Makeswift vs. RWS Tridion Sites

Makeswift is an excellent choice when you need to create high quality landing pages. Since it removes the code process, you can move from a design concept to a live site easily. It is particularly helpful for designers who want total creative freedom, as the interface feels more like Figma than a normal website builder. Plus, it’s a lifesaver for collaborative teams because the real time editing allows different people to create and design at the same time without any friction. On the other hand, it might not be the right tool if you are trying to build a complex web application like a custom dashboard or an e-commerce store with thousands of filters. It’s also important to note that while it is no code for design work, the initial setup like getting custom components or the localhost environment running usually requires a developer’s assistance.

Incentivized

Love the product and I really like how we use it for public sites. The only negative aspect is that it is just hard to find Tridion devs that understand the tool, grasp .net, react, and understand the blueprint, etc.

• It feels more like "Designing" than "Coding"
• What you see is actually what you get
• Handling Different Screen Sizes (Responsive Design)
• Editing with other peers

Incentivized

• Makes it easy to spin up a new site quickly
• Allows for numerous users to work on the same site without conflicting with each other's changes
• Allows you to unpublish changes or revert to old versions if you make a mistake
• Allows you to time publishing actions (for example, you can set it to happen overnight)

Incentivized

• Starting from scratch - Base templates
• Advanced layout logic
• Learning curve for custom elements
• Localhost stability

Incentivized

• Tridion is complicated in enough ways that it makes it difficult to train new users. Therefore, we have to limit the number of people with access to the system since we have not yet implemented Workflow.
• When something goes wrong (items fail to publish, or there is unexpected behavior with components), there is little explanation provided that would point us in the right direction to troubleshoot. As a result, content Authors and Editors have to frequently ask for IT assistance.

I am giving this a semi-high rating because we have already got Tridion up and running and we are still in the process of moving the sites over to Tridion. It is unlikely we will be moving things to a new CMS AGAIN in the near future as the cost to get Tridion was high.

Once you are inside the builder, the daily experience is incredibly smooth. It really does feel like a strong design tool rather than a clunky website builder. The drag and drop feature is fluid and the collaboration mode makes working with my team feel natural rather than a headache. It’s intuitive enough that I can jump in and make significant changes without feeling like I need a manual next to me.

Incentivized

The editor user interface is very user friendly and in-site editing makes simple updates fast and easy. The extensibility of Tridion is a big plus and the ability to add our own options into the default Tridion interface helps us integrate with external systems. Finally, the user permissions and security system helps us deploy it within our large organization.

Essentially the learning curve. I chose Makeswift because it feels much more like a design tool (like Figma) than a development environment. It gives the designers the control to create what they want. It allows to move faster, collaborate in real time without locking each other out of pages, and still gives the developers the freedom to drop in custom components when we need something specific.

Incentivized

It is a nuclear missile compared to the other handguns and knives on the market today. But it also requires nuclear technicians and expertise that a handgun doesn't require. Do you need to decimate your competition and you have the investment capabilities necessary to put a nuclear missile into the sky? Then definitely do it. Especially if you need a very good multi-lingual blueprint provider like Tridion.

Incentivized

• Cost savings on external dev work
• Improved on faster iteration
• Efficiency via p2p collaboration

Incentivized

• SDL is a very complex system. Creating custom components by external vendors turned out to be expensive.
• The learning curve is very slow, so training takes a lot of time and cost.
• The revamped corporate site looks clean, modern, and is mobile-friendly.

Incentivized