DNN - The developer's, IT manager's and marketeer's CMS.
October 13, 2017
DNN - The developer's, IT manager's and marketeer's CMS.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Overall Satisfaction with DNN Platform
We are a software development company specialising in the design and development of bespoke web-based software solutions. We develop solutions ranging from large enterprise websites to custom web applications such as CRMs. DNN is the perfect platform for us and we use it for all our solutions. Not only does it contain an advanced and easy-to-use CMS, it is also one of the most comprehensive application frameworks available, with inbuilt support for current best practice development including bootstrap, WebAPI and SPA (Single Page Application) support. Through our work with DNN we are successful able to maintain sites for many years (via DNN-supplied security patches). For larger customers, the DNN-supported Evoq product is often preferred due to the excellent and friendly support available directly from DNN.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
We chose DNN primarily because we were looking for an open source, scalable .NET based platform. This business decision was made 8 years ago and we have used it for every web development since. To date, no product provides such diversity of functionality and robustness against these requirements.