LightCMS (discontinued) vs. Optimizely One

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.

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

• 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.

• 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

• 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.

• 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

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.

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

• 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.

• 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