Adobe Experience Manager vs Contentful comparison

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Adobe Experience Manager

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Adobe Experience Manager and Contentful based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Web Content Management solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed Adobe Experience Manager vs. Contentful Report (Updated: August 2026).

Adobe Experience Manager vs. Contentful

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Helped 908,834 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Adobe Experience Manager

Ranking in Web Content Management

1st

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Enterprise Content Management (3rd), Enterprise Social Software (4th), Digital Experience Platforms (DXP) (1st)

Contentful

Ranking in Web Content Management

4th

Average Rating

8.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Web Content Management category, the mindshare of Adobe Experience Manager is 8.5%, down from 11.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Contentful is 1.2%, down from 1.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Web Content Management Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Adobe Experience Manager	8.5%
Contentful	1.2%
Other	90.3%

Web Content Management

Featured Reviews

Hilax Chamberlain

Digital Marketing Manager at Ford Motor Company

Centralized content management has unified our digital channels and delivers consistent experiences

Adobe Experience Manager offers enterprise-level digital assets management and very robust customization, brand value consistency, and omnichannel delivery. It saves development and maintenance time. The digital asset management and omnichannel delivery features have benefited my team by managing our digital assets, ensuring brand consistency, and enabling us to deliver customized content easily to our clients. Organizing and obtaining information from results is beneficial. Strengthening our online experience as a brand is valuable. Easy integration with other Adobe services improves productivity and provides a smooth experience. Adobe Experience Manager has positively impacted my organization by enabling component and page reuse, which reduces application size. It saves manual effort for maintaining all applications, improves traffic, and ensures consistency across all our applications. It provides better security, scalability, and makes our applications more robust.

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Margaret Thatcher

Production Manager at Unilever

Content workflows have become faster and empower non-technical teams to update pages independently

Contentful makes it easier for non-technical teams to update content by providing organized, flexible data models with support for a variety of data types and content editors such as WYSIWYG form fields and raw text areas. It has great built-in versioning features with history and draft states, so it is easy to make updates and revert when needed. Some of the best features that Contentful offers include organized, flexible data models with support for a variety of data types and content editors such as WYSIWYG form fields and raw text. Contentful has great built-in versioning features with history and draft states, making it easy to make updates and revert when needed. Additionally, it has a very intuitive user interface and good support for multiple spaces, which can be helpful for companies that need separate projects for development, staging, and production. It is also very cost-effective and powerful, and it keeps a history of changes made to the content easily. The versioning and multiple spaces features of Contentful have helped my team manage content effectively, as we leverage Contentful's headless CMS capabilities to easily build a static website using modern technology such as GatsbyJS and ReactJS, making it an ideal solution for small businesses and startups seeking a low-maintenance approach. It is a very scalable tool. Contentful has positively impacted my organization as it is very scalable, can be used by any size of organization, and is a very cost-effective tool. It helps us save cost, especially when dealing with a lot of content compared to other alternatives. Its intuitive design facilitates seamless updates of photos and written content while providing the ability to revert changes when necessary. It has been a very good tool because I am able to spend less time maintaining websites, and my clients spend less time worrying about their site crashing or being hacked. This tool has allowed me to be much more flexible with the types of front-end technology I can use. Since it is very easy to use for all types of technical users, there is no time wasted. It enabled rapid project delivery and low-cost projects for my organization. Since adopting Contentful, we have seen an increase in sales and marketing from 45% to 65%. More work is delivered due to reusability and other features within a shorter time and with less manual effort.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"If you want to use content in a mobile application and you want the content in some other application, you can simply expose it from the CMS to different clients or different systems. It's easy. On top of that, the technology underlying AEM is open-source and is very powerful like Apache Sling and JCR."

"I like the profiling and segmentation."

"I think DAM (Digital Asset Management) is most valuable to me; the data is increasing, and in order to manage millions of assets which a large enterprise has, it provides lots of capabilities (searching, reporting, managing, workflows for automation, etc.)."

"If you're looking for a .NET based CMS, do yourself a favor and go with an open source CMS."

"Adobe Experience Manager is one of the best enterprise-level content management and digital experience platforms available."

"I've used several CMS tools, but Adobe Experience Manager is feature-rich, especially for web security and content management."

