Articles - Page 108

Not All Heroes Wear Capes. Here's Why CMS Is Your 'Unsung Hero' in 2025

janus-boye

As we enter our second featured week here at CMS Critic, our focus turns to the <a target="_blank" href="http://www.sitefinity.com/">Progress Sitefinity platform</a>.Recently acquired by <a target="_blank" href="https://www.progress.com/">Progress</a>, Sitefinity is an ASP.NET web content management and marketing platform. The solution is trusted by some of the world’s biggest brands, including Toyota, Audi, Kraft Foods, and NASA.Mike Johnston recently traveled to Telerik's California headquarters while on the CMS Critic North American Tour, where he <a href="/cms-critic-interviews-robert-mattson-of-telerik-sitefinity/">interviewed Robert Mattson, Telerik's Director of Product Marketing</a>. Mike was also given a highly detailed product walkthrough before his visit was over.Crowned winner of the <a href="/2014-critics-choice-award-winner-best-enterprise-net-cms/">2014 Critics' Choice CMS Award for Best Enterprise .NET CMS</a>, Sitefinity is a platform to be reckoned with.To kickstart our featured coverage, let's begin with an overview of the powerful features of the Sitefinity platform for both enterprise-grade content management and digital marketing.<h2 id="simple,-even-when-complex">Simple, Even When Complex</h2>“There’s usually an ease of use to complexity curve. You can be easy to use, but can you still be easy to use when things get tough and complex? That’s something I think [Sitefinity CMS] excels at.” – Robert Mattson, Director of Product Marketing, Telerik.On top of crisp presentation across the platform, Sitefinity CMS maintains its simplicity by making use of drag-and-drop interfaces for when it comes to general content management such as in-line page editing.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/web-content.jpg" />Furthermore, approval workflows, versions histories and granular permissions help to keep both content and marketers in check.When it comes to gleaning information from customers and visitors, marketers can enjoy the Sitefinity CMS intuitive form building features, which can once again be managed through the drag-and-drop interface.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/forms.jpg" />Sitefinity CMS also employs powerful digital asset management, enabling marketers to manage assets from a central location, giving them organizational features such as  hierarchical libraries, categories and tags.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/digital-assets835x0.jpg" />The platform also provides ample SEO features to help push websites further up Google’s rankings.Learn more about <a target="_blank" href="http://www.sitefinity.com/content-management">Progress Sitefinity’s content management features</a>.<h2 id="a-digital-marketing-command-center">A Digital Marketing Command Center</h2>Since the latest release of Sitefinity back in March 2015, the platform now works in tandem with its standalone Sitefinity Digital Experience Cloud (DEC), serving up what the company calls a, “Digital Marketing Command Center”.By using Sitefinity CMS and Sitefinity DEC together, organizations can benefit in the following three ways.1. Gather Omni-channel Information: With data connectors pulling information from Sitefinity CMS, Salesforce.com, Marketo, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, mobile apps  or other sources of customer interaction, the customer journey repository in the Sitefinity DEC becomes a single source of truth.Having this extensive context enables marketers to see interactions between an anonymous site visitor, known prospect or existing customer, and all aspects of a company’s sales and marketing functions. Thus, the marketer can make far better informed decisions about how to hone the entire process.2. Enhanced Insight: The Sitefinity DEC uses machine learning to relate how groups of customers and prospects interact through all channels. Interestingly though, the platform then provides specific recommendations for how to move those customers toward their goals more effectively.3. Real-time, Actionable Data: The solution unveils trends that enable marketers to target their actions and run and adjust campaigns in near real time.The Sitefinity DEC provides predictions toward opportunity improvement, while the Sitefinity CMS enables marketers to personalize and optimize marketing programs, or restructure web properties on the fly, to guide people on a personalized customer journey.Hence, the two platforms working side by side help to streamline the job of monitoring and acting on incoming information.Additional Sitefinity DEC features include persona management, third party data source integration, advanced customer analytics, automated lead management, and more.Learn more about <a target="_blank" href="http://www.sitefinity.com/digital-experience-cloud">Sitefinity Digital Experience Cloud</a>.For more details on Sitefinity <a target="_blank" href="http://www.sitefinity.com/">visit their website</a>. You can also explore more of <a href="/products/sitefinity">Sitefinity via our CMS Directory</a>.

An Overview of The Sitefinity Platform's Content Management & Digital Experience Features

mike-johnston

In this video, Svetla Yankova, Product Marketing Manager for Telerik Sitefinity shows Mike Johnston of CMS Critic (https://www.cmscritic.com) through the product and answers his questions while demonstrating the powerful new features that are included with this release.
https://youtu.be/PC2GfuKt1ZQ
For those who are unfamiliar with Sitefinity, this video really covers the product well. Tune in for all of the details on this great release!
For more details on Sitefinity visit <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/products/sitefinity">https://www.cmscritic.com/products/sitefinity</a> or visit them on the web at <a href="https://www.sitefinity.com/">http://www.sitefinity.com/</a>

Telerik Sitefinity Walkthrough Video with CMS Critic

As part of the ongoing CMS tour, I've been visiting vendors throughout the US, Canada and (soon) Europe.  During my recent trip to California, I had an opportunity to touch base with the fine folks at Telerik.
In this video interview, I chat with Director of Product Marketing for Telerik Sitefinity, Robert Mattson about their recent acquisition by Progress Software, Sitefinity CMS and more. 
https://youtu.be/fR7vf7ZUEnM
Learn more about Sitefinity here: <a href="http://www.sitefinity.com/web-content-management">http://www.sitefinity.com/web-content-management</a><a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/products/evoq-content?utm_source=cmscritic-article-april-2015&amp;utm_campaign=cmscritic-april-2015"> </a>

