Optimizely Content Management System vs. Salesforce CMS

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Optimizely Content Management System
Score 8.6 out of 10
N/A
Optimizely Content Management System (CMS) is purpose-built for marketers, and fully composable for developers. The CMS supports the end-to-end content lifecycle, helping users to deliver on-brand, high-impact digital experiences that 'wow' audiences.N/A
Salesforce CMS
Score 8.4 out of 10
N/A
Salesforce Marketing Cloud Personalization (formerly Salesforce CMS) is a hybrid CMS allowing users to author content once and deliver it anywhere, in or out of Salesforce. Users create content, define content access, and define channels so they can share content and limit access to appropriate contributors. For an experience built with Salesforce, users can choose from two of the company's “what-you-see-is-what-you-get” (WYSIWYG) tools: Experience Builder and Commerce Page Designer. If the user…N/A
Pricing
Optimizely Content Management SystemSalesforce CMS
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Optimizely Content Management SystemSalesforce CMS
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesNo
Entry-level Setup FeeRequiredNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Optimizely Content Management SystemSalesforce CMS
Considered Both Products
Optimizely Content Management System
Chose Optimizely Content Management System
Much better
Chose Optimizely Content Management System
It's comparable to the ones that I mentioned in most ways. I selected this product because it was the easiest and most affordable. Easiest in terms of we already were on the Optimizely platform, so to go to another would be lots of work time and money. So it was truly the least …
Chose Optimizely Content Management System
It is much more intuitive and easily customizable.
Chose Optimizely Content Management System
We chose Optimizely CMS for its proposed ROI, it's extensibility, and it's quality developer/integrator community. With a good integrator, there is very little you can't do with this platform.

I was at an agency that used Sitecore, which is one of Optimizely's main competitors …
Chose Optimizely Content Management System
Among all the CMS products that I've tested, Episerver had a stronger coupling with an e-commerce product (Episerver Commerce), and that was the main reason we went with it. Besides that, the main reasons why I wouldn't go with each, would be mainly:

Joomla:
Salesforce CMS
Chose Salesforce CMS
This fits into the mold with the other Salesforce services. Once you get used to the suite and the nuances of each platform, things become easy. Just read any documentation first, as jumping in will only get you so far, and the more connections with the other apps, the more …
Chose Salesforce CMS
Integration between the two is easy and superb
Features
Optimizely Content Management SystemSalesforce CMS
Security
Comparison of Security features of Product A and Product B
Optimizely Content Management System
8.5
152 Ratings
5% above category average
Salesforce CMS
10.0
25 Ratings
21% above category average
Role-based user permissions8.5152 Ratings10.025 Ratings
Platform & Infrastructure
Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of Product A and Product B
Optimizely Content Management System
8.0
150 Ratings
5% above category average
Salesforce CMS
10.0
24 Ratings
27% above category average
API8.1145 Ratings10.024 Ratings
Internationalization / multi-language7.9112 Ratings10.020 Ratings
Web Content Creation
Comparison of Web Content Creation features of Product A and Product B
Optimizely Content Management System
7.9
175 Ratings
2% above category average
Salesforce CMS
10.0
21 Ratings
26% above category average
WYSIWYG editor7.8161 Ratings10.018 Ratings
Code quality / cleanliness8.3150 Ratings10.020 Ratings
Admin section8.2161 Ratings10.018 Ratings
Page templates8.4154 Ratings10.019 Ratings
Library of website themes7.587 Ratings10.014 Ratings
Mobile optimization / responsive design7.9157 Ratings10.019 Ratings
Publishing workflow8.2154 Ratings10.019 Ratings
Form generator6.9117 Ratings10.017 Ratings
Web Content Management
Comparison of Web Content Management features of Product A and Product B
Optimizely Content Management System
7.6
164 Ratings
3% above category average
Salesforce CMS
10.0
21 Ratings
30% above category average
Content taxonomy8.2149 Ratings10.018 Ratings
SEO support7.2149 Ratings10.017 Ratings
Bulk management7.1123 Ratings10.019 Ratings
Availability / breadth of extensions7.5130 Ratings10.019 Ratings
Community / comment management8.0108 Ratings10.021 Ratings
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Optimizely Content Management SystemSalesforce CMS
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Score 10.0 out of 10
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Score 10.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
RWS Tridion Sites
RWS Tridion Sites
Score 9.0 out of 10
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Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises
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Score 9.0 out of 10
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User Ratings
Optimizely Content Management SystemSalesforce CMS
Likelihood to Recommend
8.6
(201 ratings)
10.0
(25 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.6
(33 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.5
(67 ratings)
10.0
(10 ratings)
Availability
9.2
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
10.0
(8 ratings)
8.0
(7 ratings)
Online Training
10.0
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
6.4
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Optimizely Content Management SystemSalesforce CMS
Likelihood to Recommend
Optimizely
If you want to build a website quickly there are plenty of ways to do so with some great examples and plenty of support both from the company and in the forums. if you want to build a more complex structure you can but be ready to spend the time to build exactly what you need as a solid foundation goes a massive way before building out content and making those choices early and sticking with them helps
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Salesforce
When managing a team of 30 or more technician the tools available for a scheduler are incredible. The system sync's quickly so all schedulers can be looking at the same Gantt and see what changes have been made or need to be made. If you have too small of a team this service would be overkill especially given the cost.
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Pros
Optimizely
  • I think the user interface for content admins is very good and very competitive. And compared to other providers, the technology that CMS in particular has. So the way it integrated the net ecosystem is very well because it follows the MBC pattern. So basically it just allows really simple implementations for what would normally be complex components on any other sort of vendor that's out there.
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Salesforce
  • It has a very smooth integration with Salesforce and third-party tools, ensuring easy tracking of policies and assets.
  • It also has impressive security features like used-based permissions and encrypted data.
  • Everything can be managed from a centralized place which saves a lot of time.
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Cons
Optimizely
  • Magento did have some nice tools for creating product groups or carousels for promotion. Opti seems to be lacking in that.
  • A blog - maybe this is available and we don't have it installed, but a searchable blog would be very appreciated.
  • Structured Data/MicroData - maybe it's our install, but this seems to be missing
  • Meta data: we have access to limited types and need to make a request from IT, it would be nice to be able to access more to adjust for SEO needs.
  • When in a folder on the BLOCKS tab, it would be wonderful to hit the MEDIA tab and stay in that same folder.
  • I have some less technical people that will make folders with spaces - which Opti handles, but it would be great if it wouldn't accept a space or gave an error message not to use them.
  • I think I know why the extra code is added to urls and image links, but it causes issues when taking things from our testing site to the live site. For example, I need to copy the Navigation from Inspect Element on testing to put it in production. I have learned to work around it, but it's not my favorite.
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Salesforce
  • I find that the more complex you make things it starts to hit load times quite hard.
  • Additional tracking and analytics for the pages/emails would be nice.
  • Version control with autosaves and regular saves so you can tell the difference with 15-minute intervals.
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Likelihood to Renew
Optimizely
Since I work on the implementation side of things, and do not directly own licensing for Ektron CMS, I have to base this rating off of how I think it will be received or presented to customers looking to start a new site deployment. I try to remain CMS agnostic, though my specialty is with the .NET and Microsoft stack. Because of the experience I have working with Ektron, I tend to be more forgiving with the shortcomings as I am familiar with how to work around them or past them from experience. Being familiar with the community available also helps, as you become familiar with the best approaches to find solutions to your issues. Each product has it's ups and downs and all of them are only going to be as good as the company or development team implementing them can make them. This is EXTREMELY important to remember when choosing a CMS, as it can make or break your expensive investment.
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Salesforce
It will be too difficult to change to a different software. We are fully integrated, and if things are not working well, it would be way worse to try to move to a different platform.
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Usability
Optimizely
From our editors perspective they find the CMS system easy and to clear to use. Our developers find it very easy to design on and appreciate the level of service support available. It's also always evolving and getting better every year. We find this investment reassuring and encourages us to try keep pace and see how we can continue to push the envelope and continue to improve all aspect of our websites and online touch points.
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Salesforce
Strengths: - Intuitive for Salesforce Users – If you’re already working within the Salesforce ecosystem, the Salesforce CMS is easy to navigate, with a clean UI, drag-and-drop content management, and reusable assets for quick updates. - Seamless Integration – Since it connects natively with Experience Cloud, Marketing Cloud, and CRM, it allows for efficient multi-channel content distribution without needing extra third-party tools. - AI-Powered Personalization – The ability to deliver dynamic content based on user profiles and engagement data is a huge plus, making content delivery more relevant and impactful. Challenges: - Learning Curve for New Users – If you're not already familiar with Salesforce, the interface can feel overwhelming, requiring training to fully leverage all features. - Limited Customization & Workflow Automation – While it works well for structured content, advanced approval workflows and deep editorial customization are limited compared to enterprise CMS platforms like Adobe Experience Manager. - Media & Design Limitations – Salesforce CMS is not as robust for managing rich media-heavy content, which can be frustrating for teams needing more flexibility in multimedia presentation.
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Reliability and Availability
Optimizely
Unplanned outages or errors are fairly rare in our instance. And when there are issues, they're usually fixed fairly quickly
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Salesforce
Seen very least outages and it would took more time hardley not more than 10 mins that to with prior advance notice
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Performance
Optimizely
No answers on this topic
Salesforce
Its very quick and not facing any issus in loading if we have good internet bandwidth then it works very well and doesnt gives any issues
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Support Rating
Optimizely
I attended multiple trainings/tutorials early in the process. The vendor-supplied content about Optimizely was engaging for users/attendees (I often analyze training content, compliance programs, governance plans), which helps our OCM people by having good "word of mouth" about the product long before a rollout ever happens. I actually when the user-focused portion of the Optimizely Academy twice in 2022 to ensure I had a grasp on operability and to be able to support the training and OCM efforts
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Salesforce
I've never really had to contact support. It's at the point where we have people in the organization that are our specific go-to inhouse support teams for Salesforce. Again, that goes back to what I said about there being a point where just too much is added to Salesforce that you have to hire someone to be the go-to person of Salesforce. There is only so much their support team can do for you. I wouldn't expect Salesforce Support to have any sort of understanding of the weird issues I deal with!
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In-Person Training
Optimizely
No answers on this topic
Salesforce
Since I attended training from one of our senior resource in organizations I didn't face any issues
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Online Training
Optimizely
Ektron is one of the best solution for .Net platform. Over the years have improved the performance issues that the previous versions had. My only complain is right now you can't do Page builder pages if you choose to have a MVC architecture
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Salesforce
N/A. I wasn't present for vendor-provided training.
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Implementation Rating
Optimizely
I was not fully involved.
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Salesforce
I joined post the installtion so not aware much of it but as per feedback its not that hard to setup
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Alternatives Considered
Optimizely
Optimizely Content Management System is much more feature rich, and less complex that the other CMS platforms we have used. Optimizely Content Management System is more intuitive in how the content is structured and how easy it is to pull blocks of content to create the layout of a page.
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Salesforce
As our business heavily relies on Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, and Marketing Cloud, we need a CMS that works natively with our existing Salesforce Data. Other platforms would require third-party connectors or custom API development, making integration more complex and expensive. Salesforce allows us to manage content once and distribute it across multiple touchpoints. It also delivers personalized marketing content based on CRM data.
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Contract Terms and Pricing Model
Optimizely
No answers on this topic
Salesforce
N/A. I did not help purchase Salesforce and am unaware of our contract details.
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Scalability
Optimizely
No answers on this topic
Salesforce
Its highly reliable when it comes to usage with high availability and robust infrastructure
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Professional Services
Optimizely
No answers on this topic
Salesforce
N/A. I've never used Salesforce professional services.
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Return on Investment
Optimizely
  • Flexibility with design that allows us to work towards our mission of 'Tennis Opened Up'
  • Speed of deploying content, meaning users can really on us for the most up-to-date content on tennis in Britain
  • Ability to have different logged-in areas for different user groups, allowing us to create more bespoke and personalised experiences
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Salesforce
  • It allows me to keep a close eye on all of my performance metrics through the Dashboard Reporting, ie what my sales pipeline looks like, how much it's changed in the last 60 days, new opportunities created in the last 7 days, # of emails sent for the week, etc. The ease of the design and output make it really easy to check my progress throughout the day to find where I have holes and am falling short on my personal and work goals. It's resulted in greater transparency with my Mgmt Team and shorter 1-on-1 mtgs with my boss as he can see exactly where I am at all times (to be fair, I'm a senior sales rep, so he pretty much lets me do my job completely unfettered), but it does prove that I am continually producing which recently resulted in a raise I didn't even ask for.
  • The SF repository is so detailed that I don't have to spend tons of time finding frequently used websites attached to a client or see what all interactions with the company look like. Even though I don't use SF for my bulk emails and email sequences, SF provides me with an email to use in the bcc of these emails which links everything back to SF. I find that extremely helpful. This really impacts my efficiency and I can honestly say that once I started using all the functionality of data management, it saved me about 20% of my time/week that I could then allocate towards other revenue-generating tasks like prospecting and account management. The more time I have for those, the better. My year-over-year on accounts 1 year and older just grew by 17% this last year.
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ScreenShots

