1. DotNetNuke
Of all the ASP .NET CMSes out there, DotNetNuke is probably the most well known and popular. One of the reasons for the popularity of this CMS is due to its multiple versions which allow for the flexibility to accommodate a beginning web developer, a small to medium sized business, or even a large enterprise. It has enjoyed a busy development since before 2003 that continues to this day.
For those that don't need much support other than what the open source community can provide, there's the DotNetNuke Community Edition offered under the BSD License. It contains most of the features which comprise the other editions, but the support is left up to the community. The Professional Edition gives you support from the DotNetNuke Corporation along with a few more features, and for a (much) increased price, the Enterprise Edition gives you a few more features along with phone support.
This CMS has been around for a while, so it's very stable and there's a plethora of add-ons in the community, so it's definitely the first stop if you're looking for something that's proven.
2. Orchard
Provided under the New BSD License, Orchard CMS is Microsoft's hand in the open source world. The Orchard Project is based on a community, backed by full-time developers from Microsoft, that develop components and scripts that are open tools for developers to create applications, and their primary focus at the time is Orchard CMS. Despite some slow development in the beginning, Orchard has struck a chord with the open source community, and the number of contributors is growing every day.
While some of the things you'd expect in a more robust CMS might be missing, there's several fantastic back-end features which will delight anyone who is looking for a young project to support that has a great prospect of growing in the future.
3. Kentico
Another CMS offering multiple licensing options is the Kentico CMS. The free license requires you to keep the logo and copyright information on your page, but the commercial versions offer support and allow you to work without the branding. It's designed to be easy to use for even novice users, so web development should go fast with someone who is experienced.
Kentico's focus lies in three areas: Content Management, E-Commerce, and Social Networking. That broad base makes it an excellent choice for a wide variety of technology ventures. If the company's success, showing a three year growth of 553%, is any indication, this is a CMS to keep an eye on.
4. Umbraco
As an open source project, Umbraco isn't going to break your budget, and it has really come alive over the past few years. It was first released in 2004 but it took a little while for it to gain traction. Lately, though, it has become very popular with designers due to the open templating system and ability to build in guidelines that automatically format the content writers provide. Also, it uses ASP .NET “master pages” and XSLT, so you won't have to work with a heaped-together templating format. It's written in C# and is happy to work with a variety of databases, so hosting shouldn't be a problem for you.
In 2009, CMS Wire dubbed Umbraco as one of the best open-source .NET CMS options available. In 2011, it was averaging close to 1000 downloads a day via Codeplex and is highly ranked amongst top downloads via the Microsoft Installer.
5. mojoPortal
mojoPortal is another open source CMS option based upon the .NET framework. It has a very active developer group and is consistently being updated. While it is free to download and use, there are a number of commercial add-ons that are used to help fund the project. When it comes to developing your own applications, many people prefer mojoPortal because it can act as a starter kit for advanced .NET sites or portals.
mojoPortal is also considered to be very strong as a standalone CMS. It is easy to learn and very simple to use. It includes a variety of different tools such as blogs, photo galleries, chat, newsletters, pools, forums, and much more. It also has a very strong community which makes troubleshooting extremely simple.
6. Sitefinity
Sitefinity is a commercial .NET content management system with 5 available license editions ranging from free for personal use, to $499 for small businesses up to $19,999 for enterprise use. The license will last for 1 year and during this time, you will get every update and free technical support with paid licenses. Once the year is up, you can still use Sitefinity to run your sites, however you will no longer receive free support or software updates. It is also important to note that the standard license is only good for one domain.
Currently Sitefinity is responsible for powering more than 200 government websites as well as large companies. Some of their most prominent government websites include: The White House Federal Credit Union, United States Courts, Downtown Fort Worth, and the Canadian Securities Transition Office. Additional customers include: Toyota, Vogue, IKEA, Chevron, Bayer, and Coca-Cola. With the price tag as high as it is, you'll want to be sure you're happy with it before you buy it by trying it first, but if the big boys are paying nearly $20,000 a year for it, you know the customer service is going to be top notch.
7. Composite C1
A relative newcomer to the ASP.NET market, Composite C1 was originally sold as a commercial CMS in Northern Europe until September 2010. Now, it's a free and open source CMS in version 3.0 that's offered under the Mozilla Public License. It's focus is for web developers working on corporate websites, so its learning curve is most likely too steep for the neonate. The 3.0 version, released in December 2011, was only downloaded a little over 1000 times from codeplex, but despite it's dark horse status, it continues to be a well designed CMS for the more experienced developer that wants their CMS to be more functional than it is beautiful.
There are enough free community and commercial add-ons for you to plug in the functionality you need quickly, so Composite C1 is worth checking out if you want to get your hands dirty.
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