As the demands of online consumers continue to emerge and expand, enterprises around the world look for a platform to promote their brands and products through a strong web presence. To survive, every brand and business needs to deliver seamless digital experiences across channels. And for this, it is imperative to find a CMS with features that align with business goals.

Although there are a number of technologies that form the base of licensed as well as open source content management systems, a good proportion of high-performance CMSes have been built on Microsoft .NET. Whether you want to go for licensed or open source options for your CMS development project, Microsoft .NET offers enough options.

Here’s our list of the top licensed as well as open source content management systems on .NET platform. We will provide quick insights about the uniqueness of each of them to make your CMS selection task easy.

1. Sitefinity

Developed by Telerik, Sitefinity embraces all the functions to develop modern, responsive and mobile-friendly websites. Sitefinity comes with exciting features along with drag-&-drop functionality to ease website management and creation process.

Currently, Sitefinity is in the process of releasing version 8.2 which comes with powerful features like widget-level personalization, multisite management, advanced cloud support, easy integrations, and digital commerce support. Sitefinity CMS development costs will vary from $3000 to $50,000 + development charges, depending on the licensing plan you choose.

2. Sitecore

Sitecore is an enterprise-ready CMS based on .NET that is suitable for mid-sized to large-scale websites. Due to its standard .NET-based infrastructure, enterprises already using .NET prefer Sitecore CMS. Sitecore has a great support for multiple sites, web farms and comes with load-balancing functionality.

Due to its multi-lingual and multivariate (A/B) testing support as well as an integrated SEO module, Sitecore is most suitable for SMEs and large companies seeking a marketing-friendly site. Cost of installing Sitecore CMS starts at around $85,000 to $100,000 dollars.

3. Umbraco

Umbraco is a popular .NET-based CMS in the open source category. It is a free product with paid support and training services. It doesn’t come with pre-configured blog or new packages; however, it has a great structure and offers neat functions such as logical content storage, super-clean markup storage, clean API to build elegant websites from scratch.

Released in 2004, Umbraco has undergone several upgrades. It is written in C# and uses ASP .NET “master pages” and XSLT, which reduces the templating work.

4. DotNetNuke

As the name suggests, DotNetNuke is one of the leading content management systems of .NET breed. It comes in a free version with several inbuilt themes and modules. Whether you are a developer, designer or editor, DotNetNuke offers appropriate tools and modules that aid you in your website development project. The best part is, a person even without sound technical background can manage or develop a website in DotNetNuke.

5. Kentico

Kentico is a full-featured CMS accommodating WYSIWYG editor, multi-lingual support, workflows, newsletters, blogs, e-commerce, full-text search, web analytics and several other modules. Kentico is highly suitable for developing large websites and web farms. It can cost between $3500 and $18000, depending upon the components required.

Take the First Step Right to Secure Success

Depending on your needs and budget, you can opt for commercially licensed or open source CMS. But make sure you get all the functionalities you want in your website; after all, your website is a mirror image of your business. How to make the right decision? Find answers to these questions to answer before making the purchase decision:

Do the features and functionalities align with business goals and overall requirements? If not, how much customization will be required?

Does the CMS offer enough flexibility for future changes in business requirements?

Does the CMS make allowances for personalization, analytics and multichannel content?

How easy is it to integrate the CMS with existing systems?

What further costs of upgrade , customization, integration, etc. will be incurred? What will be the TCO when all expenses are included?

, customization, integration, etc. will be incurred? What will be the TCO when all expenses are included? Will it be easy for existing staff to manage the web assets using the new backend? Does it present a long learning curve?

What has your experience been with the above CMSes? Need any assistance to choose the right CMS? Wondering how to make your existing CMS work better?

Our WCM and ECM experts would love to talk to you and share their insights. Learn more about our Content Management Services, and find out how we can be of assistance.