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CommonSpot vs. FirstSpirt CMS vs. HCL Digital Experience

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    CommonSpot

    Score7 out of 10
    N/ACommonSpot is a Web platform that includes a content management system, an application development framework, marketing solutions, and social media features from PaperThin, Inc, a privately held, MA-based company. PaperThin's customers span multiple industries, including: government, healthcare, higher education, and association/non-profit sectors.N/A

    FirstSpirt CMS

    Score7.2 out of 10
    Enterprise companies (1,001+ employees)
    FirstSpirit CMS is an enterprise Content Management platform for creating, governing, and publishing digital content across websites, applications, and other delivery channels. It combines visual authoring, developer tooling, workflow controls, and content-delivery options for organizations managing multilingual and multisite digital estates.N/A

    HCL Digital Experience

    Score9.9 out of 10
    N/AHCL Digital Experience is based on the former IBM Web Content Manager and IBM WebSphere Portal products, acquired by HCL Technologies from IBM in late 2018. The product allows the user to create, manage and deliver engaging omnichannel digital experiences to audiences with responsive content, targeted offers, seamlessly integrated applications and consistent branding across channels (web, mobile, and hybrid mobile/web applications and more).N/A
    Pricing
    CommonSpotFirstSpirt CMSHCL Digital Experience
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    CommonSpotFirstSpirt CMSHCL Digital Experience
    Free Trial
    NoNoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoYesNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    CommonSpotFirstSpirt CMSHCL Digital Experience
    Considered Multiple Products
    PaperThin, Inc
    No answer on this topic
    Rezolve Ai Limited
    No answer on this topic
    HCLSoftware
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Would buy again
    16 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Delivers good value for the price
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    13 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Happy with the feature set
    No answers on this topic
    94%
    Happy with the feature set
    15 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    13 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation went as expected
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    13 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Features
    CommonSpotFirstSpirt CMSHCL Digital Experience
    Security
    Comparison of Security features of CommonSpot and FirstSpirt CMS and HCL Digital Experience
    Feature
    CommonSpot
    7.0
    1 Ratings
    16% below category average
    FirstSpirt CMS
    8.9
    25 Ratings
    8% above category average
    HCL Digital Experience
    5.0
    5 Ratings
    47% below category average
    Role-based user permissions7.01 Ratings8.925 Ratings5.05 Ratings
    Web Content Creation
    Comparison of Web Content Creation features of CommonSpot and FirstSpirt CMS and HCL Digital Experience
    Feature
    CommonSpot
    6.3
    2 Ratings
    22% below category average
    FirstSpirt CMS
    8.1
    27 Ratings
    3% above category average
    HCL Digital Experience
    2.9
    5 Ratings
    84% below category average
    Code quality / cleanliness6.01 Ratings7.626 Ratings3.15 Ratings
    Admin section6.52 Ratings8.325 Ratings3.15 Ratings
    Page templates7.02 Ratings8.427 Ratings1.15 Ratings
    Library of website themes7.01 Ratings00 Ratings1.15 Ratings
    Publishing workflow7.02 Ratings8.527 Ratings1.14 Ratings
    Form generator4.01 Ratings7.823 Ratings3.02 Ratings
    WYSIWYG editor00 Ratings7.726 Ratings7.04 Ratings
    Mobile optimization / responsive design00 Ratings8.425 Ratings4.04 Ratings
    Web Content Management
    Comparison of Web Content Management features of CommonSpot and FirstSpirt CMS and HCL Digital Experience
    Feature
    CommonSpot
    7.7
    2 Ratings
    2% above category average
    FirstSpirt CMS
    7.9
    27 Ratings
    5% above category average
    HCL Digital Experience
    1.9
    5 Ratings
    111% below category average
    Content taxonomy7.52 Ratings7.725 Ratings1.15 Ratings
    SEO support7.02 Ratings8.524 Ratings2.15 Ratings
    Bulk management8.01 Ratings8.122 Ratings2.13 Ratings
    Availability / breadth of extensions7.01 Ratings7.321 Ratings2.14 Ratings
    Community / comment management9.01 Ratings00 Ratings2.13 Ratings
    Platform & Infrastructure
    Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of CommonSpot and FirstSpirt CMS and HCL Digital Experience
    Feature
    CommonSpot
    -
    Ratings
    FirstSpirt CMS
    8.0
    22 Ratings
    2% above category average
    HCL Digital Experience
    4.1
    5 Ratings
    64% below category average
    API00 Ratings7.819 Ratings4.14 Ratings
    Internationalization / multi-language00 Ratings8.120 Ratings4.15 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    CommonSpotFirstSpirt CMSHCL Digital Experience
    Small Businesses
    Umbraco CMS
    Score7 out of 10
    Umbraco CMS
    Score7 out of 10
    Yext
    Score6.8 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Square Online
    Score7.7 out of 10
    Square Online
    Score7.7 out of 10
    Sitecore Digital Experience Platform
    Score8.9 out of 10
    Enterprises
    RWS Tridion Sites
    Score9 out of 10
    RWS Tridion Sites
    Score9 out of 10
    Progress Sitefinity
    Score7.9 out of 10
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    User Ratings
    CommonSpotFirstSpirt CMSHCL Digital Experience
    Likelihood to Recommend
    7.0
    (2 ratings)
    8.6
    (30 ratings)
    9.0
    (11 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.1
    (5 ratings)
    5.7
    (6 ratings)
    Usability
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    8.2
    (16 ratings)
    9.0
    (2 ratings)
    Availability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.6
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Performance
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.2
