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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Optimizely Content Management System

    Score8.4 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

    Shopify

    Score8.7 out of 10
    N/AShopify is a commerce platform designed for both online stores and retail locations. Shopify offers a professional online storefront, a payment solution to accept credit cards, and the Shopify POS application to power retail sales.

    $39

    per month

    Pricing
    Optimizely Content Management SystemShopify
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    Basic Shopify
    $39
    per month
    Grow
    $105
    per month
    Advanced
    $399
    per month
    Shopify Plus
    2,000
    per month
    Shopify Plus
    2,300
    per month
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Optimizely Content Management SystemShopify
    Free Trial
    NoYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeRequiredNo setup fee
    Additional Details—A 25% discount is offered for annual billing.
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Optimizely Content Management SystemShopify
    Considered Both Products
    Optimizely
    Chose Optimizely Content Management System
    BigCommerce and Shopify do not give backend access to databases or the code of the website itself. One reason we chose Optimizely Content Management System to have complete control of front and backend code rather than doing all customizations through a javascript API.
    Incentivized
    Chose Optimizely Content Management System
    It's comparable to the ones that I mentioned in most ways. I selected this product because it was the easiest and most affordable. Easiest in terms of we already were on the Optimizely platform, so to go to another would be lots of work time and money. So it was truly the least …
    Incentivized
    Chose Optimizely Content Management System
    Their products were more enterprise-grade and integrated together in the way that we needed. It also offered the ability to customize to meet our needs.
    Incentivized
    Chose Optimizely Content Management System
    It’s works better for our large number of client storefronts
    Incentivized
    Chose Optimizely Content Management System
    Much better content management.
    Incentivized
    Chose Optimizely Content Management System
    More flexible and easy to use
    Incentivized
    Shopify
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    97%
    Would buy again
    170 Answers
    98%
    Would buy again
    80 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    98%
    Delivers good value for the price
    144 Answers
    97%
    Delivers good value for the price
    77 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    93%
    Happy with the feature set
    164 Answers
    93%
    Happy with the feature set
    76 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    93%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    104 Answers
    93%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    68 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    86%
    Implementation went as expected
    120 Answers
    95%
    Implementation went as expected
    69 Answers
    Features
    Optimizely Content Management SystemShopify
    Security
    Comparison of Security features of Optimizely Content Management System and Shopify
    Feature
    Optimizely Content Management System
    8.4
    169 Ratings
    2% above category average
    Shopify
    -
    Ratings
    Role-based user permissions8.4169 Ratings00 Ratings
    Platform & Infrastructure
    Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of Optimizely Content Management System and Shopify
    Feature
    Optimizely Content Management System
    7.8
    166 Ratings
    0% below category average
    Shopify
    -
    Ratings
    API7.8159 Ratings00 Ratings
    Internationalization / multi-language7.8127 Ratings00 Ratings
    Web Content Creation
    Comparison of Web Content Creation features of Optimizely Content Management System and Shopify
    Feature
    Optimizely Content Management System
    7.7
    194 Ratings
    2% below category average
    Shopify
    -
    Ratings
    WYSIWYG editor7.6178 Ratings00 Ratings
    Code quality / cleanliness7.9166 Ratings00 Ratings
    Admin section8.0178 Ratings00 Ratings
    Page templates8.0172 Ratings00 Ratings
    Library of website themes7.497 Ratings00 Ratings
    Mobile optimization / responsive design7.9176 Ratings00 Ratings
    Publishing workflow8.1172 Ratings00 Ratings
    Form generator6.4131 Ratings00 Ratings
    Web Content Management
    Comparison of Web Content Management features of Optimizely Content Management System and Shopify
    Feature
    Optimizely Content Management System
    7.5
    180 Ratings
    0% below category average
    Shopify
    -
    Ratings
    Content taxonomy7.9165 Ratings00 Ratings
    SEO support7.1164 Ratings00 Ratings
    Bulk management6.9137 Ratings00 Ratings
    Availability / breadth of extensions7.5142 Ratings00 Ratings
    Community / comment management8.0117 Ratings00 Ratings
    Online Storefront
    Comparison of Online Storefront features of Optimizely Content Management System and Shopify
    Feature
    Optimizely Content Management System
    -
    Ratings
    Shopify
    8.4
    149 Ratings
    7% above category average
    Product catalog & listings00 Ratings8.7149 Ratings