CMS Critic interviews Robert Mattson of Telerik Sitefinity

As most of you know by now, I am currently touring North America and visiting vendors as I do so. Having just completed the west coast portion of the tour, I'll be heading to Toronto to meet with two more vendors, then New York, and finally over to Europe to begin the European leg of the tour.
I'm looking forward to meeting with all of the amazing CMS vendors that have signed up for this year's tour. This has been a wonderful way to put faces to the names of those of you whom I deal with on a regular basis (and those who are new as well!).
<img style="max-width:346px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/1013548_572346312803124_529629804_n.png" />
Our first featured vendor that we visited was <a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com">DNN Software</a> followed by the folks at Telerik (<a href="http://www.sitefinity.com">Sitefinity</a>) and <a href="http://www.getmura.com/">Mura CMS</a>. I'll soon be meeting with the <a href="http://agilitycms.com/">Agility CMS</a> and <a href="http://dotcms.com/">dotCMS</a> teams before heading to Europe to meet with <a href="http://www.jahia.com">Jahia</a>, <a href="http://www.onehippo.com/en">Hippo</a>, and <a href="http://www.tkqlhce.com/click-7559855-11191667-1427914873000">1&amp;1 Internet</a>.
You'll be seeing <a href="/featured-weeks/">featured weeks</a> throughout the site where I share my video interviews, walkthroughs of the product, and more. Stay tuned and keep up to date with us on <a href="https://twitter.com/cmscritic">Twitter</a> and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/cmscritic">Facebook</a> to see pics from our journey.
As always, thanks for being a reader, and don't forget to sign up for our newsletter to make sure you never miss an article. It's weekly and we'll never spam you.

Preparing for the European Tour

<a href="http://designmodo.com/?u=1182" target="_blank">DesignModo</a>, the company behind <a href="/startup-framework-review/" target="_blank">Startup Framework</a>, has released a new version of their increasingly popular WordPress plugin, Qards.
Qards brings drag-and-drop website building features to WordPress, enabling users to visually edit their pages. Each “Qard” makes up an individual page section, which come together to form a one-pager style end result.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/unnamed1079x0.jpg" />
Qards 1.2 focuses on speeding up the drag-and-drop page building process, eliminating the lag found in previous versions. Also, users can now activate Qards on any page, instead of having to set up separate “Qards Pages”. 
Furthermore, Typekit integration brings a wider range of fonts to the Qards experience.
To get the full breakdown of Qards 1.1, checkout the official features page.

Qards 1.2 For WordPress Released

<a href="https://plushforums.com/" target="_blank">PlushForums</a> is one of the newest, yet most exciting forum solutions on the market.
Founded in 2014, PlushForums is a commercial fork of Vanilla Forums. The platform was named as the <a href="/2014-critics-choice-award-winner-best-commercial-forum-solution/" target="_blank">2014 Critic's Choice Winner for Best Commercial Forum Solution</a> in the most recent CMS Awards.
<img style="max-width:200px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/vopggzde_200x0.png" />
I also had the pleasure of carrying out a <a href="/plushforums-review/" target="_blank">review of PlushForums</a> not too long ago.
In recent months, PlushForums has received a number of updates. Here are the highlights, provided by founder Adrian Flitcroft himself.
<h3>Platform</h3>
PlushForums has expanded the capacity of all plans, more than doubling the $49 tier from 75 to 200 concurrent active members. That's sufficient to run a really sizeable forum at a very reasonable price.
The platform has also benefited from reduced the latency of real-time discussions and conversations by 66%. This means that they now update as quickly as a Facebook chat.
<h3>Billing</h3>
A 14-day free trial for all new PayPal subscribers has been introduced.
Furthermore, credit/debit card subscriptions for people who can't use PayPal have arrived, while registration forms have been done away with, speeding up the sign up process.
<h3>Features</h3>
Further to the above enhancements to the overall PlushForums experience, a number of smaller, but notable features have also been released:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://plushforums.com/blog/pre-moderation" target="_blank">Pre-moderation</a>.</li>
<li><a href="https://plushforums.com/blog/rich-links" target="_blank">Automated rich links</a>, ideal for product-focused communities:</li>
<li>Linked replies: tags that connect one post with another, allowing a discussion to stay flat but with context.</li>
<li>New Member Welcome Message: a means to communicate with members before they make their first post, to lay out rules, advice or other information.</li>
<li>Colourful Letter Avatars for new members, Android-style.</li>
<li>Support for YouTube embeds with specific start times, Vine support, and support for direct MP4 and MP3 embeds.</li>
<li>Support for CloudFlare out of the box, including their free Flexible SSL mode.</li>
<li>An Onboarding API, which allows you to automatically send forum invitation codes to new members, as well as revoke/enable their access to the forum.</li>
<li>Seamless SSO with WordPress.</li>
<li>Streamlined account creation process with customisable password strength checker.</li>
<li>A refined and reskinned Dashboard control panel.</li>
</ul>
To find out more about PlushForums, <a href="https://plushforums.com/" target="_blank">visit their website</a>.
Also, you can explore more of PlushForums via our CMS Directory.

