How to Choose a Kentico Development Partner in 2026
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It’s settled: Kentico is the right choice for your needs. Now, it’s time to choose a Kentico partner to migrate your existing website or implement a new one. Choose wrong, however, and you may end up with bloated features, poor documentation, laggy ERP integrations, or zero content governance.
Here’s how to pick a Kentico development partner that actually knows what they’re doing — and whose services will be worth every penny.
TL;DR
Turning to an external partner facilitates access to Kentico expertise, speeds up delivery, and improves budget efficiency.
Opt for partners with recent Kentico experience (10+ projects within the past 3 years), official Kentico certifications, and post-launch support services.
Avoid companies that don’t verify whether Kentico is a good choice for you, rely on templates, don’t conduct a thorough discovery phase, or have no verifiable reviews.
Make sure the partner can integrate Kentico with your ERP, CRM, and/or dealer portal, too.
Factors to consider when choosing a Kentico development partner
To recognize a reliable, competent Kentico development partner, evaluate the company’s Kentico development services across these six factors.
Experience with Kentico projects
A good Kentico implementation partner is experienced. However, experience is more than a single project completed five years ago. Verify the company is fluent in both legacy and current Kentico versions, as well as both new builds and migrations.
🟢 Green flags | 🔴Red flags |
Has delivered 10+ Kentico projects within the past 3 years | Claims to specialize in 20+ platforms without having hundreds of employees on the team |
Can easily explain the differences between Kentico versions (K12, K13, Xperience by Kentico) | Gets lost or stalls when asked about differences between Kentico versions |
Has worked on both new implementations and migrations from other CMS or older Kentico versions | Hasn’t worked on anything more complex than simple brochure websites |
Technical expertise and certifications
Kentico itself recognizes competent partners. Kentico has a partner program with multiple tiers (Bronze, Silver, Gold). Any of these certifications means Kentico is ready to vouch for the company’s technical expertise and client focus.
As for technical expertise, pay attention to developers’ proficiency with .NET, API-first architectures, and composable digital experience platforms (DXP).
🟢 Green flags | 🔴Red flags |
Is a certified Kentico partner listed on the website | Doesn’t mention any Kentico certifications on the website |
Has Kentico Certified Developers on the team | Can’t tell the content item query API from the ContentRetriever one |
Has experience working on API-first architectures | Doesn’t have experienced .NET developers on the team |
Includes senior .NET developers | Lacks experience with content modeling and composable DXPs |
Knows their way around composable DXP implementation |
Portfolio and case studies
Steer clear of companies with vague case studies containing unverifiable or unrealistic outcomes. Live URLs and Clutch reviews are a good sign, and so are featured case studies on Kentico’s website.
🟢 Green flags | 🔴Red flags |
Mentions measurable outcomes in case studies (e.g., conversion rate increase) | Showcases only anonymous case studies without live URLs or client names |
Includes verifiable client names, live URLs to websites, and Clutch reviews in the portfolio | Has few or no verified Clutch reviews |
Has its work featured on Kentico’s website | Doesn’t articulate the value provided to the client (e.g., fast implementation, improved load speed) |
Support and maintenance
A reliable Kentico development partner doesn’t vanish once the main scope is complete. It’s ready to provide ongoing support and maintenance services to keep your website secure, fast, and up to date.
🟢 Green flags | 🔴Red flags |
Has a clear service-level agreement (SLA) for support and maintenance services | Doesn’t provide post-launch services at all |
Provides 24/7 monitoring and emergency development support | Is vague about the SLA and response time |
Is upfront about the costs of support services | Has no dedicated account manager |
Clearly specifies what’s included (performance optimizations, troubleshooting, security updates, etc.) | Tries to upsell you on post-launch support too hard |
Doesn’t clearly explain what’s included in services or how much it will cost you |
Understanding of your business needs
A competent partner first conducts thorough discovery to determine the best solution for your needs, whether it concerns Kentico migration services or a greenfield implementation. The team doesn’t follow a one-size-fits-all template; they can explain how the proposed solution fits in with your business goals and challenges.
🟢 Green flags | 🔴Red flags |
Takes time for discovery and doesn’t suggest solutions before it’s done | Always agrees with your ideas without critically assessing them |
Tells you whether Kentico is really a good fit (and isn’t afraid to say it’s not and suggest alternatives) | Focuses on technical constraints and deliverables instead of business goals |
Is ready to disagree with you and explain why their solution is better | Relies on one-size-fits-all templates instead of defining tailored solutions for every client |
Takes into account your marketing stack, growth goals, and content operations | Doesn’t conduct a discovery phase or barely scratches the surface during it |
Communication and project management
Scope creep and delays due to long communication loops are a real risk — one that your partner should proactively mitigate. The same goes for preventing misunderstandings. Agile is the golden standard here, along with a dedicated project manager, full transparency, and time zone alignment.
