TrustRadius: an HG Insights company

Adobe Audience Manager vs. Adobe Business Catalyst (Discontinued) vs. Adobe Experience Manager

Save this comparison

Save this comparison

Add Product

Recommended Comparisons

    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Adobe Audience Manager

    Score8.2 out of 10
    N/AAdobe Audience Manager is a data management platform (DMP) that is integrated into the Adobe Marketing Cloud.N/A

    Adobe Business Catalyst (Discontinued)

    Score8.9 out of 10
    N/AAdobe Business Catalyst was a cloud-hosted system for building and managing web content and online stores with a built-in CRM framework in addition to sales, service, and marketing features including eCommerce and Email Marketing tools. It has been end of life (EOL) since 2020.

    $10

    per month

    Adobe Experience Manager

    Score8.6 out of 10
    N/AAdobe Experience Manager is a combined web content management system and digital asset management system. The combined applications of Adobe Experience Manager Sites and Adobe Experience Manager Assets is offered by the vendor as an end-to-end solution for managing and delivering marketing content.N/A
    Pricing
    Adobe Audience ManagerAdobe Business Catalyst (Discontinued)Adobe Experience Manager
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Adobe Audience ManagerAdobe Business Catalyst (Discontinued)Adobe Experience Manager
    Free Trial
    NoNoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Adobe Audience ManagerAdobe Business Catalyst (Discontinued)Adobe Experience Manager
    Considered Multiple Products
    Adobe
    No answer on this topic
    Discontinued Products
    No answer on this topic
    Adobe
    Chose Adobe Experience Manager
    Adobe Experience Manager proofs to be the right solution for large corporations with multiple business units and brands, since most of the functionalities are oriented to that. Other similar tools are more basic with regards to the available options and are also not that …
    Incentivized
    Chose Adobe Experience Manager
    AEM provides a better way to control user permissions which Content Marketer is lacking. Moreover, the ability to integrate with the Adobe Target product provides a wider range of audience segments that can be targeted besides the default author-targeted functionalities. It …
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    93%
    Would buy again
    13 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    95%
    Would buy again
    180 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    13 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    94%
    Delivers good value for the price
    145 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    14 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    97%
    Happy with the feature set
    184 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    13 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    90%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    113 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    13 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    87%
    Implementation went as expected
    125 Answers
    Features
    Adobe Audience ManagerAdobe Business Catalyst (Discontinued)Adobe Experience Manager
    Data Collection
    Comparison of Data Collection features of Adobe Audience Manager and Adobe Business Catalyst (Discontinued) and Adobe Experience Manager
    Feature
    Adobe Audience Manager
    8.6
    16 Ratings
    5% above category average
    Adobe Business Catalyst (Discontinued)
    -
    Ratings
    Adobe Experience Manager
    -
    Ratings
    Collection of first-party data8.116 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Collection of third-party data8.116 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Access to Third-party Data Providers9.616 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Data Classification
    Comparison of Data Classification features of Adobe Audience Manager and Adobe Business Catalyst (Discontinued) and Adobe Experience Manager
    Feature
    Adobe Audience Manager
    7.3
    16 Ratings
    12% below category average
    Adobe Business Catalyst (Discontinued)
    -
    Ratings
    Adobe Experience Manager
    -
    Ratings
    Audience taxonomy7.916 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Tag Management6.215 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Data Analysis Dashboard7.816 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Ad Network Integration
    Comparison of Ad Network Integration features of Adobe Audience Manager and Adobe Business Catalyst (Discontinued) and Adobe Experience Manager
    Feature
    Adobe Audience Manager
    8.9
    16 Ratings
    11% above category average
    Adobe Business Catalyst (Discontinued)
    -
    Ratings
    Adobe Experience Manager
    -
    Ratings
    Data Transfer8.916 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    DSP integration8.815 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    DMP Analytics
    Comparison of DMP Analytics features of Adobe Audience Manager and Adobe Business Catalyst (Discontinued) and Adobe Experience Manager
    Feature
    Adobe Audience Manager
    6.8
    16 Ratings
    14% below category average
    Adobe Business Catalyst (Discontinued)
    -
    Ratings
    Adobe Experience Manager
    -
    Ratings
    Campaign Analytics5.516 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Audience Analytics8.116 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Platform & Infrastructure
    Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of Adobe Audience Manager and Adobe Business Catalyst (Discontinued) and Adobe Experience Manager
    Feature
    Adobe Audience Manager
    -
    Ratings
    Adobe Business Catalyst (Discontinued)
    6.6
    14 Ratings
    17% below category average
    Adobe Experience Manager
    8.0
    33 Ratings
    0% above category average
    API00 Ratings7.911 Ratings7.829 Ratings
    Internationalization / multi-language00 Ratings00 Ratings8.129 Ratings
    Security
    Comparison of Security features of Adobe Audience Manager and Adobe Business Catalyst (Discontinued) and Adobe Experience Manager
    Feature
    Adobe Audience Manager
    -
    Ratings
    Adobe Business Catalyst (Discontinued)
    -
    Ratings
    Adobe Experience Manager
    8.4
    38 Ratings
    4% above category average
