6 Adobe Experience Manager alternatives for smarter teams

Highlights

You’ll learn about 6 best AEM alternatives:

• Contentstack: The platform offers an API-first, headless CMS along with real-time personalization
• Sitecore: It's a hybrid CMS-DXP with strong automation, but complex to manage
• Contentful: The CMS is developer-friendly and offers scalable APIs, but it's pricey for large teams
• Storyblok: The platform is a visual editor and a headless CMS offering multi-language support and limited enterprise features
• Sanity: It offers real-time collaboration
• Kontent.ai: Kontent.ai provides enterprise governance and AI suggestions but lacks marketing automation

We’re drowning in CMS options. Endless features, hidden costs, complex integrations and “enterprise-grade” false promises make content management tougher.

One such CMS is the Adobe Experience Manager (AEM). While it promises a lot of things, like robust workflows, enterprise-level security and headless capabilities, the reality is completely different. AEM disadvantages include lengthy implementation times, costs that quickly exceed budget and marketing and creative teams that often wait for developers, even for minor updates. 

For companies that need speed, flexibility and cost effectiveness, AEM is a heavyweight they  never asked for.

We reviewed some of the most talked-about options for headless content management systems (CMS), digital asset management integrations, AI-powered personalization tools and multi-channel publishing platforms, which are the best Adobe Experience Manager alternatives.

6 Best Adobe Experience Manager alternatives

Here are the top AEM alternatives to consider.

Contenstack

Traditional CMS platforms feel like running a Ferrari on a dirty and bumpy road, powerful, but slow and inflexible. That’s where Contentstack comes in. Its API-first, fully composable architecture built for enterprises provides speed, flexibility and control, helping you choose Contentstack over AEM.

Composable architecture with native integrations

Contentstack integrates with your existing tools. Your headless CMS communicates with your Salesforce, e-commerce store or marketing automation platform. 

Real-time data activation capabilities

If delivering personalized content is part of your world, Contentstack’s real-time data activation layer makes it a whole lot faster and smarter. And it works well for the kinds of experiences that most CMSs struggle to handle, such as product launches, campaign updates, microsites and omnichannel personalization.

With Contentstack, you push updates across web and mobile instantly, trigger personalized content based on user behavior and see everything go live in real time. Unlike AEM, which relies on nightly builds or sluggish upgrades, Contentstack's headless CMS provides highly relevant experiences, keeping customers and teams engaged and productive.

Faster time-to-market for campaigns and microsites

With Contentstack, you complete projects such as campaigns, microsites or landing pages faster than you make your morning coffee. As a result, your teams move faster and you launch campaigns sooner. 

Built-in localization workflows and role-based permissions

Contentstack delivers multilingual content easily. Localization workflows ensure every region gets the right content, in the right language, while role-based permissions keep approvals clear and secure. 

Transparent enterprise pricing

Contentstack’s pricing is clear and predictable, so scaling your content operations doesn’t spiral out of control. 

Excellent customer support

Contentstack offers 24/7 live in-app support to ensure someone is always available when you need it. They operate with a support team that works with the customers to reap maximum ROI from their investment. Contentstack Academy offers a wide range of how-to videos, allowing users to explore the platform at their own pace. This increases customer satisfaction by 98%, ensuring your team remains confident, productive and successful.

Case study: How Dawn Foods transformed its digital experience with Contentstack?

Dawn Foods selected Contentstack because of its ease of use and flexibility in letting the marketing teams handle and publish content without the support of developers. The platform accelerated content updates by 80%, enabled six major releases in the six-month period and enhanced customer engagement and interactivity via personalized omnichannel experiences.

Read the complete case study here.

Sitecore

Sitecore has a reputation as a hybrid CMS-DXP that gives teams the ability to manage their content but also has the potential to deliver full digital experiences through websites, apps, email and even trends like IoT and AR. Its personalization capabilities and marketing automation enable personalized experiences based on customer behaviors and history. Workflow automation saves you time, reduces errors and makes your campaign more efficient. Contentful offers on-site, cloud or hybrid deployment options. However, Sitecore is challenging to implement and manage due to its steep learning curve.

You often need heavy IT integration and development process support. But Contentstack makes the process simpler and less time-consuming, with simpler management, especially for marketing teams.

Contentful

Contentful is a developer-friendly headless CMS and offers many APIs. The platform is easy to integrate with your existing technology stack and multiple channels. Developers love its clean architecture and extensive documentation. Marketing teams structure content and push updates smoothly across all your channels. 

The pricing is not cost-effective, especially when your team grows. Moreover, the interface becomes incomprehensible to non-technical users. When compared to Contentful, Contentstack boasts of a simpler, user-friendly interface, a simple pricing structure and a headless architecture.

