CoreMedia vs. Evoq Content vs. Optimizely One

I think this CMS is best suited as an enterprise level system. For small, or simple sites, there are better options, but for large high-traffic sites, this is a great CMS.

If you just need to implement a website that is dynamic but not real big in Data Processing almost anyone can do so with very limited knowledge as long as you know how to use a Word Processor and your Browser. If you don't have experience with setting up a Server to run a website there are Companies like PowerDNN, Rackspace and WinHost that can help and I recommend them in that order if you are using DNN. If you need a more sophisticated e-commerce website and don't have much experience with Servers, SQL Server etc. then you should find a consultant to help you install and setup not just the DNN Platform but also select the proper Modules to accomplish what you want to do. If you need a highly customized website that is very data intensive and you are not experienced then be sure to save yourself the time and money by finding a qualified Consultant to help you. The beauty of DNN is that it can handle as simple or as complicated of an Application as you need depending on what your needs are and how far you want to take it.

It is well suited for heavy-duty A/B testing where management would like to see and quantitatively determine the effect of a change. It is not so efficient to try for a single page simple form, except when the form is part of a larger workflow. The security model is not very well understood, including RBAC and protection against injection attacks.

Incentivized

• Allows many staff members to contribute content to various portions of our website, and allows our Electronic-Communications staff to delegate tasks to these various staff (diffusing the work-load).
• CoreMedia allows for easy creation of different types of content (like teasers, articles, download objects, links, etc). Permission levels can be set, so only certain staff can upload content such as photos, videos, or audio files.
• The CoreMedia workflow process is easy to understand and follow. Once a staff member has submitted content for publishing to the web, they can then see who it's been assigned to for review, and at what time. You're able to leave detailed notes and stay abreast of where the workflow is at any given time.

• DNN is a feature-rich, open-source project with a flexible license. This let us use it without licensing costs for custom solutions or as-is with no custom code just plug-in modules.
• DNN is written in Microsoft .NET C#. This allows our developers and our customers to use their existing skill set to install and maintain the solution.
• DNN is made for Windows platform, allowing us and our customers to deploy solutions to existing Windows servers or in some cases hosted platforms.
• DNN integrates with Windows authentication allowing us to deploy intranet solutions and use single sign-on for improved user experience and security.

• Provides quicker release cycle for the way the product cards should be displayed.
• Provides feedback for new product introduction and how it'll be perceived.
• Allows rapid blackout from user experience changes that alters traffic flow.

Incentivized

• Early learning within the company was slow.
• We elected a customized version of CoreMedia - which in the end may not have been the best decision.

Incentivized

• It can be a bit heavy-handed when it comes to styling. It's sometimes necessary to spend a little extra time to overcome styling issues.
• Up until version 8 of the core DNN platform, implementing single page applications (SPAs) required extra efforts.
• It is very difficult to split a site across multiple servers for load balancing

Incentivized

• Can use better interface for managing test, including scheduling and notification.
• Feels too heavy for simple projects, though this isn't a factor once past the PoC stage.
• Notification on various aspects can be made more powerful and granular if such a need arise.

Incentivized

CoreMedia continues to refine and deliver new features. They also explore new technologies and trends, like social media integration. The platform is solid and growing. We are also slightly locked into using CoreMedia. Migrating such a large amount of content to another system would likely not be feasible or prudent.

Even though DNN is a good CMS, I have worked with other CMSs which are far more robust at this point, and would not be overly inclined to select DNN unless cost of the product is the most important factor along with staying on .NET. DNN is a whole package so unless the client has a requirement of including authentication, authorization for users, eCommerce, sticking to something simple is a better option.

Evoq proved to be a solid backbone for our property-management portal, handling ≈300 active rental listings without performance hiccups. The page-builder made it straightforward to craft listing templates that surface photo galleries, floor-plan PDFs, and embedded map pins, while role-based workflows let leasing agents edit unit details (price, availability, pet policy) without touching global site settings—a big win for operational control.

