Optimizely Content Management System Reviews & Product Details

I have been using Optimizely CMS from 2006 and have seen it grow through all the years. The last few years its effectiveness has increased due to being part of the Optimizely One product, integrated with AI and workflow. This has really leveraged the product to go from Content Management System (CMS) to Digital Experience Platform (DXP) to Marketing Operating System (Marketing OS). It is not a place to do tasks anymore, but to check up on the final content of your workflow on every channel and in every language. It has become really easy to use. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The real power of the Optimizely CMS is leveraged in the newest version, which requires an upgrade for many existing users to a different format. Looking at long-term strategy, you would need to do that anyways, but this could hurt user adoption on the short-term. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Optimizely is easy for a variety of content editors to make changes - with permission restrictions it's simple to grant team members access to manage their content contributions. The ability to develop custom functionality has been beneficial for our team and has allowed for unique user experiences to help set our brand apart from peers. The ease of integrating other 3rd party solutions into the CMS has been seamless. I've had great customer service from Optimizely over the years where they are quick to respond to tickets and helpful with requests that are less common. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The out of box forms are a little limiting and require custom development in order to style them and/or create custom workflows. It would be great if the A/B testing capability was available outside of their ODP package. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The Optimizely CMS is intuitive and easy to use. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The system is expensive and could be cost-prohibitive for smaller organizations. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

As a developer and technical admin for the Opti CMS, I find it very easy to do whatever I need. Things work as expected and We've had nearly zero downtime since using the platform. Although the ease of use for editors depends greatly on choices made during implementation, we've found the experience to be positive. The CMS is easy to use and our customer support team at Optimizely are very supportive and take great care of us. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I don't really dislike anything but there are some minor annoyances over some things in the CMS.

Recently we've needed to find a document stored in the CMS based on its public URL but, because it was stored inside of a "for this block" that was likely stored in another "for this block" or "for this page" folder, it became nearly impossible to find. Some additional internal reporting and management utilities would be helpful. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Ease of use, as a developer to code-first approach to CMS is very useful.

Plenty of training materials available and an active community forum.

I use this every day and alongside other CMS offerings and find Opti to always provide the best environment to implement a fully functional website using a mix of Opti features and standard .NET practices.

Very extendable and lots of 3rd party plugins available to use and simple to create your own and integrate into a CMS website.

Customer support available for reporting issues and assistance using cloud services. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Since upgrade to .NET core some features have not yet been implemented (DDS admin)

Upgrading from .NET framework to core can be complicated and time consuming. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What I like best about Optimizely CMS is its flexibility and developer-friendly architecture. It allows for clean, modular code while giving content editors a powerful and intuitive editing experience. Features like content versioning, personalization, and multi-site support are built-in and work seamlessly. I also appreciate how well it integrates with modern front-end frameworks and APIs, making it ideal for headless and hybrid CMS scenarios. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

While Optimizely CMS is powerful, the learning curve can be steep for new developers—especially when setting up complex features like custom content types or integrating with external systems. Some parts of the documentation could be more detailed or include more real-world examples. A Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

It helps me keep on top of my content tasks easily. It also enables quick collaboration and removes clutter from the inbox. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

It takes a while for many people to get used to best practices and even more for everyone to work in the same way. I know this is pretty much up to the implementation team and not the system itself, however, the system is built to be used by people so there is always the human element to be considered.

Aside from that, calendars are hard to use. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Optimizely CMS is highly flexible, making it easy to customize and scale for different business needs. The built-in A/B testing and personalization features stand out, allowing for data-driven content optimization. The user-friendly interface, combined with strong integration capabilities, makes content management efficient and smooth. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The learning curve can be steep, especially for new users or developers unfamiliar with the platform. Customization sometimes requires more development effort than expected, and licensing costs may be high for smaller businesses. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Some communality with the traditional Optimizely CMS, in terms of structure and look & feel;

Search functionality included OOB;

Quick support, and willingness to make additions/improvements based on feedback;

Configuration via GUI is simple and easy; Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

As customization is limited, things like extended configuration options for things like rich text fields would be appreciated by content editors;

GraphQl makes FE integration easy, though there is room for improvement (things like field nullability, and content area fields should reflect the types actually allowed);

Lack of tools for content/configuration synchronization across environments (GUI and API options are available, but make it difficult to keep track of what's being changed in each environment); Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I like how clean and easy campaigns are to be created with many subtasks, where we have recurring tasks and campaigns that happen each month. The team is able to quickly and easily replicate tasks and apply to multiple accounts. It's very easy to follow the logic, and create standardized task templates. I interact with Optimizely every day. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I wish customer support would be a little more involved with bringing simple functionality updates to life - IE: the big one - the search functionality leaves a lot to be desired. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.