    Product management00 Ratings8.2147 Ratings
    Bulk product upload00 Ratings8.3125 Ratings
    Branding00 Ratings8.6146 Ratings
    Mobile storefront00 Ratings9.1142 Ratings
    Product variations00 Ratings7.9139 Ratings
    Website integration00 Ratings8.7140 Ratings
    Visual customization00 Ratings8.7146 Ratings
    CMS00 Ratings7.6118 Ratings
    Online Shopping Cart
    Comparison of Online Shopping Cart features of Optimizely Content Management System and Shopify
    Feature
    Optimizely Content Management System
    -
    Ratings
    Shopify
    8.5
    141 Ratings
    10% above category average
    Abandoned cart recovery00 Ratings8.2131 Ratings
    Checkout user experience00 Ratings8.8139 Ratings
    Online Payment System
    Comparison of Online Payment System features of Optimizely Content Management System and Shopify
    Feature
    Optimizely Content Management System
    -
    Ratings
    Shopify
    9.4
    143 Ratings
    12% above category average
    eCommerce security00 Ratings9.4143 Ratings
    eCommerce Marketing
    Comparison of eCommerce Marketing features of Optimizely Content Management System and Shopify
    Feature
    Optimizely Content Management System
    -
    Ratings
    Shopify
    8.3
    146 Ratings
    8% above category average
    Promotions & discounts00 Ratings8.4140 Ratings
    Personalized recommendations00 Ratings8.432 Ratings
    SEO00 Ratings8.1135 Ratings
    eCommerce Business Management
    Comparison of eCommerce Business Management features of Optimizely Content Management System and Shopify
    Feature
    Optimizely Content Management System
    -
    Ratings
    Shopify
    8.1
    147 Ratings
    1% above category average
    Multi-site management00 Ratings6.719 Ratings
    Order processing00 Ratings9.0144 Ratings
    Inventory management00 Ratings7.6143 Ratings
    Shipping00 Ratings8.4135 Ratings
    Custom functionality00 Ratings8.7136 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Optimizely Content Management SystemShopify
    Small Businesses
    Umbraco CMS
    Score7 out of 10
    Ecwid by Lightspeed
    Score10 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Square Online
    Score7.7 out of 10
    Shopify Plus
    Score8.9 out of 10
    Enterprises
    RWS Tridion Sites
    Score9 out of 10
    IBM Digital Commerce
    Score9 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Optimizely Content Management SystemShopify
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.5
    (223 ratings)
    8.4
    (162 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    9.8
    (34 ratings)
    10.0
    (16 ratings)
    Usability
    8.5
    (92 ratings)
    8.3
    (16 ratings)
    Availability
    9.2
    (4 ratings)
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    Performance
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    10.0
    (8 ratings)
    10.0
    (3 ratings)
    Online Training
    10.0
    (4 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    6.4
    (2 ratings)
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    -
    (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
    Optimizely Content Management SystemShopify
    Likelihood to Recommend
    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
    Shopify
    Shopify allowed us to handle matrix items and combined listings. Both of which we could not do on our previous platform. There was some customization involved but overall, it did what we needed it to. The one downside was that if we want to change anything we would have to reload the entire set of matrix items manually.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    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
    Shopify
    • It's base security and integration with trusted security partners (such as NoFraud) is a game-changer when it comes to reliability and a "hands off approach" for our IT department. The up-time is also very good.
    • It offers a wide range of verified plugins that are (for the most part) easy to install and use for any specific scenario you're looking for.
    • It's Analytics area in the admin is actually nice and offers a wide variety of reports that you can run.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    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
    Shopify
    • I would love it if Shopify built an in house app which helped us post UGCs and social proof from platforms such as Instagram, Youtube etc. more seamlessly on our website. Right now, we are able to do it through third party apps but the look and feel is just okay.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    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
    Shopify
    Nothing we have used in the past or have seen thus far even comes close to offering what we get with Shopify Plus, especially for the price. You cannot even come close to getting what we are getting at the price we pay. We are beyond thrilled and Shopify Plus meets and exceeds all of our needs and expectations. We love it!
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    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
    Shopify
    It is fairly easy to use Shopify regardless of what task you are attempting to perform. Most things are customizable to a degree without requiring coding ability. I have very limited coding experience and have still been able to navigate my way around changing features of the website that require edits to the code with the use of AI and trial-and-error. This previously wasn't possible with the WooCommerce platform.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    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