For the management side, the platform’s extensibility let us plug in a third-party rent-payment widget and an automated maintenance-ticket form with minimal custom code. Evoq’s built-in analytics have already highlighted which neighborhoods and bedroom counts drive the most traffic, guiding our marketing spend.

Two caveats:


Search & filter logic – Out-of-the-box search was too shallow for renters who expect Zillow-style filtering. We had to commission a custom module for filter chips (price range, amenities, walk score), which added time and cost.
Mobile image optimization – High-resolution gallery images affected load times on 4G; a CDN or Evoq’s Digital Asset Optimizer add-on is advisable.



Overall, Evoq delivers reliable content governance and enough flexibility to support both consumer-facing listings and back-office property-management workflows, provided you budget for advanced search customization and image delivery tuning.

I don't see how it could get any better unless they moved their staff into our offices. You have available to you any type of Support you need or want, both paid and free from thousands of developers and consultants all over the world. You might even find some on Mars if you look hard enough.Also, with all of the available resources available from your Browser you can literally find the answer to any question you have in a matter of minutes.

Set aside more time than you think you need to migrate content. That is the hard part. Implementing the technology is easy.

Evoq proved to be a solid backbone for our property-management portal, handling ≈300 active rental listings without performance hiccups. The page-builder made it straightforward to craft listing templates that surface photo galleries, floor-plan PDFs, and embedded map pins, while role-based workflows let leasing agents edit unit details (price, availability, pet policy) without touching global site settings—a big win for operational control.

For the management side, the platform’s extensibility let us plug in a third-party rent-payment widget and an automated maintenance-ticket form with minimal custom code. Evoq’s built-in analytics have already highlighted which neighborhoods and bedroom counts drive the most traffic, guiding our marketing spend.

Two caveats:


Search & filter logic – Out-of-the-box search was too shallow for renters who expect Zillow-style filtering. We had to commission a custom module for filter chips (price range, amenities, walk score), which added time and cost.
Mobile image optimization – High-resolution gallery images affected load times on 4G; a CDN or Evoq’s Digital Asset Optimizer add-on is advisable.



Overall, Evoq delivers reliable content governance and enough flexibility to support both consumer-facing listings and back-office property-management workflows, provided you budget for advanced search customization and image delivery tuning.

While CoreMedia has a better workflow, django CMS has a much easier user interface, wysiwyg editor, and is superior on every other level. Django CMS is easier to teach and support, easier to manage and develop, and provides much more flexibility in the development and design areas.

Incentivized

Drupal is a highly expensive tool and is not offering anything extraordinary at a high price. If I keep its pricing in account then there should be some extraordinary features but unfortunately, there isn’t anything special about it; rather it was slow in its working. All these things actually forced us to move to Evoq that is just perfect in its working. Its working speed, interface, and UX are so simple that none of our team members find it tough to utilize. It has so many features like content scheduling and rich text edit. It allows easy editing of the text as well, and one can directly add text according to need.

Incentivized

There is a big difference between the two: Google Optimize uses Bayesian analysis while Optimizely uses Frequenting. There is a risk of counting multiple visits. Google Optimize data isn't available instantly (if I remember correctly). Optimizely's analyses dashboard is a lot richer and offers a better experience, though it may get intimidating.

Incentivized

• Increased employee proficiency compared to nothing at all. I really don't have anything else to compare it to though.
• Reports from Core do not help/.

• DNN have given us the ability to have basic sites for clients up and running in a very short time. This makes the client happy.
• DNN has taken the trivial, simple tasks of changing text on a page or an image on a page and put it into the hands of the client. They do not have to pay us to do it and that also frees up more time for us to spend on development.

• Almost immediate payoff in terms of the benefit.
• Easy to justify the TTM benefits to upper management.
• Still somewhat hard to justify ROI, though this is not my expertise.

Incentivized