TrustRadius: an HG Insights company

LightCMS (discontinued) vs. Optimizely Content Management System

Save this comparison

Save this comparison

Add Product

Recommended Comparisons

    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    LightCMS (discontinued)

    Score6.1 out of 10
    N/ALightCMS, from NetSuite, was a cloud-based content management system for building websites and eCommerce storefronts. It is designed to be used by individuals, non-profits, and small to medium-sized businesses. The product has been discontinued.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
    LightCMS (discontinued)Optimizely Content Management System
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    LightCMS (discontinued)Optimizely Content Management System
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoYes
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeRequired
    Additional Details
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    LightCMS (discontinued)Optimizely Content Management System
    Considered Both Products
    Discontinued Products
    No answer on this topic
    Optimizely
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    No answers on this topic
    97%
    Would buy again
    170 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    No answers on this topic
    98%
    Delivers good value for the price
    144 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    No answers on this topic
    93%
    Happy with the feature set
    164 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    93%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    104 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    No answers on this topic
    86%
    Implementation went as expected
    120 Answers
    Features
    LightCMS (discontinued)Optimizely Content Management System
    Security
    Comparison of Security features of LightCMS (discontinued) and Optimizely Content Management System
    Feature
    LightCMS (discontinued)
    8.0
    1 Ratings
    3% below category average
    Optimizely Content Management System
    8.4
    169 Ratings
    2% above category average
    Role-based user permissions8.01 Ratings8.4169 Ratings
    Web Content Creation
    Comparison of Web Content Creation features of LightCMS (discontinued) and Optimizely Content Management System
    Feature
    LightCMS (discontinued)
    9.1
    1 Ratings
    15% above category average
    Optimizely Content Management System
    7.7
    194 Ratings
    2% below category average
    WYSIWYG editor10.01 Ratings7.6178 Ratings
    Code quality / cleanliness9.01 Ratings7.9166 Ratings
    Admin section9.01 Ratings8.0178 Ratings
    Page templates10.01 Ratings8.0172 Ratings
    Library of website themes10.01 Ratings7.497 Ratings
    Mobile optimization / responsive design10.01 Ratings7.9176 Ratings
    Publishing workflow8.01 Ratings8.1172 Ratings
    Form generator7.01 Ratings6.4131 Ratings
    Web Content Management
    Comparison of Web Content Management features of LightCMS (discontinued) and Optimizely Content Management System
    Feature
    LightCMS (discontinued)
    7.3
    1 Ratings
    3% below category average
    Optimizely Content Management System
    7.5
    180 Ratings
    0% below category average
    Content taxonomy4.01 Ratings8.0165 Ratings
    SEO support7.01 Ratings7.1164 Ratings
    Bulk management8.01 Ratings6.9137 Ratings
    Community / comment management10.01 Ratings8.0117 Ratings
    Availability / breadth of extensions00 Ratings7.5142 Ratings
    Platform & Infrastructure
    Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of LightCMS (discontinued) and Optimizely Content Management System
    Feature
    LightCMS (discontinued)
    -
    Ratings
    Optimizely Content Management System
    7.8
    166 Ratings
    0% below category average
    API00 Ratings7.8159 Ratings
    Internationalization / multi-language00 Ratings7.8127 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    LightCMS (discontinued)Optimizely Content Management System
    Small Businesses
    Umbraco CMS
    Score6.9 out of 10
    Umbraco CMS
    Score6.9 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Square Online
    Score7.7 out of 10
    Square Online
    Score7.7 out of 10
    Enterprises
    RWS Tridion Sites
    Score9 out of 10
    RWS Tridion Sites
    Score9 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    LightCMS (discontinued)Optimizely Content Management System
    Likelihood to Recommend
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    8.6
    (223 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.8
    (34 ratings)
    Usability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.5
    (92 ratings)
    Availability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.2
    (4 ratings)
    Support Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (8 ratings)
    Online Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (4 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    6.4
    (2 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    LightCMS (discontinued)Optimizely Content Management System
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Discontinued Products
    LightCMS is perfect for 90% of websites out there. It has all the basic modules like calendars, photo galleries, news/blog, or forms building built in. Small businesses to mid-sized businesses are perfect for LightCMS. We use other solutions when the requierments for the website include a lot of third party integrations or custom modules. As a hosted CMS it has the same limitations as others with server-side development.
    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
    Discontinued Products
    • LightCMS provides all the major functionality 90% of sites need. It keeps out of its own way by making these solutions intuitive and simple and not trying to solve every problem for everyone which would over-complicate the tool-set.
    • This is the easiest to use CMS we have ever seen. I tell my client's that if they can make a Facebook post, they can manage their website, and it's true. Their UI is so easy and keeps getting easier to use. Untrained users get it in minutes and are able to manage their sites without our help.
    • LightCMS's code is simple and light-weight. Sites are fast and the CMS doesnt get in the way of performance.
    • You can do almost anything you want (except server-side programming) with LightCMS. So, we can create any design we want and it works great with Light CMS's tokens and editable regions concept (which is also simple to implement.)
    • Constantly upgraded and fixed, the product is 1000x better after 10 years of working with it, but is still simple and not bloated.
    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
    Discontinued Products
    • While keeping it simple is LightCMS's thing, some of the elements/modules could use deeper options or control for advanced users.
    • Some content, such as calendars, cannot have data exported/imported easily.
    • Support was amazing 10 years ago. We openly talked about how awesome they were... it isn't as good as it once was, but is still way above almost every support of other CMS systems we have used.
    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
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    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
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    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
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    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
    Support Rating
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    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
    Read full review
    Online Training
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    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
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    Optimizely
    I was not fully involved.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Discontinued Products
    We have looked at hundrends of CMS's and LightCMS is a perfect entry-level system for most of our small to mid sized clients. LightCMS's feature set is less complex than almost every other system and the actual interface is miles ahead of most other CMS systems. It's simply thought out better. It lacks sensibility and an API as well as other advanced features many more expensive or more DIY systems have, but the simplicity makes up for it.
    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
    Return on Investment
    Discontinued Products
    • While I always think the price could be cheaper, LightCMS is incredibly inexpensive if you consider the costs of hosting, support, and upgrading is all included.
    • As part of their partner program, we are able to control client accounts from our master account, making moving between clients easier and supporting them faster which ultimately makes our labor costs better.
    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

    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.