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Adobe Marketo Engage vs. Optimizely Content Management System

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Adobe Marketo Engage

    Score8 out of 10
    N/AAdobe Marketo Engage (acquired by Adobe in 2018) is a marketing automation platform whose basic features include email marketing, drip nurturing, landing pages, and lead scoring, but other editions offer additional advanced features. Typical customers are B2B firms with complex sales cycles.N/A

    Optimizely Content Management System

    Score8.5 out of 10
    N/AOptimizely Content Management System (CMS) is purpose-built for marketers, and fully composable for developers. The CMS supports the end-to-end content lifecycle, helping users to deliver on-brand, high-impact digital experiences that 'wow' audiences.N/A
    Pricing
    Adobe Marketo EngageOptimizely Content Management System
    Editions & Modules
    Growth
    Pricing based on database size.
    per month
    Select
    Pricing based on database size.
    per month
    Prime
    Pricing based on database size.
    per month
    Ultimate
    Pricing based on database size.
    per month
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Adobe Marketo EngageOptimizely Content Management System
    Free Trial
    YesNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesYes
    Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalRequired
    Additional Details
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Adobe Marketo EngageOptimizely Content Management System
    Considered Both Products
    Adobe
    No answer on this topic
    Optimizely
    Chose Optimizely Content Management System
    Opeimizely's sales team did an excellent job of supporting our decision. The CMS is actually bigger than what we are currently using it for, but with the opportunity to grow into using the platform, this was the right decision. So the support staff is the key differentiator for …
    Incentivized
    Chose Optimizely Content Management System
    N/A
    Incentivized
    Chose Optimizely Content Management System
    Ultimately it depends on needs. Price point for Episerver can be similar to Sitecore and is definitely less than Adobe. I think Episerver is strong because the product isn't looking to replace powerful systems (email, etc.) which is why their add-ons are so successful. Sitecore
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    91%
    Would buy again
    283 Answers
    97%
    Would buy again
    170 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    92%
    Delivers good value for the price
    239 Answers
    98%
    Delivers good value for the price
    144 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    91%
    Happy with the feature set
    291 Answers
    93%
    Happy with the feature set
    164 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    93%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    189 Answers
    93%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    104 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    91%
    Implementation went as expected
    174 Answers
    86%
    Implementation went as expected
    120 Answers
    Features
    Adobe Marketo EngageOptimizely Content Management System
    Email & Online Marketing
    Comparison of Email & Online Marketing features of Adobe Marketo Engage and Optimizely Content Management System
    Feature
    Adobe Marketo Engage
    7.6
    1074 Ratings
    1% below category average
    Optimizely Content Management System
    -
    Ratings
    WYSIWYG email editor7.8976 Ratings00 Ratings
    Dynamic content7.3955 Ratings00 Ratings
    Ability to test dynamic content7.0927 Ratings00 Ratings
    Landing pages7.2995 Ratings00 Ratings
    A/B testing7.8979 Ratings00 Ratings
    Mobile optimization7.0939 Ratings00 Ratings
    Email deliverability reporting7.61037 Ratings00 Ratings
    List management8.51032 Ratings00 Ratings
    Triggered drip sequences8.5931 Ratings00 Ratings
    Lead Management
    Comparison of Lead Management features of Adobe Marketo Engage and Optimizely Content Management System
    Feature
    Adobe Marketo Engage
    8.2
    1036 Ratings
    5% above category average
    Optimizely Content Management System
    -
    Ratings
    Lead nurturing automation8.51009 Ratings00 Ratings
    Lead scoring and grading8.4985 Ratings00 Ratings
    Data quality management7.5983 Ratings00 Ratings
    Automated sales alerts and tasks7.8930 Ratings00 Ratings
    Lead segmentation and distribution8.954 Ratings00 Ratings
    Campaign Management
    Comparison of Campaign Management features of Adobe Marketo Engage and Optimizely Content Management System
    Feature
    Adobe Marketo Engage
    6.9
    962 Ratings
    7% below category average
    Optimizely Content Management System
    -
    Ratings
    Calendaring6.1785 Ratings00 Ratings
    Event/webinar marketing7.6918 Ratings00 Ratings
    Social Media Marketing