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.6
    (27 ratings)
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Online Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.2
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.6
    (15 ratings)
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    Configurability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.2
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.6
    (2 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.1
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.1
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    CommonSpotFirstSpirt CMSHCL Digital Experience
    Likelihood to Recommend
    PaperThin, Inc
    Commonspot is well suited for web content management to be conducted by individuals with low-level web skills.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Rezolve Ai Limited
    Crownpeak DXM is a great solution if you are looking for a flexible platform that allows engineers to quickly develop while also making it easy for content authors to work especially in scenarios where you need multi-language support. It is also good for scenarios where you want a cloud-based solution and are looking for just one vendor to handle hosting and offer the CMS.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    HCLSoftware
    HCL DX does really well at managing and maintaining the site. It allows the business to basically maintain the site while IT spent time developing new and enhanced functions. The main issue I currently have with HCL DX is not directly with the product but it does play a role. It is difficult finding skilled resources to support HCL DX in my experience.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    PaperThin, Inc
    • I think CommonSpot's greatest strength is its ease of use. It's relatively intuitive in it's usage, so it therefore makes it easy to train new people to use it.
    • Within my usage of it, our options were limited, which again added to it's ease of use.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Rezolve Ai Limited
    • Build & manage digital experiences without dependency on your IT team
    • Built-in Digital Quality tool (DQM) tool allows you to check the quality of content and any accessibility issues and immediately flag any issues before publishing.
    • Build websites with the component-based technology and spend less effort in creating the best user experience for the end-user
    Read full review
    HCLSoftware
    • With Version 8.5, IBM Web Content Manager introduced in place editing capabilities which allow authors to make content edits on sections of the page instead of going to the content itself. This feature allows authors to make changes in context of the page and preview changes within the actual look and feel of a live page.
    • Projects provide a collaborative atmosphere for the author community so that authors can interact and work as a team to manage inter-dependent content changes under one project and publish all changes at once, instead of working separately on individual content changes. This brings awareness across authors in an organization and easy knowledge share.
    • IBM Digital Data Connector is a cool feature that allows [users] to integrate external content sources onto the portal using IBM Web Content Manager presentation components. This allows UI/UX designers to present integrated external data in any manner they want, manage UI changes with an underlying approval process and leverage syndication to push changes live immediately.
    • IBM Web Content Manager offers a targeted content feature that allows business users to deliver personalized content to customers based on customer demographic information, browsing history and other transaction related information. Any rules created follow the publishing process thereby making it just a configurable item resulting in less turn around to turn on the feature on a website.
    • IBM Web Content Manager offers 'multi lingual solution' out of the box which allows content creation for almost all popular languages.
    • Syndication feature has improved a lot and it now provides a detailed views comprising of 'failed items', 'items that have syndicated successfully, 'items in queue'. Failed items view provides detailed and clear cut information of what resulted in failure helping IT to troubleshoot problems easily.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    PaperThin, Inc
    • Commonspot needs to improve on its authoring feature. It is impossible to author on more than one page at a time . (One must always click on "View work on all changes") before switching between pages otherwise, the changes will not be saved.
    • CommonSpot does not support sharing the definition of any custom element or any template layouts. Therefore, one must recreate these in each site.
    • In Commonspot, a user who has to manage content in multiple sites will have to log in to each site to see and act on any actions.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Rezolve Ai Limited
    • Crownpeak moved to a web browser admin tool in 2018, which has made the admin experience much better, but there are still a couple of features missing from the browser version that won't arrive until later in 2019.
    • Integration with 3rd party digital asset management tools would be great.
    • Smoother integration with source control would be nice.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    HCLSoftware
    • IBM Web Content Manager should provide some easily usable connectors through a GUI to connect to bring content from custom data sources including connecting to Salesforce and custom databases.
    • Should further optimize and enhance creation of rich and responsive content driven UIs on various digital channels.
    • Should further optimize and enhance content personalization features.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    PaperThin, Inc
    No answers on this topic
    Rezolve Ai Limited
    None of our Crownpeak clients are currently thinking about replatforming.
    Read full review
    HCLSoftware
