Why this post exists

The honest reason: we get this question every week since Umbraco 17 launched with Umbraco.AI built in. Agencies and in-house teams look at Eddi and reasonably ask "why install your plugin when the platform already has AI?"

Fair question. Here's the straight answer.

Eddi and Umbraco.AI are not the same product. They are not direct competitors. They solve different AI-in-content-management problems, and the right answer for your site is sometimes Umbraco.AI, sometimes Eddi, and sometimes both.

This post is the straight comparison. Written by the team that makes Eddi, so weight that accordingly, but we'll be honest about where Umbraco.AI is the better answer.

What Umbraco.AI is

Umbraco.AI is the AI layer Umbraco HQ introduced with v17. It's shipped as part of Umbraco Core (for Cloud and self-hosted) and it provides:

  • AI-assisted property editing (rewrite, translate, summarise on specific fields)

  • Alt-text generation for media

  • Copy suggestions via property-level prompts

  • Integration with the Umbraco Content Delivery API for automated flows

It's tightly integrated, well-supported, and free to use at the Cloud tier (with BYO API key to an AI provider). For content teams that want AI-assisted writing on individual fields, it's the default answer.

What Eddi is

Eddi is our NuGet-packaged plugin, available for both Umbraco 13 LTS and Umbraco 17. It provides:

  • A conversational chat interface inside the backoffice

  • Slash commands for bulk operations (/seo-audit, /missing-alt, /stale-content, /rewrite, and 15 others)

  • Cross-site queries ("find all pages mentioning X that haven't been updated since Y")

  • GEO citability scoring (how readable is your content to AI search engines)

  • Bulk rewrite with diff preview before any changes are saved

  • Content blueprints (generate a markdown template for a document type, fill it offline, upload it back)

The model is "chat with your content tree". Less "AI on a single field", more "ask Eddi a question about the whole site and act on the answer".

Where they overlap

Three overlap points worth naming:

1. Single-field rewrites. Both tools will rewrite a paragraph for tone, expand a draft, or translate. Umbraco.AI is more integrated at that level - it's right there on the property. Eddi can do it too, but it's not the tool's focus.

2. Alt-text generation. Umbraco.AI generates alt text for single images on upload. Eddi's /missing-alt command finds all images missing alt text and generates them in a batch, with review-before-save.

3. Basic SEO hints. Both tools can suggest meta descriptions. Umbraco.AI does it per-field. Eddi does it in bulk (/seo-audit runs across the whole site).

If your needs are "one content editor, occasional AI assists on single fields", Umbraco.AI is enough and you don't need Eddi.

Where they do not overlap

This is where Eddi earns its install.

Bulk operations across the content tree. "Find every product page where the price in the body copy doesn't match the price in the product field" - that's a conversational cross-tree query. Umbraco.AI doesn't do it. Eddi does, because the model is chat-with-your-site, not AI-on-this-field.

GEO citability scoring. Scoring how likely ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews are to cite your content is a Simplepage-specific capability we built into Eddi because SEO teams keep asking for it. Umbraco.AI doesn't ship this.

Content audits. Stale content, thin content, duplicate meta descriptions, missing required fields - Eddi's slash commands treat these as chat queries. Umbraco.AI doesn't have a comparable audit surface.

Cross-version support. Umbraco.AI is v17 only. Eddi is on v13 LTS and v17. If you're on v13 and won't upgrade until v17.x reaches a stable LTS, Eddi is your only option.

Agency-scale workflows. If you manage ten client sites and want a consistent AI tool across all of them, you don't want to be ticking each client's Cloud tier up to get Umbraco.AI. Eddi runs as a NuGet package, installs the same way on every site, and scales with your portfolio.

When to pick what

Short decision guide:

Pick Umbraco.AI (and nothing else) if:

  • You're on Umbraco 17

  • You use Umbraco Cloud

  • Your AI needs are single-field: rewrite this paragraph, translate this text, generate this alt

  • You have one or two editors, and they're happy with AI-on-the-property-they're-editing

Pick Eddi (and nothing else) if:

  • You're on Umbraco 13 LTS (not yet on 17)

  • You need bulk operations (audit, rewrite-many, find-and-fix across hundreds of pages)

  • You want GEO citability scoring

  • You're an agency managing multiple sites and want a consistent tool

Pick both if:

  • You're on v17 and want Umbraco.AI's integrated rewrite-this-field for editors, and Eddi for the site-wide operations your editorial team can't do by hand

  • The two tools don't fight. Eddi sits alongside Umbraco.AI, not instead of it

The honest trade-offs

A few things I'd say if you were asking me directly and I weren't also trying to sell Eddi.

Umbraco.AI is a better fit for casual AI use. It's there, it's integrated, it's zero-setup. For small teams with occasional AI needs, it is the right default.

Eddi gets in the way if you don't need its features. If your SEO audit is "I look at each page once a year", Eddi's capability is overkill. An hour of editor time saved is not £25/month of saved time if you only do it annually.

The conversational model is an acquired taste. Some editors love chatting with their CMS. Some find it slower than clicking. If your team's editors are the second kind, Eddi won't be a hit, regardless of its capability.

Both of them are only as good as the AI model behind them. Umbraco.AI and Eddi both require your own API key (Anthropic, OpenAI). The quality of the output scales with the model, not with the tool.

What we're working on next

For Eddi specifically:

  • Native integration with Umbraco.AI on v17 (so single-field operations land Umbraco.AI's hands, and bulk/audit operations land Eddi's)

  • More slash commands for niche audits (schema.org validation, link-rot checks, orphan-page detection)

  • An MVP licence programme for Umbraco MVPs (one free Pro licence per MVP, one domain)

Try them both

Umbraco.AI ships with Umbraco 17. Try it on your own site.

Eddi has a free plan (read-only, audit-and-explore only) on v13 and v17. Install the NuGet package, plug in your API key, ask it a question. If the capability fits, Pro is £25/month per site. See eddi.im for the details.

If they both fit, use them both. That's the recommendation.