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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Adobe Experience Manager

    Score8.5 out of 10
    N/AAdobe Experience Manager is a combined web content management system and digital asset management system. The combined applications of Adobe Experience Manager Sites and Adobe Experience Manager Assets is offered by the vendor as an end-to-end solution for managing and delivering marketing content.N/A

    Concrete CMS

    Score9.2 out of 10
    N/AConcrete CMS (formerly Concrete5) is a free and open source, PHP built content management system for content on the web and also for intranets. It is optimized to support the creation of online magazines and newspapers.N/A
    Pricing
    Adobe Experience ManagerConcrete CMS
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Adobe Experience ManagerConcrete CMS
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoYes
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Adobe Experience ManagerConcrete CMS
    Considered Both Products
    Adobe
    Chose Adobe Experience Manager
    I think AEM is specific to the client's needs and is not necessarily comparable to all other platforms. However, when compared feature to feature I think AEM many times is a leader in the industry. While WordPress has progressed in the WYSIWYG interface it is not there still …
    Incentivized
    Portland Labs
    Chose Concrete CMS
    WordPress - Getting better as WCMS but still primarily for blogging sites.
    Joomla - Very robust system with large community however can be complex for authoring and site management.
    Adobe CQ (AEM) - Enterprise class system with large price tag.
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    95%
    Would buy again
    126 Answers
    100%
    Would buy again
    22 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    93%
    Delivers good value for the price
    99 Answers
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    22 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    98%
    Happy with the feature set
    129 Answers
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    22 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    91%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    75 Answers
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    22 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    88%
    Implementation went as expected
    85 Answers
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    22 Answers
    Features
    Adobe Experience ManagerConcrete CMS
    Security
    Comparison of Security features of Adobe Experience Manager and Concrete CMS
    Feature
    Adobe Experience Manager
    8.4
    38 Ratings
    2% above category average
    Concrete CMS
    9.5
    38 Ratings
    16% above category average
    Role-based user permissions8.438 Ratings9.538 Ratings
    Platform & Infrastructure
    Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of Adobe Experience Manager and Concrete CMS
    Feature
    Adobe Experience Manager
    8.0
    33 Ratings
    4% below category average
    Concrete CMS
    9.7
    33 Ratings
    24% above category average
    API7.829 Ratings9.731 Ratings
    Internationalization / multi-language8.129 Ratings9.730 Ratings
    Web Content Creation
    Comparison of Web Content Creation features of Adobe Experience Manager and Concrete CMS
    Feature
    Adobe Experience Manager
    7.5
    38 Ratings
    2% below category average
    Concrete CMS
    8.4
    42 Ratings
    8% above category average
    WYSIWYG editor7.433 Ratings9.342 Ratings
    Code quality / cleanliness6.734 Ratings10.037 Ratings
    Admin section7.034 Ratings10.040 Ratings
    Page templates7.637 Ratings10.040 Ratings
    Library of website themes7.326 Ratings4.238 Ratings
    Mobile optimization / responsive design7.835 Ratings9.739 Ratings
    Publishing workflow8.135 Ratings7.737 Ratings
    Form generator7.629 Ratings6.639 Ratings
    Web Content Management
    Comparison of Web Content Management features of Adobe Experience Manager and Concrete CMS
    Feature
    Adobe Experience Manager
    7.3
    37 Ratings
    1% above category average
    Concrete CMS
    6.9
    40 Ratings
    6% below category average
    Content taxonomy7.731 Ratings8.939 Ratings
    SEO support7.133 Ratings9.039 Ratings
    Bulk management7.236 Ratings6.039 Ratings
    Availability / breadth of extensions7.534 Ratings5.439 Ratings
    Community / comment management7.130 Ratings5.439 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Adobe Experience ManagerConcrete CMS
    Small Businesses
    Yext
    Score8.9 out of 10
    Umbraco CMS
    Score6.8 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Sitecore Digital Experience Platform
    Score8.7 out of 10
    Square Online
    Score7.4 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Progress Sitefinity
    Score6.8 out of 10
    RWS Tridion Sites
    Score9 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Adobe Experience ManagerConcrete CMS
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.5
    (85 ratings)
    9.2
    (59 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    8.2
    (6 ratings)
    8.0
    (22 ratings)
    Usability
    8.0
    (50 ratings)
    9.0
    (12 ratings)
    Availability
    8.6
    (5 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Performance
    8.0
    (5 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    7.2
    (11 ratings)
    10.0
    (3 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    8.7
    (2 ratings)
    9.8
    (6 ratings)
    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    9.5
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Professional Services
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Adobe Experience ManagerConcrete CMS
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Adobe
