What’s the difference between Site of the Month and Site of the Year? How do projects qualify, and what’s changing this year?
Let’s clear it all up—with a refreshed overview of how Kentico’s website awards work, what makes a winning project, and why 2025 will be our most exciting year yet, thanks to some key changes.
Beyond just recognizing great design, these awards spotlight digital excellence across industries—from seamless e-commerce sites and customer portals to high-performing travel and tourism websites and membership platforms. And yes, for agencies and brands alike, getting featured is a big deal. It’s visibility, credibility, and a celebration of the impact of great website building.
Site of the Month: The new path to Site of the Year
Since 2019, Kentico’s Site of the Month (SOTM) has recognized exceptional websites built on our platform. Site of the Month winners aren’t just good-looking sites; they’re packed with complex features and thoughtful content. Each month, we spotlight a few recently launched projects that stand out for their design, performance, and use of Kentico capabilities—especially those built on Xperience by Kentico.
Starting in 2025, every project submitted through the Partner Portal will automatically be considered for the Site of the Month award. Projects that receive this recognition will then qualify for Site of the Year (SOTY), turning our annual awards into a year-round celebration of digital excellence.
As the Site of the Year competition approaches at the end of the year, 10 winners and two honorable mentions will be selected in each category—representing the best in their respective industries.
After the expert committee selects the winners, the 10 category champions will compete once more for the ultimate honor: the Community Choice award, determined through public social voting.
More visibility. More transparency. More fun.
What makes a winning site?
Award-winning websites come in all shapes and sizes, but they tend to have one thing in common: excellence across multiple dimensions.
That includes:
User-focused design that is intuitive, responsive, and visually engaging
Content that delivers—whether that’s dynamic, localized, interactive, or AI-driven
Solid technical foundations, including speed, accessibility, and scalability
Advanced functionality, like multilingual support, personalization, and deep integrations
What also helps is the story behind the story. We love seeing not just what was built, but how and why it was done. Projects that include rich background info—goals, challenges, business context, collaboration highlights—stand out more. These insights help the committee understand the project's depth and innovation beyond the visuals.
That said, don’t stress during the year: we don’t require exhaustive detail for Site of the Month submissions. We appreciate completeness, but winning a monthly award doesn't hinge on filling every field. Once a project earns SOTM recognition, we’ll follow up and request more details ahead of the SOTY evaluation.
Whether it’s a bold redesign, a complex migration, an upgrade, or a fast, elegant new build, we want to see it.
The new Site of the Year timeline
This new format turns the awards into a full year of recognition for digital innovation. Here’s how the stages play out.
Step | What happens |
Submit projects | All year (2025), partners submit launched websites built with Xperience by Kentico. |
| Earn SOTM | Monthly winners are selected based on design, content, performance, and functionality. |
| Enter SOTY | SOTM winners qualify for Site of the Year in January 2026. |
| Public vote | Finalists face off in a Community Choice social vote. |
| Winners announced | The top websites are revealed and celebrated in early 2026. |
From the first Site of the Month submission to the final Community Choice vote, our new Site of the Year journey is designed to spotlight standout websites at every stage—celebrating what’s possible with purposeful design and powerful tools.
We look forward to showcasing the outstanding projects created by our community!