Sitecore XP → XM Cloud
The one most estates are facing. Realistically 9–14 months for a mid-market estate, longer for a large one.
Sitecore, Optimizely or Umbraco — how to choose a DXP
We build on all three, so we have no licence to resell and no reason to talk you into the expensive one. This is the advice we give in a first call, written down.
Sitecore if you are managing genuine complexity across markets and brands. Optimizely if experimentation drives your revenue. Umbraco if you want control of your own stack and a lower running cost. The rest of this page is how to tell which one you are.
The comparison, in one table
Every cell is a judgement made from delivery experience, not a specification copied from a vendor site. That is the point of it.
| Sitecore | Optimizely | Umbraco | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Typical organisation | Enterprise, multi-brand or multi-region, often regulated | Mid-market to enterprise where testing and conversion drive revenue | SME through to enterprise sites that don't need a full suite |
| Content team size | 10–100+ editors across markets | 5–40 | 1–20 |
| Licence / subscription | Enterprise agreement, not publicly listed. Budget for the platform plus each add-on product separately | Enterprise agreement, not publicly listed. Sold as a bundled suite | CMS is free and open source. Umbraco Cloud is published: €45 / €280 / €730 per month for Starter / Standard / Professional |
| Personalisation | Deepest in the market — CDP, Personalize and Search as distinct products | Strong, and the best experimentation and A/B heritage of the three | Available through Umbraco Engage as an add-on. Lighter, and enough for most |
| Multi-site / multi-language | Strongest. Built for large estates and market rollouts | Good | Good — native language variants, straightforward multi-site |
| Hosting model | XM Cloud (SaaS), or PaaS / on-premise for the legacy XP estate | SaaS CMS (headless, versionless) or PaaS (.NET MVC) | Umbraco Cloud, your own Azure, or on-premise — your choice |
| .NET dependency | XM Cloud fronts are JavaScript (Next.js / Content SDK); XP and on-premise XM are heavily .NET | PaaS needs .NET developers; SaaS CMS much less so | Fully .NET (ASP.NET Core), front end your choice. An advantage if you already have .NET people |
| Realistic time to first launch | 6–12 months for an enterprise build | 4–9 months | 2–5 months |
| Where it goes wrong | Bought for personalisation that never gets switched on, then paid for annually. Legacy XP estates accumulate upgrade debt fast | Buying the suite and using one product. SaaS CMS is younger than PaaS — check feature parity for what you actually need | "Free" is misleading — cost moves into build and hosting, and capabilities bundled elsewhere become add-ons here |
Umbraco Cloud pricing as published September 2026. Sitecore and Optimizely are quoted per agreement — we can tell you what comparable estates have paid, in a call.
Choose each one when…
Sitecore — built for complex digital ecosystems
For organisations running many sites, markets and languages from one team, where governance, workflow and rollout consistency matter as much as the pages themselves. Sitecore is the strongest of the three at scale, and the only one where personalisation, CDP and search are genuinely enterprise-grade products in their own right.
It is also the one most often bought at a size the organisation has not reached yet. If you have fewer than ten editors and one market, you are probably paying for the ceiling rather than the floor.
Optimizely — designed for continuous growth
The right answer when revenue moves with conversion rate: commerce, subscriptions, high-volume B2B lead generation. Optimizely's experimentation heritage is real, and if a testing programme is central to how your team works, nothing else here matches it.
The decision to make early is SaaS CMS or PaaS — versionless and headless, or .NET MVC with full control. That choice constrains your front-end options and your hosting for years, so make it deliberately.
Umbraco — flexibility without unnecessary complexity
Open source, .NET, and yours. Umbraco fits organisations that want to own their stack and keep running costs predictable — and increasingly, organisations stepping down from an enterprise DXP whose licence stopped matching the value they got from it.
Editors find it the friendliest of the three. The trade-off is honest: capabilities bundled into the suites arrive here as add-ons or as build work.
When we'd tell you not to replatform at all
Four situations where a new platform is the wrong answer. We would rather do the smaller piece of work well than sell you a replatform you didn't need.
Migration paths
Where teams move, and what it costs them
The four routes we are asked about most. Each one links to what the work actually involves.
Sitecore 9.x / 10.x → 10.4
The lower-risk alternative when a full migration is not affordable this year.
Sitecore or Optimizely → Umbraco
A cost-down move, not a downgrade — common where the suite was oversized for the team using it.
Legacy or WordPress → Umbraco
The usual route for organisations outgrowing a site nobody can safely change any more.
Frequently asked questions
The questions that come up in every platform conversation.
01.Which of the three is cheapest to run?Umbraco, on licence cost — the CMS is free and Umbraco Cloud starts at €45 a month. But licence is rarely the biggest line. Build, integration and the people who run the platform usually cost more over three years than the software, and a suite that bundles search, personalisation and testing can work out cheaper than assembling the same capabilities around a free CMS. Compare three-year total cost, not annual licence.
Which of the three is cheapest to run?
