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Heroku Platform vs. Sitecore Digital Experience Platform

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Heroku Platform

    Score7.6 out of 10
    N/AThe Heroku Platform, now from Salesforce, is a platform-as-a-service based on a managed container system, with integrated data services and ecosystem for deploying modern apps. It takes an app-centric approach for software delivery, integrated with developer tools and workflows. It’s three main tool are: Heroku Developer Experience (DX), Heroku Operational Experience (OpEx), and Heroku Runtime. Heroku Developer Experience (DX) Developers deploy directly from tools like…

    $85

    per month

    Sitecore Digital Experience Platform

    Score8.9 out of 10
    N/AThe Sitecore Experience Platform (Sitecore XP) is a digital experience platform used to build websites and create customer experiences online. The solution boasts fast content authoring, built-in personalization features, testing and other optimizations, as well as analytics and marketing features.N/A
    Pricing
    Heroku PlatformSitecore Digital Experience Platform
    Editions & Modules
    Production
    $25.00
    per month
    Advanced
    $250.00
    per month
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Heroku PlatformSitecore Digital Experience Platform
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Heroku PlatformSitecore Digital Experience Platform
    Considered Both Products
    Salesforce
    No answer on this topic
    Sitecore
    Chose Sitecore Digital Experience Platform
    The decision to select Sitecore was not ultimately mine, but the fact that we were able to leverage in-house Microsoft .Net (C#) experience on a platform that had a library of extensions, but also allowed us to customize and keep private our confidential IP has been a big help. …
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    89%
    Would buy again
    8 Answers
    90%
    Would buy again
    19 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    7 Answers
    94%
    Delivers good value for the price
    17 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    89%
    Happy with the feature set
    8 Answers
    95%
    Happy with the feature set
    20 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    89%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    8 Answers
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    18 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    89%
    Implementation went as expected
    8 Answers
    95%
    Implementation went as expected
    19 Answers
    Features
    Heroku PlatformSitecore Digital Experience Platform
    Platform-as-a-Service
    Comparison of Platform-as-a-Service features of Heroku Platform and Sitecore Digital Experience Platform
    Feature
    Heroku Platform
    7.2
    44 Ratings
    7% below category average
    Sitecore Digital Experience Platform
    -
    Ratings
    Ease of building user interfaces6.027 Ratings00 Ratings
    Scalability7.044 Ratings00 Ratings
    Platform management overhead7.043 Ratings00 Ratings
    Workflow engine capability6.030 Ratings00 Ratings
    Platform access control7.043 Ratings00 Ratings
    Services-enabled integration6.042 Ratings00 Ratings
    Development environment creation9.039 Ratings00 Ratings
    Development environment replication9.038 Ratings00 Ratings
    Issue monitoring and notification8.042 Ratings00 Ratings
    Issue recovery7.039 Ratings00 Ratings
    Upgrades and platform fixes7.044 Ratings00 Ratings
    Security
    Comparison of Security features of Heroku Platform and Sitecore Digital Experience Platform
    Feature
    Heroku Platform
    -
    Ratings
    Sitecore Digital Experience Platform
    9.9
    37 Ratings
    21% above category average
    Role-based user permissions00 Ratings9.938 Ratings
    Platform & Infrastructure
    Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of Heroku Platform and Sitecore Digital Experience Platform
    Feature
    Heroku Platform
    -
    Ratings
    Sitecore Digital Experience Platform
    9.8
    34 Ratings
    20% above category average
    API00 Ratings9.934 Ratings
    Internationalization / multi-language00 Ratings9.732 Ratings