    Shopify
    Shopify support is always available when you need them.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Performance
    Optimizely
    No answers on this topic
    Shopify
    Shopify website speed is quite impressive. Even if we integrate couple apps, it does not hamper the site speed.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    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
    Shopify
    In terms of support I give Shopify a 9 out of 10 because they're always very friendly and thorough, and they personally can't solve my problem for me they always point me in the proper direction with the proper information I need to move forward
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Online Training
    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
    Shopify
    Shopify offered us several trainings to setup a Shopify store, how to build a brand, SEO, product photography etc. All this content have been super helpful in our journey.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    Optimizely
    I was not fully involved.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Shopify
    Just start now and make the switch, the sooner the better. You will love it and it is really a simple process
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    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
    Shopify
    Big Commerce and SAP Hybris are two other platforms we've investigated and Shopify is by far easiest to use and customize. While it doesn't do everything out of the box, the apps do fill in many gaps. The cost however, is probably the biggest selling point against these other two options.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Scalability
    Optimizely
    No answers on this topic
    Shopify
    Shopify has basic to high-end plans. The plans grow with the brand`s growth and I love that about Shopify.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    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
    Shopify
    • It got the store up quickly so the client could start selling. She was previously selling products on Etsy and Facebook and wanted to consolidate everything onto one website, so the main thing Shopify solved was to reduce the store owner's time in managing all her products on multiple sites. Also, we had previously built a website on Wix with all the custom functionality and branding she needed - a truly great, high-end website - but it performed so slowly that it was unusable. So the speed at which Shopify can be set up and then works on the page is appreciable.
    • The website was manageable by the client - she could figure the system out herself after a while so she saved money on costs for hiring developers. She did have to hire developers to customize some of the plug-ins but costs are all relative; it wasn't a high investment compared to building a full e-commerce website. With the complexity and size of her product base and the functionality and branding she wanted to have in a website, and the potential of her business, she would have needed to invest well over $10,000 to get to where she really needs to be. In the end she kept the budget under $5000.00.
    • Costs kept climbing with plug-ins having to be added with everything. My client became more involved in building the website and began to try multiple plugins, and she did not have the skill base to evaluate the plugins functionalities so she chose plugins that did not do everything she needed, and then ended up paying the plugin developers to customize the plugins. So on one hand, it's pretty amazing to be able to bring up an e-commerce website as quickly as a week or so, but on the other hand if you need anything customized or deeper functionality in regards to product searching and filtering on the web page, and management on the backend, it quickly goes beyond the skills of the average person to manage, and above their expected budget as well. In the end my client really did not get anything close to the functionality for the website we had originally envisioned.
    • Shopify was the easiest way we could find to bring the client's products to a global market. We evaluated several other platforms and the functionality simple did not seem to be adequate, so Shopify seemed like the only solution that could do enough of what we needed and still stay within this client's budget. Really the problem in this project was not platform per se but that the budget wasn't large enough. Shopify managed to provide a solution for an ecommerce store with thousands of products on a tiny budget, so in the sense of pure functionality it provided the best value of all the platforms we evaluated. The solution still isn't big enough for this client's business though so, without having insights into this client's post-build sales results, my guess is that because her new website did not make her products easier to sort through, and she likely didn't have much more budget left to invest in SEO and other marketing of the website, her sales probably didn't increase substantially as a result of having built the website. So I think this project all in all did not likely have a high ROI.
    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.