Umbraco, on licence cost — the CMS is free and Umbraco Cloud starts at €45 a month. But licence is rarely the biggest line. Build, integration and the people who run the platform usually cost more over three years than the software, and a suite that bundles search, personalisation and testing can work out cheaper than assembling the same capabilities around a free CMS. Compare three-year total cost, not annual licence.
02.Do we need to replatform to get personalisation?Usually not. Most organisations get most of the available value from segment-level content and good analytics, both of which every platform here can do. One-to-one personalisation is a content-production commitment before it is a technology one: someone has to write and maintain the variants. Ask what your team can sustain before buying the capability.
Do we need to replatform to get personalisation?
Usually not. Most organisations get most of the available value from segment-level content and good analytics, both of which every platform here can do. One-to-one personalisation is a content-production commitment before it is a technology one: someone has to write and maintain the variants. Ask what your team can sustain before buying the capability.
03.Can we move off Sitecore without losing personalisation?Partly. Rules-based personalisation transfers in concept to every platform on this page. What does not transfer is the Sitecore-specific profiling and the CDP-driven segments, which have to be rebuilt against whatever you move to. That rebuild is normally the largest single line in a migration off Sitecore, and the one most often left out of the estimate.
Can we move off Sitecore without losing personalisation?
Partly. Rules-based personalisation transfers in concept to every platform on this page. What does not transfer is the Sitecore-specific profiling and the CDP-driven segments, which have to be rebuilt against whatever you move to. That rebuild is normally the largest single line in a migration off Sitecore, and the one most often left out of the estimate.
04.How long does a DXP implementation take?Two to five months for a straightforward Umbraco build, four to nine for Optimizely, six to twelve for an enterprise Sitecore programme. Add time for every integration that touches a system you do not control. Any quote of "four to six months" for an enterprise migration is describing the build, not the project.
How long does a DXP implementation take?
Two to five months for a straightforward Umbraco build, four to nine for Optimizely, six to twelve for an enterprise Sitecore programme. Add time for every integration that touches a system you do not control. Any quote of "four to six months" for an enterprise migration is describing the build, not the project.
05.Sitecore XP is out of support. Do we have to move to XM Cloud?No. There are three routes: upgrade to 10.4 and stay supported into 2030, buy extended support through a partner while you plan, or migrate to XM Cloud. The right one depends on how much of your customisation is worth carrying forward — which is what an assessment is for.
Sitecore XP is out of support. Do we have to move to XM Cloud?
No. There are three routes: upgrade to 10.4 and stay supported into 2030, buy extended support through a partner while you plan, or migrate to XM Cloud. The right one depends on how much of your customisation is worth carrying forward — which is what an assessment is for.
06.You're a Sitecore partner. Is this comparison actually neutral?We are a Sitecore Silver Partner, and we say so here rather than burying it. We hold no licence resale margin on any platform on this page — we are paid to implement, so the incentive that would bias this comparison does not exist. The check on us is the section above about not replatforming at all.
You're a Sitecore partner. Is this comparison actually neutral?
We are a Sitecore Silver Partner, and we say so here rather than burying it. We hold no licence resale margin on any platform on this page — we are paid to implement, so the incentive that would bias this comparison does not exist. The check on us is the section above about not replatforming at all.
07.Can you help us choose a platform even if we haven't made a decision yet?Absolutely. Many clients engage us before selecting a platform. Through workshops and discovery sessions, we assess your business objectives, technical landscape, and customer experience goals to identify the most suitable solution.
Can you help us choose a platform even if we haven't made a decision yet?
Absolutely. Many clients engage us before selecting a platform. Through workshops and discovery sessions, we assess your business objectives, technical landscape, and customer experience goals to identify the most suitable solution.
08.We already have a platform. Do we need to start from scratch?Not necessarily. In many cases, existing Sitecore, Optimizely, or Umbraco implementations can be modernized, optimized, or extended without a complete rebuild. We assess your current environment and recommend the most effective path forward.
We already have a platform. Do we need to start from scratch?
Not necessarily. In many cases, existing Sitecore, Optimizely, or Umbraco implementations can be modernized, optimized, or extended without a complete rebuild. We assess your current environment and recommend the most effective path forward.
09.Do you work with global and multilingual organizations?Yes. Our team has extensive experience delivering multisite and multilingual solutions for organizations operating across multiple markets, regions, and languages.
Do you work with global and multilingual organizations?
Yes. Our team has extensive experience delivering multisite and multilingual solutions for organizations operating across multiple markets, regions, and languages.
10.What makes AHD Solutions different from a typical development agency?We combine strategic consulting, architecture expertise, platform specialization, and hands-on implementation. Our focus is not simply delivering websites—it is helping organizations create digital platforms that support measurable business growth.
What makes AHD Solutions different from a typical development agency?
We combine strategic consulting, architecture expertise, platform specialization, and hands-on implementation. Our focus is not simply delivering websites—it is helping organizations create digital platforms that support measurable business growth.
Not sure which of these you are?
A platform review is a paid, fixed-scope conversation: we look at your current estate, your content team and your integration list, and give you a written recommendation — including "stay where you are", if that is the answer.