer developer touchpoints. (Source: Block Grid editor)

The platform’s “friendly CMS” ethos is long‑standing – simple to learn, hard to outgrow – and that shows in training time and adoption. (Source: Why the friendly CMS)

Xperience by Kentico gives marketers visual builders for pages and email plus native marketing automation. Journeys, segmentation and personalisation are inside the same UI, which reduces switching between tools. It’s built to let teams ship campaigns without writing code. (Source: Marketing automation, Community refresh notes)

Business takeaway – Umbraco keeps content operations light. Kentico concentrates more power for campaign teams in one place.

Round 2: Integrations – allies, reinforcements and supporting fire

Salesforce

• Umbraco: connect via APIs, webhooks or iPaaS. Most teams start with Umbraco Forms and a webhook, then map fields in an automation tool or call Salesforce directly. (Source: CRM integrations for Umbraco)

Kentico: official documentation covers two‑way contact sync to Salesforce with the Enterprise tier. (Source: Salesforce integration in Xperience 13)

HubSpot

• Umbraco: supported integration with a HubSpot form picker and OAuth or private token authentication. (Source: Umbraco DXP HubSpot integration)

Kentico: connect through open APIs or Zapier for fast data handoffs between forms, lists and attributes. (Source: HubSpot ↔ Xperience by Kentico on Zapier)

Mailchimp

• Umbraco: simple to wire up from Umbraco Forms via webhooks or iPaaS. (Source: Email marketing integrations for Umbraco)
• Kentico: use Zapier or custom API integration to align lists, tags and events. (Source: Mailchimp ↔ Xperience by Kentico on Zapier)

Business takeaway – both platforms integrate cleanly with UK‑standard martech stacks. Umbraco leans on open APIs, webhooks and marketplace packages. Kentico ships prebuilt options and a growing connector set.

Round 3: Built-in Marketing & Personalisation – where the real destruction happens

• Kentico: native marketing automation, email and content personalisation. Marketers can trigger actions based on behaviour without code. Widget‑level personalisation is supported in the builder for fine control. (Source: Marketing automation, Personalisation docs)
• Umbraco: add Umbraco Engage when you need personalisation, A/B testing and server‑side analytics managed inside Umbraco. Engage supports both explicit and implicit rules so you can target by persona or journey stage. (Source: Umbraco Engage product, Engage personalisation docs)

Business takeaway – if “all‑in‑one” marketing is a must, Kentico starts ahead. If you prefer a composable setup with first‑party analytics and personalisation on your terms, Umbraco plus Engage fits well.

Round 4: Security – armour, shields and rapid response

• Umbraco: security is handled via ongoing advisories, twice‑yearly third‑party penetration tests and automatic patches for Cloud projects. Recent advisories show timely fixes with Cloud auto‑patching when you’re on the latest minor. (Source: Security and Umbraco, Security advisory 24 June 2025)
• Kentico: the vendor operates a 7‑day bug‑fix policy for the latest version and publishes security advisories, which reduces exposure windows. (Source: Support lifecycle policy, Security advisories list)

Business takeaway – both vendors treat security seriously. Cloud hosting simplifies patch windows on Umbraco, while Kentico’s SLA‑style bug‑fix posture is clear and fast.

Round 5: Hosting & Deployment – where each titan makes its stand

• Umbraco gives you three paths: self‑hosted open‑source CMS, Umbraco Cloud from €42 per month with managed Azure hosting, and Heartcore headless from €58 per month for API‑first builds. (Source: Umbraco pricing, Umbraco Cloud pricing, Heartcore pricing, Azure Cloud Hosting with Growcreate)
• Kentico offers SaaS through the Xperience Portal with managed environments, or a license‑only option for private cloud. Service plans define environments, bandwidth and email quotas. (Source: SaaS service plans, Licensing)

Business takeaway – both support enterprise‑grade cloud. Choose based on your ops preference, SLAs and data residency.

Round 6: Roadmaps & Longevity – who owns the future battlefield?

• Umbraco aligns LTS versions with Microsoft .NET LTS. Umbraco 13 is LTS on .NET 8, with security and EOL dates published. (Source: Umbraco LTS and EOL)
• Kentico ships new features in monthly refreshes and states a clear product vision for continuous updates rather than big version jumps. (Source: Product vision)

Business takeaway – Umbraco offers predictable LTS cadence. Kentico offers a steady drumbeat of incremental capability.

Round 7: Commerce – expanding the arsenal

• Umbraco Commerce is native, priced at €2,520 per year, with discounting rules, multi‑market support and deep extensibility. (Source: Umbraco Commerce, 2025 price changes)
• Kentico launched production‑ready digital commerce in mid‑2025 and continues to expand payments, shipping and discount features through refreshes. (Source: Commerce overview, Refresh July 2025, Refresh Aug 2025)

Business takeaway – both platforms support content‑led commerce. Umbraco Commerce is a mature add‑on today. Kentico’s commerce is now GA and evolving fast.