PlushForums Undergoes Heavy Improvement

2014 was not just another year for <a href="https://www.prestashop.com/" target="_blank">Prestashop</a>.
The eCommerce giant, which powers over 230,000 websites, took leaps towards becoming one of the most powerful and accessible online store solutions in existence. And that’s no mean feat.
They did that by revamping their entire platform with Prestashop 1.6, before launching Prestashop Cloud, a totally free and cloud-based eCommerce solution.
Yes, you did read that correctly.
The launch of Prestashop Cloud was an exciting move by Prestashop at time time, it still is today, and it probably always will be. That’s why I’ll be focusing on it with this review.
Here’s a video to kick things off.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KZLXokFnl8
<h2>Prestashop Cloud &amp; Prestashop Download: The Difference</h2>
So what’s the difference between Prestashop Download and Prestashop Cloud?
Well, not a lot, really. That’s the beauty of it.
Prestashop Cloud gives you a quick, automatic installation, followed by totally free cloud hosting.
The only drawback is that Prestashop Cloud users don’t have access to the source code or database, whereas Prestashop Download users do.
Other than that, it’s the exact same product — both of which are free.
<h2>How Can PrestaShop Cloud Be Free?</h2>
It’s hard to imagine such a comprehensive and cloud hosted platform being completely free, but Prestashop cloud really is just that. Free.
I’ll let PrestaShop themselves explain how that’s possible:
“PrestaShop Cloud and PrestaShop Download are entirely free and ready to support your ecommerce activities.
PrestaShop earns money through modules-specific features-you can add to your store using our marketplace, PrestaShop Addons (it's like the Apple Store for iPhone or the Play Store for Android).”
<h2>Initial Thoughts</h2>
If you are familiar with my reviews, you’ll know that I start my journey as any customer or client would, which is with the vendor’s website.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-181079x0.png" />
Prestashop’s website (which was revamped along with the launch of Prestashop Cloud) is sleek and inviting.
The features of the platform are well laid out and simply explained, and that’s accompanied by a live demo of the product, which anybody can quickly get into.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-191079x0.png" />
It’s a shame more products don’t offer such accessible live demos, as they do a great job of showing potential users the interface first hand.
<h2>Getting Started</h2>
It all starts with clicking “Cloud” on the Prestashop homepage.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-20.png" />
You can then type in your store’s name, followed by your email address.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-1.png" />
After that, you can configure your store’s URL (which, by default, is your store name), along with your location and why you’re using Prestashop. This includes “I am just trying Prestashop” and “I have a physical store”.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-2.png" />
The final step asks you for your first and last name, as well as a password.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-21.png" />
Now, the signup process isn’t long or difficult. But it definitely could be made shorter and simpler.
I don’t see why the user needs to specify what kind of customer they are using Prestashop. I also think that their location and full name could be configured later on within the Prestashop dashboard.
An email, store name and password should suffice at this stage.
<h3>Prestashop Cloud Dashboard</h3>
Once you get past signup, you’ll be presented with your admin dashboard. Here, you can see all of the stores you have control of, along with a bunch of administrative options.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-3.png" />
The dashboard enables you to configure the more technical stuff, like your domain name, password, and other settings.
You can also access help and support from here, but I’ll be touching on that later on in this review. To get access to your store, you just have to click “Manage My Store”.
<h3>Back Office</h3>
Prestashop's admin panel for each store is also known as the back office. Clicking “Manage My Store” will take you there.
However, I was surprised to see that I needed to log in again, despite just clicking a link from my Prestashop dashboard.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-5835x0.png" />
But as for the back office itself, it’s pretty damn sleek.
As I mentioned in my hands-on preview with PrestaShop 1.6, it's a colossal improvement on the previous PrestaShop admin panel.
It isn't text heavy, nor does it suffer from crammed menus and pages. Instead, it’s spacious and modern.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-221079x0.png" />
The top menu, which provides access to latest orders, registrations, messages, achievements, and more, is very neat and unintrusive, even with its drop-down menus. The left-hand sidebar contains the bulk of available features and functions, all of which are listed below a handy search bar.
The biggest attraction though, is the array of stats and facts presented on the main page of the dashboard.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-23.png" />
You can monitor the amount of visitors currently online, active shopping carts, order totals, net profit, and much more. It’s a thoroughly impressive hub of statistics, all of which are relevant.
I covered Prestashop’s love affair with statistics recently, if you would like to know more.
<h3>The Tour</h3>
Prestashop Cloud gives users a quick, yet very useful guided tour to get their stores up and running.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-241079x0.png" />
It’s the first thing you see when logging into your back office, until you complete it. (Although there really should be a way to close it without having to actually use it first).
The four steps of the tour are; “Customize Your Shop”, “Add Products”, “Configure Payments” and “Choose Your Shipping Options”.
<h3>Customize Your Shop</h3>
The first step takes you to a page where you can adjust some of the default theme’s settings, including your logo, invoice logo, website icons and so on.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-6.png" />
Clicking “Theme Configurator” will present you with a range of theme options (which will change depending on which theme you’re using).
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-7.png" />
Such options include the appearance of social media icons, banners, logos and so forth.
Clicking “Advanced Settings” will enable you to define things like the number of products displayed per page, column positions and more.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-171079x0.png" />
<h3>Adding Products</h3>
The process behind adding a product is perhaps the most important element of each eCommerce platform.
Prestashop lets you get to uploading quickly, by clicking the “Quick Access” button on the top menu, followed by “New Product”.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-9.png" />
The page for adding products is initially quite simple, letting you configure a name, condition, description, and more. You can also specify whether the product is physical, virtual or a pack of products.
However, Prestashop Cloud also lets you get technical and very, very detailed. If you want to.
The list of options down the left include pages dealing with SEO, images, product features, attachments, and much more.
<h3>Configure Payments</h3>
Configuring payment gateways is relatively easy.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-111079x0.png" />
The default options are bank wire and payment by check, although PrestaShop Cloud has a nice variety of free options in the form of modules.
PayPal, Stripe &amp; Skrill are amongst the popular names. Further options like PayPal Pro are available, but only at a price.
<h3>Shipping &amp; Taxing</h3>
When it comes to shipping options, PrestaShop does a solid job of allowing you to set up different carriers as you would expect. Additional options include the ability to set handling charges, default carriers and so on.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-131079x0.png" />
If you wish, you can also configure at what order value free shipping begins at.
Things get a little confusing when it comes to taxing though. To set up taxes for different locations, you need to head over to “Localization”, and then “Taxes” on the sidebar.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/tax_700x0.png" />
Firstly, you can simply add the name of the tax, before giving it a percentage value.
However, to actually configure tax rules for these same taxes, you'll need to navigate to another page called “Tax Rules”, where you may then select your existing taxes, before assigning things like location, zip/postal code range, etc.
I don’t see why these options can’t be presented on the same page.
<h3>Front Office</h3>