    Comparison of Social Media Marketing features of Adobe Marketo Engage and Optimizely Content Management System
    Feature
    Adobe Marketo Engage
    6.8
    614 Ratings
    9% below category average
    Optimizely Content Management System
    -
    Ratings
    Social sharing and campaigns6.4606 Ratings00 Ratings
    Social profile integration7.2375 Ratings00 Ratings
    Reporting & Analytics
    Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Adobe Marketo Engage and Optimizely Content Management System
    Feature
    Adobe Marketo Engage
    6.5
    1036 Ratings
    12% below category average
    Optimizely Content Management System
    -
    Ratings
    Dashboards6.2978 Ratings00 Ratings
    Standard reports6.81018 Ratings00 Ratings
    Custom reports6.4962 Ratings00 Ratings
    Platform & Infrastructure
    Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of Adobe Marketo Engage and Optimizely Content Management System
    Feature
    Adobe Marketo Engage
    7.6
    1026 Ratings
    1% above category average
    Optimizely Content Management System
    7.8
    166 Ratings
    0% below category average
    API7.9890 Ratings7.8159 Ratings
    Role-based workflow & approvals7.4759 Ratings00 Ratings
    Customizability7.5908 Ratings00 Ratings
    Integration with Salesforce.com8.4883 Ratings00 Ratings
    Integration with Microsoft Dynamics CRM7.4316 Ratings00 Ratings
    Integration with SugarCRM6.5210 Ratings00 Ratings
    Third-party software integrations8.348 Ratings00 Ratings
    Internationalization / multi-language00 Ratings7.8127 Ratings
    Security
    Comparison of Security features of Adobe Marketo Engage and Optimizely Content Management System
    Feature
    Adobe Marketo Engage
    -
    Ratings
    Optimizely Content Management System
    8.4
    169 Ratings
    2% above category average
    Role-based user permissions00 Ratings8.4169 Ratings
    Web Content Creation
    Comparison of Web Content Creation features of Adobe Marketo Engage and Optimizely Content Management System
    Feature
    Adobe Marketo Engage
    -
    Ratings
    Optimizely Content Management System
    7.7
    194 Ratings
    2% below category average
    WYSIWYG editor00 Ratings7.6178 Ratings
    Code quality / cleanliness00 Ratings7.9166 Ratings
    Admin section00 Ratings8.0178 Ratings
    Page templates00 Ratings8.0172 Ratings
    Library of website themes00 Ratings7.497 Ratings
    Mobile optimization / responsive design00 Ratings7.9176 Ratings
    Publishing workflow00 Ratings8.1172 Ratings
    Form generator00 Ratings6.4131 Ratings
    Web Content Management
    Comparison of Web Content Management features of Adobe Marketo Engage and Optimizely Content Management System
    Feature
    Adobe Marketo Engage
    -
    Ratings
    Optimizely Content Management System
    7.5
    180 Ratings
    0% below category average
    Content taxonomy00 Ratings8.0165 Ratings
    SEO support00 Ratings7.1164 Ratings
    Bulk management00 Ratings6.9137 Ratings
    Availability / breadth of extensions00 Ratings7.5142 Ratings
    Community / comment management00 Ratings8.0117 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Adobe Marketo EngageOptimizely Content Management System
    Small Businesses
    Vbout
    Score9.9 out of 10
    Umbraco CMS
    Score7 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Bloomreach
    Score9.2 out of 10
    Square Online
    Score7.7 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Iterable
    Score8.2 out of 10
    RWS Tridion Sites
    Score9 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Adobe Marketo EngageOptimizely Content Management System
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.7
    (1244 ratings)
    8.6
    (223 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    4.5
    (147 ratings)
    9.8
    (34 ratings)
    Usability
    5.0
    (99 ratings)
    8.5
    (92 ratings)
    Availability
    9.0
    (25 ratings)
    9.2
    (4 ratings)
    Performance
    9.0
    (30 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    8.6
    (92 ratings)
    10.0
    (8 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    10.0
    (12 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Online Training
    6.7
    (29 ratings)
    10.0
    (4 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    10.0
    (37 ratings)
    6.4
    (2 ratings)
    Configurability
    6.0
    (6 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    7.9
    (4 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    1.1
    (9 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    7.0
    (10 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Professional Services
    9.4
    (3 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    8.2
    (7 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    8.2
    (6 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Adobe Marketo EngageOptimizely Content Management System
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Adobe