    Role-based user permissions00 Ratings00 Ratings8.438 Ratings
    Web Content Creation
    Comparison of Web Content Creation features of Adobe Audience Manager and Adobe Business Catalyst (Discontinued) and Adobe Experience Manager
    Feature
    Adobe Audience Manager
    -
    Ratings
    Adobe Business Catalyst (Discontinued)
    -
    Ratings
    Adobe Experience Manager
    7.5
    38 Ratings
    6% above category average
    WYSIWYG editor00 Ratings00 Ratings7.433 Ratings
    Code quality / cleanliness00 Ratings00 Ratings6.734 Ratings
    Admin section00 Ratings00 Ratings7.034 Ratings
    Page templates00 Ratings00 Ratings7.637 Ratings
    Library of website themes00 Ratings00 Ratings7.326 Ratings
    Mobile optimization / responsive design00 Ratings00 Ratings7.835 Ratings
    Publishing workflow00 Ratings00 Ratings8.135 Ratings
    Form generator00 Ratings00 Ratings7.629 Ratings
    Web Content Management
    Comparison of Web Content Management features of Adobe Audience Manager and Adobe Business Catalyst (Discontinued) and Adobe Experience Manager
    Feature
    Adobe Audience Manager
    -
    Ratings
    Adobe Business Catalyst (Discontinued)
    -
    Ratings
    Adobe Experience Manager
    7.3
    37 Ratings
    10% above category average
    Content taxonomy00 Ratings00 Ratings7.731 Ratings
    SEO support00 Ratings00 Ratings7.133 Ratings
    Bulk management00 Ratings00 Ratings7.236 Ratings
    Availability / breadth of extensions00 Ratings00 Ratings7.534 Ratings
    Community / comment management00 Ratings00 Ratings7.130 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Adobe Audience ManagerAdobe Business Catalyst (Discontinued)Adobe Experience Manager
    Small Businesses
    No answers on this topic
    Umbraco CMS
    Score7 out of 10
    Yext
    Score6.8 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Lotame
    Score8.8 out of 10
    Square Online
    Score7.7 out of 10
    Sitecore Digital Experience Platform
    Score8.9 out of 10
    Enterprises
    No answers on this topic
    RWS Tridion Sites
    Score9 out of 10
    Progress Sitefinity
    Score7.9 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Adobe Audience ManagerAdobe Business Catalyst (Discontinued)Adobe Experience Manager
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.1
    (16 ratings)
    6.0
    (21 ratings)
    8.6
    (220 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.4
    (10 ratings)
    9.0
    (7 ratings)
    Usability
    8.5
    (10 ratings)
    9.7
    (4 ratings)
    8.1
    (181 ratings)
    Availability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (4 ratings)
    8.6
    (5 ratings)
    Performance
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    8.0
    (5 ratings)
    Support Rating
    7.8
    (10 ratings)
    8.6
    (5 ratings)
    7.2
    (11 ratings)
    Online Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.6
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.6
    (3 ratings)
    5.0
    (3 ratings)
    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.5
    (2 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Professional Services
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Adobe Audience ManagerAdobe Business Catalyst (Discontinued)Adobe Experience Manager
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Adobe
    If you are already using multiple other pieces of the Adobe Experience Cloud stack, adobe audience manager is an easy choice. It allows for quick and easy data activation for your first and potentially brokered 2nd party data. However this product will likely be absorbed into the adobe experience platform (AEP) soon. In the end I would wait to see where adobe is truly headed with this product before investing heavily without additional heavy adobe investments.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    The service provision is good the accounts customer service is poor so I would struggle to give BC a better than average review, if only they could offer customers a better accounts service then the value would be much higher.
    Read full review
    Adobe
    I'll answer the second one because I mean, the first one I don't have an issue with. The second scenario is we oftentimes have the need to spin off very small campaign style sites or sites that generate leads but are unbranded and that sort of thing. So that's hard to do in AEM because you have to then create another organization within AEM to do that. And we're talking about sites that are maybe five to 10 pages in size. So we've been investigating Edge, but then that's a different workflow, so we'd have to train people on that. So it would be nice if there was something within the AEM structure that could allow you to do something very similar to Edge, where you make some small micro sites that are not necessarily branded, that you could still host within the platform and not have to retrain everybody on a completely different platform.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Adobe
    • We are able to generate reports that provide valuable insights into potential customer behavior, allowing us to better focus our marketing efforts.
    • By allowing us to understand who are key audiences are and how they overlap with other brands and products, AAM allows us to get a fuller picture of how we should target our audience.
    • Reporting in AAM is wonderful in that it is easy to understand and exportable. The use of graphics and updates make it easier to share insights with various team members--even those with minimum experience in marketing and analytics.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    • Probably one of the easiest e-commerce platforms to work in, it does take setup, but compared to a lot of other e-commerce solutions, this is probably the best one that I have seen that can be designed and implemented custom.
    • Their template system works very well and allows you to create and re-use templates across Adobe Business Catalyst.
    • Their pre-built modules are great, giving people a great way to use common web elements without having to use a plug-in or find some solution, it is simply built in and generally works exactly as you would expect.