Optimizely Content Management System Screenshots

Screenshot of Content delivery: Developers can use modern GraphQL and REST APIs to query content from any source and send it to any channel or device.Screenshot of User roles and permissionsScreenshot of (SaaS CMS): Visual Builder: Add an image: Optimizely Visual Builder offers a range of editing features designed to make content creation and layout building intuitive and accessible to both technical and non-technical users. A drag-and-drop system is used to add, move, and rearrange elements within the layout, for quick and flexible content organization.Screenshot of (SaaS CMS): Visual Builder: Create an experience: Create an Experience functionality in Optimizely Visual Builder offers a code-free way to build and manage captivating digital experiences. It offers pre-built content blocks or elements (like text, images, buttons, forms, etc.) that can be positioned on the page layout as desired. Visual Builder offers extensive options to customize the appearance and behavior of these elements. Users can modify colors, fonts, sizes, animations, and even add interactive features providing flexibility in arranging content, accommodating various design needs and responsiveness across different screen sizes.Screenshot of (SaaS CMS): Visual Builder: Publish: The Visual Builder displays changes in real-time as they are made. This includes side-by-side previews for different devices like desktops, tablets, and mobiles. Before publishing, the Interactive Preview mode can be used to test elements like forms, buttons, and other interactive components to ensure they work as expected on the live site. Changes can then be published directly from the Visual Builder interface, making them instantly available to site visitors.Screenshot of the central location to manage assets, editing and publishing content.