🟢 Green flags | 🔴Red flags |
Assigns a dedicated project manager | Doesn’t provide a dedicated project manager |
Works in sprints and uses the agile methodology | Doesn’t say what methodology the team uses during projects |
Is ready to adapt to your time zone to speed up communication | Doesn’t have change request protocols |
Is upfront about check-in frequency and communication channels | Is vague about communication methods and cadence |
Provides full access to project management tools (Jira, etc.) |
Top 5 Kentico development companies in 2026
Looking for a reliable Kentico partner? Add these five best Kentico development companies to your list of potential partners.
Bits Orchestra
Bits Orchestra is a certified Kentico Bronze Partner and a five-time Kentico Website of the Month award winner. Our track record includes 27+ Kentico projects (migrations, custom development, and integration) over 12+ years.
Best for: Mid-sized companies migrating from Kentico 13 or building complex integrated platforms.
Key strengths:
Experience with complex CRM and ERP integrations and migrations
Kentico Certified Developers who participate in ongoing training and certification programs
Expertise in implementing custom workflows and portals
Limitations:
Somewhat narrow industry focus
DotStark
DotStark is a Kentico Silver Partner and Kontent Partner with 100+ migrations under its belt. Besides Kentico services, the company also provides web and app development.
Best for: Large organizations that need a rebuild to migrate to Kentico
Key strengths:
Flexible hiring models for custom development (fixed cost, hourly, dedicated team)
Established protocols for zero-downtime migration
Customized Kentico maintenance and support plans available
Limitations:
No SLA for maintenance services on the website
Pushes for cloud deployment in Azure (as a Microsoft Partner)
AmericanEagle
As a Kentico Gold Partner, AmericanEagle has worked on greenfield implementations and migrations alike. That said, the company’s core strength lies in Kentico digital strategy, marketing, and commerce development.
Best for: eCommerce SMEs looking for an all-in-one development partner with hosting and digital marketing services.
Key strengths:
Strong digital experience and design expertise
Proficiency in Kentico commerce development
Hosting and managed cloud services available
Limitations:
Somewhat limited migration experience for complex projects
Small team (13 certified developers)
Addact
Addact is a design and development company that specializes in AI-powered solutions. It also uses AI to speed up delivery across its services, from UI/UX design to development and testing.
Best for: Small businesses and startups on a tight budget or pressed for time.
Key strengths:
AI-accelerated development services and expertise
Diverse AI/ML services (AI consulting, automation, etc.)
Agile engagement models (dedicated team/task-based support)
Limitations:
Not certified as a Kentico partner
No recent Kentico case studies on the website
Softude
Closing our list of the best Kentico development companies in 2026 is Softude. It’s a Kentico agency that specializes in niche solutions like intranet and custom plugins, with domain expertise spanning eCommerce and healthcare.
Best for: Enterprises looking to build a Kentico intranet or a custom plugin.
Key strengths:
ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 27001 certifications
Strong AI and GenAI expertise
Xperience 13 Certified Developers on the team
Limitations:
Not a Kentico certified partner
Large time zone difference with development centers (for North American businesses)
Kentico development partner vs in-house team
As always, you have a choice: turn to external headless CMS development services or go it alone and complete the project in-house. Here’s why external services often make more sense.
Cost and budget efficiency
When hiring Kentico in-house, you also have to account for payroll taxes, employee benefits, office space, and equipment. The real employment costs are 1.25x to 1.4x the salary itself.
Hiring a Kentico custom development partner saves you from all those implicit hiring costs, as well as red tape and bureaucracy.
Access to expertise
Depending on your location, the talent pool can be limited. Besides, you also have to hire a project manager, designers, DevOps engineers, QA engineers, etc. Turning to a reliable development partner instantly covers all of those needs, with every specialist already vetted.
Speed and flexibility
Finding the right fit for your in-house team can take up to 68 days, and developer onboarding can take another two months. That makes scaling an in-house team up and down long and costly. A Kentico provider, in turn, is ready to start working on your project right away.
Best use cases for Kentico development
If your project falls into one of these four categories below, you stand to benefit from choosing Kentico — and hiring a development partner.
eCommerce platforms
It’s not enough to have an online store these days. Customers head to social media to shop, browse marketplaces, and ask chatbots for help. Kentico can centralize content management and marketing for all those channels, helping you untangle external integrations and deduplicate processes.
