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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Magnolia

    Score9.9 out of 10
    Mid-Size Companies (51-1,000 employees)
    Founded in Switzerland in 1997, Magnolia is a CMS used to build composable digital experiences. Magnolia helps create fully integrated customer experiences and speeds up digital delivery of content. Magnolia boasts 480 enterprise customers, thousands of Community Edition deployments, and more than 200 certified Magnolia Partners around the world. They further state that their enterprise customers include Sanofi, Generali, the Atlassian, The New York Times, Harley Davidson, and Union…

    $3,500

    per month

    MODX

    Score9 out of 10
    N/AThe MODX Digital Experience Platform provides everything you need to build, host, and maintain amazing websites your way. The vendor says that with MODX CMS and cloud hosting, users have complete control over their creative vision and the experiences they deliver, without restriction or compromise. They can focus more on building great digital experiences, and less on hosting and maintaining. If you ever need help, MODX Professionals are available worldwide and direct support from…

    $39

    per month

    Pricing
    MagnoliaMODX
    Editions & Modules
    DX Core
    $3500
    per month
    DX Cloud
    $6000
    per month
    Free
    $0
    Base
    $39
    per month
    Pro
    $99
    per month
    Business
    $349
    per month
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    MagnoliaMODX
    Free Trial
    YesYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoYes
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesYes
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeOptional
    Additional Details—PAYMENT FORMS MODX Cloud accepts major credit cards and PayPal for your hosting subscription. We can only accept check (cheque) payments on the Enterprise Plan, annually. CANCELLATION You may cancel your MODX Cloud account at any time. Before you cancel you'll be reminded to backup and remove all your live websites and then follow the instructions for cancellation. If you cancel within the first month, we'll provide you with a full refund. REFUNDS If you cancel within the first month, we'll provide you with a full refund. All other cancellations will be effective at the end of your current billing period. We do not provide refunds for remaining days or months on monthly or annual billing.
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    MagnoliaMODX
    Considered Both Products
    Magnolia
    No answer on this topic
    MODX
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    100%
    Would buy again
    58 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    49 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Happy with the feature set
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    58 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    98%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    39 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation went as expected
    98%
    Implementation went as expected
    53 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Features
    MagnoliaMODX
    Security
    Comparison of Security features of Magnolia and MODX
    Feature
    Magnolia
    8.1
    69 Ratings
    2% below category average
    MODX
    9.9
    3 Ratings
    18% above category average
    Role-based user permissions8.169 Ratings9.93 Ratings
    Platform & Infrastructure
    Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of Magnolia and MODX
    Feature
    Magnolia
    8.1
    68 Ratings
    4% above category average
    MODX
    8.0
    3 Ratings
    2% above category average
    API8.561 Ratings6.13 Ratings
    Internationalization / multi-language7.761 Ratings9.92 Ratings
    Web Content Creation
    Comparison of Web Content Creation features of Magnolia and MODX
    Feature
    Magnolia
    8.0
    74 Ratings
    2% above category average
    MODX
    9.4
    3 Ratings
    18% above category average
    WYSIWYG editor8.565 Ratings9.83 Ratings
    Code quality / cleanliness8.465 Ratings9.93 Ratings
    Admin section8.070 Ratings8.93 Ratings
    Page templates8.972 Ratings9.93 Ratings
    Library of website themes7.01 Ratings7.03 Ratings
    Mobile optimization / responsive design8.563 Ratings9.93 Ratings
    Publishing workflow7.573 Ratings9.93 Ratings
    Form generator6.958 Ratings9.93 Ratings
    Web Content Management
    Comparison of Web Content Management features of Magnolia and MODX
    Feature
    Magnolia
    7.5
    69 Ratings
    0% below category average
    MODX
    9.5
    3 Ratings
    23% above category average
    Content taxonomy7.663 Ratings9.93 Ratings
    SEO support7.263 Ratings10.03 Ratings
    Bulk management7.657 Ratings9.03 Ratings
    Availability / breadth of extensions7.962 Ratings8.93 Ratings
    Community / comment management6.951 Ratings9.93 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    MagnoliaMODX
    Small Businesses
    Umbraco CMS
    Score7 out of 10
    Umbraco CMS
    Score7 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Square Online
    Score7.8 out of 10
    Square Online
    Score7.8 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
    MagnoliaMODX
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.1
    (78 ratings)
    9.9
    (3 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    8.1
    (9 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Usability
    8.0
    (68 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Availability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Performance
    8.5
    (67 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    9.1
    (3 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Online Training
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Configurability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    MagnoliaMODX
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Magnolia
    Magnolia is a very capable DXP, that provides client with lots of flexibility in composing its own stack. While the core of the platform is a content management system, the open architecture of Magnolia DXP allows it to connect to any platform, allowing client to extend the capabilities. One scenario would be a centralized content hub - where through a single platform, content authors can choose which channel to distribute what content. For example, long form content for consumers viewing on a laptop, short form content for those using a mobile browser. This allow the client to personalized the experience based on channels. Another scenarios would be leveraging on GenAI - using Magnolia's built-in connector to ChatGPT. If that is not the service that one desire, you can always connect to another AI service such as Google Gemini. With GenAI, connected, content author can use AI as co-pilot to help them scale up their content production.
    Read full review
    MODX
    [MODX is well suited for] all websites, from blogs to corporate sites. It is fast scalable and really good. A small site can be build really fast, and a large site can be made extremely scalable. A website redesign is easy to implement with a new template, without having to redo the content. It got great user groups and users and back-office access can be completely customized.