    Web Content Creation
    Comparison of Web Content Creation features of Heroku Platform and Sitecore Digital Experience Platform
    Feature
    Heroku Platform
    -
    Ratings
    Sitecore Digital Experience Platform
    9.2
    37 Ratings
    26% above category average
    WYSIWYG editor00 Ratings8.237 Ratings
    Code quality / cleanliness00 Ratings9.436 Ratings
    Admin section00 Ratings9.537 Ratings
    Page templates00 Ratings9.735 Ratings
    Library of website themes00 Ratings8.322 Ratings
    Mobile optimization / responsive design00 Ratings9.034 Ratings
    Publishing workflow00 Ratings9.736 Ratings
    Form generator00 Ratings9.735 Ratings
    Web Content Management
    Comparison of Web Content Management features of Heroku Platform and Sitecore Digital Experience Platform
    Feature
    Heroku Platform
    -
    Ratings
    Sitecore Digital Experience Platform
    9.4
    36 Ratings
    35% above category average
    Content taxonomy00 Ratings9.735 Ratings
    SEO support00 Ratings9.733 Ratings
    Bulk management00 Ratings9.531 Ratings
    Availability / breadth of extensions00 Ratings8.534 Ratings
    Community / comment management00 Ratings9.632 Ratings
    Results and Analysis
    Comparison of Results and Analysis features of Heroku Platform and Sitecore Digital Experience Platform
    Feature
    Heroku Platform
    -
    Ratings
    Sitecore Digital Experience Platform
    7.5
    16 Ratings
    7% below category average
    Conversion tracking00 Ratings7.716 Ratings
    Test reporting00 Ratings7.417 Ratings
    Funnel Analysis00 Ratings7.417 Ratings
    User Segmentation00 Ratings7.717 Ratings
    Digital Experience Platform
    Comparison of Digital Experience Platform features of Heroku Platform and Sitecore Digital Experience Platform
    Feature
    Heroku Platform
    -
    Ratings
    Sitecore Digital Experience Platform
    8.2
    19 Ratings
    3% below category average
    Campaign management00 Ratings8.820 Ratings
    Cloud enablement00 Ratings8.119 Ratings
    Content aggregation00 Ratings8.219 Ratings
    Content classification00 Ratings8.619 Ratings
    Multi-channel content personalization00 Ratings7.819 Ratings
    Customer data analytics00 Ratings7.418 Ratings
    DXP Third-Party Integrations00 Ratings7.319 Ratings
    Multi-website management00 Ratings8.918 Ratings
    Digital asset management00 Ratings8.418 Ratings
    Editorial workflows and task management00 Ratings8.018 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Heroku PlatformSitecore Digital Experience Platform
    Small Businesses
    IBM Cloud Foundry
    Score8.5 out of 10
    Yext
    Score6.8 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    IBM Cloud Private
    Score9.6 out of 10
    Progress Sitefinity
    Score7.9 out of 10
    Enterprises
    AWS Elastic Beanstalk
    Score8.6 out of 10
    Progress Sitefinity
    Score7.9 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Heroku PlatformSitecore Digital Experience Platform
    Likelihood to Recommend
    7.0
    (47 ratings)
    8.7
    (49 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    9.5
    (6 ratings)
    8.7
    (11 ratings)
    Usability
    9.2
    (17 ratings)
    9.0
    (24 ratings)
    Availability
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Performance
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    8.7
    (19 ratings)
    9.1
    (4 ratings)
    Online Training
    6.0
    (1 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    9.0
    (3 ratings)
    9.1
    (3 ratings)
    Professional Services
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Heroku PlatformSitecore Digital Experience Platform
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Salesforce
    Heroku is very well suited for startups looking to get a server stack up and running quickly. There is little to no overhead when managing your instances. However, you'll need a background in basic DevOps or system management to make sure everything is set up correctly. In addition, it's easy to accidentally go crazy on pricing. Make sure you're only creating the server instances you need to run the base application and set up an auto-scaler plugin to handle peaks.