The front office of Prestashop Cloud lets you see your store as though you are a visitor. But there are also some further settings which you can access by clicking on the gears button located on the left.
Here, you can adjust the colours of your theme, and also the fonts used across the store.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/frontoff2_700x0.jpg" />
I personally expect there to be some further settings here, though. Setting colours and fonts is great, but things like logos, favicons and so forth should also be present on the same menu.
Also, the “Reset” and “Save” buttons at the bottom of the menu can only be seen once you close either the theme colour or font sections, which are open by default. This issue is compounded by the fact that there is no scrolling feature on the menu.
For me, Prestashop could go a few steps further with their front office feature. It’s a little light when it comes to functionality beyond simply previewing your store.
<h2>Apps &amp; Extras</h2>
Prestashop Cloud users get the exact same access to apps as Prestashop Download users.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-29.png" />
As previously mentioned, Prestashop’s primary income stream runs straight through their app and theme marketplace. It’s no surprise then, that the marketplace is filled with a wide range of extensions to help with everything from marketing to website design.
Over 2,000 templates are hosted there, some of which are made by Prestashop, while the rest are from partners and the community.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-30.png" />
PrestaShop Module Marketplace also hosts hundreds upon hundreds of modules to browse through, many of which are free of charge, to be fair.
However, many modules aren’t free. Many are quite expensive, actually.
In fact, some modules can be as expensive as $260, while the most expensive template on offer comes to a sum of $245.
Although in fairness, the templates demanding such fees are generally extremely well crafted. The same can’t always be said for the free templates, but that’s hardly surprising.
One thing's for sure though, Prestashop offers a great deal of flexibility and extensibility with an array of modules and templates.
<h3>Stats &amp; Real Time Profit Margins</h3>
The “Stats” page found on the left hand sidebar offers metrics for things like; best product categories, best customers, best sellers, search engine keywords, visitors, best vouchers and many more.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/stats.png" />
PrestaShop really flexes it's statistical muscles here, giving you a huge amount to monitor. Yet, the simple graphs and lists associated with each parameter makes that monitoring a piece of cake.
Another unique Prestashop feature comes in the form of “Real Time Net Profit Margin”, which enables you to keep track of your takings in real time.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/9.png" />
<h3>Intelligent Merchant KPIs &amp; Forecasts</h3>
Two highly interesting Prestashop Cloud features worth mentioning, are intelligent merchant KPIs and forecasting.
Firstly, remember all of those stats found on the Prestashop Cloud dashboard? Well, forecasts can be found alongside those.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-16.png" />
As the name suggests, the feature literally forecasts your store’s sales based on recent activity and sales records. It’s a supremely useful and downright interesting tool.
The graph forecasts traffic, conversions, average shopping cart values, and sales.
As for intelligent KPIs (Key Performance Indicators), they are non-obtrusive metrics which appear on numerous pages within the back office.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/7_700x0.png" />
They offer up statistics which are relevant to the page you’re viewing.
For example, the Intelligent Merchant KPIs found on the “Orders” page display conversion rates, average order values and net profit per visit over the last 30 days, along with abandoned carts per day.
In the grand scheme of things, this feature is but a small touch. But those small touches across the Prestashop back office definitely add up.
<h2>Getting Help</h2>
You might think that a free and cloud hosted solution would need to scale back it certain areas, but Prestashop continues to impress when it comes to support.
This is mainly due to the awesome Prestashop community, which is arguably the backbone of the support system as well as the platform itself. <a href="/a-closer-look-at-prestashops-global-community/" target="_blank">You can read more about Prestashop’s community right here</a>.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-311079x0.png" />
Official support options include a helpline which is open during business hours only, along with a standard contact form. It should also be noted however, that there is a large quantity of documentation available from the PrestaShop website, which provides help and support concerning the platform's different features and functions.
Despite this, I felt that the most useful support feature was located within the dashboard itself. A “Help” button is located in the top-right corner of every page on the back office.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/help_700x0.png" />
When clicked, the Help button brings up a window with information relevant to the page you happen to be viewing. For example, if you hit Help on the Statistics page, you will be presented with a window detailing all the workings of the Statistics page.
I found this little feature to be extremely useful.
Finally, it's worth noting that Prestashop Cloud users are given 10 free support tickets to get them started.
<h2>The Verdict</h2>
PrestaShop is a very sleek and very detailed platform, which offers a heavy dose of statistical data for merchants to study and work with.
All the core functions needed for an ecommerce solution are present, and in good working order. Meanwhile, additional features like Intelligent Merchant KPIs and Forecasted Data add further quality.
In fact, those graphs and counters all work in tandem to make PrestaShop a seriously powerful ecommerce analytics engine, on top of being a well oiled ecommerce solution.
Also, I previously mentioned the “small touches” dotted around Prestashop’s back office. These include the intelligent merchant KPIs, module suggestions, help buttons, stats and more.
For me, these small, individual touches come together to give Prestashop Cloud an edge. It feels like the platform is constantly speaking to you, and that’s pretty damn awesome.
And finally, Prestashop’s bubbling community and expansive module and theme marketplace help to round off the product quite nicely indeed.
<h3>Pros</h3>
<ul>
<li>Prestashop Cloud is totally free and cloud-hosted, and that’s nothing short of epic.</li>
<li>The dashboard is sleek, modern and easy to use.</li>
<li>Stats and helpful facts are everywhere, and yet are not overwhelming.</li>
<li>Product creation can be quick and easy, but the options to set up more complex products are all there too. </li>
<li>Huge amount of modules and templates, many of which have been developed by PrestaShop and certified partners. </li>
<li>Templates are generally of a very high standard, while various front end features make shopping easy.</li>
<li>Unique features like Intelligent Merchant KPIs and Forecasting adds tremendously to PrestaShop's statistical prowess.</li>
<li>Getting support is relatively easy</li>
<li>Prestashop has a global community which is as helpful as it is massive.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Cons</h3>
<ul>
<li>No access to the source code or database for Prestashop Cloud users.</li>
<li>Although many templates are of a good standard, the pricing system concerning community built and premium themes in particular, are in need of review. </li>
<li>Module &amp; template prices can add up quite easily if you're looking for a truly professional set up. Not a great amount of built-in marketing options.</li>
<li>Minor menu display issue in Prestashop Cloud’s front office.</li>
</ul>
<h2>Final Remarks</h2>
In case I haven’t spoken about it enough during the course of this review, Prestashop Cloud being totally free is seriously epic.
It’s the kind of thing that friends and family won’t believe straight away. “There’s got to be a catch”, they might claim. But there isn’t.
Sure, the Prestashop Addons marketplace is where you’ll likely spend a few bucks, but there’s no necessity on that front at all. Plus, the marketplace offers its fair share of free content, too.
The platform itself is stellar. There’s no denying that Prestashop is now one of the world’s best eCommerce solutions, as it combines simplicity with optional complexity like very few other platforms can.
Prestashop has come a long way, and thanks to its community, open-source nature and cloud offerings, it’s here to stay.
To conclude, it’s safe to say that there is simply no other software available that’s as good as <a href="https://www.prestashop.com/" target="_blank">Prestashop</a> which also offers a free, cloud-hosted route into the world of eCommerce.

