The Umbraco Community is an ecosystem comprised of, built for, and maintained by people like you.
Because it's far more than just a developer community, and because there are so many different ways to get involved, it can be intimidating if you're new or not sure where to dive in. Below, we've broken it down into a three-step process that will help you find where you belong and do impactful things that matter to you.
Step 1: Find your people.
What's your channel of choice?
Share tips and ask questions in the Umbraco Community Forum.
Get your git on with the Community on Github
Step 2: Find a Pathway.
Our community is like a garden with lots of interconnected pathways. There's no single "right way" to navigate it. Explore the different pathways and find opportunities to participate, learn, and share your expertise, your experience, and all of the things that make you, well, you.
Do you love writing? Are you good at explaining things? This path is all about helping people find and understand the resources they need to build things with (and for) Umbraco. That might mean:
- Contributing to Umbraco’s official documentation
- Writing blog posts or tutorials for Skrift, 24 Days in Umbraco, or your own blog
- Creating how-to videos or walkthroughs (examples)
- Maintaining collections of community links and learning tools
If you’ve ever written a guide to help your future self solve the same problem twice, you’re already halfway there.
Maybe you’re the person who always has time to help a junior developer on your team; maybe you just remember what it’s like to be the new person. This pathway is about making the community a more welcoming, supportive place for others. This could look like:
- Answering questions in the Umbraco Forum
- Offering mentorship (formally or informally) to newer community members
- Participating in chats and sharing advice on Discord
- Helping people navigate the ecosystem and find their footing
This is meaningful work, and it has ripple effects that go far beyond any single conversation.
If you’ve got a flair for organizing or hosting, consider diving into the events side of the community. This includes things like:
- Finding and attending your local meetup regularly
- Helping run local Umbraco meetups
- Organizing social gatherings, festivals, or mini-conferences (whether in-person or virtual)
- Coordinating speaker lineups, venues, or accessibility efforts
Events need not be big to have a meaningful impact. Sometimes the most lasting connections happen over snacks at a local meetup.
Every thriving community needs people who help keep things running smoothly. This contribution pathway includes:
- Helping moderate posts on the Umbraco Forum or in Discord
- Serving on Community Teams, Advisory Boards, and Guilds
- Weighing in on discussions that shape how the community operates
If you have strong empathy, good judgement, and a desire to make things better for everyone, this is a pathway you’ll likely enjoy.
Public speaking isn’t everyone’s thing, to be sure. For those who love taking the stage (or who want to learn), it’s a great way to have a big impact. Here’s what that might look like:
- Giving talks about Umbraco at non-Umbraco conferences or meetups
- Helping staff booths at developer events
- Sharing your story and journey publicly to help inspire others
Whether you’re presenting your first lightning talk or delivering the keynote at a major event, this path is all about using storytelling to help more folks learn about Umbraco.
Are you the kind of person who always seems to know just the right people to introduce to each other? You might be a natural community organizer. This includes things like:
- Helping others find their path within the Umbraco ecosystem
- Connecting newcomers with mentors, resources, and opportunities
- Keeping an eye on the “big picture” of how people are finding each other and relating
This might sound a lot like support and mentorship, but it’s less about providing direct support in a particular area. Organizers are like the connective tissue of the community. You don’t need to be highly technical or possess deep expertise in any one area. You just need to be curious, caring, and good at spotting opportunities to connect ideas with people.
Yes, the classic, technical pathway that so many of us are familiar with. No list of contribution areas would be complete without it. But even here, the options are broader than you might think:
- Contributing to the core CMS codebase
- Pitching in on one of the hundreds of open-source community packages
- Building your own package or integration to share
If you’ve got an itch to scratch or a feature you wish existed, this is a great way to build something that helps the whole community. And remember, you don’t have to be a developer to contribute in this area. You can collaborate with developers who are building things by helping with testing, giving UX feedback, or helping them with documenting all the things.
Step 3: Make some noise.
One of the most important (and often overlooked) parts of getting involved is to spread the word about all of the things you're doing. This helps other folks in the community find you and benefit from your efforts more quickly and efficiently.
Maybe you've written a great tutorial on your personal blog or are hosting an event soon. One of the best ways to get the word out to folks in the community is to share a tip about it with the UMB.FYI newsletter. This newsletter goes out weekly to folks all around the world and contains a curated digest of all the timely happenings.
Whether you're on Mastodon, Bluesky, LinkedIn, or X, you'll find Umbracians bustling about. These are great places to share news about the incredible things that you're doing. Be sure to include the relevant hashtags. For example: #Umbraco #H5YR (curious about what H5YR means? Take a look at h5yr.com to learn more.)
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The best noise often begins in your own back yard. Even if you don't have a blog or aren't big on social media, you can tell a friend or colleague about the things you're learning and doing. The ethos of the Umbraco Community is all about being friendly and helping folks, and sometimes the best way to start is to help the folks around you.
There are so many ways to get involved, and it can be a bit overwhelming. When in doubt, you can follow along with the action by signing up for the UMB.FYI newsletter or search for an upcoming event at Umbracalendar.com. If you've still got questions, you can always reach out to the Developer Relations team at Umbraco HQ and we're happy to point you in the right direction!