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Adobe Experience Manager vs HCL Connections comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 23, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
8.5
Adobe Experience Manager offers high ROI with ease of use, excellent content management, and no-deployment-required content updates.
Sentiment score
7.2
Users achieved ROI from HCL Connections in nine months by encouraging daily use and eliminating redundant features like chat.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.3
Adobe Experience Manager's customer service varies, with knowledgeable staff but inconsistent response times and lengthy ticket processes.
Sentiment score
6.5
HCL Connections' customer service varies, with mixed reviews on support responsiveness and challenges in reaching knowledgeable staff.
They are attentive to big companies but tend to be negligent towards mid-sized companies.
They are always supportive.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.4
Adobe Experience Manager offers scalable, customizable global site provisioning, with challenges in cloud transition and licensing requirements for horizontal scaling.
Sentiment score
7.6
HCL Connections offers high scalability with effective IBM WebSphere support, despite Solr search limitations and manageable storage challenges.
You cannot simply add more servers without purchasing the license.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
6.8
Adobe Experience Manager offers high performance and stability, though large-scale setups and integrations may face occasional challenges.
Sentiment score
7.3
HCL Connections is stable on WebSphere but needs tuning for performance; IBM support addresses occasional instability effectively.
Since they are enterprise and have significant digital business coming through the digital medium, the stability of the product is very important.
 

Room For Improvement

Adobe Experience Manager needs improved documentation, integration, pricing, content synchronization, and developer support to ease management and development.
HCL Connections needs better document management, interface customization, third-party integration, collaboration, and cloud stability for improved usability.
There is a feature missing where if content is created on the UAT environment and needs to be transferred or synced to the production environment, there is no direct way of doing the sync.
Technical support could be improved, especially for smaller companies.
 

Setup Cost

Adobe Experience Manager is costly, with unclear licensing fees, but offers a free trial and potential efficiency benefits.
HCL Connections pricing varies widely, offers discounts, flexible licensing, and competitive pricing compared to Jive or SharePoint.
Adobe Experience Manager is expensive compared to competitors.
For large enterprises, the cost is often comparable with other major CMSs.
 

Valuable Features

Adobe Experience Manager integrates with Adobe Marketing Cloud, offering user-friendly content management, powerful analytics, and advanced asset handling capabilities.
HCL Connections enhances collaboration with file sharing, tool integration, expert profiles, mobile access, and efficient content management.
Feature-wise, I believe the dispatcher module is the best aspect of Adobe Experience Manager.
The integration of customer behavior and website setup is impressive.
 

Categories and Ranking

Adobe Experience Manager
Ranking in Enterprise Social Software
5th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
21
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise Content Management (7th), Web Content Management (2nd), Digital Experience Platforms (DXP) (1st)
HCL Connections
Ranking in Enterprise Social Software
12th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
55
Ranking in other categories
Corporate Portals (Enterprise Information Portals) (5th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Enterprise Social Software category, the mindshare of Adobe Experience Manager is 3.4%, up from 2.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of HCL Connections is 1.0%, down from 1.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Enterprise Social Software
 

Featured Reviews

Thomas Becker - PeerSpot reviewer
Impressive integration of customer behavior with an easy setup and okay support
I've worked with all major content management systems. Currently, I work with the leaders such as Adobe Experience Manager, Sitecore, and Acquia Working with big companies, I help them either consider setting up a new content management system or address issues they might have with their existing…
Hasnain Zahid - PeerSpot reviewer
A stable tool useful to manage marketing-related activities
Stability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten. Sometimes, the portal hangs because I find that if I am on a web page, I have to log out, and then I have to log in to the portal again. Since I see that the portal hangs at times, I have to move from one side of the portal to the next, making me feel that some things are scattered in the product. I attended a meeting with IBM recently, and they are improving a few of the things, in my opinion. The concerns that I have related to the product are being improved since I think many other users have reported issues similar to the ones I faced.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
19%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
19%
Educational Organization
15%
Performing Arts
12%
Media Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Adobe Experience Manager?
It is easy to learn. You don't need to be an advanced Java developer.
What needs improvement with Adobe Experience Manager?
The content is created as Adobe Experience Manager has an author, publisher, and dispatcher. However, there is a feature missing where if content is created on the UAT environment and needs to be t...
What is your primary use case for Adobe Experience Manager?
We are working on digital experience platforms such as Adobe Experience Manager or Sitefinity. It's for powering their customer-facing website, not the transaction portal, but the brochureware port...
What do you like most about HCL Connections?
Stability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten...Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.
What needs improvement with HCL Connections?
The support is an area where the product can improve. My company faces some support-related issues because whenever we create or generate a ticket, it takes two days for the product's support team ...
What is your primary use case for HCL Connections?
I use HCL Connections for marketing purposes. The IBM product in our company already provides us with direct links to the marketing and HR sides.
 

Also Known As

Adobe Day CQ5, Ektron Social Marketing, Episerver Content Cloud
IBM Connections, Lotus Connections
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Metra
Yamato Financial Co. Ltd., University of Zurich, Gwinnett County Public Schools, Royal Boskalis Westminster N.V., Telus, Rabobank, Christian Brothers Services, Grupo Financiero Banorte, The Loft Group, Dow Water & Process Solutions, JGC Corporation, College of Medicine, Swansea University, solvito GmbH, Loft Group, Hamm-Reno Group GmbH, Geno SA
Find out what your peers are saying about Adobe Experience Manager vs. HCL Connections and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.
859,129 professionals have used our research since 2012.