Why Choose Umbraco?

“My website doesn’t reflect my business anymore”

Perhaps your website was right for you when it launched, but your business has moved on. Your services have changed, your branding has developed, or you are trying to appeal to a different audience.

You know what you want to change, but the template makes it awkward. Moving one thing affects something else, and you find yourself settling for whatever the layout will allow.

Ready-made themes and website builders can be useful starting points. The difficulty comes when your requirements move beyond what the original setup was designed to do.

Umbraco gives us the freedom to build the design and content structure around your business. This approach to bespoke website development means we can plan how visitors move through the site, how your services are presented and what you want people to do next.

Whether you are a small café in Clevedon or a growing professional service in Bristol, the aim is a website that reflects who you are now and makes sense to your customers.

“I’m spending too much time dealing with website problems”

Slow pages, broken forms and features that stop working are frustrating for you and your customers. They also take time away from running your business.

These problems can have several causes, including the way a website was built, its hosting, outdated software or conflicts between different components. Changing platforms alone will not solve every issue, so understanding the cause matters.

Umbraco runs on Microsoft’s .NET technology and gives developers control over how a website is built, hosted and connected to other systems. That allows us to make considered decisions about performance and reliability from the outset.

When add-ons start adding up

Plugins, extensions and third-party services can be useful. They often provide features quickly and save the cost of developing something from scratch.

However, relying on lots of separate components can make website maintenance more involved. Updates need checking, compatibility issues can arise, and paid licences may need renewing.

This is particularly relevant to some WordPress builds, but it is something to consider with any website that relies on several different suppliers or services.

Umbraco can use third-party packages too. Our approach is to choose them carefully and build functionality into the website where that makes more sense.

Keeping your website secure

Umbraco carries out security testing and releases patches when vulnerabilities are identified. In our experience, these are infrequent and very rarely critical, so they can often be handled during your next planned website review. Anything urgent is prioritised sooner.

Reliable website hosting, backups and sensible access controls also play a part in website security. You do not need to manage the technical side yourself - we can advise on what is needed and when.

“I feel stuck with my current provider”

It is difficult to feel in control of your website if you are unsure who owns what, cannot access your content or do not know whether you can move elsewhere.

Sometimes the restriction comes from the platform. Sometimes it comes from the agreement with the person who built it.

Hosted builders such as Wix and Squarespace combine the website platform and hosting within their service. That can be convenient, but moving away may involve rebuilding parts of the website because the underlying platform does not move with you.

Umbraco is open source, giving you flexibility over compatible hosting and the team that supports your site. Self-hosted WordPress offers similar freedom.

With either platform, bespoke code and third-party dependencies can affect how straightforward a move will be. Website ownership, access and handover arrangements should be clear from the beginning, so you know where you stand if you want to move.

You should understand your options and know what is involved if you decide to make a change.

How does Umbraco compare with the alternatives?

Whether you are weighing up Umbraco vs WordPress or considering a hosted builder such as Wix or Squarespace, the best choice depends on what your business needs and how you want to manage it.

WordPress has a broad choice of themes, plugins and developers. It can support both straightforward and complex websites, and an existing solution may closely match your requirements. The editing experience and maintenance involved will depend on how the website is built.

Wix and Squarespace can suit businesses that want the convenience of a hosted service and are comfortable working within the features available. They can be practical options for managing a relatively straightforward website yourself.

Umbraco gives us the freedom to tailor the design, functionality and editing tools around your business. It is particularly useful when you want more specific features, connections with other systems or room for future development.

One of the main benefits of Umbraco for small businesses is the combination of flexibility for developers and simplicity for the people managing the content.

And while Umbraco is often associated with bigger budgets, we have worked hard to make it an affordable alternative to WordPress and other small business website options. Our Cornerstone framework and streamlined development process let us reuse proven features, bringing development costs down while keeping the freedom to tailor your website to your business.

If you are wondering what to budget, our guide to how much a website costs explains what affects the price and which ongoing costs to consider.

Whichever platform you choose, the quality of the build and the support behind it matter just as much as the software.

Ready to feel happier with your website?

You do not need to know which platform you want before talking to us. A good starting point is simply telling us what is frustrating you.

Perhaps updating content takes too long, your website no longer reflects your business, or you have plans that your current setup cannot support.

At mohunky, we have been building Umbraco websites for over a decade, helping small and medium sized businesses across the South West take more control of their websites.

Get in touch and tell us what you would like to change. We would be happy to look at your current website, talk through the options and explain where Umbraco could help.