Building a website used to require some type of computer science expertise. Today, content management systems (CMS) make it simple to develop your own website. In fact, many CMS platforms allow you to drag and drop blocks to build a site easily and quickly.
WordPress is the most popular CMS in the world for good reason. Adobe Experience Manager is another CMS that offers a ton of advanced features with cloud service, excellent customer service, and high levels of security. Both platforms are great, but Adobe Experience Manager is costly - so it is usually best for businesses that have greater needs and a bigger budget.
Inclind works with clients throughout the United States to provide website development, design, and maintenance and support services. Whether you choose WordPress, Adobe Experience Manager, or another platform, we can help you build, design, and maintain your website. If you’re interested in learning more, reach out to us to speak with a member of our team.
An Introduction To Adobe Experience Manager & WordPress
What Is Adobe Experience Manager?
Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) is a content management system (CMS) that can be used to build and maintain a website without having to write code. AEM is an enterprise-level CMS that offers other features, including digital asset management and a cloud service. With AEM, you can optimize the authoring, management, and delivery of content and digital media.
With AEM, businesses can create unique digital experiences across products, services, companies, and even countries. It also allows businesses to manage content-specific messages. It allows for a far greater degree of personalization than the standard CMS.
Adobe Experience Manager’s features include:
- A content management system
- A digital asset management system that makes it easier to access, retrieve, and use assets
- Cloud service, with the content and assets being hosted in the cloud
- A centralized dashboard where all projects can be managed in one place
- Digital forms with built-in security features
- Integrated A/B testing
- Component-based editing
Adobe Experience Manager uses a flexible pricing structure that depends on factors such as bandwidth used, amount of traffic, integrations with other systems, and workflow complexity. For many businesses, it can cost over $100,000 or more each year. Notable brands using AEM, include:
- Home Depot
- The US Census Bureau
- Tractor Supply Co.
- Crate & Barrel
- Best Western
- Dick’s Sporting Goods
- Virgin Atlantic
What Is WordPress?
WordPress got its start as a blogging platform and is now the most popular CMS in the world. It is still used by bloggers - but it is also used by major corporations, nonprofit organizations, and other entities. WordPress can be used for almost any type of website, including business websites, eCommerce platforms, blogs, forums, membership websites, and portfolios.
WordPress is an open-source CMS that has a lot of great features, such as the ability to easily create and manage website content. Its interface is intuitive, which makes it simple for even inexperienced users to handle. You can create an unlimited number of pages, posts, and products in a store, and can schedule posts for specific dates and times. Its Gutenberg block editor is similar to AEM’s components, which can make content creation easier.
The basic version of WordPress is free. It can then be customized with free or paid themes and plugins that can allow for a far more customized experience. There are also a number of software integrations that can enhance the functionality of a website. Notable brands using WordPress include:
Which CMS Should You Use?
Both Adobe Experience Manager and WordPress offer a lot of great features. They are both top-tier CMS that give users the ability to create beautiful websites. Both can be used without programming or coding experience by using block-based editing. However, the platforms also have their differences. We’ve compared the two platforms on some of the most important factors below.
| Factor | WordPress | Adobe Experience Manager |
| Installation | Famous for the 5-minute install. Most hosting providers offer 1-click installation options to make things even faster | More complex to set up. Requires Adobe setup and often enterprise-level infrastructure |
| Cost | Free and open-source. Costs come from hosting and any premium themes or plugins used. Could range anywhere from $0 to $100,000+ to build and $30 - $3,000+ per year to maintain | More expensive with licensing and implementation. Licensing starts at $30,000/year for AEM and $60,000/year for AEM sites. An AEM website can cost anywhere from $100,000 to $500,000 to build. They can cost $12,000 or more per year to maintain |
| Ease Of Use | Very user-friendly. Ideal for non-technical users | More complex. Designed for enterprise users with technical support |
| Security | Can be secure, but the level of security largely depends on the plugins used and whether or not the plugins are updated | Highly secure with enterprise-grade security features included by Adobe |
| SEO Features | Has several SEO features out of the box that can be expanded with hundreds of different SEO plugins | Strong built-in SEO capabilities but may require developer customization |
| Customization | Extremely customizable with a large marketplace of themes and plugins to choose from | Highly customizable, but often requires developer resources and Adobe integrations |
| Speed | Speed varies based on hosting and optimization | Very fast and scalable, especially for global enterprises |
| Support | Support is available through the public WordPress forums. Third-party theme and plugin developers also tend to offer customer support for their products | Dedicated enterprise-level support from Adobe |
| Usage | Powers over 40% of all websites on the internet | Powers less than 1% of all websites on the internet but is more popular for enterprise sites. AEM powers over 5% of the top 1,000 sites on the web (ranked by traffic) |
Installation
The first step in getting started with any CMS is installation. WordPress has built a reputation around being very easy to install. In fact, the platform has long boasted its famous 5-minute install time as a selling point. There are many managed hosting providers that can make the installation process even faster. Many providers offering WordPress hosting allow you to install WordPress with the click of a button, which can be completed in well under 5 minutes.