PrestaShop Cloud Review

To complete our featured coverage of DNN Software, we're taking a look at how <a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/products/evoq-content?utm_source=cmscritic-article-april-2015&amp;utm_campaign=cmscritic-april-2015" target="_blank">DNN Evoq 8</a> handles day to day content management.
Over the course of this week, I have delved into Evoq 8's <a href="/a-closer-look-at-dnn-evoq-8s-integration-options/" target="_blank">integration options</a>, <a href="/how-dnn-evoq-8-charges-advocate-marketing-with-gamification/" target="_blank">advocate marketing features</a>, <a href="/blending-analytics-personalization-for-optimum-results-with-dnn-evoq-8/" target="_blank">analytics &amp; personalization features</a> and more. Mike Johnston was also given a <a href="/a-video-walkthrough-of-evoq-content-by-dnn-software/" target="_blank">personal product demonstration</a>, before his <a href="/mike-interviews-navin-nagiah-ceo-of-dnn-software-video/" target="_blank">interview with DNN's CEO Navin Nagiah</a>.
For those of you who still aren't familiar with DNN Software, the .NET giants are trusted by over 2,000 brands across the globe, including a number of Fortune 500 companies, DNN was named the <a href="/2014-critics-choice-award-winner-best-small-to-midsize-business-net-cms/" target="_blank">2014 Critics' Choice Award Winner for Best Small to Midsize Business .NET CMS</a>.
<h2>Craft &amp; Manage Content (Without Calling IT)</h2>
In my coverage of <a href="/blending-analytics-personalization-for-optimum-results-with-dnn-evoq-8/">Evoq 8's analytics and personalization features</a>, I mentioned that DNN Software's CEO, Navin Nagiah, recently said that:
<blockquote>“Websites are now being owned more and more by marketers. But if you go back five, eight, ten years ago, website were owned by IT.
So the CMS [Evoq 8] had to pivot to be one for marketers. Super easy to use, super simple to update content.”</blockquote>
Obviously, the words of the company's CEO are reflected in the finished product that is Evoq 8. The platform has been designed from the ground up to be used by marketers, rather than by IT.
Adding pages is a simple process, with details like page descriptions, titles and tags being easy to configure.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/content-creation-add-page.png" />
Evoq 8 also provides pre-built page layouts for marketers to choose from, alongside the option for them to craft their  own and save it as a template for re-use.
This includes the ability to drag-and-drop resizable page elements in order to perfect the design of each page with ease.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-341079x0.png" />
Marketers can also resize, crop and rotate images on the page without accessing an external image editor. Evoq 8 automatically resamples the image for best quality.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/content-creation-image-editing.png" />
<h2>Every Asset, One Interface</h2>
DNN Software has done very well to streamline the entire asset management process with Evoq 8.
The platform <a href="/a-closer-look-at-dnn-evoq-8s-integration-options/" target="_blank">integrates with a number of popular storage solutions</a> including; Box, Dropbox, Amazon S3, Azure Storage and Microsoft Sharepoint.
More impressively though, DNN Evoq 8 doesn't just integrate with these individual solutions. It centralizes them, bringing every asset from every storage solution to one manageable interface.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/content-creation-asset-manager1079x0.png" />
As with all other interfaces, the asset management page within Evoq 8 is sleek and beautiful. Files and folders are neatly tiled, while convenient search options top the page.
Furthermore, marketers can subscribe to notifications in order to be alerted any time a file or folder is added or changed, in any connected repository.
<h2>Lexus-like</h2>
I'm going to end our featured coverage of DNN Software with another quote from the company's CEO Navin Nagiah, which I found highly interesting.
<blockquote>“We're like a Lexus. Very good value for money, high utility, really well designed, and we're going to stay with you for a while.”</blockquote>
Find out more about DNN Evoq Content 8 by <a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/products/evoq-content?utm_source=cmscritic-article-april-2015&amp;utm_campaign=cmscritic-april-2015" target="_blank">visiting their website</a>.
Also, you can explore more of <a href="/products/dnn-evoq-content/" target="_blank">DNN Evoq Content through our CMS Directory</a>.