If your eCommerce operations are already complex, a development partner will help you optimize your Kentico platform for performance and scalability. They will also help you avoid downtime during migration and structure data for automation.
Corporate portals
Managing and updating an employee, customer, or intranet portal still requires a dev ticket? Kentico can turn those updates so simple that anyone on the team can do it with governed publishing and personalization for teams and job roles.
Enterprise portal development services will help secure your new portal and integrate it with your external channels. Turning to a partner is especially important if your portal spans multiple sub-portals and user roles.
Enterprise websites
A typical multi-regional or multi-language enterprise website is often just a bunch of localized websites in a trenchcoat. That fractures data, marketing processes, and content operations. Kentico brings such enterprise websites under one roof, centralizing marketing and data.
Fusing separate websites can be a challenge, and that’s where development partners come in. For example, Bits Orchestra redesigned and modernized KONI’s B2B website, unifying multi-site ecosystems into a single Kentico architecture tailored to multi-region operations. Post-migration, KONI saw:
62% increase in page views post-launch
67% increase in item views
19.7% rise in event count growth
439.9% uplift in clicks on redesigned navigation and CTAs
Integration-driven transformation
Disconnected systems and data silos can force workers to spend 30% of their working time searching for the right information. Kentico can ensure that all data flows into core business tools, turning them into a unified ecosystem.
That has several benefits, as Anderson Tuffex saw firsthand. With Bits Orchestra’s help, the company centralized product data, content, and marketing in a single Kentico-powered platform. That simplified product and content management and removed the scalability limits imposed by an outdated CMS.
Key integration capabilities to look for in a Kentico partner
Reliable Kentico providers must know how to integrate Kentico with the systems you’re already using. Make sure to discuss potential partners’ experience with these three types of integrations.
ERP and product data sync
Product data for thousands of SKUs, including region-specific assortments and pricing, must be synced between the Kentico platform and your ERP. To implement this integration, your partner should be able to choose between:
REST API and middleware integration methods
Real-time and batch updates
Pay attention to the company’s experience with ERPs such as SAP and Microsoft Dynamics, or with custom solutions if yours is homegrown.
CRM and marketing automation
Kentico offers plug-and-play packages for general CRM integrations (Salesforce Sales Cloud, Microsoft Dynamics Sales). Connecting it with other popular choices like HubSpot and Marketo will require API integration.
Reliable Kentico development agencies map data flows before connecting the systems. For example, form submissions should be added as leads. Behavioral data should be translated into conversion and engagement metrics, in turn.
Dealer/Distributor portal support
Integrating your Kentico platform with a dealer portal means better pricing visibility for dealers and smoother order management for everyone involved. Pay attention to your partner’s experience with dealer portal integrations, especially when it comes to role-based access and unified dealer profiles across the CRM, portal, and ERP.
Conclusion
The Kentico development partner you choose now will determine how well your website works in the long run — and whether your investment in it pays off. So, don’t rush the decision. Take your time to review each company’s portfolio and discuss your project to evaluate its expertise and communication style.
FAQ
What is a Kentico development partner?
A Kentico development partner is a service vendor that implements, customizes, integrates, migrates, and supports Kentico solutions.
How do I choose the best Kentico company?
Verify recent experience with Kentico projects and prioritize partners certified by Kentico. Avoid companies with vague case studies or ones that don’t have a discovery phase.
How do I know if a Kentico partner can handle complex integrations?
A capable partner can walk you through their development process in detail and answer technical architecture questions (about APIs, sync logic (real-time vs batch), data flows, middleware layers, and data mapping) without hesitation. They must have proven experience in integrating Kentico with an ERP, CRM, or third-party data source.
How long does Kentico development take?
It depends on the scope. A website with basic functionality can be ready for launch within 6 to 10 weeks. Development projects with complex custom features and/or integrations may require 3 to 6 months. The same rings true for migration projects, but complex data structures or system dependencies can extend the timeline.
What should a Kentico implementation include beyond development?
For a rigorous implementation, your Kentico partner must run discovery and architecture planning, content migration, QA testing and post-launch support. They should also cover documentation, training, as well as SEO and redirect mapping. The full implementation makes your platform independent from daily developers’ updates.
Do Kentico partners provide ongoing support?
It depends on the company. That said, most, including Bits Orchestra, can become your Kentico support partner once the website is up and running.
Is Kentico a good choice for mid-sized or enterprise companies?
Yes, Kentico can meet the needs of mid-sized companies and large enterprises. It’s flexible and scalable by design, with well-rounded security features to protect data.
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