Adobe Experience Manager is more complex to set up. The most common way to set up AEM is through Adobe Cloud Manager. Adobe does offer onboarding services to help you set up your environment, but deployments are CI/CD driven with a Git-based pipeline, so there are more technical components to the setup.
Ease Of Use
WordPress is very easy to use. Even a novice can create a decent website with great features and integrations. The templates and plugins make it fairly easy to customize a WordPress site.
There is a steeper learning curve with AEM due in part to the range and complexity of features that it offers. However, once you learn how to utilize AEM properly, it is easier to use than many expensive enterprise content management platforms.
SEO Features
WordPress is known for being SEO-friendly. There are a host of different plugins (like Yoast, Rank Math, and All-In-One SEO) that can be added to your site to extend SEOfunctionality. You can use plugins for managing XML sitemaps, editing metadata, inserting schema markup, and more.
AEM also offers strong built-in search optimization capabilities. You can edit metadata, modify robots tags, and more with AEM’s standard functionality. AEM will also generate your sitemap for you. Any SEO capabilities you need beyond the included functionality will require the help of a developer.
Customization
As an open-source platform, WordPress is extremely customizable. If you can imagine it, then it can be created in WordPress. With over 59,000 free plugins and over 12,000 free themes, it’s also very rare that you ever need to re-invent the wheel to build what you want. The vast library of plugins and themes makes it very easy to customize sites without custom development.
AEM is also customizable but can be more limited when compared to WordPress. You’ll need to rely on Adobe’s integrations and your developer resources to customize your site beyond the capabilities that AEM offers.
Site Speed
When it comes to site speed, AEM generally outperforms WordPress for larger websites. Adobe Experience Manager is built on a Java-based framework with robust caching capabilities and a load-balancing tool. AEM provides fast load times with reliable performance even when a site receives a heavy influx of traffic.
WordPress can be fast, but the speed of a WordPress site is largely dependent on the hosting environment and the plugins and theme used. WordPress requires more hands-on effort to optimize and maintain load times. It can still be scaled and can support heavy traffic, but knowledge and experience with speed optimization work for WordPress will be needed.
Security
Because AEM is a proprietary software, it is fairly secure. All AEM sites are protected with enterprise-grade security developed by Adobe. By comparison, security is often a concern with WordPress because it is an open-source CMS. WordPress can be secure, but security can be compromised with third-party plugins. Even plugins that are well-developed can create security vulnerabilities for your site if you’re not regularly updating your plugins to the latest available versions.
Cost
Without a doubt, AEM is expensive - particularly compared to WordPress. Licensing starts at $30,000 per year for AEM and $60,000 per year for AEM Sites. After acquiring the needed licenses, building an AEM site can cost anywhere from $100,000 to $500,000, with ongoing maintenance costing $12,000 or more per year.
On the other hand, WordPress itself is free. It’s possible that your expenses could be limited to hosting and any premium themes or plugins you purchase. It can cost anywhere from $0 to $100,000 or more to build a WordPress site. Maintenance for a WordPress site can cost anywhere from $30 to $3,000 or more per year.
Support
Of course, sometimes you do get what you pay for - and that is certainly true when it comes to customer service. With AEM, there is a dedicated customer service helpdesk. WordPress users typically rely on community support or may hire a website development team to not only build but also maintain their websites.
Usage
Out of all the factors to consider, usage is one of the least important. However, it’s still worth examining to a degree. The popularity of a CMS can provide some indication of how easy or difficult it will be to find developer support and how long the CMS may continue to be around.
WordPress is the world’s most popular CMS and powers over 40% of the known web. The WordPress community is a thriving one, and the platform won’t be going anywhere anytime soon. AEM is used by less than 1% of all sites on the web. However, it is a more popular platform with larger enterprises. AEM has a larger market share with larger sites and powers just over 5% of the top 1,000 websites on the web. Considering the scale of the businesses using AEM and the size of Adobe as a corporation, AEM also isn’t likely to disappear any time soon.
Additional Considerations When Choosing Between AEM & WordPress
In addition to the factors covered above, there are a few organizational components to reflect on when deciding between Adobe Experience Manager and WordPress. The best CMS for your organization will strike a balance between your goals, structure, and budget.
