Winter CMS vs XM Cloud

Compare Winter 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!

Winter CMS
Winter CMS
Winter CMS is a free, open-source content management system, built on top of the Laravel PHP framework, enabling rapid development and deployment of websites.
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 Winter CMS and XM Cloud have to say about their overall experience with the product.

Winter CMS's Key Strengths

Read what users love about Winter CMS.

XM Cloud's Key Strengths

Read what users love about XM Cloud.

Winter CMS's Key Issues

Read what issues users have with Winter 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 Winter CMS and XM Cloud daily about their experience with the editors.

Winter CMS's Editorial Experience Highlights

What marketers love about Winter CMS's editor.

XM Cloud's Editorial Experience Highlights

What marketers love about XM Cloud's editor.

Winter CMS's Editorial Experience Issues

What marketers dislike about Winter 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.

Winter CMS:
Unknown

No specific information on mobile-first content creation experience found in Winter CMS.

"Winter CMS is a free, open-source content management framework, built on top of the Laravel PHP framework."
Source
"Winter CMS is definitely my recommendation, although I'm biased ;). Open source: https://github.com/wintercms."
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.

Winter CMS:
No Automatic Content Linking

Winter CMS does not have an automatic related blog feature for linking similar content.

"Winter CMS does not provide automatic related blog linking capabilities in its documentation."
Source
"Winter CMS does not list any functionality for auto-linking blog posts."
Source
"No mention of automatic internal linking features for related blog content in Winter CMS documentation."
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.

Winter CMS:
No Automatic CTA Linking

Winter CMS does not mention support for Automatic CTA Linking in its documentation or features.

"The Winter CMS backend implements the MVC pattern. Controllers manage backend pages and implement various features like forms and lists."
Source
"The Form behavior is a controller behavior used for easily adding form functionality to a backend page."
Source
"The List behavior is a controller behavior used for managing lists of records on a page."
Source
"Plugins can extend the backend navigation menus by overriding the registerNavigation method of the Plugin registration class."
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.

Winter CMS:
No Comments Supported

Winter CMS does not provide an external commenting feature for site visitors. Comments can be managed internally through backend forms.

"... functionality of models in other plugins, or in the core of Winter CMS. ... $comment = new Comment; $comment->content = "Hello world!"; $comment->save; # Note: This indicates managing comments internally, not through an external feature."
Source
"... management features builtin to the System and Backend modules. Of the three modules present in Winter CMS, only the System module is required for Winter to operate."
Source
"Winter CMS will always be a free, open source, community driven content management framework."
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.

Winter CMS:
Multi-tenancy Supported

Winter CMS supports multi-tenancy, allowing agencies to manage multiple client accounts effectively.

"Winter's vision is to be the world's best Content Management Framework supporting complex multi-tenant SaaS applications."
Source
"A multi-tenant CMS allows organizations to control content assets across multiple projects, supporting systematic management."
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 Winter CMS and XM Cloud about their experiences.

Ease of Integrating Winter CMS:
Medium
Integration can be complex, especially for those unfamiliar with Laravel.
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.

Winter CMS's DX Highlights

What developers love about building with Winter CMS.

XM Cloud's DX Highlights

What developers love about building with XM Cloud.

Winter CMS's DX Issues

What developers dislike about building with Winter 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.

Winter CMS:
Customisable Content Types

Winter CMS supports content modelling with custom fields and traits for enhanced flexibility.

"Model traits are used to implement common functionality."
Source
"The Form behavior is a controller behavior used for easily adding form functionality to a backend page."
Source
"Models allow you to define and interact with your application data."
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.

Winter CMS:
No Custom React Components Supported

Winter CMS does not support custom React components directly in the content editor.

"Components can output HTML markup on a page, but it is not necessary - other important features of components are handling AJAX requests, form postbacks, and the page execution cycle."
Source
"Components must be registered in the Plugin registration class with the registerComponents method."
Source
"Winter CMS does not support adding developer-defined React components via its content editor."
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.

Winter CMS:
Full Text Search Supported

The Winter CMS supports full-text search across multiple fields through a dedicated plugin.

"Enables full-text searching capabilities to Winter, built on the foundations of Laravel Scout."
Source
"Search - Enables full-text search capabilities in Winter."
Source
"The List behavior provides the sortable and searchable list with optional links for each of its records."
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.

Winter CMS:
Available

Winter CMS provides various starter kits through plugins and themes compatible from October CMS.

(Expand section to see a list of Winter 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 Winter CMS and XM Cloud.

Winter CMS's Pricing
Free
$0 / lifetime
- Open-source
- Community support
- Plugin and theme marketplace
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 Winter CMS & XM Cloud? Try Wisp.
Wisp is the best solution for blogging. Try it free today!