October CMS vs XM Cloud

Compare October CMS and XM Cloud for your content needs. Find out what actual users are saying about each product and which one is best suited for you!

October CMS
October CMS
Experience the simplicity of October CMS, an award-winning self-hosted CMS based on the Laravel PHP framework, designed by developers for ease of use and rapid deployment.
XM Cloud
XM Cloud
Meet the CMS that takes your website further, faster. Grow traffic, boost engagement, and drive conversions with AI-assisted authoring, workflows, personalization, and A/B testing - all built in.

What Users Say

See what users who have used October CMS and XM Cloud have to say about their overall experience with the product.

October CMS's Key Strengths

Read what users love about October CMS.

XM Cloud's Key Strengths

Read what users love about XM Cloud.

October CMS's Key Issues

Read what issues users have with October CMS.

XM Cloud's Key Issues

Read what issues users have with XM Cloud.

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What Marketers & Content Creators Say

Hear from the users who uses October CMS and XM Cloud daily about their experience with the editors.

October CMS's Editorial Experience Highlights

What marketers love about October CMS's editor.

XM Cloud's Editorial Experience Highlights

What marketers love about XM Cloud's editor.

October CMS's Editorial Experience Issues

What marketers dislike about October CMS's editor.

XM Cloud's Editorial Experience Issues

What marketers dislike about XM Cloud's editor.

Mobile Editing

Find out how the platforms handle the mobile-first experience for the new generation of workforce on the move.

October CMS:
Limited Mobile Experience

October CMS supports mobile content creation through plugins, but the core editor isn't fully mobile-optimized.

"This plugin enables EditorJS to be used as a form widget for your backend panel."
Source
"When using the Editor in the admin panel, we've introduced code completion capabilities."
Source
XM Cloud:
Limited Mobile Experience

Sitecore XM Cloud allows mobile-first editing with low-code tools, but some features may require desktop for full functionality.

"...easy-to-use visual tools for authoring, A/B testing, and personalization - powered by brand-aware AI copilots."
Source
"...mobile-first approach, allowing us to have a solid base for our build."
Source
"...difficult to create layouts for different breakpoints..."
Source

Automatic Content Linking

Find out if the platform supports automatic linking of related content to help user discover more content without additional manual effort from the marketer. This automatically create topical clusters of content and is essential for SEO.

October CMS:
No Automatic Content Linking

Automatic linking of related blog posts is not supported in October CMS; manual linking is required.

"Dec 6, 2022 ... It seems that the reverse relation is not made automatically."
Source
"reverse relation is not made automatically, so my question is, how can I access all posts associated to a categories?"
Source
"for example, imagine a blog system in which a User model has many associated Post models: ... automatically, but you may want to use this feature in other places."
Source
"Mighty SEO. Adds SEO tasks automation. 244 projects."
Source
XM Cloud:
No Automatic Content Linking

XM Cloud does not support automatic linking of related blog posts; linking must be done manually.

"XM Cloud relies on traditional content linking methods without AI-driven automation."
Source
"Linking of related content in XM Cloud needs to be managed manually, not automatically."
Source
"Current capabilities do not include automatic related blog linking, requiring manual setup."
Source

Automatic CTA Linking

Find out if the platform supports automatic display of Call-to-Actions using AI to help users take actions that are relevant to the content they are reading.

October CMS:
Automatic CTA Linking

October CMS supports automated promo cards and their CTA links auto-populate with relevant products.

"Automated promo cards — Promo cards and their CTA button will automatically populate with the same link to relevant products, without the need to input a CTA link manually."
Source
"October CMS provides tools to automate content and ensure seamless integration with marketing efforts."
Source
XM Cloud:
No Automatic CTA Linking

Sitecore XM Cloud does not support automatic CTA linking directly for AI-driven context matching.

"XM Cloud does not have any references to automatic CTA linking capabilities."
Source
"Dynamic placeholders allow unique key generation, but don't automatically link CTAs."
Source
"The official Sitecore documentation and resources do not mention automatic CTA linking."
Source

Comments

Find out if the platform supports comments from your users to improve user engagement. This is often a great way to collect feedback and user emails.

October CMS:
Comments Supported

Comments are supported via plugins with moderation, email notifications, and spam protection.

"The Commentable plugin for October CMS provides a flexible and seamless commenting framework for your October CMS site. Comments are fully moderateable."
Source
"Comments is an OctoberCMS plugin meant for enabling the users to comment on a particular page, blog, video, podcast, et al."
Source
"You can find the plugins on Github or via the Plugins section."
Source
XM Cloud:
No Comments Supported

Sitecore XM Cloud does not have built-in commenting features for users to leave comments on content.

"You can add comments to projects, stages, or tasks when collaborating with other users."
Source
"Sitecore XM Cloud focuses on site management, personalization, and performance, lacking user-facing commenting."
Source
"In the ‘migrations’ I usually think about I’m often looking at an existing Sitecore customer trying to move to XM Cloud, but the fact is that there are a lot of options out there and Optimizely is pushing hard to pull those customers over to their SaaS CMS."
Source

Multi-tenancy

Find out if the platform supports managing multiple clients or projects within a single account. This is useful for agencies, multi-client or multi-project scenarios.

