Sitecore CMS vs. Adobe Experience Manager (AEM): Why Sitecore beats Adobe for modern marketers

Choosing the right Content Management System (CMS) can be a daunting task given the vast array of options available. If you're trying to decide between Sitecore and Adobe, this guide aims to provide clarity. Despite many CMS platforms claiming similar capabilities, customers are increasingly seeking solutions that are user-friendly, customizable, and flexible enough to integrate with other software systems, with a growing preference for cloud-based CMS solutions to reduce IT infrastructure costs.

To understand the distinction between Sitecore and Adobe, it's helpful to look at their respective journeys into the marketing technology landscape. Sitecore has a long-standing history of over 23 years in CMS, evolving towards composability and SaaS-based CMS offerings. In contrast, Adobe initially focused heavily on its Creative Cloud suite and entered the marketing technology space later with the acquisition of Omniture (now Adobe Analytics) and subsequently Day Software in 2010, which forms the basis of their content management system. This difference in origin influences their strengths and focus.

Let's delve into the specifics by examining key features, pricing and costs, customer support, and user experiences, drawing insights from reputable review sites and customer engagements. Here are the top reasons why Sitecore XM Cloud is presented as the more obvious choice for your CMS:

When evaluating CMS platforms for enterprise needs, the differences between Sitecore and Adobe become clear. Below is a side-by-side comparison of key capabilities — from content authoring to AI — that shows how Sitecore delivers depth, maturity, and flexibility where it matters most.

Sitecore CMS pros:

• A CMS designed for marketers, content creators, and developers
• Faster time to market
• Easy to use
• Offers more value by including personalization and analytics without needing additional products
• Composable DXP with a focused set of offerings

Sitecore CMS cons:

• .NET-based solution, which may involve a learning curve for those unfamiliar with it

Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) pros:

• Offers a number of authoring options, from a universal editor to document-based authoring
• Strong presence and revenue in the creative cloud space

Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) cons:

• Integration issues between its own products and third-party solutions
• Higher costs due to the need to add multiple Adobe products, excluding implementation costs
• Innovation focus shifting towards AEP (Adobe Experience Platform) and data, potentially away from AEM
• Slower time to market for product implementation
• High implementation costs

Adobe AEM customers have reported several challenges including:

“Maintaining and building features to support our team(s). Things seem clunky and my dev team does not like the environment.” [SOURCE]

“AEM takes lot of time for developer to maintain/update codes.” [SOURCE]

“Integrations are not as easy and can be cumbersome to setup.” [SOURCE]

“Deploying to environments takes more steps than it should and involves too many code movements.” [SOURCE]

“The tools aren't as 'glossy' as Adobe creative products, there's A LOT of extraneous clicking that happens while editing, rolling out, publishing and some of the relationships from AEP to AEM, Data Collection & Rules, etc are not as clear.” [SOURCE]

Sitecore XM Cloud has proven credibility in the industry and has already helped with digital transformation of key organizations with composability, embedded personalization, data-driven decision-making, AI-powered site search, and commerce solutions.

Wondering how Sitecore XM Cloud and our composable suite of solutions have helped our customers achieve measurable outcomes?

• Learn more about how Atkore boosted 90% of page load speeds to under one second here 
• Read about how BDR Thermea increased site visits by 43% here 
• Discover how Beyond Blue realized 6x faster web page load times here 
• Find out how to replicate Point B’s success in 99% faster time to market here 
• Learn how Bru Textiles realized 15% cost savings by reducing technical complexity here 

Want to cut through Adobe’s expensive promises to uncover the real story behind the technology and its impact on marketers and developers? Book a demo with one of our solutions consultants today, here.