    • Adobe Business Catalyst is more of an all-around solution, providing elements that most smaller companies would have a hard time figuring out, since it includes the ability to build websites, send and track e-mails, analytics. It really is a powerful tool that would typically require a fair amount of coding knowledge and expertise but with the system already built, it can be easily modified and edited by those with limited or no coding knowledge at all.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Adobe
    • It allows us to scale so that we can make a change on a global footer. And it applies to all of the different property websites. It allows us to set up components and compartmentalize things in a way. The big thing is that it's scalable. And then it also ties into Adobe Analytics and other Adobe products. So we are a complete Adobe shop. Every Adobe product that we can use, we use. I don't think we do it for marketing so much, but for doing target testing and analytics, data scientists are using the same product and so it all speaks.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Adobe
    • Biggest challenge we faced is teaching the use of it to our employees how to use it. The UI Should be easy and to understand for all fields.
    • The AdWords integration is not easy to do.
    • UI is sometimes slow and doesn't load Analyticals for more than 24 hours.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    • Multi Client Management: The dashboard for managing multiple clients as a reseller is a little difficult to get to. There is also no very easy way for me to manage multiple clients at once. I have to log into and out of individual client accounts to do billing or management.
    • Lack of Server support: There are certain server protocols and languages that are not supported using BC. For example I cannot build a custom php database and upload to BC. I am required to use their tools.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Adobe
    • There are some glitches in permissions inheritance that require us to toggle a save on permissions in groups that inherit from a group that was recently updated.
    • Large packages require stopping the workflow launcher OSGi components or many workflows will slow down the server.
    • Locked pages are hard to find unless I use /siteadmin... I often hear that the CQ tools will go away, but if we lose that, some small things might be harder to do, like finding locked pages.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Adobe
    No answers on this topic
    Discontinued Products
    Actually with Business Catalyst there is no renewal; once you are a partner, you are a partner for as long as you like. It is an investment in your business not simply a product you purchase...and as an investment in partnership with Adobe, both are committed to each other's success.
    Read full review
    Adobe
    We had and still have a fantastic experience using Adobe CQ. Lots of flexibility, great integration with other Adobe products we already use and a powerful technology make it a great fit for our corporate environment. Also as the community grows, it makes it easier to network with other developers and users to get new ideas on how to continue to get the best out of the software.
    Read full review
    Usability
    Adobe
    Overall usability is great, as are most of Adobe's software. Maybe a UI refresh could make it a bit easier to do advanced functions or reporting but, overall, it works very well. This is something you take for granted with Adobe solutions because when you try another vendor you realize how bad it can be.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    Overall it is a "plug and play" interface. The majority of the work is done in other software interfaces. Managing billing, user roles and custom reports are all that you need to manage in the actual BC user interface. For my business this is an incredible benefit as I have to leave my preferred software less.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Adobe
    Adobe Experience Manager overall is fairly easy to use and caters to a wide range of users when it comes to their technical abilities. It has the flexibility to enable UI/UX designers to pop in and easily design new content with drop in components. It also has sufficient capabilities for those who are more technically inclined and want to dig more into custom code or solutions
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Adobe
    No answers on this topic
    Discontinued Products
    very few issues with availability
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Adobe
    Being part of Adobe Suite means you are already notified when the tool has any outages. However, I have never faced unplanned outages. Whenever you face any issue with the site, it is clearly stated if there were any planned outages and how quickly you will be back to normal. So, I will say that even the outages are planned and managed in a great way like their other services.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Performance
    Adobe
    No answers on this topic
    Discontinued Products
    Very few issues
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Adobe
    With respect to performance, Adobe experience manager is one of the best in the CMS space. We didn't observe frequent slowness on platform, however the systems which are accessing experience manager should be of good specifications without which slowness would be observed. Adobe experience manager works well in integration with other solutions, unless the destination application is designed to trigger frequent calls to AEM.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Adobe
    AAM has good support, but the support is not as available, due to waiting time and queue. The instructions presented are available, but it navigation is not easy between pages. However, instructions are usually direct and straightforward, but any underlying thoughts or questions won’t be easily answered without support from their service.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    The support provided by Adobe is excellent. Though the knowledge base, forums, blogs and online chat questions most all answers can be found. In the event that you are unable to find an answer or you have a unique situation simply post a question to the forums. These forums are regularly monitored by Adobe and its users.
    Read full review
    Adobe