    Adobe Marketo Engage is an excellent tool for hosting registration forms and sending out tokenized emails based on a particular person's information within your database. For example, if someone attends an event or webinar and indicates that they'd like to learn more about your product, then Adobe Marketo Engage can easily trigger a specific email template to that person that will be personalized with tokens about them. The pixel tracking that can be applied to any web page is also very helpful. If you want to focus on a more 1:1 type of follow up with a Lead, then the automated emails are not going to be as useful.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Optimizely
    If you want to build a website quickly there are plenty of ways to do so with some great examples and plenty of support both from the company and in the forums. if you want to build a more complex structure you can but be ready to spend the time to build exactly what you need as a solid foundation goes a massive way before building out content and making those choices early and sticking with them helps
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Adobe
    • Adobe Marketo Engage excels at automating complex marketing workflows and delivering personalized customer experiences at scale.
    • Adobe Marketo Engage enables marketers to create targeted campaigns, schedule automated email sequences, and personalize content based on user demographics and interactions, resulting in more relevant customer engagement.
    • Adobe Marketo Engage provides robust analytics and reporting, allowing teams to track campaign performance, monitor conversion rates, and measure return on investment(ROI).
    Read full review
    Optimizely
    • I think the user interface for content admins is very good and very competitive. And compared to other providers, the technology that CMS in particular has. So the way it integrated the net ecosystem is very well because it follows the MBC pattern. So basically it just allows really simple implementations for what would normally be complex components on any other sort of vendor that's out there.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Adobe
    • The most important thing is the UI; it still looks very old and should be updated to meet current market design standards.
    • Admin Complexity: It should be easy to setup at the first go.
    • Tool Navigation: Navigation should be more easier.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Optimizely
    • Magento did have some nice tools for creating product groups or carousels for promotion. Opti seems to be lacking in that.
    • A blog - maybe this is available and we don't have it installed, but a searchable blog would be very appreciated.
    • Structured Data/MicroData - maybe it's our install, but this seems to be missing
    • Meta data: we have access to limited types and need to make a request from IT, it would be nice to be able to access more to adjust for SEO needs.
    • When in a folder on the BLOCKS tab, it would be wonderful to hit the MEDIA tab and stay in that same folder.
    • I have some less technical people that will make folders with spaces - which Opti handles, but it would be great if it wouldn't accept a space or gave an error message not to use them.
    • I think I know why the extra code is added to urls and image links, but it causes issues when taking things from our testing site to the live site. For example, I need to copy the Navigation from Inspect Element on testing to put it in production. I have learned to work around it, but it's not my favorite.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Adobe
    We're likely to renew for several reasons:
    • Now that it's been implemented, I can't imagine not having marketing automation and the easy interface that Marketo provides to run our campaigns
    • Marketo's community and customer service is fantastic; I know that when I need help, I'll get it
    • Marketo continues to improve the product, so I know that I can expect it to be even more useful in the future
    Read full review
    Optimizely
    Since I work on the implementation side of things, and do not directly own licensing for Ektron CMS, I have to base this rating off of how I think it will be received or presented to customers looking to start a new site deployment. I try to remain CMS agnostic, though my specialty is with the .NET and Microsoft stack. Because of the experience I have working with Ektron, I tend to be more forgiving with the shortcomings as I am familiar with how to work around them or past them from experience. Being familiar with the community available also helps, as you become familiar with the best approaches to find solutions to your issues. Each product has it's ups and downs and all of them are only going to be as good as the company or development team implementing them can make them. This is EXTREMELY important to remember when choosing a CMS, as it can make or break your expensive investment.