Storyblok

Storyblok is a visual editor and headless CMS with powerful multi-language capabilities and an expanding partner ecosystem of integrations. Its component-based process provides content reuse and platform consistency. Storyblok offers a visual editor with headless CMS, good support of multi-language systems and a growing community of integration partners. Its component design approach ensures that your content is modular and flexible enough to offer consistency across platforms without jeopardizing creativity.

The platform’s advanced features are limited to enterprise-scale personalization and automation. Because of this, Contentstack offers enterprise-ready personalization and built-in workflow capabilities.

Sanity

Sanity targets real-time collaborative editing where multiple people can edit the same content at once without conflicts. The flexible content modeling serves a diverse number of projects, including blogs, websites and complicated enterprise solutions. Content teams have a live preview and offer structured editing. Strong integration capabilities make it a perfect choice for developer-heavy teams that prioritize control and speed over collaboration.

The platform is too technical for marketing teams to manage independently. For these reasons, companies prefer Contentstack as it empowers developers and marketers with easy content management and it doesn’t involve any heavy coding.

Kontent.ai

Kontent.ai is an enterprise-level headless CMS, where the priority is governance and compliance, ensuring content consistency. It has a superior uptime and security certification, making it a first choice for global enterprises. Among its prominent features is the AI-enabled content suggestions that assist marketers in creating relevant and appealing content. With multi-channel delivery, modular content structures and in-depth analytics, Kontent.ai is an ideal choice when an enterprise needs to scale its content operations globally.

Although Kontent.ai offers some great functionalities, Contentstack excels in marketing automation and real-time omnichannel personalization.

What to look for in an AEM alternative

Integration with existing tech stack

Your CMS cannot operate in isolation. Your CMS must integrate seamlessly with your digital tools, such as CRM, analytics tools, e-commerce and marketing automation, without causing any issues for the developer. What are your expectations when you add new products to your e-commerce store? You want it to immediately show up on your website, mobile and email marketing. This saves time and your customers receive up-to-date information.

Headless and composable architecture

Search for a headless CMS that delivers content on your websites, mobile and IoT devices and even AR and VR experiences without needing to rebuild for each platform. Composable architecture enhances system flexibility by integrating AI personalization engines. When you update the product description on your website, mobile app or voice assistant, the changes reflect on all the channels.

Scalable content operations

As your brand expands, so does your content. When shopping for a CMS, prefer one offering automation, version control, multiple language support and approval workflows. Using a headless content management system, international brands present their campaigns in English, Spanish and French at the same time.

DAM capabilities and brand consistency tools

Your digital assets are your brand’s DNA. DAM tools save your files and ensure that your videos, images, PDFs and other data are available to the rest of the team to reuse later. And, since color schemes, style guides and templates are all integrated into brand rules, every page, application screen and social post feels on-brand without any additional work.

Marketing-friendly interfaces

What’s worse than marketers depending on developers to make small updates? With drag-and-drop editors, WYSIWYG tools and in-context editing, your team rolls out campaigns in no time. For example, a retail brand can swap out seasonal banners in minutes and you don’t have to wait around for developer support.

Transparent, predictable pricing

An AEM alternative with clear, predictable pricing helps you plan budgets. Platforms like Contentstack scale with traffic and users, so costs grow in line with your business without you facing any unexpected fees or surprises.

AI-powered personalization and workflow management

AI-powered personalization provided by Contentstack provides relevant and up-to-date information to visitors, auto-populates metadata and simplifies approvals. Your website users are likely to keep coming back when you deliver Netflix-type personalized suggestions.

FAQs

What is the alternative to Adobe Experience Manager?

The best alternative to AEM is Contentstack.

Is AEM the best CMS?

AEM is a powerful CMS, but its complexity and high cost make the “best” choice depend on your team’s specific needs.

Is Adobe Experience Manager a CMS or a DAM platform?

AEM is a CMS and a DAM. It combines content with digital asset management.

Why do companies switch from AEM to other CMS platforms?

Enterprise companies switch from AEM to Contentstack to reduce costs, simplify workflows, increase flexibility and provide a user-friendly tool.

Conclusion

Finding the right CMS shouldn’t feel like digging through a haystack. AEM can slow you down with its complexity, high costs and steep learning curve. Contentstack, on the other hand, keeps things simple. With headless, composable architecture, marketing-friendly tools and real-time personalization, your team moves faster, remains flexible and stays in control without waiting on developers. Contentstack is the more intelligent choice for companies that want to enable their developer and marketing teams to scale content operations efficiently.

Talk to us to learn why you should choose Contentstack over Adobe Experience Manager.