Umbraco development and headless builds

Open source, .NET, and yours - the platform we recommend most often to organisations who want a capable CMS without an enterprise licence attached to it.

We run this site on headless Umbraco 16 with the Delivery API, so the architecture we recommend is one we maintain ourselves rather than one we read about.

Talk about an Umbraco buildPlatforms

When Umbraco is the right call

  • You want predictable running costs and no licence negotiation every renewal.
  • You already have .NET people, or want a stack they can own without retraining.
  • Editor experience matters more than personalisation depth - Umbraco is the friendliest of the three to work in daily.
  • You need control of hosting: Umbraco Cloud, your own Azure subscription, or on-premise.

When we'd point you elsewhere

  • Deep, funded personalisation with a dedicated team behind it. Sitecore is stronger there and we will say so.
  • Fifty markets and a hundred editors under one governance model. Possible in Umbraco, but you would be building what a suite gives you.
  • Experimentation is the core of how you grow - that is Optimizely's home ground.
  • You are expecting "free" to mean cheap. It does not: the cost moves into build and hosting.

What we do with Umbraco

Headless builds

Umbraco as a content back end behind Astro, Next.js or your own front end, using the Delivery API. Editors keep one place to work; the front end is free to change.
Umbraco development →

Migrations onto Umbraco

From WordPress, from a legacy .NET site nobody dares change, or down from an enterprise suite that outgrew its usefulness. Content modelling first, then the move.

Commerce and integrations

Umbraco alongside a commerce engine, a CRM or an ERP. The integration layer is usually the real project - we build that in .NET rather than bolting it on.
Custom .NET →

Hosting and DevOps

Umbraco Cloud where the managed model fits, your own Azure where it does not. CI/CD, environments, and a deployment process your team can run.

Version upgrades

Umbraco moves fast and long-term support versions matter. We keep sites current rather than letting three major versions accumulate.

Support and optimisation

Performance, Core Web Vitals and editor experience after launch - by the people who built it.

What Umbraco actually costs

The CMS is free. Hosting is not, and neither is the build - here is the honest shape of it.

Umbraco Cloud planPriceSuits
Starter€45 / monthA single site, one live environment, small team
Standard€280 / monthLive plus staging, 99.9% SLA on the site and Delivery API
Professional€730 / monthMultiple environments, business-hours support, larger media and bandwidth
EnterpriseOn requestDedicated resources, 24/7 support, architectural advising
Self-hosted (Azure)Your infrastructure costTeams who want full control and already run Azure

Umbraco Cloud pricing as published September 2026. The CMS itself is free and open source - licence is rarely the largest line in a three-year total.

How an engagement usually runs

1

Content model - one to two weeks

Document types, block lists and the editing experience, agreed before anyone writes a template. This is where Umbraco projects are won or lost.
2

Build - two to five months

Back end, front end and integrations, in your process. Editors get their hands on it well before launch, not afte
3

Keep it current - ongoing

Version upgrades on a schedule rather than a crisis, plus performance work as the site grows.

We build on what we recommend

Umbraco 16 · Delivery API · Astro · Vercel

This website

ahd-solutions.com runs headless: Umbraco 16 on .NET 9 serving content over the Delivery API, a statically generated front end, and webhook-driven revalidation so an editor's change is live in seconds without a full rebuild. If you want to see the architecture we recommend, you are looking at it.

Umbraco questions we get asked

01.
Is Umbraco enterprise-grade, or is it a small-business CMS?

It is enterprise-capable, and the distinction matters. Umbraco will handle large content volumes, multiple languages and demanding traffic without complaint. What it does not give you out of the box is the governance tooling and personalisation depth that a suite bundles. If those are central to how you operate, you will build them; if they are not, you save the licence.

02.
Can we move from Sitecore to Umbraco?

Yes, and it is a growing pattern where the suite was oversized for the team using it. Be clear-eyed about the trade: content and templates move well, but Sitecore-specific profiling and CDP-driven segments have to be rebuilt, and that rebuild is usually the largest line in the estimate. We would rather tell you that before you start than during.

03.
Umbraco Cloud or our own Azure?

Cloud if you would rather not own upgrades, environments and backups - it is good value for most teams. Your own Azure if you have infrastructure people already, need specific data residency, or run the site alongside other services in the same subscription. Both are fully supported; the decision is about who you want running it.

Let's talk

Thinking about Umbraco?

Tell us what you are running now and what your content team needs. We will tell you whether Umbraco is the right move - including when it isn't.
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Sofia, Bulgaria