The Forrester Wave™: Content Management Systems, Q3 2023

Content Management Systems Vendor Product Comparisons 2023

Key features and pros and cons of top Content Management Systems products:

Acquia - Leaders

Pros:

Low-code/no-code capabilities
Translations for global content deliveries
Back-end extensibility
Strong practitioner and developer programs
Fully customizable UI for practitioners
Headless starter kits for faster experience delivery
Ease of content authoring and publishing
Ability to scale geographically (manages 35,000 websites and 26 geographies)

Cons:

Weaker analytics capabilities out of the box
Personalization requires add-on investment
Vision and innovation could benefit from additional horsepower

Adobe - Leaders

Pros:

Native integrations across digital suites
Massive partner ecosystem
Ongoing acquisitions and innovations
Front-end experience delivery (benchmarked at 2.5 seconds or below)
Content authoring through Microsoft Office 365 and Google Workspace
Instant personalization for modular content
FedRAMP and HIPAA certification
UI approach for structured, unstructured, and long-form content
Mapping content to future product catalogs
Workflow extensions into adjacent systems
UI-based A/B testing
Ability to manage and deliver content experiences at scale

Cons:

More complicated pricing model than others in evaluation
Limited in off-platform composability through turnkey integrations

Optimizely - Leaders

Pros:

Strong personalization capabilities
A/B testing
Translation and localizations
Depth of content and audience analytics off the shelf (no additional licensing)
Strong ability to scale content delivery through Microsoft Azure partnership
Cloud native architecture
Content aggregation and personalization for B2B buyers
Transparent pricing model

Cons:

Could benefit from stronger innovations in content management space
Trails others in low-code/no-code UIs

Bloomreach - Contenders

Pros:

Pure headless content management capabilities
Copy generation through ChatGPT plug-in
Experience delivery through front-end frameworks
Ready-to-go storefronts for commerce platforms
Built for geographic scalability
Responsive to customer requests
Strong global partner network
Robust short-term roadmap

Cons:

Focused on innovating around commerce experiences, not content management
Not optimal for mission-oriented and information-dissemination-centric use cases
Could benefit from better translation integrations (currently manual)
Additional marketing capabilities require separate engagement product

Contentful - Strong Performers

Pros:

Developer favorite
Excels in back-end extensibility (number of APIs and architecture)
Growing partner ecosystem
Enabled mobile app launch in 50 countries in less than 8 weeks
Strong for scaling to new geographies
Good for digital transformation with tech-first focus

Cons:

Lags in content modeling and content findability
Users tag content rather than filter and view across digital properties
Pricing structure adds complexity at enterprise level
Architected around concept of 'spaces'
Needs more momentum

Contentstack - Strong Performers

Pros:

Pure headless, composable CMS
Best turnkey no-code integrations in evaluation
Ease of back-end extensibility
Strong global deployment capabilities
Founding member of MACH Alliance
Excels in innovation
Straightforward pricing model
Faster time to market on marketing campaigns
Transparent roadmap delivery

Cons:

Limited analytics capabilities for personalization
Young practitioner and development community
Focused partner network still evolving
Vision beyond 'composability' yet to be seen

Crownpeak - Contenders

Pros:

Content governance capabilities
Managing content quality and accessibility
Global cloud deployments with technical configurations
Built-in digital quality management toolkit for regulatory compliance
Mature SaaS product heritage
Integration to PIM systems
Good for regulated markets

Cons:

Vision lags due to predominant focus on DXP solution rather than content management
Back-end extensibility for turnkey integrations lags
Practitioner program emerging at slower pace
Not as intuitive as expected with learning curve
Lags in innovation

OpenText - Contenders

Pros:

Content governance capabilities
Integration capabilities within platform ecosystem
Great on-the-glass content editing capabilities
Short learning curve (2-4 hours of training)
Good for large, complex organizations
Total Experience vision for enterprise customer communications

Cons:

Trails in content management innovation
Roadmap lags others in evaluation
Opportunities in accelerating low-code/no-code extensibility via connectors to non-OpenText systems
Generative AI integrations in roadmap need acceleration
Personalization capabilities need improvement

Sitecore - Strong Performers

Pros:

Strong analytics and personalization
Deeper AI-based personalization
Free version of customer data platform out of the box
Strong practitioner community
Large market presence (over 3,000 clients worldwide)
Strong global partner work
Ease in onboarding new users
Ease in managing and deploying content experiences

Cons:

Vision and roadmap lag in fidelity of new CMS features
Content Hub adds complexity not necessary for enterprise users
Still developing composable platform with many integrations requiring coding
Need to accelerate feature parity on roadmap
Ongoing development on XM Cloud

WordPress VIP - Strong Performers

Pros:

Strong content authoring, versioning, and lifecycle management
Easy-to-use Gutenberg block editor
Strong low-code/no-code UI extensibility
Thousands of available plug-ins
FedRAMP certification for federal websites
Ease of content authoring and publishing at global scale
Free subset of content analytics capabilities

Cons:

Vision lags due to primary focus on establishing VIP product with larger enterprise base
Some plug-ins may not be appropriate for enterprise scalability and security
A/B testing capabilities only available through plug-ins

FAQs

Q: Which vendors are Leaders in 2023?

A: Acquia, Adobe, Optimizely

Q: What does "Leader" mean in Forrester Wave terms?

A: Leaders in the Forrester Wave are vendors that excel in both current offering and strategy. They demonstrate strong performance across evaluation criteria including content creation, content aggregation and experience assembly, content orchestration, experience delivery, architecture, community, vision, innovation, roadmap, partner ecosystem, pricing flexibility and transparency, and global delivery strategy. Leaders have the highest scores on the vertical axis (current offering strength) and strong positions on the horizontal axis (strategy strength).

Q: How do I interpret a Forrester Wave?

A: https://www.forrester.com/policies/forrester-wave-methodology/

Report:

Top Vendor Products for Content Management Systems in 2023

Content Management Systems Vendor Product Comparisons 2023

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FAQs

Q: Which vendors are Leaders in 2023?

Q: What does "Leader" mean in Forrester Wave terms?

Q: How do I interpret a Forrester Wave?

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