October CMS:
Limited Multi-tenancy

October CMS supports limited multi-tenancy through multisite and MultiDB plugins, facilitating management of multiple client accounts.

"The multisite feature lets you manage multiple websites from a single October CMS installation and assign content dependent on the domain name."
Source
"Plugin to create SaaS applications in different databases, making it easier to manage multiple clients."
Source
XM Cloud:
Limited Multi-tenancy

XM Cloud operates as a single-tenant instance; however, the underlying delivery environment supports multi-tenancy.

"XM Cloud runs the Experience Manager environment as a single-tenant instance. The delivery environment..."
Source

What Developers Say

Hear from developers who've integrated and built on October CMS and XM Cloud about their experiences.

Ease of Integrating October CMS:
Medium
Integration is generally straightforward but can present challenges due to specific plugin compatibility.
Ease of Integrating XM Cloud:
Hard
Integration with Sitecore XM Cloud is notably complex, often requiring additional time and investment, as well as partner assistance.

October CMS's DX Highlights

What developers love about building with October CMS.

XM Cloud's DX Highlights

What developers love about building with XM Cloud.

October CMS's DX Issues

What developers dislike about building with October CMS.

XM Cloud's DX Issues

What developers dislike about building with XM Cloud.

Content Modelling

Find out how developers model and manage their content with the platform with key highlights and limitations.

October CMS:
Customisable Content Types

October CMS supports content modeling through Tailor, enabling easy creation of custom content types.

"Builder makes it even easier to create custom content types and user interfaces."
Source
"Powerful organization features for your content; Draft and publishing features for pages."
Source
"October CMS is already known for its ease of use, and Tailor makes it even easier to create custom content types."
Source
XM Cloud:
Customisable Content Types

Sitecore XM Cloud fully supports content modeling with customizable data templates and flexible presentation components.

"Content modeling means creating the schema structure of an element that will be presented on your website. You do this using templates, also known as data templates."
Source
"Sitecore XM Cloud is an entirely new product, focusing on content modeling and APIs."
Source

Custom React Components

Find out if the platform supports custom React components to go beyond the basic HTML components for content.

October CMS:
No Custom React Components Supported

October CMS does not support custom React components in the content editor, only server-side APIs can be built.

"When working with client-side frameworks such as Vue.js or React, it will be necessary to consume server-side APIs."
Source
"Components must be registered in the Plugin registration class with the `registerComponents` method."
Source
"Components must be registered by overriding the `registerComponents` method inside the Plugin registration class."
Source
XM Cloud:
Custom React Components Supported

Sitecore XM Cloud supports custom React components through registration, allowing rich interactions ineditors.

"In XM Cloud, developers can bring their own code (BYOC) by referencing an external code base that includes components."
Source
"At the time of writing, XM Cloud Components are new and do not have a full feature set. Because of this, only standard React/Next.js components should be used."
Source
"You can build a component by providing Sitecore managed data to a third party API like Google Maps API."
Source

Full Text Search

Find out if the platform supports full text search across multiple fields to help users find content quickly.

October CMS:
Full Text Search Supported

October CMS supports full text search through plugins like SiteSearch and Sphinx, covering multiple content types.

"This plugin adds global search capabilities to October CMS."
Source
"Sphinx for Shopaholic adds supreme search capabilities to your project powered by Sphinx search engine."
Source
XM Cloud:
Full Text Search Supported

Sitecore XM Cloud supports full-text search allowing users to search content across multiple fields.

"Searches for a full-text phrase within a value. For example, searching for 'apple pie' returns items for which the value is 'We made apple pie'."
Source
"Sitecore Search is a cutting-edge, AI-powered, headless content discovery platform, empowering users to craft tailored and predictive search encounters."
Source

Starter Kits

Discover starter kits and templates to help you get started with the platform.

October CMS:
Available

October CMS provides various starter kits including a Bootstrap 5 Starter Kit.

(Expand section to see a list of October CMS templates and starter kits.)

XM Cloud:
Available

Sitecore XM Cloud has various starter kits including Next.js and Angular templates.

(Expand section to see a list of XM Cloud templates and starter kits.)

Pricing & Plans

Compare the prices of October CMS and XM Cloud.

October CMS's Pricing
One Free License
$0 / lifetime
- Perfect for beginners
- Suitable for non-commercial and commercial projects
- One year of system updates included
- Extendable for $29/year afterwards
Single License
$29 / lifetime
- Great for freelance developers or Marketplace authors
- One year of system updates included
- Extendable for $29/year afterwards
Unlimited Licenses (Monthly)
$26 / month
- Bill monthly
- Ideal for agencies or organizations that work on many projects
Unlimited Licenses (Annually)
$312 / year
- Bill annually
- Ideal for agencies or organizations that work on many projects
Unlimited Licenses (Alternate Monthly)
$32 / month
- Bill monthly
- Ideal for agencies or organizations that work on many projects
Unlimited Licenses (Alternate Annually)
$384 / year
- Bill annually
- Ideal for agencies or organizations that work on many projects
XM Cloud's Pricing
XM Cloud
$0 / subscription
- Bundled with Pages and embedded personalization
- Includes Headless Services and Experience Edge in a single subscription

Compare with other technologies

Looking for a better alternative to October CMS & XM Cloud? Try Wisp.
Wisp is the best solution for blogging. Try it free today!