DNN Evoq 8: Getting To Grips With Content Management

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Our featured coverage of DNN Software continues this week, and this time we're looking at the analytics and personalization features of <a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/products/evoq-content?utm_source=cmscritic-article-april-2015&amp;utm_campaign=cmscritic-april-2015" target="_blank">DNN Evoq 8</a>.
Trusted by more than 2,000 brands worldwide, including a range of Fortune 500 companies, DNN was named the <a href="/2014-critics-choice-award-winner-best-small-to-midsize-business-net-cms/" target="_blank">2014 Critics' Choice Award Winner for Best Small to Midsize Business .NET CMS</a>.
DNN Evoq 8 was released with a focus on a few different fronts, including both analytics and personalization. Let's get into how the platform helps marketers combine the two.
<h2>The Metrics Come Easy</h2>
Evoq 8 serves up detailed and relevant metrics, in a way that's both stylish and yet easy to process. Even for laymen.
<a href="/a-video-walkthrough-of-evoq-content-by-dnn-software/" target="_blank">Much like the rest of DNN Evoq 8</a>, the analytics dashboard is very easy on the eyes.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/page-level-content-analytics700x0.png" />
The sleek nature of the dashboard doesn't come at the cost of functionality though. With it, marketers can easily:
<ul>
<li>Track Page View activity over any length of time, comparing time periods as well as visitors to views.</li>
<li>Monitor the average time spent on each page, along with the bounce rate for the time period.</li>
<li>See the top referring domains driving traffic to the page, top operating systems used, and the top conversion activities.</li>
<li>Understand which traffic channels are driving visitors to the page, and which devices those visitors are using to access the page.</li>
<li>Analyze how are visitors are navigating to and from the page, segmented by traffic type.</li>
</ul>
In other words, Evoq 8 provides marketers with ample information regarding their visitors, arming them with the information they need to adjust content and form marketing campaigns.
However, what really caught my eye, was the presentation of these stats and facts.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/analytics-nav-summary.png" />
The use of flow charts, pie charts, and line graphs may not be anything new, but Evoq 8 actually makes them fun to look at. And that's new.
Everything is quirkily colour-coded, while the interface itself is elegantly minimal on every area of the analytics dashboard. In short, these are seriously important metrics presented in a brilliantly casual way.
<h2>Multi-layered Personalization</h2>
DNN Evoq 8 is capable of tailoring content based on device, behavior, location, or user profile. The end goal is of course to increase both engagement and conversions by dishing out the most relevant content to each visitor.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/dnn700x0.png" />
To craft personalized experiences, Evoq users can set personalization rules.
Through these rules, marketers can arrange specific and tailored content which will only be seen by select groups, all of which are determined by the initial personalization rules.
For example, a banner promoting a North American competition can be configured to be displayed on the website for US and Canada based visitors only.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/personalization-rules_1.png" />
A simple rule can be set to display this version of the website specifically to North Americans, while the rest of the world are shown another version, perhaps without the banner.
Naturally, Evoq 8 lets marketers view, edit, and delete their different page versions.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/personalization-pages.png" />
The natural link between these two marketing features is obvious. Without the stellar analytics system, DNN Evoq 8 users would have trouble identifying their customers, making personalization almost impossible.
Likewise, DNN's personalization features would be of little use without the helpful information provided by its analytics system. Together, they offer valuable stats and metrics, paired with some powerful tools designed to make optimum use of them.
<h2>The Marketer Shift</h2>
Evoq 8's supremely simple approach to both analytics and personalization is no accident.
During <a href="/mike-interviews-navin-nagiah-ceo-of-dnn-software-video/" target="_blank">Mike Johnston's recent video interview with Navin Nagiah</a>, DNN Software's CEO made these telling comments:
<blockquote>“Websites are now being owned more and more by marketers. But if you go back five, eight, ten years ago, website were owned by IT.
So the CMS [Evoq 8] had to pivot to be one for marketers. Super easy to use, super simple to update content.”</blockquote>
I'd say that the shift towards marketers is on track, as “super easy” and “super simple” are two apt descriptions of the analytics and personalization features within Evoq 8.
To find out more about DNN Evoq Content 8, <a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/products/evoq-content?utm_source=cmscritic-article-april-2015&amp;utm_campaign=cmscritic-april-2015" target="_blank">visit their website</a>. Also, be sure to explore more of <a href="/products/dnn-evoq-content/" target="_blank">DNN Evoq Content through our CMS Directory</a>.

Blending Analytics & Personalization For Optimum Results With DNN Evoq 8

Regular reader will have noticed our DNN Software coverage this week, as part of CMS Critic's first round of Featured Weeks.
But the world of CMS whirled on in the background, and so it's only right that we bring you the highlights from this past week.
<h2>Ghost's Transparency</h2>
This week, Ghost delivered on it promise to be more “transparent” (yes, I know, the irony) by revealing their revenue in full.
The blogging platform has also released a “Revenue Dashboard”, inspired by a similar feature offered by Buffer last year.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/baremetrics1.png" />
Ghost's annual revenue so far is $411k, and the revenue dashboard offers up a whole host of other revenue-related metrics.
<a href="http://blog.ghost.org/april-2015-update/" target="_blank">Read more here</a>.
<h2>US Shopify Users Get Google Wallet</h2>
Shopify, one of the world's leading eCommerce solutions, recently announced the arrival of Google Wallet for its US user base.
The introduction of Google Wallet is another effort from Shopify to simplify their mobile checkout process.
Shoppers who have their Google Wallet already set up will be able to simply click “Buy with Google”, instead of typing in their credit card details, billing, and shipping address on a tiny virtual keyboard.
<a href="https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/payments/accelerated-checkouts/google-pay" target="_blank">Read more here</a>.
<h2>WordPress 4.2 On The Horizon</h2>
For those of you who don't know, WordPress is the most widely used CMS (and yes, it is a CMS) in the world.
Thus, the arrival of its latest version, WordPress 4.2, is being eagerly awaited.
The fourth beta was recently released, meaning that the final release of version 4.2 shouldn't be too far away at all. In fact, it could be a matter of days rather than weeks.
<a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2015/04/wordpress-4-2-beta-4/" target="_blank">Read more here</a>.