    Read full review
    Usability
    Adobe
    In some aspects, the tool can feel quite clunky in parts. But with the rich feature set it has, it's understandable. There is a lot of room for improvement for the user interface. The system itself doesn't have a slick or modern feel, so the usability could feel nicer to use with these areas considered.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Optimizely
    From our editors perspective they find the CMS system easy and to clear to use. Our developers find it very easy to design on and appreciate the level of service support available. It's also always evolving and getting better every year. We find this investment reassuring and encourages us to try keep pace and see how we can continue to push the envelope and continue to improve all aspect of our websites and online touch points.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Adobe
    Marketo provides different way and abilities to connect. If you are having product support or unexplained errors you can get someone on Marketo support 24 hours a day. One of Marketo's greatest assets in my opinion however would be the community. Often times our company is just looking for case success stories from someone else. In the community you can search for problems you are currently facing and see others having the same issue and solutions for those issues. If not, you can pose a question to the whole community and champions of the product and others can chime in to provide suggestions to fix your needs. The community is truly a 24/7 place to get your answers quickly.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Optimizely
    Unplanned outages or errors are fairly rare in our instance. And when there are issues, they're usually fixed fairly quickly
    Read full review
    Performance
    Adobe
    There are times when it is slightly slow for us, where we sit on a screen waiting for it to load. This could be our internet since we have had the same issue occasionally with other systems, but it is enough to make you crazy.
    Read full review
    Optimizely
    No answers on this topic
    Support Rating
    Adobe
    On multiple occasions we've had Marketo support (technical and license based) issues. Technical issues were minor and resolved within a day. License based issues (even things encouraged by Marketo for partners, like provisioning another license) took WEEKS. They actually took so long to respond that the client we were working with withdrew from the contract because they were no longer convinced Marketo was capable of supporting their business. As an agency trying to sell the software, you can only explain away so much before they just made us look silly.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Optimizely
    I attended multiple trainings/tutorials early in the process. The vendor-supplied content about Optimizely was engaging for users/attendees (I often analyze training content, compliance programs, governance plans), which helps our OCM people by having good "word of mouth" about the product long before a rollout ever happens. I actually when the user-focused portion of the Optimizely Academy twice in 2022 to ensure I had a grasp on operability and to be able to support the training and OCM efforts
    Incentivized
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    In-Person Training
    Adobe
    Our account rep stopped out in Lincoln, NE to ensure we were properly set up and running. This was very much appreciated. I was very, very new at this point, so I can't comment very much on the extent of what was taught because I was still brand new to the company and the system
    Read full review
    Optimizely
    No answers on this topic
    Online Training
    Adobe
    I had never used Marketo prior to taking this job so online training was my starting point. I was able to follow along, it was interesting and quickly and efficiently taught me what I needed to know without a lot of fluff. It was far from boring and really helped me get my hands dirty with Marketo.
