Item: Optimizely Content Management System
Rating: 8
Author: Verified User

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We are a consulting firm solving the business needs of our clients using many products, where Optimizely CMS is one of the more frequent choices by our clients.

Pros and Cons

Content Management.
Freedom over code.
Support for .NET 6+.

Deployment process to DXP.
Release notes summarized with potential features/patches having an impact on the day-to-day work.
Easier access to bug fixes recently released.

Return on Investment

With Content Graph (Graph QL), the freedom of headless content has improved quite a lot.
The content approval process is efficient and well thought out.
With the release of Optimizely CMS 12, the development experience has been greatly improved.

The combination of Optimizely CMS and Optimizely Search & Navigation is well-working and thought out, though Search & Navigation still has a lot of room for improvement it solves the every day needs of most customers. Optimizely Commerce is also improving, though at a slow pace, and becoming more and more viable with each release.

Time to Value

To spin up a fresh site, depending on the business, takes anywhere from 6 to 24 months - most of this depends on how clear the specification and business needs is described. A well-described specification and good planning could greatly decrease the timeline. To create a couple of pages and block types and push this to production is quick work, the challenge resides not in the product implementation but rather in the business requirements and consistency of the client.

Alternatives Considered

Umbraco CMS

Both Umbraco and Optimizely have a lot of common denominators, but the main difference from a development perspective is how content types are implemented in code in Optimizely vs. defining content types in the Admin UI in Umbraco, where Optimizely has the upper hand, making it easier to perform unit tests and changes.

Key Insights

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

Yes

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

Yes

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

Yes

Did implementation of Optimizely Content Management System go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Optimizely Content Management System again?

Yes

Likelihood to Recommend

I'd say Optimizely CMS is best used at medium to large organizations with a lot of content and resources. Smaller businesses could have a lot of use of the basic product but with the price tag (not only for licences but also in development) I usually find smaller clients turning to cheaper alternatives.

Optimizely CMS - Making developers happy.

Software Version

Overall Satisfaction with Optimizely Content Management System