    IBM products always moves forward to adapt to new requirements and technologies. I have used versions 6, 6.1, 7 and 8 of IBM WCM, and I know IBM is ready to revamp the tool based on emerging needs, and still provide the capabilities to migrate your old system to the newer versions.
    Read full review
    Usability
    PaperThin, Inc
    I had no previous background in content management, and found it very easy to use. If I could figure it out, I am pretty certain that just about anyone else could as well.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Rezolve Ai Limited
    Crownpeak DXM is a flexible easy to use CMS platform speaking to the most challenging localization scenarios. Crownpeak users have the freedom to integrate DXM platform with their existing technology at no cost. Moving from legacy systems to the Saas platform is painless and cost-effective. Extensive targeting and personalization options are something that users will benefit from.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    HCLSoftware
    New versions has increased user experience facilitating usability.
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    PaperThin, Inc
    No answers on this topic
    Rezolve Ai Limited
    We have never encountered any issues with the availability.
    Read full review
    HCLSoftware
    No answers on this topic
    Performance
    PaperThin, Inc
    No answers on this topic
    Rezolve Ai Limited
    Pages load very fast on production (assuming you develop with basic SEO practices in place) due to Crownpeak's publishing architecture. The slide downside is that publishing can be a bit slow at times.
    Read full review
    HCLSoftware
    No answers on this topic
    Support Rating
    PaperThin, Inc
    No answers on this topic
    Rezolve Ai Limited
    Crownpeak DXM's service and support are outstanding. We have immediate access to both the tech support team and the software engineering team. We can get a support person on the phone whenever needed, and we can schedule impromptu training sessions at any time. Best support I have ever received from a platform provider in 20 years of software and application development.
    Incentivized
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    HCLSoftware
    We had some issues related with performing and the support was suitable and sucessful.
    Read full review
    In-Person Training
    PaperThin, Inc
    No answers on this topic
    Rezolve Ai Limited
    We received on-site training from Crownpeak, the trainer had touched upon every possible scenario and provided great insights about the product & ease of implementation.
    Read full review
    HCLSoftware
    No answers on this topic
    Online Training
    PaperThin, Inc
    No answers on this topic
    Rezolve Ai Limited
    My team left training with a solid understanding of how to use the product and the developer training ended with a test to ensure the ability to properly develop was learned properly. Recently, Crownpeak has added a self-paced training option which makes it extremely flexible to on-board new developers.
    Read full review
    HCLSoftware
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation Rating
    PaperThin, Inc
    No answers on this topic
    Rezolve Ai Limited
    SaaS model is perfect for us to avoid slow and costly version updates to get access to new features and functions. Crownpeak is a true SaaS model, so we get all the good new stuff without the need to invest in effort, time or money. this frees our teams to focus on content creation and deployment, which is pretty fast because the DXM publishes straight to html through the headless model.
    Read full review
    HCLSoftware
    Implementation was successful due to Websphere application server used.
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    PaperThin, Inc
    Commonspot works in tandem with Zendesk very well to accomplish tasks an an efficient manner.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Rezolve Ai Limited
    I was not at this team within my organization during the evaluation period of Crownpeak. However, my previous team used Sitecore. Crownpeak is a bit easier to use from a UI perspective and has more creative options within the tool. Sitecore's clunky UI also was a reason I found out later why we ended up using Crownpeak as our DXM.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    HCLSoftware
    Magento and Prestashop are E-commerce CMS platforms. They are used in a different scale of application than WCM.
    Concerning Joomla, it's a useful CMS forsmaller website. Once again this is an other scale of application than WCM Liveray can compete WCM 7 concerning the : ¤ specific development ¤ security ¤ responsive
    Read full review
    Scalability
    PaperThin, Inc
    No answers on this topic
    Rezolve Ai Limited
    In some recent projects we have delivered to our clients, we were able to roll out sites in shorter time period due the scalability of the Crownpeak's DXM solution.
    Read full review
    HCLSoftware
    No answers on this topic
    Return on Investment
    PaperThin, Inc
    • I was working in a religious institution and based upon our usage and audience, there was no ROI to speak of. Our usage was more for providing information than having any type of interaction. In that instance, it worked very well.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Rezolve Ai Limited
    • I'm pretty sure it raises our back-end development costs by making the development process (of creating input forms and producing outputs from the content) more complicated and painful than it needs to be.
    • It helps lock our clients in to us because not a whole lot of agencies have Crownpeak expertise.
    • It helps our clients not have to deal with their own IT teams, which they tend to dislike working with.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    HCLSoftware
    • Negative: Very complex architecture for on-premise deployments (too many servers to installed)
    • Positive: Easy customization
    • Negative: Architecture limited to cloud solutions
    • WCM is an old product and needs an update
    • Blog, and community are not integrated in Digital Manager for discussion
    • Templates are not available to integrate basic services (FileNet, more complex BPM , e-commerce)
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots