Run Umbraco CMS Locally in Under 10 Minutes

// Before you start

What you need

.NET 8 SDK installed (download from dot.net)
Windows, Mac, or Linux machine
A terminal or command prompt (search 'Terminal' or 'Command Prompt' on your machine)
~500 MB free disk space

Step 1 of 6

Verify .NET is installed

1 min

Before anything else, confirm your machine has the .NET SDK. The command below prints the version number. You need version 8 or higher. If you see 'command not found', visit dot.net, download the SDK installer, run it, then come back here.

Terminal · mac

$ dotnet --version

What you should see

8.0.x (any number starting with 8 is fine)

This might happen

'dotnet' is not recognized as a command

Download and install the .NET 8 SDK from https://dotnet.microsoft.com/download — then open a fresh terminal window and try again.

Step 2 of 6

Install the Umbraco project templates

2 min

This downloads the Umbraco starter templates onto your machine. Think of it like installing a blueprint. You only need to do this once per machine. The download is small and comes straight from the official NuGet package registry.

Terminal · mac

$ dotnet new install Umbraco.Templates

What you should see

A list of newly installed templates including 'umbraco', 'umbraco-package', etc.

This might happen

Error about package not found or network timeout

Check your internet connection. If you are behind a corporate proxy, you may need to configure NuGet proxy settings — ask your IT team.

Step 3 of 6

Create a new Umbraco project

2 min

This creates a new folder called MyProject and fills it with everything Umbraco needs to run. You can replace 'MyProject' with any name you like — just avoid spaces. The folder will appear in whatever directory your terminal is currently in.

Terminal · mac

$ dotnet new umbraco --name MyProject

What you should see

The template 'Umbraco CMS' was created successfully.

This might happen

Error: 'umbraco' template not found

The template install in Step 2 may not have completed. Re-run: dotnet new install Umbraco.Templates

Step 4 of 6

Move into the project folder

30 sec

You need to be inside the project folder before you can start Umbraco. This command moves your terminal into that folder.

Terminal · mac

$ cd MyProject

What you should see

Your terminal prompt now shows the MyProject folder path.

Step 5 of 6

Start Umbraco

3 min

This builds and launches Umbraco on your machine. The first run takes a minute or two as it downloads dependencies. When it is ready, it will print a local URL — usually http://localhost:5000. Open that URL in your browser to continue setup.

Terminal · mac

$ dotnet run

What you should see

Now listening on: http://localhost:5000 (or similar port). Your browser may open automatically.

This might happen

Port 5000 is already in use

Another app is using that port. Stop it, or run Umbraco on a different port: dotnet run --urls 'http://localhost:5001'

Step 6 of 6

Complete the browser setup wizard

2 min

Open http://localhost:5000 in your browser. Umbraco shows a one-page installer. Enter your name, email, and a password to create your admin account. Choose 'No thanks' on the starter kit prompt if you just want a blank site. Click 'Finish' and Umbraco will restart itself — wait about 30 seconds, then you land in the backoffice editor.

Terminal · mac

$ open http://localhost:5000

What you should see

The Umbraco installer screen appears in your browser with fields for name, email, and password.

This might happen

Browser shows 'site can't be reached' right after dotnet run

Umbraco needs 20-30 seconds to finish starting. Wait, then refresh the page.

// Status

cooked. baked. worked.

A fully working Umbraco CMS running on your local machine, with a browser-based backoffice editor where you can create pages, upload media, and explore the content tree.

// the honest bit

The honest part

This setup uses a local SQLite database — fine for learning and testing, not for a live website. Umbraco is a full CMS aimed at developers and agencies; building real templates or custom content types requires C# or Razor knowledge. The free community edition has no content delivery limits, but cloud hosting and commercial support are paid products from Umbraco HQ.