Weekly News Roundup: Ghost Revenue, Shopify's Google Wallet & WordPress 4.2

CMS Critic's very first <a href="/featured-weeks/" target="_blank">featured week</a> is all about DNN Software, and we're now taking a closer look at how <a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/products/evoq-content?utm_source=cmscritic-article-april-2015&amp;utm_campaign=cmscritic-april-2015" target="_blank">DNN Evoq 8</a> helps to ease platform migration for brands through some stellar integration options.
The .NET platform is trusted by over 2,000 brands worldwide, including a range of Fortune 500 companies. DNN was also the <a href="/2014-critics-choice-award-winner-best-small-to-midsize-business-net-cms/" target="_blank">2014 Critics' Choice Award Winner for Best Small to Midsize Business .NET CMS</a>.
<img style="max-width:234px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/evoqcontent_1.png" />
<h2>The Importance of Integration</h2>
Adopting a new platform for your website (or websites) isn't the easiest task in the world, especially if it means having to leave behind the extra apps and solutions your company already works with.
For example, if your company depends on Microsoft Sharepoint as a digital asset manager, switching to a CMS which doesn't readily support such integration will hit your team hard. The double whammy of having to adapt to a new CMS as well as having to live life without Sharepoint will be a difficult pill swallow, for everyone.
Of course, Sharepoint is but one example, with most companies relying on a range of intranets and marketing suites to keep workflows in check and business in order.
Hence, the heightened importance of solid integration options — because nobody wants to deal with that double whammy.
<h2>All The Essentials, And Then Some</h2>
After already <a href="/how-dnn-evoq-8-charges-advocate-marketing-with-gamification/" target="_blank">discussing DNN Evoq 8 from a advocate marketing standpoint</a>, let's now delve into what it serves up on the integrations front.
<img style="max-width:760px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/integrations-configure.png" />
According to DNN, Evoq 8, “connects easily to popular cloud marketing software and social media networks, so you can use familiar and preferred solutions to extend your website’s functionality.”
Here's what DNN serves up as readily available integrations:
<ul>
<li>Google Analytics integrates just as easily as it always does.</li>
<li>Marketo can be configured even without any technical knowledge.</li>
<li>Storage Solutions including Box, Dropbox, Amazon S3 and Sharepoint can all be accessed simultaneously from a single window.</li>
<li>Extended Microsoft Sharepoint integration, with features that enable you to schedule publications, push documents, share lists, and synchronize files between Evoq Content and SharePoint.</li>
</ul>
But that's not all.
<a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/?utm_source=cmscritic-article-april-2015&amp;utm_campaign=cmscritic-april-2015">DNN Evoq 8 also boasts a fully fledged store</a>, which is home to a vast array of modules built to extend website functionality.
Many modules have been developed to add functionality in their own way, while others are there to help integrate with systems like Mailchimp, Google Maps, and so forth.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-33.png" />
And just in case none of that is enough, DNN also allows you to craft custom integrations via Evoq API.
DNN's powerful development libraries are there to help you build interactive web applications, integrate with ERP, CRM, marketing automation systems, and much more.
So, with all of those integration options and tools on offer, it's safe to say that DNN Evoq 8 is equipped to help any brand avoid the aforementioned double whammy during platform migration.
And of course, it's also more than ready to help existing DNN customers expand their website functionality.
To find out more about DNN Evoq Content 8, <a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/products/evoq-content?utm_source=cmscritic-article-april-2015&amp;utm_campaign=cmscritic-april-2015" target="_blank">visit their website</a>. Also, be sure to explore more of <a href="/products/dnn-evoq-content/" target="_blank">DNN Evoq Content through our CMS Directory</a>.

A Closer Look at DNN Evoq 8's Integration Options

Continuing with our featured coverage of DNN Software, it's time to take a look at how <a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/products/evoq-content?utm_source=cmscritic-article-april-2015&amp;utm_campaign=cmscritic-april-2015" target="_blank">DNN Evoq 8</a> helps brands to engage with existing users and customers.
DNN Evoq Content is trusted by over 2,000 brands worldwide, including a range of Fortune 500 companies. DNN was also the <a href="/2014-critics-choice-award-winner-best-small-to-midsize-business-net-cms/" target="_blank">2014 Critics' Choice Award Winner for Best Small to Midsize Business .NET CMS</a>.
DNN Evoq 8 combines advocate marketing and gamification features to give brands the tools they need to first engage with their users and customers, before using them as standalone marketers.
<h2>What is Advocate Marketing &amp; Gamification?</h2>
Not sure what on earth do these two terms mean? Don't worry, because as per usual, they sound more complicated than they are.
<h3>Advocate Marketing</h3>
Advocate marketing is the process of turning your customers and users into marketers.
Ideally, advocate marketing is carried out by a brands most regular and most passionate customers, who are therefore happy to preach positive news and views about the brand in question.
<h3>Gamification</h3>
Gamification simply means using game mechanics to engage users in solving problems. This could include a leveling system, where users or community members get rewarded with different levels of titles once they complete certain tasks.
For exmaple, giving a forum member a special title once they reach 100 forum posts, is a type of gamification.
The purpose of gamification is to improve user engagement, return on investment, data quality, timeliness, and learning.”
<h2>How DNN Expertly Blends The Two</h2>
The release of DNN Evoq Content 8 has brought advocate marketing and gamification together.
Their gamification engine was already in place beforehand, giving brands the opportunity to reward their audience for participating in the community, be in via discussion, task completion or otherwise.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-321079x0.png" />
DNN's gamification features come in the form of badges, reputation points, leaderboards and more.
Now though, with a newly introduced advocate marketing feature, DNN Evoq's gamification engine has a counterpart to work in tandem with.
Evoq 8 enables Marketers to activate the brand advocates already on their website by rewarding them for sharing content on their personal social networks.
The advocacy marketing capability is integrated with Evoq’s native gamification engine, and engages customers by issuing challenges, tracking challenge completions, and awarding points, badges, or other designated incentives.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/advocate-create-challenge1.png" />
By creating challenges for users to meet, brands can incentivize sharing content on social media. For instance, the example above shows a social sharing challenge, which rewards the user with 25 points for sharing news of an upcoming webinar.
As you can see, the challenge setup process is supremely straightforward, with URLs, titles, instructions, and points all easy to configure.
Each challenge can be set to be either locked or open for public editing. Challenges can also have expiration dates and times for completion.
A simple, yet effective idea which slots in very well alongside (and complements) DNN's existing gamification options.
To find out more about DNN Evoq Content 8, <a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/products/evoq-content?utm_source=cmscritic-article-april-2015&amp;utm_campaign=cmscritic-april-2015" target="_blank">visit their website</a>. Also, be sure to explore more of <a href="/products/dnn-evoq-content/" target="_blank">DNN Evoq Content through our CMS Directory</a>.