    Adobe Experience Manager, in all its capacity, is a great alternative to any other CMS you are using. It helps in rapid development and makes life easier for maintaining the website for multi-language sites. Technical know-how is eliminated at content authoring. Better documentation in terms of live examples with videos would be appreciated.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Online Training
    Adobe
    No answers on this topic
    Discontinued Products
    bcgurus.com kiyuco
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Adobe
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation Rating
    Adobe
    No answers on this topic
    Discontinued Products
    Pretty easy to do
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Adobe
    Depending on your individual needs, It is really quite simple to create an authoring experience for a website that looks really good. I have been part of many implementations and many teams and have seen many projects that were super successful and others that were not implemented well. AEM has room for a lot of flexibility in the implementation process compared to other CMS like SharePoint
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Adobe
    I personally like the Adobe Audience Manager interface and it's easier to use for beginners. It also has some features that Google does not, nor do its other competitors. It is worth the money and time spent, overall. I feel like it gives a bigger and more in-depth picture to our company's audience than other programs.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    As far as the CMS for BC goes, there is none out there that compares. In the past we have utilized Joomla, Wordpress, Mambo, Drupal, Concrete 5 and others. None of them were as easy to use and train on that Adobe's Business Catalyst. Our alternative to BC is WordPress when our clients want a less expensive solution. For the most part that works OK but we have had issues with plugin incompatibility among other issues. We lost at least two clients because of similar issues. The other great part about BC's solution is that we can still work with our favorite site creation tool - Dreamweaver. The whole process continues to be more and more simplified with added features to the system. No other solution (that we've found) offers such an easy way to create custom web sites that are easily editable by our clients.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Adobe
    SSO is one fits all, so we don't have to have a separate SSO for each application of Adobe The integration with Analytics works perfectly and bring directly value really quickly Target remains more complicated to set up, but can also bring a lot of value once integrated with the rest of the Adobe platform The fact that the solution is Cloud services is also a big advantage for maintenance
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    Adobe
    No answers on this topic
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    Adobe
    Instead of being directly involved in the tool purchase, I am involved in analysis or what we can use to maximize the tool. Small organizations may find it expensive. However, if the team or organization focuses more on your ROI or the features you will get, then it will definitely be worth it. Pricing is based on a number of factors, including team size or the use of the tool. The user can select the pricing option that best fits their needs based on the number of form submissions they make or the number of pages they wish to publish on their global/multisite sites.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Scalability
    Adobe
    No answers on this topic
    Discontinued Products
    It's easy to build small sites or large sites and there is lots of templating.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Adobe
    No answers on this topic
    Professional Services
    Adobe
    No answers on this topic
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    Adobe
    The professional services team within adobe is one of the best in terms of technical and solutioning knowledge. However, considering the billing charges of adobe professional services team, it is always recommended to involve them during platform initial setup or when a complex solution is to be built with platform customizations.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Adobe
    • Overall a Positive Return for Business who go All in on the Adobe Stack
    • Solid work for brokering and anonymously sharing data between first and second parties
    • The death of TRUE 3rd party data has lessened the effectiveness of all DMPs
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    • As someone who uses it on behalf of other clients, our ROI with BC is definitely positive. We needed a mid-range CMS without huge licensing costs to satisfy mid-range clients who have some dynamic needs but doesn't need the expense or liability of enterprise level products. Without it we would have lost possible customers or taken bigger hits on projects because of the costs involved with satisfying their mid-level needs
    • Our clients are all usually very positive about the BC platform and are able to use it themselves which lessens our Support time/cost.
    • To use the Web App element,. which we do on almost every site, you need to pay for the highest plan. This brings along with it many features most of our clients would never use. A more basic plan with that Web App capability would be a big improvement on our costs.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Adobe
    • too soon to tell on increased conversion rates based on external marketing factors in play but having increased visibility into customer engagement trends will most likely lead to improvement of our conversion rates.
    • There have been productivity gains from the perspective of actually migrating all of our externally managed sites to the same in-house Adobe Experience Manager platform and then being able to utilize those universal components.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    Adobe Experience Manager Screenshots

    Screenshot of AEM Forms - Creates an adaptive formScreenshot of AEM Forms - themes libraryScreenshot of AEM Forms - where to create a templateScreenshot of AEM Forms - the interactive communications editorScreenshot of Adobe Experience Manager Sites - document-based authoring enables marketers to create and publish content with familiar tools.Screenshot of Adobe Experience Manager Sites - Universal Editor, an advanced visual editor, empowers marketers to edit and publish content.