Round 8: Total Cost of Ownership – counting the cost of war

Licensing and hosting

• Umbraco

  • Open‑source core is free if you self‑host on Azure. Umbraco Cloud starts at €42 per month – about £37 – with managed Azure, CDN and automatic security updates. (Source: Umbraco pricing, Wise EUR→GBP mid‑market)
  • Add‑ons are optional. Typical choices include Engage for personalisation and A/B testing, Workflow for approvals and Commerce for stores. (Source: Umbraco Engage, Workflow, Commerce)

• Kentico

  • Public listings show starting subscriptions around US$10.5k–$11.9k per year for entry plans, with SaaS tiers above that. UK quotes vary by plan and environment. (Source: Capterra Kentico pricing, Slashdot listing)
  • SaaS includes managed environments, bandwidth and built‑in email allowances per plan level. (Source: SaaS service plans)

Round 9: Ease of Use, Scalability & Support – day-to-day dominance

• Implementation time depends on scope, integrations and design system. As a rule of thumb, Umbraco projects are lighter to stand up for content‑led sites, while Kentico reduces tool sprawl by bundling marketing features from day one.
• For ongoing support, Umbraco Cloud automates patches and upgrades, and both vendors publish security advisories when needed. Kentico adds a formal 7‑day bug‑fix commitment. (Source: Umbraco security advisories, Support lifecycle policy)

Example TCO components to budget

• Platform licence or subscription
• Hosting and environments
• Add‑ons or bundled features
• Design system and components
• CRM and email integrations
• Analytics and consent
• Content migration
• Support, monitoring and SLAs

Business takeaway – Umbraco usually wins on headline licence cost and composable flexibility. Kentico concentrates more capability into the licence, which can reduce separate tool spend.

Ease of use for marketers without developer support

• Umbraco’s backoffice is intentionally simple. Editors can create content, schedule publishing and manage media with minimal training. Workflow adds governed approvals when you need them. (Source: Why the friendly CMS, Workflow)
• Kentico’s automation designer, segmentation and widget personalisation are set up for marketers to operate directly. That lowers the day‑to‑day dependency on development for campaigns. (Source: Marketing automation, Widget personalisation for marketers)

Scalability, performance and developer extensibility

• Both are modern .NET platforms with strong API stories. Kentico highlights API‑first delivery and GraphQL options. Umbraco’s marketplace and open packages add speed for integrations. (Source: Xperience by Kentico, Umbraco integrations)

Vendor support and partner availability

• Umbraco operates a formal partner program across Silver, Gold and Platinum tiers and publishes learning, support and add‑on roadmaps. (Source: Umbraco partner program, Platinum Umbraco Partner)
• Kentico runs a global partner network and states 35,000+ websites across 120 countries on its platforms. (Source: Kentico partners)

Where GrowCreate fits in the battle map

We implement and support both stacks with 24/7 SLAs, Azure engineering and practical guidance from discovery to BAU. If your goal is a faster site with lower ongoing spend, we often recommend Umbraco. If your goal is to centralise marketing operations and reduce tool sprawl, Kentico is a strong fit.

• Explore 24/7 support for .NET, Umbraco and Kentico – monitoring, incident response and clear SLAs. (Source: Growcreate 24/7 support)
• Planning a replatform – see our modernisation path. (Source: Platform modernisation)
• Comparing DXP options – read our related analysis.

The verdict we give clients

There isn’t one winner for every brief. There is a right winner for your goals, teams and timelines.

• Choose Umbraco when you want a fast, flexible CMS that integrates with your preferred tools, with the option to add Engage later. It keeps TCO predictable and editor experience simple. (Source: Umbraco integrations)
• Choose Kentico when you want marketing, content and email operating in one platform with native automation, segmentation and personalisation from day one. (Source: Xperience by Kentico)

Final Verdict: When the dust settles, who stands tallest?

In every great monster movie, victory depends on context: the terrain, the threat, the objective. The same holds true here. Umbraco fights with agility, composability and cost efficiency—nimble, adaptable, deadly precise. Kentico Xperience strikes with unified strength, integrated marketing firepower and enterprise-grade muscle.

There is no universal champion. There is only the titan that best matches your goals, budget, team structure and marketing ambition.

If you want freedom, flexibility and a CMS that grows with you: back Umbraco.

If you want a single platform where content, automation and personalisation move as one: back Kentico Xperience.

Either way, our team has been in the arena with both giants for more than a decade. Tell us your objectives and constraints, and we’ll help you choose the titan that wins your fight—not someone else’s.

Ready to pick your champion?

Book a CMS call