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DNN Platform

Score9 out of 10

13 Reviews and Ratings

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What is DNN Platform?

The DNN Platform (formerly DotNetNuke) is a free web content management systems (CMS) from DNN Corporation headquartered in San Mateo, California.

Categories & Use Cases

Key Features

Learn about the best (and worst!) features DNN Platform has to offer, as determined by TrustRadius' reviewers.
Based on 13 ratings of DNN Platform's features
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Top Performing Features

  • Role-based user permissions

    Permissions to perform actions or access or modify data are assigned to roles, which are then assigned to users, reducing complexity of administration.

    Category average: 8.3

  • API

    An API (application programming interface) provides a standard programming interface for connecting third-party systems to the software for data creation, access, updating and/or deletion.

    Category average: 8

  • WYSIWYG editor

    What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get editing tool allows users to build pages without writing code.

    Category average: 8.1

Areas for Improvement

  • SEO support

    The CMS helps users create the right website infrastructure (pagination, page headers, titles, meta tags, url structure, etc.) to increase the site’s visibility in search engine results.

    Category average: 7.6

  • Form generator

    Users can build website forms for visitors to fill out.

    Category average: 7

  • Bulk management

    Users can change an attribute on a group of documents or sites all at once through features such as global search and replace, making bulk changes easier.

    Category average: 7.3

Reviews

What users are saying about DNN Platform.
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DNN is a robust, enterprise ready OPEN SOURCE CMS. You don't need to pay Evoq. Just hire a dnn team!

Incentivized
Verified User
Director in Product Management (51-200 employees employees)

Pros

  • Granular controls for permission settings
  • Unlimited portal farm for creating many sites and sharing assets
  • Easy to use page management and controls
  • Intuitive interface
  • Have come a long way in the past five+ years

Cons

  • Missing a tool to test for compliance (built in)
  • All module developers should be held to a standard before being allowed to sell in the dnn store
  • Confusion between dnn and evoq creates a lot of headaches for us

Return on Investment

  • DNN helps us win bids on projects through the improvements the community has done over the past few years; we were ready to scrap it all together but it has made great strides
  • DNN's community has come back and is actively working to improve and expand the capabilities of the cms
  • on a negative note, the confusion between evoq and dnn has caused us headaches

Alternatives Considered

WordPress, Sitecore Experience Platform and Drupal

Other Software Used

QuickBooks Desktop Pro, MS SharePoint, Jira Software, Gemini

A worthy CMS Option - DNN Platform

Incentivized
John ReitzView profile
Creative Director in Marketing at Links Technology Solutions (51-200 employees employees)

Pros

  • DNN allows for multiple installation and hosting options, so large corporate and small clients can each have a service that fits them.
  • DNN has the ability to have a lot of features customized.
  • The licensing, if using the on demand or Evoq versions is pricey, but is better than many alternatives.

Cons

  • Out of the box, it has some modules, but not enough unless you do a paid version.
  • The support is a bit slow.
  • The menuing can be confusing and terms used a bit strange. which makes training difficult.

Return on Investment

  • The free version is certainly good for ROI, but the paid versions are expensively licensed.

Alternatives Considered

LightCMS, Adobe Business Catalyst and WordPress

Other Software Used

Adobe Acrobat DC, Adobe Photoshop, Trello

I like the extensibility of DNN

Incentivized
Mike BunceView profile
Senior Application Developer in Information Technology at Entre Computer Services (51-200 employees employees)

Pros

  • The core modules provide all of the basic content management functionality. You can drag and drop a Blog, Chat, Events, Gallery or versitile Text HTML module onto any page. Once you set a few properties you are up and running. And many of them provide a means of skinning them to match the look and feel of your website design.
  • If the core modules don't meet your specific needs you can purchase additional modules from third party vendors. If you have some programming experience, you can even create your own custom modules. Christoc's DotNetNuke Module and Theme Development Template makes it easy to get started.
  • One of the best things about DNN is that the page navigation and user management is already built in. It is complete with friendly URL rewriting and SEO features. DNN authentication can be integrated with Facebook, Google and other authentication providers.

Cons

  • Some of the admin screens could be easier to use. The popup editor, for example, always opens at a preset size. It would be better if it could adapt to the view port dimensions. Also, I always have to scroll down to get to the save button in the popup window. It would be nice if the buttons were fixed at the bottom of the popup rather than the bottom of the popup content.

Return on Investment

  • The ROI is good.

DNN - The developer's, IT manager's and marketeer's CMS.

Incentivized
Verified User
Account Manager in Information Technology (11-50 employees employees)

Pros

  • Very easy to use CMS - Ease of use is paramount with CMS products to minimise on support calls. Also the template structure of pages ensures that content editors cannot inadvertently corrupt the layout of the page.
  • Powerful application framework - The existence of APIs for all functionality within the CMS provides limitless scope in terms of developing bespoke applications which sit within the CMS.
  • Commercially supported option available - For larger clients, the comfort factor of having a direct line to the developers of the application is a big selling point.

Cons

  • Documentation of the APIs is sometimes quite sparse with varying levels of details provided depending on the function.
  • The liquid content feature stores content in the DNN cloud rather than on the application server. Convincing a client that the content isn't on their own servers (when trying to sell this feature) can be a challenge.

Return on Investment

  • A distinguishing factor between DNN and other CMS products is the focus on DNN as a marketing platform rather than website CMS. This has lead to clients being able to measure the success of online marketing campaigns far more effectively than would otherwise have been the case.

Other Software Used

Microsoft SQL Server, Windows Server, Visual Studio IDE