I have worked with Umbraco since 2011, from version 4 through to version 17, and have personally built or worked on more than 200 Umbraco sites. Umbraco named me an MVP for 2026, recognition given to a small group of contributors to the platform and its community each year. The Umbraco work sits on a longer foundation: I have been writing commercial software since 1995, so the engineering judgement predates the CMS by a decade and a half. My company, Simplepage Ltd, holds Umbraco Silver Partner status. If you are doing due diligence on a freelancer, those are the checkable claims; everything else you can judge from how I answer your first technical question.
Fourteen years on Umbraco, starting at version 4 in 2011 and staying current through every release to version 17. More than 200 sites personally, not "the team delivered" but hands on the keyboard. Umbraco MVP for 2026, an award Umbraco gives to people who materially contribute to the platform and its community. And Silver Partner status held by my company, Simplepage Ltd, which puts the practice inside Umbraco's official partner programme rather than outside it looking in.
Umbraco reinvented itself twice, architecturally, at versions 8 and 9. A developer who has crossed those breaks with real sites has debugged the platform at every layer: old XSLT macros, WebForms-era templates, the .NET Core migration, and the modern block-based editing model. That is the difference between knowing Umbraco and having grown up with it, and it is precisely what you need when your site is old, odd or inherited.
Writing commercial software since 1995 means the fundamentals, data modelling, performance, security, integration, were formed long before this CMS existed. Umbraco problems are usually software problems wearing an Umbraco costume, and thirty years of software problems is the deeper reservoir. It also means I have watched many platforms rise and fall, which keeps my architectural advice conservative in the way that ages well.
Credentials open the door; the first conversation is the real test. Describe your situation and listen to whether the questions that come back are the questions of someone who has seen it before. The longer story, including the services all this experience gets applied to, starts on the about page.
Tell me what you're working on and I'll come back within one working day.
A specialist Umbraco developer offering freelance / contract services to a wide variety of clients across the UK
Maesgwyn, 3 Claremont rd,
Llandudno, North Wales, LL30 2UF