    While ecommerce is possible with some really good plugins I would only use MODX with ecommerce for sites where ecommerce is not the primary role. For pure ecommerce sites rather use a dedicated system like e.g. PrestaShop (i would say the same thing with other ecommerce plugins e.g. WP woo commerce don't do it unless its a site add on.)
    Read full review
    Pros
    Magnolia
    • Speed of development - time to delivery from zero to MVP was excellent
    • Ease of use - the authoring experience is very easy to build and train
    • PAAS/SAAS - the managed service platform removed the traditional overhead of running in-house technologies, meaning we could focus on value add, with less time spent keeping the lights on.
    Read full review
    MODX
    • Ease of use - the MODX platform is very easy to use for someone who may have limited experience in content management.
    • Content blocks - the content blocks within MODX add to the usability and customization of the website being managed.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Magnolia
    • The documentation provides samples that are often out of context, and difficult to know where the provided example code should be implemented. More tutorials providing the full project or step-by-step instructions on how to implement subject material would help greatly. Baeldung is a resource I would consider the gold standard in how this is done in other spaces.
    • The use of JCR and Nodes makes object serialization/deserialization painful. Jackson compatibility or similar would be a welcome enhancement to the developer experience. Maybe leveraging code-gen from light modules to build model classes when possible could help accomplish this.
    • Modifying the home layout from light modules is frustrating. It seems that any configuration overrides made merge with the default rather than overwriting, which makes for a difficult combination of guess-and-check while referencing the documentation to see what should be in each row/column when making changes.
    • Including "mark all as read" or "delete all" in the notifications app would be a great quality of life improvement. It seems that by default, users have to individually select messages and operate them.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    MODX
    • The user interface was confusing at times.
    • Not a plug and play CMS system.
    • The site manager doesn't always run fast.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Magnolia
    We have invested a lot of time and energy into tailoring a solution that works for the company.
    We think the new features in v6.2 will help us get to the next level
    We also don't have the resources to rebuild a website platform from scratch even if we wanted to
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    MODX
    It is the CMS we use the most, not because we know it well but because we literally tried many of other CMS and this one did it for us.
    However having said we really do not like the one shoe fits all approach. E..g for eCommerce we usually use PrestaShop etc. if a specialized CMS can do a task rather use that.
    However for a general CMS [MODX] is hard to beat.
    Read full review
    Usability
    Magnolia
    We've shown it to a number of users both clients and our own team and despite initial apprehensions, they "get it" very quickly. It's intuitive and friendly and quick to perform daily tasks. We once had a client tell us "Using Magnolia makes me smile" which says it all for us.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    MODX
    Great and easy to use for both the coder and the end user. Especially if setup correctly by the coder.
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Magnolia
    No answers on this topic
    MODX
    We have not had it go down due to bugs etc. especially when comparing it to other cms out there.
    Read full review
    Performance
    Magnolia
    I gave [it] 7/10 only because of the loading time of pages. Otherwise, I think it deserves an 8. Normally this is not an issue per [se] but considering the rating matrix and as I have been asked to honestly write about it. Yes, the page loading times could be improved.
    Read full review
    MODX
    Damn its fast. really good page speed out of the box.
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Magnolia
    You always get an answer based on your SLA. But you always get a solution. That's the successfactor in this case. To often i was frustrated about people in a company without even a clue what there product is about or how to solve a problem. Magnolia's Support Team does a very good job and try to help you in most of the cases
    Read full review
    MODX
    Great community support on slack.
    If you have a paid plugin great support also esp from modmore
    If you have cloud hosting MODX support is fast and all servers are optimized for MODX
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    Magnolia
    No answers on this topic
    MODX
    Good system
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Magnolia
    I've used several CMSs like AEM and EpiServer, and comparatively, they all excel at different things. Magnolia is the best to develop for/against. Episerver has the best/most fluid UI in terms of content editing, and the overall admin experience AEM is just all around sucks.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    MODX
    The other company that we looked into was WordPress and all of the features that it offered our organization. What MODX offered to us from development to everyday use just made more sense for our organization as a whole. WordPress is still a great CMS platform, just not exactly what we were looking for.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Scalability
    Magnolia
    No answers on this topic
    MODX
    Very scalable. e.g. in the [MODX] manager you can manage multiple websites at once without having to login else where. it is very convenient and this way resources and be easily managed and shared.
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Magnolia
    • Magnolia has brought about positive impacts. For instance, we need not outsource web design and marketing services because thanks to this software, we can handle most work inhouse
    • The software is affordable with no compromises on capabilities and therefore it is gives us value for money.
    • The templates makes the whole process easy
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    MODX
    • Increased security permissions of the users and freelancers who worked on our website.
    • Gave our developers the ability to create any page that they wanted with custom code.
    • Hindered our Marketing team's ability to stay on top of our content strategy with changes.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    Magnolia Screenshots

    Screenshot of the Magnolia App Launcher, used to switch between workspaces and manage pagesScreenshot of the customer experience. This brings together content and audiovisual digital assets to form more compelling digital experiences.Screenshot of global search that brings relevant content, no matter where it resides.Screenshot of customizing the ecommerce experience.Screenshot of Magnolia Orchestratem where users can manage and track campaignsScreenshot of the WYSIWYG page editor

    MODX Screenshots

    Screenshot of MODX Manager InterfaceScreenshot of SEO Management - page levelProduct screenshotScreenshot of Easy editing landing pageScreenshot of Edit files directlyScreenshot of Create & edit custom fields