Xperience by Kentico vs. NVU

Kentico is a robust and flexible CMS platform that is great for managing multiple websites and multiple environments (dev, stage, and production for instance). It makes content management very easy and makes it easy to keep the environments synced with the same content. However, the Kentico CMS does require a bit more technical understanding to get it set up properly and requires a bit more effort and support than, say, free open-source options.

Incentivized

NVU is an easy self explanatory program that helps us edit the Landing Pages for the company for which I work. However, many of the features of being able to edit text & text boxes is out of date & very jumpy. I often have to rewrite sentences in order to fit better on a line because I can't adjust the text box without it messing up the entire Landing Page.

Incentivized

• I love the intuitive top and left navigation within the content management platform. I can easily find what section, sub-section, and page I'm looking to edit
• For creating content, the WYSIWYG editor is so intuitive; it feels like you're working on an MS Word doc!
• The tab for adding metadata in simple fields takes away the headache of having to hunt and peck through code to add H1 tag, page description etc.
• The image library is easy to edit and manage

Incentivized

• It allows me to easily create the Landing Pages for my company. I can easily create a copy of an NVU file & then rename it in order to create a new file. Then once I've made the necessary changes to the new file, I just drag & drop the new file into our backend to automatically upload to our site.
• It allows me to edit text fairly easily. I can drag & drop the text within a text box.

Incentivized

• Kentico needs to invest in more enterprise class environment management utilities -- example: global CDN support via the CMS is sorely lacking. There are work-arounds, but it should be more elegant.
• The Kentico staging module could be improved to support the concept of bundled releases. Current staging module functionality is good, but could be improved.
• Kentico ecommerce support is a touch immature. While content management is superb, Kentico lags in this area when compared to many open source ecommerce engines.
• Kentico is lacking MVC support. 99% of the time this isn't an issue for the end-user or business user, but can be a hurdle for technology teams depending on the team's makeup.

Incentivized

• I can't widen a text box without it jumping & messing up the entire Landing Page.
• I can't drag text from one text box into another.
• The text settings change if I don't copy a word that already exists in a word box & paste it into the new line of text before starting to type a new sentence.
• Sometimes I try to open a Landing Page to edit it & it says that NVU is unavailable & I have to close the program & try again.

Incentivized

We are locked into Kentico for the long haul. It provides us with an easy and flexible solution for a very non technical company to create a site and have the features they want, especially with the inclusion of EMS into our license. Now we have a true platform to build and grow our solutions.

It seriously is one of the best interfaces I have ever used. I also love the fact that I can use UI personalization to secure any functionality by user or role that I don't want that role to have access to. The best part is the customization of the UI, I can add in any button, tab, or menu item I want through it, no code required.

Incentivized

Their support staff is friendly, knowledgeable, and will work with you until your issue is fixed. This could take a few phone calls back and forth, but they are very diligent in helping you.

Incentivized

The system provides many opportunities to integrate and enhance the platform and makes it easy to do so.

I've used Sitecore, Ektron, Joomla!, WordPress, and SharePoint (if you want to count that as a competitor for CMS). Kentico 8 blows them all out of the water. Nothing is more intuitive in the way that content is created, the way the site is setup, and how efficient rollouts can be with Content Staging.

Incentivized

• Kentico has enabled faster speed to market for SMEs. They are empowered to enter content them selves while still having that content go through editorial review to ensure tone of voice and brand are maintained.
• Deploying Kentico has freed up web developer resources from manual content entry enabling them to build more useful solutions to support the business efforts
• Tapping into the Kentico event pipelne allows us to trigger external system events when product content is published.

• I think my boss has actually decided to stop using NVU to create & edit our webpages because of it's lack of updates & features for editing text.
• It takes me a lot of time trying to adjust text boxes to get them to fit on the Landing Page correctly with the entire desired content.

Incentivized