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I'd Adobe CQ. Would you?
July 25, 2014

I'd Adobe CQ. Would you?

Cassie Lyn Dusute | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Adobe CQ

The company I previously worked for used Adobe CQ as a CMS for the main company website along with multiple microsites. The site as a whole included well over 400 pages. The website was created with a customized version of Bootstrap 2.0, and integrated with CQ modules. Our job was to make sure that the modules worked with the designs, and fix any problems that arose.
  • Customization. Although this is important for any CMS to allow, CQ does a pretty good job at allowing for customization.
  • Easy to use. Adobe CQ requires a little bit of up-front work to get you started, but after you start, it's easy to continue.
  • Versioning. A huge plus when you're constantly changing pages. The versioning available is amazing and super helpful
  • Migration. We had multiple environments that we were constantly moving content back and forth on. Moving the content over through CQ was a bit of a challenge.
  • Integration. In some instances, Adobe CQ's built in modules would fight with custom modules. Usually the problems went away on their own.
  • Forms. Sometimes when adding a form to the page, the TO and CC sections would show up as empty when they had email addresses. Then when you went to change them, you couldn't close the settings window without clicking cancel.
  • Increased efficiency. We were able to update pages faster than we would have on the old site.
  • Fast training time. With already comfortable users, we were able to onboard new developers quickly.
  • Consistency. The site flows better and has a more consistent look.
  • WordPress,Joomla!
I would say that Adobe CQ and WordPress come in neck and neck. They both have easy to understand dashboards, and both require a knowledge of a specific programming language. If you are more comfortable with JSP and Java, Adobe CQ is right for you; if you are more of a PHP person, then WordPress may be a better choice. Adobe CQ, however, controls resources 10 times better than WordPress. Looking for an image or document is easier and more organized than WordPress.
If I had the choice to renew, I would. Adobe CQ is one of the better CMS's I've been able to use. It's well organized, fast and easy to use. Although it is a little high in price, the fact that it does a good job justifies the decision to renew.
Do you expect to have a lot of pages with similar templates? I would suggest Adobe CQ for this kind of website. You can create templates so that the look and feel throughout the site is consistent.

Are you planning on a smaller site with few pages? Then Adobe CQ may not be for you. The cost of the product alone is a sign that this should be used for businesses with a lot of information to share.