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    Sitecore
    Sitecore offers Content Hub with Product Content Management and Content Management Platform. The Digital Experience Platform and Content Hub can both host structured content and publish the finalized version to Experience Edge. Both platforms offer different ways to manage content. During a technical and business evaluation, the evaluation panel must understand the difference between a Content Modelling focused approach, or a layout management focused approach. Sitecore Digital Experience Platform is also best not to be used to host many files and images in the Media Library. That responsibility should be offloaded to a digital asset management company like Sitecore Content Hub DAM. The technology evaluation panel must also understand how to work with a Headless CMS, where the HEAD needs to be hosted, and the costs associated with the HEAD. Composable DXP is fantastic, but everyone must understand the various cost components. Marketers and the data team will need to go into the CDP and Personalize the platform with an excellent understanding of how a composable "installation" works. All the Martech vendors have similar challenges that data and development teams need to work through with a full experience. Any CDP/analytics platform will, at some stage, require further data enrichment from other sources. Understanding the Sitecore Search features and limitations is also essential.
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    Pros
    Salesforce
    • Heroku has a very simple deployment model, making it easy to get your application up-and-running with minimal effort. We can focus on our efforts the unique aspects of our application.
    • The robust add-on marketplace makes it easy to try out new approaches with minimal effort and investment -- and when we settle on a solution, we can easily scale it.
    • Heroku's support is quite good -- their staff is quite technical and willing to get into the weeds to diagnose even complicated problems.
    Incentivized
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    Sitecore
    • Comprehensive Solution: Sitecore offers a fully integrated suite of products that cover the full spectrum of DXP capabilities, including search, personalization experimentation and more, delivering a complete composable DXP solution for customers.
    • Beyond Headless: XM Cloud provides more than just headless capabilities, featuring in-built tools like authoring host, page editor, etc., enabling faster and more powerful implementations.
    • Focus on AI: Sitecore has now got an excellent AI offering called Stream; it looks promising; however, it would be too early to give feedback on the same.
    • Customization: Sitecore's backend is highly customizable, allowing for deep modifications through pipelines and patch configurations.
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    Cons
    Salesforce
    • Large price jumps between certain resource tiers (2x Dyno for $50 per month versus Performance Dyno for $250). Free Postgres next jumps to $50 per month.
    • Marketing/Branding to non-technical stakeholders. As the years pass, I've had to fight more to convince stakeholders on the value of Heroku over AWS.
    • Improve Buildpack documentation. This is one area where Heroku's documentation is fairly confusing.
    Incentivized
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    Sitecore
    • Experience Editor is a little old fashioned and sometimes slow to use.
    • Bulk operations in the Content Editor
    • Sitecore serialization is should be part of the Content Editor to provide visual reference for items which are serialized and will be overwritten by future deployments similar to what Unicorn does so well
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    Likelihood to Renew
    Salesforce
    Heroku is easy to use, services a ton of functions for you out of the box, and provides a means to get a software product off the ground and managed quickly and easily. The tools provide allows a small to medium size org to move very quickly. The CLI tools provided make managing an entire technical infrastructure simple.
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    Sitecore
    Sitecore has proven that it can deliver on its promise of a robust, reliable enterprise CMS solution with plenty of features. Also, they keep updating it with more and better features. Now that we are highly trained on it we have started on getting the most out of it and we plan to keep doing more of that in the future.
    Read full review
    Usability
    Salesforce
    Easy to use web based console and easy to use command line tools; deployment is done directly from a GIT repository. What more could you ask for? The one thing that keeps me from giving it a 10 is that custom build packs are almost incomprehensible. We used one for a while because we needed cairo graphics processing. Fortunately, I was able to figure out a different way to do what we needed so that we could get off the custom build pack.
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    Sitecore
    We use Sitecore extensively because it provides a single platform for managing content, personalization, and digital experiences across multiple web properties and customer journeys. At our scale, the biggest value is consistency, governance, and the ability for marketing teams to manage experiences without needing engineering support for every change. It also integrates well with the broader CRM/marketing stack, so it becomes quite embedded once deployed.
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    Reliability and Availability
    Salesforce
    Heroku availability correlates pretty strongly to AWS US EAST availability. We had a couple of times where there was a Heroku-specific issue but not for the last 7-8 months.