"Being able to connect everything to one universal system was a game changer for us, giving us an overall better digital experience."

"Adobe Experience Manager has made document management smoother because many people use Adobe, making it simpler for me to modify and resend PDF documents."

More Adobe Experience Manager pros

"Contentful has helped serve clients better by allowing campaigns to be launched quickly and pages to be developed rapidly, enabling focus on the structure of the page while putting the content on Contentful, which reduces the time to make the page live."

"Website management has become very easy, and content updates to websites are straightforward."

"Contentful has positively impacted my organization as it upscales the revenue and enhances my mobile and kiosk application appearance and feel with dynamic content."

"Contentful has impacted my organization positively because the business is able to change the content without the help of a developer, and they can make a deployment very easily."

"I advise using Contentful as the first option because it is scalable and stable with all features included."

"Contentful has impacted my organization positively because it has been a game changer since we started using this tool."

"The best features Contentful offers are its APIs and how easy it is to integrate them."

"Contentful has positively impacted my organization by making things easier, as I am able to create new pages immediately without significant additional development effort."

Cons

"With the default template design, it is difficult to manage the different resolutions of images."

"Because of the improvement needed with the client-side framework and because page loading takes time, I rate Adobe Experience Manager at seven out of ten."

"Adobe Experience Manager's pricing could be improved."

"Many people complain about the price as it's one of the most expensive tools."

"I love DAM, but still think there are improvement areas."

"I haven't seen any areas for improvement in Adobe Experience Manager as it's a full-fledged CMS tool, and Adobe is already working on enhancements for the solution. Adobe is working to make Adobe Experience Manager more valuable and easier to use for any user, even non-technical ones, through multiple components and templates. Day by day, Adobe provides the latest update to Adobe Experience Manager, and if my team needs any particular change, it just needs to be reported to the Adobe team. As Adobe Experience Manager has a broad scope and a lot of use cases and features, it's a solution that requires some time and effort from you in terms of learning, especially if you're implementing it for different clients, which could be an area for improvement."

"The integration of the product with other Adobe Marketing Cloud products could be improved."

"A little bit of background knowledge of coding and website structure is required."

More Adobe Experience Manager cons

"Contentful needs to be improved for migration, not only for migration, but from lower to higher environments as well, as the schema diffs and everything are not working as expected."

"Contentful would be improved if integrations could be made easier."

"One area where I believe Contentful can be improved is better handling of complex content relationships, as when content is deeply nested with references inside references, the queries can get messy and hard to manage on the front end."

"However, I find that the licensing can be frustrating, especially for smaller organizations."

"Contentful has not helped my organization or our customers achieve any measurable benefits, such as saving time or improving workflows, as we have not measured that."

"I have seen a return on investment with fewer employees needed and time saved, but the money costs are quite high."

"There were challenges because when I was creating a solution, I didn't know Contentful very well. I found a lot of problems with types and matching in TypeScript types with the fields I was using and with the API and the full module."

"A minor issue I have is that Contentful does not have a way to organize fields within an entry."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's a costly solution. I would rate the price at two out of five on a scale from one to five, where one is the most expensive and five is the most competitive."

"There's a free trial for one month for Adobe Experience Manager, which you can use for learning purposes, then, after the trial period, you'll need to purchase the license. Adobe offers a few plans for Adobe Experience Manager, but I'm unaware of how much my company is paying."

"Users have to pay a yearly licensing fee to use the solution, which is highly-priced."

"It's really costly."

Information not available

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

11%

Outsourcing Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

Construction Company

Financial Services Firm

17%

Construction Company

16%

Outsourcing Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	7
Midsize Enterprise	3
Large Enterprise	24

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	14
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	17

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Adobe Experience Manager?

One common challenge that I have heard of is that Adobe Experience Manager can feel complex and resource-intensive during implementation, especially for organizations without strong technical or Ad...

What is your primary use case for Adobe Experience Manager?

I personally have not used Adobe Experience Manager, but I have observed a retail client that uses Adobe Experience Manager to manage their personalized website content, and while they use MoEngage...

What advice do you have for others considering Adobe Experience Manager?

Adobe Experience Manager should be evaluated as a long-term digital experience platform rather than just a CMS. It delivers the most value for organizations that need personalization, multi-channel...

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Contentful?