    Read full review
    Optimizely
    Ektron is one of the best solution for .Net platform. Over the years have improved the performance issues that the previous versions had. My only complain is right now you can't do Page builder pages if you choose to have a MVC architecture
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    Adobe
    1. Have a content marketing plan to run in parallel with the marketing automation installation--you'll need a lot of content to make full use of Marketo's capabilities. 2. Work with sales (and ISRs) to define and document a workflow--build your Marketo installation around how you do business--not figure out how to apply your business to the tools 3. Spend time of data cleaning--both an initial project as well as a strategy for ongoing data management. We found some change manaement issues (no more appending ZZZ to the first name to identify contacts who have left the company, for example, or prohibiting the entry of "info@company.com" email addresses). 4. Find some champions in the sales and ISR teams. You'll have both fans and detractors--work with the fans to build some success stories
    Read full review
    Optimizely
    I was not fully involved.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Adobe
    Adobe Marketo Engage is one of the best email sending platforms I have worked with, because there is so much you can do on a lead scoring area and also then connect this to other platforms such as Salesforce. It allows for seamless reporting and working alongside sales colleagues. We chose Adobe Marketo Engage because it allows for more sophisticated audience segmentation and management of ongoing large scale nurture flows across a number of complex criteria.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Optimizely
    Optimizely Content Management System is much more feature rich, and less complex that the other CMS platforms we have used. Optimizely Content Management System is more intuitive in how the content is structured and how easy it is to pull blocks of content to create the layout of a page.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    Adobe
    The total cost is a little bit higher than we expected.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Optimizely
    No answers on this topic
    Scalability
    Adobe
    We look at scaleability in a few different ways. First, the speed while using Marketo has remained relatively the same as our database has grown. Though I would say Marketo is slow at times, it has not gotten slower over the last few years. If anything, it has improved, and they are working to improve it. Second, the amount of programs we have developed in Marketo has exponentially grown as well. Marketo has allowed us to drastically increase our output without having to drastically increase our headcount.
    Read full review
    Optimizely
    No answers on this topic
    Return on Investment
    Adobe
    • Adobe Marketo Engage automation capabilities have reduced the amount of manual work required to execute campaigns, allowing our marketing team to focus more on strategy and customer engagement rather than repetitive administrative tasks.
    • The platform has helped us generate more qualified leads through personalized campaigns and lead scoring, enabling our sales team to focus on prospects with the highest likelihood of converting.
    Read full review
    Optimizely
    • Flexibility with design that allows us to work towards our mission of 'Tennis Opened Up'
    • Speed of deploying content, meaning users can really on us for the most up-to-date content on tennis in Britain
    • Ability to have different logged-in areas for different user groups, allowing us to create more bespoke and personalised experiences
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    Adobe Marketo Engage Screenshots

    Screenshot of the Contact Timeline in Adobe Marketo EngageScreenshot of the Audience Feature in Adobe Marketo EngageScreenshot of Progressive Profiling in Adobe Marketo EngageScreenshot of the Insights Dashboard in Adobe Marketo EngageScreenshot of Sources in Adobe Marketo EngageScreenshot of Metrics in Adobe Marketo Engage

    Optimizely Content Management System Screenshots

    Screenshot of Content delivery: Developers can use modern GraphQL and REST APIs to query content from any source and send it to any channel or device.Screenshot of User roles and permissionsScreenshot of (SaaS CMS): Visual Builder: Add an image: Optimizely Visual Builder offers a range of editing features designed to make content creation and layout building intuitive and accessible to both technical and non-technical users. A drag-and-drop system is used to add, move, and rearrange elements within the layout, for quick and flexible content organization.Screenshot of (SaaS CMS): Visual Builder: Create an experience: Create an Experience functionality in Optimizely Visual Builder offers a code-free way to build and manage captivating digital experiences. It offers pre-built content blocks or elements (like text, images, buttons, forms, etc.) that can be positioned on the page layout as desired. Visual Builder offers extensive options to customize the appearance and behavior of these elements. Users can modify colors, fonts, sizes, animations, and even add interactive features providing flexibility in arranging content, accommodating various design needs and responsiveness across different screen sizes.Screenshot of (SaaS CMS): Visual Builder: Publish: The Visual Builder displays changes in real-time as they are made. This includes side-by-side previews for different devices like desktops, tablets, and mobiles. Before publishing, the Interactive Preview mode can be used to test elements like forms, buttons, and other interactive components to ensure they work as expected on the live site. Changes can then be published directly from the Visual Builder interface, making them instantly available to site visitors.Screenshot of the central location to manage assets, editing and publishing content.