Organization Size & Complexity
The size and complexity of your organization can play a role in determining which CMS would best meet your needs. WordPress is ideal for small to medium-sized businesses, startups, bloggers, and even larger companies that don’t need deep enterprise-level integrations. AEM is designed for large enterprises with complex digital ecosystems, multi-site management, and global content strategies.
Technical Resources & Expertise
Another factor to consider would be how tech-savvy your team is. WordPress can be managed by a small team—or even a solo marketer or content creator. You don’t need to be super technical to maintain or update a WordPress site.
AEM requires a dedicated technical team or partner. You'll need developers familiar with Java, DevOps capabilities, and experience with Adobe's ecosystem (e.g., Adobe Target, Analytics). It’s okay if you don’t have team members with a technical background. You can always work with a trusted partner like Inclind to provide development and technical site support for your team.
Budget
As previously mentioned, there is a large cost difference between WordPress and Adobe Experience Manager. AEM is very expensive. Licensing alone can cost six figures annually, not including implementation, hosting, and ongoing support. Depending on how large your website budget is, it may be better to explore less expensive CMS alternatives like WordPress.
We Build Both Adobe Experience Manager & WordPress Websites
Many development teams specialize in one or two CMS platforms and will push you toward their preferred platform. At Inclind, our versatile web developers develop across a wide variety of CMS platforms, including WordPress and AEM. Our breadth of experience across multiple platforms gives us the unique ability to provide unbiased advice on CMS platforms.
As website development consultants, we can sit down with your team and assess your needs and goals to recommend what we believe will be the best CMS for your organization. We’ll walk you through the pros and cons of each platform and help answer any questions you may have about the different platforms. Together, we can pave the way toward building a better site for your brand.
Finding The Right Option For You
Ultimately, the decision of which CMS to use comes down to your needs - and your budget. AEM is best suited for businesses and organizations that can afford its fairly high cost. It offers a lot of great features, a cloud service, great customer support, and great security. If you run a smaller business or organization, then Adobe Experience Manager may simply be out of your budget. It may also have a lot of features that you don’t need, based on the complexity of your website and what you need it to do.
A great web development agency can work with you to determine which CMS best meets your needs. For many entities, WordPress is the best choice both in terms of cost and features. If you have the budget and the need for a stronger CMS, then AEM is always a great option. Inclind can even help you learn how to use your chosen CMS to ensure that you can handle the day-to-day of running a website - with our team on standby for more complicated support and maintenance work.
How Inclind Can Help You Build a Great Website on Any Platform
Building a website isn’t just about building a site that looks good. You also need a site that functions well and can be managed by your team. A block-based content management system, like Adobe Experience Manager or WordPress, is often a great solution.
Inclind works with businesses, nonprofits, healthcare organizations, and other entities to help them create beautiful, effective websites. Our services include website design and redesign, conversion optimization, custom integrations, accessibility audits, automation, and support and maintenance. No matter what CMS platform you choose, we will work with you to make sure that your website works how you want and that it helps your organization meet its goals.
Interested in learning more about your content management system options? Fill out our online contact form or hit the live chat button to talk to one of our experts about your website.
WordPress Vs. Adobe Experience Manager FAQs
What Is A CMS?
A CMS, or Content Management System, is a software platform that allows you to create, manage, and publish digital content—usually on a website—without needing to write code. It gives non-technical users the tools to update text, images, and other content through a user-friendly interface.
What Is The Difference Between An Open-Source CMS & A Proprietary CMS?
The key difference between an open-source CMS like WordPress and a proprietary CMS like Adobe Experience Manager lies in accessibility and control.
An open-source CMS has publicly available source code that anyone can use, modify, and extend. It’s typically free to use, with a large community of developers constantly improving it. You have full control over customization and hosting, but you’re also responsible for managing updates, security, and performance.
A proprietary CMS is developed and maintained by a company. It often comes with licensing fees and includes customer support, regular updates, and enterprise-grade features. Customization is more limited, and you’re usually locked into using that company’s hosting or ecosystem.
Can I Migrate From Adobe Experience Manager To WordPress?
Yes, migrating from Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) to WordPress is possible—and often done by organizations seeking a more flexible, cost-effective, and user-friendly solution. The process involves exporting your content from AEM, mapping it to the appropriate structure in WordPress, and ensuring your design, SEO data, and key functionalities carry over smoothly. While it’s a technical process, with the right strategy and tools, it can be done efficiently.
Can I Migrate From WordPress To Adobe Experience Manager?
Absolutely. If your organization is scaling up and needs more enterprise-level capabilities, moving from WordPress to Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) might be the right step. The migration process involves exporting WordPress content, restructuring it for AEM’s architecture, and rebuilding any custom features within AEM’s ecosystem. Given the complexity of AEM, it’s recommended to work with experienced developers or a specialized migration partner.