Setup cost and pricing are handled by our organization's admin team. Currently, I do not have much information on this.

What needs improvement with Contentful?

While Contentful already incorporates a lot of AI integration, improvements could be made in feature-wise AI integrations, such as generating SEO data for product catalogs or assisting marketers in...

What is your primary use case for Contentful?

My main use case for Contentful involves developing e-commerce storefront applications that require displaying dynamic content like banners for hero images on the homepage or product sliders, which...

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Compared 31% of the time

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Compared 21% of the time

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Product Reports

Adobe Experience Manager

Download Adobe Experience Manager product report

Download Contentful product report

Also Known As

Adobe Day CQ5, Ektron Social Marketing, Episerver Content Cloud, Adobe CQ5

No data available

Overview

Adobe Experience Manager offers powerful content and digital asset management capabilities, allowing users to streamline content replication and integrate with tools like Adobe Target and Analytics.

Adobe Experience Manager is a comprehensive platform used for content management, website development, and digital asset management. It allows marketers to efficiently manage and publish content without needing extensive coding knowledge, enhancing operational efficiency through integration with Adobe Target and Analytics. The platform supports omnichannel distribution and multi-site management, leveraging experience fragments to replicate content seamlessly across platforms. Users appreciate the platform for its scalability and robust personalization features, improving collaboration and reducing overall costs.

What are Adobe Experience Manager's Key Features?

Content Management: Offers intuitive tools for creating, managing, and publishing content across digital channels.
Digital Asset Management: Centralizes asset management to streamline content reuse and improve consistency.
Experience Fragments: Enables content replication across multiple channels for seamless user experiences.
Integration: Enhances efficiency by integrating with marketing tools like Adobe Analytics and Adobe Target.
Omnichannel Support: Provides consistent messaging and branding across different platforms and devices.

Which Benefits and ROI Should Users Consider?

Improved Collaboration: Facilitates teamwork through component reuse and workflow automation.
Cost Reduction: Reduces expenses through efficient multi-site management and content repurposing.
Scalability: Supports growing business needs with scalable content solutions.
Personalization: Delivers personalized user experiences enhancing customer engagement.
Analytics Integration: Offers valuable insights into customer interactions, improving strategic decisions.

Organizations within industries like retail, healthcare, and finance utilize Adobe Experience Manager to develop tailored digital experiences, efficiently managing websites and assets for better customer engagement. Retailers use it to deliver personalized promotions, while healthcare providers enhance patient information access. In finance, it ensures compliance and manages customer communications effectively.

Adobe

Contentful is a modern content management platform known for its reusable components, easy integration, and flexible content modeling. It enables content management across multiple platforms quickly and efficiently.

Contentful’s API-first architecture and Rich Text editor offer seamless content management for different platforms, enhancing productivity by minimizing coding efforts and allowing non-technical individuals to update content effortlessly. It supports diverse needs like content preview, localization, and scalability, which accelerates deployment and reduces costs. The intuitive interface facilitates rapid project delivery with minimal overhead.

What are Contentful's most important features?

Reusable Components: Facilitate consistency and efficiency in content creation.
API-First Architecture: Allows seamless integration across platforms.
Rich Text Editor: Simplifies content management with advanced editing capabilities.
Content Preview: Enhances content accuracy and workflow efficiency.
Localization Support: Facilitates content localization across regions.
Scalable Architecture: Supports growing business needs and rapid deployment.

What benefits and ROI can users expect from Contentful?

Improved Workflow: Streamlines operations, saving time and reducing bottlenecks.
Cost Efficiency: Reduces development expenses with faster deployment.
Enhanced Flexibility: Allows adaptable content types for dynamic content creation.
Ease of Use: Non-technical teams can manage content with minimal learning curve.
Rapid Project Delivery: Supports agile methodologies, minimizing project timelines.

Contentful is extensively used for storing, managing, and retrieving content for web and mobile applications. Businesses utilize APIs and GraphQL to decouple content from presentation layers, driving dynamic websites and applications. It integrates effortlessly with other platforms, offering seamless access to non-technical teams, and supports diverse applications like documentation, marketing, and internal data management. Contentful’s adaptability with content types allows quick page creation and content updates across different projects and clients.

Sample Customers

Metra

Information Not Available

Adobe Experience Manager vs. Contentful