Sitecore Alternatives: Top CMS Options & Comparison for Austria

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Before companies in the DACH region compare different CMS or DXP solutions, they should consider a few key criteria. One important factor is the cost and total cost of ownership (TCO), which includes not only the license but also hosting, maintenance, and development. Equally important are the range of functions and modularity, i.e., whether personalization, multichannel playout, or a headless architecture are supported, or whether it is a more monolithic system.

Usability and work processes are also important for day-to-day work: How efficiently can marketing and content teams work compared to developers, and how intuitive are workflows, editors, and version controls? Another crucial point is support from local partners, with German-speaking support, clearly defined service hours, and a reliable agency landscape in Austria and the DACH region.

Security, compliance, and data protection should also not be overlooked, especially with regard to the GDPR, regular updates, and legal requirements in the EU. Finally, scalability and performance also play a major role—from multilingualism and handling traffic peaks to multi-site scenarios and internationalization.

Table of Contents

• What alternatives to Sitecore are there?
• Kentico
• Adobe Experience Manager
• Storyblok
• Drupal
• Sitefinity
• Umbraco
• Umbraco as a particularly attractive Sitecore alternative
• Conclusion

What alternatives to Sitecore are there?

Here is a comparison of several established CMS/DXP alternatives – with a look at their strengths and weaknesses for companies in Austria and the German-speaking region.

Kentico (Xperience by Kentico)

• Flexible deployment options: Supports classic, hybrid, and headless scenarios
• Extensive features: Marketing tools, personalization, and multilingual support are included as standard, along with greater user-friendliness and lower entry costs than Sitecore
• Costs and Effort: Licensing model can be expensive for complex projects, and highly customized solutions require similarly high development effort as with Sitecore.

Adobe Experience Manager (AEM)

• Enterprise Features: Powerful personalization and deep integration into the Adobe ecosystem.
• Scalability: Proven in large projects with high demands on design and user experience.
• Cost & Dependency: Very expensive and complex to operate, with the risk of vendor lock-in due to proprietary components

Storyblok

• Headless & User-friendly: Offers a visual editor and combines developer-friendliness with ease of use for content teams.
• Flexible licensing model: Transparent and scalable, ideal for medium to large companies.
• Limitations in the enterprise sector: Fewer in-depth marketing features and omnichannel functionalities.

Drupal

• Flexibility & Control: Open source with a large community and modular extensibility, ideal for individual customizations.
• Functionality: Many modules & Plugins available, multilingualism is well supported
• Effort & Usability: High development effort for complex projects; content editing is less user-friendly than with proprietary DXPs

Sitefinity

• .NET stack with powerful editor UX: modern page builder (drag & drop), personalization, A/B testing, and forms out of the box – good for marketing teams without much developer effort. drop), personalization, A/B testing, and forms out of the box – good for marketing teams without much developer effort.
• Hybrid/headless and cloud-ready: Supports MVC and headless APIs, multisite/multilingualism; Optionally available as Sitefinity Cloud on Azure with integrated CI/CD and scaling. Costs & ecosystem: License and operating costs higher than open source alternatives; smaller partner landscape in the DACH region and some proprietary components can lead to vendor lock-in.

Umbraco

• Technology advantage: Open-source .NET CMS, ideal for companies with existing Microsoft infrastructure
• Balance & Community: Combination of flexibility, ease of use, and good performance, supported by community and partner networks.
• Cost-benefit: Transparent licensing structure and lower entry costs compared to large proprietary DXPs.

Umbraco as a particularly attractive Sitecore alternative.

While many CMS and DXP solutions have their specific strengths, Umbraco proves to be a particularly attractive alternative in certain scenarios. As a .NET-based open source CMS, it builds on proven technologies already in place in many companies with Microsoft infrastructure. At the same time, it impresses with a balance between flexibility and user-friendliness, allowing both content editors and development teams to work efficiently.

Another advantage is the comparatively low costs – both in terms of licenses and ongoing support – compared to large proprietary platforms. This is complemented by a strong community and a dense partner network in the DACH region and Europe, which ensures reliable support, practical training, and continuous enhancements.

Conclusion

For companies in Austria and the DACH region looking for an alternative to Sitecore, there are several good options available. The ideal system depends heavily on requirements such as budget, personalization, multichannel strategies, and the existing system landscape.

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