Optimizely’s enterprise CMS includes capabilities WordPress does not provide out of the box: granular permissions and workflows, built-in personalization, reporting, enterprise security, a customer data platform, experimentation, content and product recommendations, marketing orchestration, and enterprise search. WordPress can approach some of these through plugins, but reaching them is not the same as having them as governed, supported, baseline features.
In the web content management category, Optimizely is a leader. Here are ten areas where Optimizely, formerly Episerver, separates itself from WordPress. For the broader platform decision, see Optimizely vs WordPress for enterprise.
- Privileges, permissions, and workflows
- Content authoring with personalization built in
- Built-in reporting
- Enterprise security
- Customer data platform
- Experimentation
- Content recommendations
- Product recommendations
- Marketing workflow orchestration
- Enterprise search
Privileges, permissions, and workflows
WordPress ships with Subscriber, Contributor, Author, Editor, and Administrator roles. For a small site with posts and pages, that is enough. Optimizely Content Cloud goes further, with controls for permissions, access levels, and custom workflows out of the box. It is built for enterprise sites where access is limited by role, group, region, or localization. Privileges are set at the user, group, and content-type level, with full create, edit, and delete control. Access reaches from a whole directory down to a single paragraph on a page, and adding roles or groups needs no plugin or code change.
Content authoring with personalization built in
WordPress has no personalization out of the box. There is no concept of a segment or visitor group, and adding it means plugins or services. Optimizely gives you content personalization natively, with personalization groups based on conditional rules and scoring, including promotion and demotion between groups.
Built-in reporting
You can add basic reporting to WordPress through plugins, but out of the box it offers none. There are no reports for broken links, new pages, site analytics, segments, or search. Optimizely Content Cloud includes a report center for this.
Enterprise security
WordPress is open source. Hardening it is possible, but security stays a primary concern for any WordPress enterprise site, with new issues appearing almost daily. Optimizely is usually sold as enterprise SaaS, with the CMS and hosting tightly coupled. Security is designed, reviewed, and tested against OWASP standards, the development life cycle follows the Building Security In Maturity Model, and Optimizely runs a security bounty program.
Customer data platform
WordPress has no customer data platform, analytics, or segmentation baseline. Optimizely acquired Zaius and rebranded it as the Optimizely Data Platform (ODP), offered with the core CMS as Data Core Service. ODP gives marketers analytics and actionable insight into audience activity across channels.
Experimentation
WordPress has no experimentation out of the box. Optimizely includes A/B testing with self-optimizing blocks, so marketers can optimize at the block level and test landing-page performance. As part of the wider DXP, Optimizely Web and Full Stack provide deeper experimentation, which is the capability the company is best known for.
Content recommendations
WordPress includes no content recommendations. The Optimizely Content Recommendations engine uses machine learning to build a trainable taxonomy, segmentation, and content analytics. Editors can see what content performs, where gaps exist, and how users reach content, then serve recommendations across segment-specific journeys.
Product recommendations
WordPress has no commerce, so it has no product recommendations either. Optimizely includes a Product Recommendations engine, also machine-learning driven, that personalizes recommendations from session behavior without requiring personally identifiable information.
Marketing workflow orchestration
For larger marketing teams, coordinating campaigns across channels is the work: calendars, work requests, tasks, workflows, and digital assets. Optimizely’s Welcome handles that orchestration. WordPress offers nothing comparable.
Enterprise search
WordPress search is serviceable for a small site and generally works fine. The difference shows at scale. WordPress has no way to set a best bet, autocomplete, or synonym. Optimizely Search and Navigation gives editors control over results: suggestions, boosted results, synonyms, and performance analytics, all out of the box. More recently, Optimizely’s addition of GraphQL and OpenSearch is set to power a new generation of search.
Frequently asked questions
What can Optimizely do that WordPress cannot out of the box?
Granular permissions and workflows, built-in personalization, reporting, enterprise security, a customer data platform, experimentation, content and product recommendations, marketing orchestration, and enterprise search are all baseline in Optimizely. WordPress needs plugins and services to approach them.
Can WordPress plugins close the gap with Optimizely?
Plugins can add individual features, but they add third-party code, ongoing patching, and governance that is harder to enforce. They are not the same as supported, integrated platform capabilities, which is the trade-off enterprise buyers weigh.
Is Optimizely the same as Episerver?
Yes. Episerver adopted the Optimizely name after the 2020 acquisition. The CMS you may know as Episerver is now sold as Optimizely Content Cloud.
