The Forrester Wave™: Content Management Systems, Q1 2025

Content Management Systems Vendor Product Comparisons 2025

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

Adobe - Leaders

Pros:

Conversational agent-like interface for content creation and editing
Strong lifecycle management and FedRAMP certification
Integrated content analytics using genAI to create content variants
Hybrid approach to content delivery with backend built on GraphQL with 100% coverage
Heritage of innovation and large R&D investment
Extensive partner, developer, and practitioner community
Simpler pricing model introduced to accelerate adoption

Cons:

Customers want more independence in component development
Limited but growing set of off-platform connectors

Contentstack - Leaders

Pros:

Strong visual editor making it easier to integrate a new CMS
Robust headless and LLM features for agility
Built-in audience analytics and new personalization product
Strong track record of innovation in process and delivery
Integrates well with third-party software solutions
Customers like product strategy and finger on the pulse of what customers need next

Cons:

Currently lacks content planning capabilities outside of digital delivery
No ability to set up rules-based content experiments
Complexity in pricing model
Young partner ecosystem limiting pace of growth
Customers want more from new personalization product

Optimizely - Leaders

Pros:

Excels in optimization features and visual editing
Natural language search capabilities
Team collaboration features like content planning outside the CMS
Prebuilt integrations to Teams and Slack
Strong track record of innovation with newly launched SaaS CMS with visual builder
AI innovations on roadmap including agent-like interfaces for campaign management
Simple pricing model and established partner network

Cons:

Still determining long-term NetSpring integration plan
Customers wanted wider support for APIs and connectors to other systems

Acquia - Strong Performers

Pros:

Conversational agent-like interface for content modeling
Strong editorial workflow processes and content governance
Native content translation in 100 languages
Proven ability to deliver experiences at scale (Olympics, Super Bowl, Australian Open)
Strong community across the globe including over 700 tech and SI partners
Native experimentation that leverages AI
Customers value experimentation, workflows, translation capabilities, and customer service

Cons:

Lags innovation in market due to migration from PaaS to SaaS
Unclear how much R&D investment is apportioned to CMS versus larger DXP roadmap
Lags in content and audience analytics capabilities out of the box
Customers seek easier ways to migrate template-based content to headless delivery

Amplience - Strong Performers

Pros:

Excels at leveraging genAI to manage content metadata and taxonomies
Visual editing to view future states of content through detailed project scheduling tool
Ability to integrate into adjacent system workflows
Unique genAI innovation path from foundational features to services, studios, and eventually content factories
Customers love visual authoring and digital experience aggregation
Significantly grown ability to acquire new customers by decreasing time to market

Cons:

Weaker in analytics, experimentation, and personalization capabilities
Smaller partner network compared to Leaders
12-month roadmap (shorter than Leaders)
Customers want stronger capabilities in experimentation and personalization

Contentful - Strong Performers

Pros:

Ninetailed capabilities for audience segmentation and experimentation-driven content variant recommendations
On-par visual content generation and editing capabilities
Excellent backend extensibility due to pure headless heritage
Experience integrating with hundreds of enterprise systems to accelerate migrations
Customers highly rated scale, performance, and customer service
New pricing model includes self-service option
Healthy list of large SI and tech partners

Cons:

CMS vision lacks distinction as it's bundled into broader platform
Customers want vendor to improve content management across spaces and authoring interface

Sitecore - Strong Performers

Pros:

On-par capabilities in content modeling, compliance validations, visual building and preview, and analytics
XM Cloud innovation focuses on rethinking fundamentals for content creation, storage, and delivery
Healthy practitioner and developer community
Diverse set of tech, SI, and agency partners
Customers value content modeling features, content delivery at scale, and overall performance

Cons:

Below par in genAI content capabilities using brand's tone and voice
Limited integrations with collaboration tools and workflows
Complex pricing model could hinder growth
Roadmap only detailed for next nine months
Customers want better application of AI and more front-end hosting options

Webflow - Strong Performers

Pros:

