Item: Optimizely Content Management System
Rating: 8
Author: Chris Llewellyn

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Optimizely Content Management as the Content Management System for a number of public-facing websites. It allows non-technical users to create and manage content and provides a robust system for software engineers to create reusable components and integrate with our other already existing APIs. We also use it as a headless CMS, allowing us to build single-page applications that get much of their content from the Optimizely Content Management CMS.

Pros and Cons

CMS 12+ User Interface is particularly nice
Out-of-the-box APIs for content searching, indexing, manipulating pages, etc.
Much of the CMS functionality is customizable and extendable by engineers
Sticks closely to .NET principles - easy to learn if you are a .NET engineer

Documentation of APIs - specifically, we had trouble configuring content search APIs and authentication. Something that looked simple enough but ended up being a headache. The information is technically there in the documentation, but it is not always coherent, and there are crucial gaps missing in the docs. You end up having to file a support ticket which DOES (in my experience) unblock you, but the problem is caused by incomplete information in the first place. The guesswork and assumptions that I have to make should be minimal.
The Optimizely Nuget package that we started on (at the time, it was the latest) had a seriously major bug on it that broke many APIs and features of the CMS. We had to use an older release until this was fixed. Not sure how it got through QA.

Return on Investment

Much faster development speed
Excellent developer experience compared to previous CMS
Happier content editors

Usability

For a content editor, it can be as easy or difficult as the software developers make it. Developers have the tools to create an excellent experience, though and the fact that it is so aligned with .NET makes it a pretty seamless learning experience. CMS 12 has a very nice user interface for editors, which makes it quite nice to use.

Time to Value

From a developer perspective - if you know .NET or .NET core, it is pretty easy to learn, especially if you have previous CMS experience. You can learn the basics in a week or two. There are many out of the box APIs that will dramatically increase development speed as most of the functionality that you need has already been created. There are many helper APIs that also make it easier to create custom features.

Alternatives Considered

Sitecore Experience Platform

We previously used a custom-made CMS. This was quite old and did not have many features, so it's not really a fair comparison. However, we do have engineers who have worked with Sitecore, and they say Optimizely Content Management is a FAR better developer experience. Sitecore is massively complicated in comparison.

Key Insights

Do you think Optimizely Content Management System delivers good value for the price?

Not sure

Are you happy with Optimizely Content Management System's feature set?

Yes

Did Optimizely Content Management System live up to sales and marketing promises?

I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process

Did implementation of Optimizely Content Management System go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Optimizely Content Management System again?

Yes

Likelihood to Recommend

Well suited if you need a powerful, easy to work with CMS and you are a .NET developer. Can do both traditional and headless.

Not recommended if you don't have money. This is a paid product.

Great .NET developer experience but could do with better documentation

Software Version

Overall Satisfaction with Optimizely Content Management