Target Audiences

[buzznick]

This is a proposal for who the redesigned orchardcore.net should be built for. It is a starting point for discussion, not a final decision, so please comment, disagree, and suggest changes.

Before we think about design and how the new website should look, we first need to understand who it is for. This is an important step, a clear picture of the audience guides the design decisions that follow, and it is what makes sure the finished website delivers what is actually needed.

There are two main audiences. They overlap, but they make decisions in different ways.

We describe each audience in two simple ways. A persona is a short profile of a typical user. A short list then sets out what those people are really trying to achieve. Both keep later design and copy decisions focused on real people and real goals, instead of guesses.

.NET Developers (Primary Audience)

These are the people who will build with OrchardCore. They have already chosen .NET. They are not comparing OrchardCore against every CMS on the web, they want a framework that fits the tech stack they currently use. They evaluate a tool quickly, leave quickly, and trust other developers more than marketing.

The job they are really doing is this: they need a website or a large application, and they do not want to build the common parts from scratch. User accounts, roles and permissions, an admin interface, multi-tenancy, search, workflows, and localisation all take months to build well. OrchardCore provides them out of the box. The website has to make that saving obvious.

When these developers look for an alternative, two .NET tools come up most often: Umbraco (an open-source .NET CMS, closest for content-driven sites) and abp.io (an open-source .NET application framework, closest for large business applications). OrchardCore sits between the two: it is both a CMS and an application framework. The website should speak to developers weighing exactly that choice.

Why we focus on .NET developers. A website cannot speak to everyone at once. OrchardCore is a .NET framework, so a developer who has not chosen .NET is very unlikely to adopt it. Writing for the .NET developer who is deciding what to build their next project on lets every page be specific: it can use .NET terms, name the .NET alternatives, and show .NET code. A page that also tries to win over PHP or JavaScript developers ends up vague for everyone. This is a deliberate narrowing of who the site speaks to, not a limit on who may use OrchardCore.

Personas

1. The .NET architect or tech lead

• A mid-level or senior .NET developer at an agency, a software company, or an in-house team.
• Decides whether to adopt an existing framework or build a bespoke one from scratch.
• Weighs OrchardCore mainly against Umbraco for content-driven sites and abp.io for large business applications.
• Reads the docs, checks GitHub activity, and reads Discord quietly before committing.

2. The .NET developer building a site or product

• Builds client websites or product applications in .NET, often under time and budget pressure.
• Cares about reaching a working site quickly, not rebuilding user management and content editing on every project, the cost of hosting, and not being locked into a paid tier.
• Will compare OrchardCore against Umbraco for content sites, and against abp.io or a hand-built ASP.NET Core app for products with heavier business logic.

3. The existing contributor or module author

• Already part of the community.
• Wants the redesign to show their work well. Modules and themes deserve a showcase.

What they need to evaluate OrchardCore

• Is it actively maintained? (release frequency, last commit, contributor count)
• What does the code feel like? (a code sample, a recipe example, a screenshot of the admin)
• How do I start? (a dotnet new command, a Docker line, a link to a starter project)
• Which features are built in, so I do not have to write them? (users and roles, multi-tenancy, search, workflows, localisation, media)
• How does it compare with Umbraco and abp.io, the two .NET tools they are most likely to consider?
• Who else uses it? (logos, modules in production, real sites)
• Where do I get help? (Discord, GitHub Discussions, searchable docs)

What they are trying to achieve

• "Build a content-driven website in .NET without writing user accounts, roles, and an admin interface myself."
• "Build a large, multi-tenant application on a .NET framework, instead of assembling the same parts from separate libraries."
• "Choose a .NET CMS or framework that is still well supported and maintained in three to five years."
• "Add a CMS to an existing ASP.NET application without it feeling bolted on."
• "Pick a .NET framework that is free to use, with no core feature held back behind a paid tier."
• "Contribute to a serious .NET open-source project."

Business Decision-Makers (Secondary Audience)

These are the people who fund a project, define its scope, or choose which platform to use. They rarely write code, but they decide whether OrchardCore is considered at all.

Personas

1. The agency owner or digital director

• Sells builds to clients and chooses the platform.
• Cares about total cost for the client, time to launch, the hiring market, and the partner ecosystem.
• Their main worry is choosing a platform the client later outgrows.

2. The product manager or digital lead

• Works inside an organisation, planning a content platform or internal application.
• Cares about the editing experience, integrations, security, compliance, multiple languages, and longevity.

3. The technical decision-maker (CTO or Head of Engineering)

• Approves the choice of platform.
• Cares about clear licensing, the health of the contributor base, vendor risk, how easy the skills are to hire, and performance.

4. The referred client

• Hired an agency to build a product or site. The agency chose OrchardCore as the base and told the client about it.
• Has never heard of OrchardCore. Searches for it online to check that the choice is sound.
• Is not choosing the platform. They are checking a decision that was made for them.
• Cares about longevity, security, user management and roles, multi-tenancy, that it is not a one-person hobby project, and that they are not stuck if the agency relationship ends.
• Their main worry is finding out later that their product is built on something obscure or no longer maintained.

What they need to evaluate OrchardCore

• What problems does OrchardCore solve, in plain language?
• Which well-known organisations run production sites on it?
• What does it cost to run, hire for, and extend?
• How does it compare with the paid options they already know (Umbraco, Sitecore, Kentico, WordPress Enterprise)?
• Is the project safe to rely on for the long term?

What they are trying to achieve

• "Choose three platforms to consider for a multi-brand corporate site."
• "Explain to a doubtful stakeholder why open-source is a safe choice over a paid CMS."
• "Find a CMS my content team will be happy to use."
• "Reduce the risk of the platform decision over a 3 to 5 year period."
• "Confirm that the framework my agency chose is credible before I approve the build."

[Piedone]

Thank you for starting this initiative!

One particular USP of OC compared to projects like Umbraco and ABP is that while there are companies contributing to it, is not owned by a single company, but it's foundation-owned and community-driven. This can be a disadvantage to some (who am I gonna complain to?) but I'd emphasize its advantage: you can be part of the driving force, the decision-making body as much as anybody else, there's no evil corporate whose only goal is to take your money (not implying other .NET CMS platforms have evil corporates, but you get the feeling I'm describing), YOU are the project.

I'd also emphasize the comparison to closed-source/proprietary platforms like Sitecore and Kentico (also .NET platforms): with open-source you get control and there's no license fee, but again, you can't complain to a particular organization or demand things. Vendor lock-in vs vendor risk (risk of not having a vendor).

The Business Decision-Makers would also be interested that OC is part of the Microsoft technology ecosystem. Nobody got fired for choosing that.

[buzznick]

Completely agree, that's exactly OrchardCore's USP. I'm actually working on a competitor analysis at the moment that highlights this very thing, looking at where OC stands out compared to the likes of Umbraco and ABP.io. I'll post it as a separate discussion soon, so keep an eye out.

[agriffard]

See similar initiative started by Steve Taylor on previous orchardproject.net website: https://www.stevetaylor.me.uk/the-new-orchard-cms-website/

[buzznick]

This is great 👍 and exactly what we’re doing. Steve did an amazing job, and everything he put together is still relevant today. We’ll go through it and use it as a reference to help guide the rest of the discovery work. Thanks for sharing.

[Piedone]

@stevetayloruk FYI.