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    Sitecore
    No answers on this topic
    Performance
    Salesforce
    The only issue that I ever have is that about 1 out of 20 deployments (git push) will hang and need to be cancelled and done again.
    Read full review
    Sitecore
    No answers on this topic
    Support Rating
    Salesforce
    I've used it for many years without facing any major problem. It's not hard at all to get used to it, it's documentation is outstanding and simple. We are close to 2020 and I don't think most of the existing companies or startups should still face old problems such as wasting time deploying code and calculate computing resources.
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    Sitecore
    1. Customized software development & maintenance. 2. Technology Consulting - Consulting-based services for technology solutions data engineering or cloud solutions. 3. Used for tapping into multiple data sources such as CRM and marketing automation systems and, creating automated data extracts with a high-end visual representation of data. 4. Implemented for scheduling an existing report to automatically refresh and be delivered to specific users at a specific regular interval.
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    Online Training
    Salesforce
    No answers on this topic
    Sitecore
    Sitecore captures and remembers every single interaction your customers and prospects have in any part of the system, allowing you to build comprehensive, ever-learning profiles of each individual. From email marketing, to social media, to online shopping, Sitecore remembers where each interaction left off so you can automatically continue the conversation. Sitecore helps you manage your content for each and every experience your customers enjoy. Customize what content you want and the system will take care of how it's displayed.
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    Implementation Rating
    Salesforce
    Be ready to pay a bit more than expected in the beginning if you're migrating from a big server. The application is probably not ready for the change and you have to keep improving it with time.
    It's also important to consider that you can't save anything to the disc as it will be lost when your application restarts, so you have to think about using something like S3.
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    Sitecore
    Make sure you work with a partner that can help you take advantage of the entire platform. Specifically we see a lot of customers not taking advantage of Sitecore DMS and thus missing a huge opportunity. Sitecore is a platform that is meant to be constantly optimized and improved upon.
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    Alternatives Considered
    Salesforce
    Heroku is the more expensive option for hosting compared to some of the cloud platforms we investigated, but it's worth it for us because of the plug-and-play nature of Heroku deployment. We can be up and running in a few minutes and know with precision how much it will cost us each month to run the application, unlike Amazon Web Services where you have to go to great pains to configure it correctly or else you might end up with a shocking monthly bill. Overall, spending the time to configure Amazon Web Services or one of its competitors is likely the more affordable and powerful choice, because you have control over so many specifics of the configuration. But it also requires the burden of continuing to maintain and update your AWS instance, whereas with Heroku they take care of security fixes and platform upgrades. It's a great service and we are happy to pay the extra cost for the value-adds Heroku provides.
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    Sitecore
    Really the only comparable product to Sitecore DXP is Adobe Experience Manager. Both are very well established and robust content management platforms. Products like Contentful and Contentstack are very lightweight and do not have as many built-in features like DXP, so it is not a fair comparison. For highly complex enterprise type engagements, Sitecore DXP and AEM are always brought to the table together for consideration.
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    Return on Investment
    Salesforce
    • It has been critical in seamlessly operating our platform with runs all of our programs.
    • It has been impressive with its ability to scale quickly which results in the growth of our work.
    • It allows for tracking of different features which allows for quick problem solving which saves us time.
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    Sitecore
    • Since moving the site to Sitecore we have had an increase in conversion - that's the ultimate goal of all these things. It's likely to be partly tied in to the re-design that happened at the same time, but the way in which you can personalise and change things really helps give the best customer journey.
    • The negative impact we've seen is mainly due to expectations around how easily things can be shared between separate instances of Sitecore - if you haven't built stuff sharable it won't be sharable, but the business have been sold Sitecore (partly) on the basis that things would be easily sharable.
    • My developers don't all like working in Sitecore - it takes time to learn, takes a long time to build and run as well as requiring a few processes around it, like Unicorn Sync, etc. One of my devs has actually asked to not work on it again! So, a potential recruitment issue.
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    ScreenShots