How DNN Evoq 8 Charges Advocate Marketing With Gamification

One of the stops on the <a href="/cms-critic-is-touring-north-america-and-europe-this-year/" target="_blank">CMS Critic North American Tour</a> was at DNN Software, the company behind <a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/products/evoq-content?utm_source=cmscritic-article-april-2015&amp;utm_campaign=cmscritic-april-2015" target="_blank">DNN Evoq Content</a>.
DNN Evoq Content is used by over 2,000 businesses worldwide, including a number of Fortune 500 companies. DNN was also the <a href="/2014-critics-choice-award-winner-best-small-to-midsize-business-net-cms/" target="_blank">2014 Critics' Choice Award Winner for Best Small to Midsize Business .NET CMS</a>.
The company recently launched DNN Evoq 8, “A CMS built for marketers to deliver today's modern web experiences.”
<img style="max-width:234px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/evoqcontent.png" />
DNN Evoq 8 was released to bring additional focus to the following four key areas:
<h3>1. Content Personalization</h3>
Evoq 8 enables users to build personalization rules that tailor site content based on visitors’ profiles.
Rules can be based on geography, account registration (i.e. registered versus non-registered users), gender, age, recent visits, referral source, search terms and ad clicks.
<h3>2. Page-Level Content Analytics</h3>
Statistics on page views, referrers, unique visitors, and conversions are presented as an overlay on each web page, via data collected and managed by Evoq.
Making these stats more accessible means that any marketer, regardless of their level of proficiency with analytics, can immediately understand how content is performing, without navigating away from the page in question.
<h3>3. Centralized Access to Cloud-Hosted Content Repositories</h3>
Evoq 8 includes built-in connectors to Box, Dropbox, Amazon S3, and SharePoint, making it easy to access any piece of content or digital asset from a single window.
This capability allows marketers and content producers to use their preferred content storage service or use multiple services, without moving files, duplicating effort, or wasting valuable time.
<h3>4. Advocate Marketing</h3>
Evoq 8 enables marketers to activate the brand advocates already on their webiste by rewarding them for sharing content on their personal social networks.
The advocacy marketing capability is integrated with Evoq’s native gamification engine, and engages customers by issuing challenges, tracking challenge completions, and awarding points, badges, or other designated incentives.
Now, although these four areas have been impressively enhanced, there's a lot more to DNN Evoq 8 that goes beyond just new features and functionality.
<h2>Beyond Standard Enterprise Content Management</h2>
After the recent <a href="/walkthrough-of-dnn-evoq-content-8-with-cms-critic/" target="_blank">DNN Evoq 8 video walkthrough</a>, Mike Johnston made a very interesting observation about the nature of DNNs latest release:
<blockquote>“Let me tell you folks, this is one impressive looking piece of software. They have completely done away with the dashboard (in the manner that there is no longer a back end admin interface to log into) and moved into a more “website builder look”.
The good part being that there was no loss in functionality so I consider Evoq 8 (and you can quote me on this) a website builder for Enterprises.”</blockquote>
A website builder for enterprises? Now that's an angle worth exploring.
Simplicity and ease of use was definitely high on the priorities list for DNN Evoq 8.
It's the removal of the traditional dashboard that has shifted the focus towards front end content editing, which in turn resembles that website builder experience.
Users can log in and immediately begin working on the page they're viewing. The sidebar offers up contextualised administrative functionality, giving the user the tools they need depending on the type of content appearing on the page.
DNN Software's CEO, Navin Nagiah, gave further insight into this newly crafted user experience during his interview with Mike Johnston:
<blockquote>“Our eventual goal is to make it so that, when somebody starts using the software, they [already] know how to use it. No training, no user manuals, no videos to watch, nothing. The software has to speak to the user.
We want to take the same user experience that you have in consumer apps and devices, and apply it to the business world. So Evoq 8 is an important milestone, but we are going to get even better as we go forward for the releases this year and next year.”</blockquote>
Perhaps the most interesting element of the above quote is how Navin Nagiah implies that DNN Evoq 8 is but a stepping stone towards an even simpler user experience, which we will hopefully see manifested in future DNN releases.
For now though, marketers can enjoy DNN Evoq 8 for what it is; an enterprise-grade powerhouse of a website builder.
To find out more about DNN Evoq Content 8, <a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/products/evoq-content?utm_source=cmscritic-article-april-2015&amp;utm_campaign=cmscritic-april-2015" target="_blank">visit their website</a>. Also, be sure to explore more of <a href="/products/dnn-evoq-content/" target="_blank">DNN Evoq Content through our CMS Directory</a>.

DNN Evoq 8: Beyond Content Management

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