    I'll answer the second one because I mean, the first one I don't have an issue with. The second scenario is we oftentimes have the need to spin off very small campaign style sites or sites that generate leads but are unbranded and that sort of thing. So that's hard to do in AEM because you have to then create another organization within AEM to do that. And we're talking about sites that are maybe five to 10 pages in size. So we've been investigating Edge, but then that's a different workflow, so we'd have to train people on that. So it would be nice if there was something within the AEM structure that could allow you to do something very similar to Edge, where you make some small micro sites that are not necessarily branded, that you could still host within the platform and not have to retrain everybody on a completely different platform.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Portland Labs
    Suitable if you are part of small to large scale companies or web-houses which have PHP developers and frontend engineers with some budgets. [Also suitable if] you or your client want to build a website that requires some features or uniqueness [and needs] some customization and freedom. Additionally suitable if you want this project to be DevOps based project or if the project requires very tight security and is inside of a closed network.
    Read full review
    Pros
    Adobe
    • It allows us to scale so that we can make a change on a global footer. And it applies to all of the different property websites. It allows us to set up components and compartmentalize things in a way. The big thing is that it's scalable. And then it also ties into Adobe Analytics and other Adobe products. So we are a complete Adobe shop. Every Adobe product that we can use, we use. I don't think we do it for marketing so much, but for doing target testing and analytics, data scientists are using the same product and so it all speaks.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Portland Labs
    • As a dev, the Page object (coupled with page attributes, nav menus and page lists) makes structuring a website or web app a dream. The separation of page templates from page types also helps, the former being about layout while the latter is more conceptual.
    • As an admin, you pretty much have as much control as the developers of the site decide to give you.
    • The versioning system allows admins to roll changes back and work on changes before publishing them.
    • The permissions system is exceptionally powerful, allowing roles and/or individual users to be included or excluded from each permission.
    • The attributes system allows pages, files and users to be given custom properties of various types (e.g. text, image, colour).
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Adobe
    • Can sometimes be difficult to troubleshoot bugs/issues as they arise
    • Sometimes difficult to set up restrictions on how components can be designed to make sure they fit in with existing content
    • While the integration with Adobe target works fairly well, the process can be a bit opaque and hard to understand, making it difficult to troubleshoot when issues arise
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Portland Labs
    • Allow end users to clear cache when updating pages.
    • Needs a few more built in forms.
    • The CMS is not multilingual by default. Even though I managed to 'hack' it so, it would be nice to have it included.
    • It'd be nice to make use of custom PHP modules through shortcodes more straight forward. It seems the hooks are a bit contrived.
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Adobe
    We had and still have a fantastic experience using Adobe CQ. Lots of flexibility, great integration with other Adobe products we already use and a powerful technology make it a great fit for our corporate environment. Also as the community grows, it makes it easier to network with other developers and users to get new ideas on how to continue to get the best out of the software.
    Read full review
    Portland Labs
    Its a very solid, very consistent package that never lets you down or leaves you frustrated. It gets a 10/10 because its so much better than anything else currently available. It also gets a 10/10 because, even if not compared to others, it does not leave you wanting for features or functionality. It is an excellent piece of software that will answer almost every CMS need.
    Read full review
    Usability
    Adobe
    It depends if it is from an administrator point of view or from a business content author point of view. I think from business author point of view the solution is good and with the GEN AI capabilities coming it is doing better and better, however from an administration point of view there are still a lot of improvements to ease the maintenance of user access management and as well as the integration configuration aspect.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Portland Labs
    I have used it on over 30 projects in the past 3 years and it's still a pleasure to work in. Doesn't always have all the answers, no CMS does, but I still find it very easy to use from prototyping to working to final project. Also there is no problem working on a localhost then moving to a live site, like there is with WordPress. It's my go to app in my CMS quiver.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Adobe
    Being part of Adobe Suite means you are already notified when the tool has any outages. However, I have never faced unplanned outages. Whenever you face any issue with the site, it is clearly stated if there were any planned outages and how quickly you will be back to normal. So, I will say that even the outages are planned and managed in a great way like their other services.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Portland Labs
    Since it's not tied to a central server (other than for authorizing updates and assigning licenses to specific sites), it's available pretty much 100% of the time.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Performance
    Adobe
    With respect to performance, Adobe experience manager is one of the best in the CMS space. We didn't observe frequent slowness on platform, however the systems which are accessing experience manager should be of good specifications without which slowness would be observed. Adobe experience manager works well in integration with other solutions, unless the destination application is designed to trigger frequent calls to AEM.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Portland Labs