Above par in visual editing and inline content analytics
Deep component integrations to Figma
Strong innovation with 145 new features shipped in 2024 (43% of ~700 employees work in R&D)
Detailed roadmap with AI innovations
Customers rated it highly on experimentation, scale, and performance
Robust visual-building interface

Cons:

Below par in ability to generate content in right tone and voice
Cannot plug and play different LLMs for content generation
No Microsoft Teams or Slack collaboration capabilities at time of evaluation
Turnkey connectors missing enterprise-grade applications
Global SIs and agencies at enterprise scale largely missing from partner list
Customers want more analytics and personalization capabilities

WordPress VIP - Strong Performers

Pros:

Superior content compliance capabilities including FedRAMP certification
On-par third-party integrations and localization features
Strong community through third-party plug-ins and add-ons
Simple and straightforward pricing model
Customers liked audience analytics and ability to scale with business needs

Cons:

Innovation lags other vendors in evaluation
Roadmap lacked detail for specific releases and associated features
Could be bolstered by stronger enterprise-grade partner list
Lags in automated metadata generation
Limited to 13 months of content analytics in standard packages
Customers wanted more innovation and higher levels of customer service

Storyblok - Strong Performers

Pros:

Performs well in content authoring and modeling
Next-generation features like an ideation room for content teams
Strong visual editing, workflows, translations, and API coverage
Heavily investing in innovation for company of its size
Simple and straightforward pricing model
Customers like content modeling and digital aggregation preview capabilities

Cons:

Roadmap largely keeping up with market rather than leading
Quality of innovations that scale across client use cases and geographies yet to be seen
Very young partner network and budding community
Lags in enterprise-level features such as accessibility scanning and rollback of releases
Limited integrations to third-party adjacent systems and experimentation
Customers want better roles-based permissions and better visibility into roadmap releases

Arc XP - Contenders

Pros:

Purpose-built for media organizations
First-of-its-kind media operating system
Performed best in content generation and management for media and journalists with preconfigured prompts and workflows
On-par content model, foundational AI capabilities, collaboration features, and built-in analytics
Customers like backend extensibility

Cons:

Innovation lags the market with features like API-first platform and translations
Roadmap lacked detail on releases, timelines, and features
Young partner network and community
Weaker in translation capabilities, visual editing, and GraphQL API coverage
Customers want personalization capabilities to promote more engagement with content

Bloomreach - Contenders

Pros:

On-par in content generation and modeling
Integration with messaging tools like Slack
Growing list of third-party integrations
Native experimentation
Customers appreciate ability to provide input into roadmap, customer service, and partnership

Cons:

Vision and innovation lagged the market
Lags in content and audience analytics and translation features
Smaller network size than other vendors
Did not provide reference customers for this evaluation

OpenText - Contenders

Pros:

On-par workflow and analytics capabilities
Support for content teams that assemble content using data and audience analytics
Large global partner network
Simple pricing model
Scheduled releases with detailed features and realistic timelines
Customers like translation features and performance

Cons:

CMS growth challenged by acquisitions and divestitures
Hard to discern how much vision is applicable specifically to CMS product
Content authoring interface, genAI content features, integrations to third-party enterprise systems, and headless preview lagged other vendors
Customers found product transition from on-premises to cloud challenging
Long waits for expected genAI features

FAQs

Q: Which vendors are Leaders in 2025?

A: Adobe, Contentstack, Optimizely

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

A: Leaders in the Forrester Wave represent vendors that have the strongest current offerings and strategies in the market. These vendors demonstrate excellence across both current offering capabilities (vertical axis) and strategic vision/execution (horizontal axis). Leaders typically show strong innovation, robust product capabilities, clear market vision, established partner ecosystems, and positive customer feedback. They are well-positioned to help enterprises achieve their content management goals and adapt to market evolution, particularly in areas like AI-powered content management, composability, and delivering personalized customer experiences at scale.

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 2025

Content Management Systems Vendor Product Comparisons 2025

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FAQs

Q: Which vendors are Leaders in 2025?

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

Q: How do I interpret a Forrester Wave?

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