Posted by: Mike Isaacs
31 July 2025
Are you questioning the value of your Sitecore investment?
If you are, you're experiencing high licensing costs, complex infrastructure and sluggish deployment cycles. These pressures make it important to evaluate whether Sitecore is still delivering ROI, and whether a leaner alternative like Umbraco could serve your business better.
At Growcreate, we specialise in migrating enterprise platforms from Sitecore to Umbraco. The result is a cost-effective, scalable solution that retains enterprise-grade capabilities while releasing new flexibility. Read on.
On average, organisations migrating to Umbraco go live in just four months and see ROI in nearly half the time compared to Sitecore. For enterprises under pressure to deliver digital results quickly, that speed can be transformative.
Is Sitecore still the right CMS for enterprise platforms?
Sitecore has long been a leader in enterprise content management, offering advanced personalisation and digital marketing tools. But its monolithic architecture and licensing model create significant overhead. For many organisations, the question is now:
Are we paying enterprise prices for features we don’t fully use?
Umbraco offers a different approach. Its open-source, modular architecture delivers the same core functionality with lower total cost of ownership (TCO), faster deployment, and the ability to build only what you need.
Is Umbraco better than Sitecore for enterprise digital experience?
The answer depends on your priorities. Sitecore remains a strong choice for enterprises with large budgets and dedicated internal teams that need deeply integrated marketing automation.
But if you are seeking flexibility, cost efficiency, and faster time-to-market, Umbraco is proving to be the better fit for many organisations. With Azure-native hosting, enterprise-ready personalisation through Umbraco Engage, and seamless API integrations, it combines scalability with simplicity.
What are the benefits of migrating from Sitecore to Umbraco?
1. Lower total cost of ownership
- Licensing freedom: Umbraco's open-source core removes expensive annual licence fees.
- Efficient hosting: Azure-native hosting scales up or down based on demand, reducing wasted spend.
- Lean development: A larger developer pool means faster delivery and lower resourcing costs.
Value to you: Significant annual cost savings to reinvest into digital growth initiatives.
2. Enterprise-grade flexibility without the bloat
- Modular architecture: Build only what you need, when you need it.
- API-first: Integrates seamlessly with CRM, DAM, and third-party marketing tools.
- Personalisation-ready: Combine Umbraco Engage with first-party data for Sitecore-level targeting.
Value to you: A platform that grows with your business without locking you into costly upgrades.
3. Faster time-to-market
- Lightweight build: Reduce deployment time compared to Sitecore's heavy infrastructure.
- Agile workflows: enable developers and marketers to collaborate without IT bottlenecks.
Projects on Umbraco typically go live in around four months, with organisations seeing ROI in almost half the time compared to Sitecore deployments.
- Cloud-native: Continuous integration and deployment (CI/CD) pipelines built into Azure.
Value to you: Get campaigns live quicker, respond to market changes faster, and see ROI sooner.
4. Future-proof digital experience
- Azure ecosystem: Aligns with Microsoft's cloud-first roadmap for security and scalability.
- AI-ready: Integrates with Azure AI and Microsoft Copilot for content automation and insights.
- Community-driven: A vibrant open-source community ensures constant innovation.
With a fully composable, open-source architecture and no vendor lock-in, Umbraco adapts to your digital roadmap. It gives you control to shape your platform now and as your organisation evolves.
Value to you: A platform designed to evolve with customer expectations and emerging technology.
Sitecore vs Umbraco Enterprise CMS Comparison
| Feature | Sitecore | Umbraco |
|---|---|---|
| Time to Live / ROI | Longer deployment cycles and delayed ROI | Average go-live in 4 months, ROI in nearly half the time |
| Licensing | Proprietary enterprise licence with annual fees | Open-source core with optional paid add-ons |
| Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) | High – licences, Azure infrastructure, specialist developers | Lower – no licence fees, larger developer pool, efficient Azure hosting |
| Infrastructure | Heavy, complex deployments | Lightweight, cloud-native with simple Azure CI/CD pipelines |
| Personalisation | Built-in advanced personalisation engine | Personalisation via Umbraco Engage and Azure AI integrations |
| Flexibility | Rich but often bundled with unused features | Modular – build only the features you need |
| Developer Ecosystem | Smaller, specialist Sitecore developers | Large open-source .NET developer base |
| Time-to-Market | Longer deployment cycles due to complexity | Faster deployment and agile workflows |
| Integration | API support but often requires specialist work | API-first architecture, integrates easily with CRM, DAM, and marketing tools |
| Hosting | Azure PaaS or on-premise | Azure-native, flexible cloud hosting |
| Upgrades | Complex version upgrades with high resource cost | Smooth, incremental upgrades |
| Support | Vendor-led with premium SLA | Community support plus partner-led 24/7 enterprise support |
| Best For | Enterprises with large budgets and dedicated Sitecore teams | Enterprises seeking cost efficiency, flexibility, and faster ROI |
Migrating from Sitecore to Umbraco FAQs
Most organisations go live in around four months and see ROI in nearly half the time compared to Sitecore. Lower licence costs, leaner hosting, and faster deployment all contribute to a quicker return on investment.
Umbraco offers the same enterprise-grade flexibility and integration potential as Sitecore, but at a fraction of the cost. By removing expensive licences and simplifying infrastructure, you lower TCO, speed up deployment and create a platform that scales with your business without the bloat.
Yes. Umbraco powers enterprise platforms with millions of users. Combined with Azure hosting, DevOps pipelines, and 24/7 support, it provides the scalability and security required for large, complex organisations.
No. With Umbraco Engage and Azure AI integrations, you can deliver Sitecore-level personalisation using first-party data. Many enterprises find that they gain more control and achieve better ROI with Umbraco's modular approach.
Costs vary based on platform size and integrations, but most organisations see a significant drop in annual running costs post-migration due to zero licence fees and lower hosting costs. Growcreate provides an ROI model as part of every migration assessment.
A typical enterprise migration takes 3–6 months, depending on the complexity of the platform and the number of integrations. Growcreate delivers through an agile process and uses an Azure DevOps-based migration framework to minimise risk and ensure zero downtime.
A certified Umbraco Platinum Partner with enterprise migration experience. Growcreate specialises in taking large Sitecore estates and delivering lean, high-performance Umbraco platforms with measurable business impact.
Not at all. Umbraco is actively maintained and supported by a large developer community. Its modern .NET architecture and cloud-first approach make it a future-proof CMS for enterprise platforms.
Yes. Umbraco’s user-friendly interface and clean editing experience make it accessible to marketing teams and developers alike. It requires less training time compared to heavier CMS platforms like Sitecore.
Why choose Growcreate for your migration?
Migrating from Sitecore to Umbraco is a strategic decision. Growcreate is an Umbraco Platinum Partner specialising in enterprise migrations.
We provide:
- Risk-free transition: A proven migration framework with zero downtime.
- Enterprise focus: Azure DevOps pipelines, 24/7 support, and compliance-ready architecture.
- Commercial clarity: We map every technical change to a business outcome.
Value to you: A seamless migration that cuts cost, improves performance, and delivers measurable ROI.
How to get started
If Sitecore's cost and complexity are holding back your digital strategy, now is the time to consider Umbraco. We'll assess your Sitecore platform, model the ROI of a move to Umbraco, and create a migration plan aligned to your business goals.