    The site works extremely well, the front end flies, searches and form submissions are very fast indeed. The reason its a 9 not a ten? the back end can be a little slow at times, and this is unfair, because for the backend to be so amazing, it has to do a huge amount of work!
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Adobe
    Adobe Experience Manager, in all its capacity, is a great alternative to any other CMS you are using. It helps in rapid development and makes life easier for maintaining the website for multi-language sites. Technical know-how is eliminated at content authoring. Better documentation in terms of live examples with videos would be appreciated.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Portland Labs
    Concrete5 is open-source and has an incredibly strong, polite, and supportive community. You can get an answer to nearly anything you want to do with Concrete5 by googling for it, searching the Concrete5 discussion forums or stack overflow, or posting your question to the forum. Members are very courteous and do not look down on those with less knowledge. And answers are always quick, informative, and supportive.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    Adobe
    Depending on your individual needs, It is really quite simple to create an authoring experience for a website that looks really good. I have been part of many implementations and many teams and have seen many projects that were super successful and others that were not implemented well. AEM has room for a lot of flexibility in the implementation process compared to other CMS like SharePoint
    Read full review
    Portland Labs
    Build off of an existing theme to speed up the creation of custom designed themed. Bootstrap is a good one but there are many others that are probably much simpler to build from than the Bootstrap one was. Make sure you host on a Unix/Linux server so you don't have to install PHP or MySQL separately. It's just smoother on those platforms.
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Adobe
    Overall, I prefer AEM as an enterprise site management tool. It allows levels of access control and delegation, while leaving the server management and updates to a specialized team. I do miss the flexibility of being able to search and replace that I have in a WordPress site, and I miss the ability to have one file for redirects like I had in percussion
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Portland Labs
    WordPress at the time was riddled with security breaches in the news and while Concrete5 was smaller (and therefore a smaller attack vector), after eleven years of use, Concrete5 has only had one published incident with an add-on that resolved within hours and with excellent communication. You can talk to the CEO and the CTO (or the rest of the team). They are very engaged and you're working with a small company of people who care, not a call-center with people just waiting to go home.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    Adobe
    Instead of being directly involved in the tool purchase, I am involved in analysis or what we can use to maximize the tool. Small organizations may find it expensive. However, if the team or organization focuses more on your ROI or the features you will get, then it will definitely be worth it. Pricing is based on a number of factors, including team size or the use of the tool. The user can select the pricing option that best fits their needs based on the number of form submissions they make or the number of pages they wish to publish on their global/multisite sites.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Portland Labs
    No answers on this topic
    Professional Services
    Adobe
    The professional services team within adobe is one of the best in terms of technical and solutioning knowledge. However, considering the billing charges of adobe professional services team, it is always recommended to involve them during platform initial setup or when a complex solution is to be built with platform customizations.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Portland Labs
    No answers on this topic
    Return on Investment
    Adobe
    • too soon to tell on increased conversion rates based on external marketing factors in play but having increased visibility into customer engagement trends will most likely lead to improvement of our conversion rates.
    • There have been productivity gains from the perspective of actually migrating all of our externally managed sites to the same in-house Adobe Experience Manager platform and then being able to utilize those universal components.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Portland Labs
    • Concrete5 is the customer-facing side of our business. It's where we host the site that potential customers see before they choose to purchase and create an account with us. We are able to keep that site clean, user-friendly, and with a lot of available options for customers to interact with thanks to Concrete5
    • The ability to have multiple users and admins for the site means that we all members of our team can go in and create new content, fix or troubleshoot issues, and edit the site easily.
    • Our CRM isn't directly integrated with Concrete5, so when customers go to make a purchase with us, they have to leave our Concrete5 site.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    Adobe Experience Manager Screenshots

    Screenshot of AEM Forms - Creates an adaptive formScreenshot of AEM Forms - themes libraryScreenshot of AEM Forms - where to create a templateScreenshot of AEM Forms - the interactive communications editorScreenshot of Adobe Experience Manager Sites - document-based authoring enables marketers to create and publish content with familiar tools.Screenshot of Adobe Experience Manager Sites - Universal Editor, an advanced visual editor, empowers marketers to edit and publish content.

    Concrete CMS Screenshots

    Screenshot of In-context editing is simple to understandScreenshot of Change text just like a word processorScreenshot of Versioning and workflow built on top of powerful permissionsScreenshot of Flexible backend to power complex communities and intranets.