Magnolia vs. Squiz Digital Experience Platform

A colleague here being another business. Magnolia is on its way to being a 'good' product but the 6.2 implementation simply isn't there yet (6.2.26 as of this writing). The admincentral UI could use a complete overhaul to be better streamlined for devs and content editors (the two who actually use it).

Incentivized

Working with a large amount of web content where there is a need to focus on related content.

• Use of YAML to define content models with code.
• Versatility of defining actions for custom handlers.
• Reloading classes when code is modified in a local dev environment is nice. While it doesn't seem to work when changes extend beyond the method body (i.e., adding methods), it remediates the pain of long startup times.

Incentivized

• Speed and efficiency
• Roles and content control
• Related content

• As a developer the learning curve is long, you can start developing relatively quickly but getting to know the platform in depth takes time.
• Having a history of modifications not only at the page level but also at the Content Apps level would be very useful.

Incentivized

• User Interface was good but heavy, with Java powering the backbone I recall finding this somewhat troublesome at the time.

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

I don't work with Squiz any more so it's difficult to say, that said, the site is still running on the same CMS so obviously it's still considered a great platform

I see two main pains: 1. A new user need training to be able even to start using the platform, the onboarding is difficult 2. The platform needs a server with a relevant amount of memory to run properly, the dependency on the memory is really high

Incentivized

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.

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

Prior to using Magnolia as an enterprise CMS solution, different teams leveraged different website platforms including WordPress, Weebly, and others. While these other platforms may be slightly more user friendly to the content editor, they don't offer nearly the same amount of customization and digital best practices out of the box that are customizable by web development teams like Magnolia does. The other solutions may work better for a quicker/simpler web implementation without technical resources but don't have the depth and breadth of capability and functionality that Magnolia has and fall flat.

Incentivized

Easier to work with

• 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

• Having a single powerful CMS platform that would integrate a number of organisations that had recently merged - Squiz was a big part of bringing our web architecture together gracefully.
• Increased employee efficiency