Articles - Page 136

The Top 10 AI Tools for Small Business: From Automation to a Coordinated Team of AI Agents

matt-garrepy

<a href="http://www.sitefinity.com/" target="_blank">Telerik Sitefinity</a> is the latest platform to receive our featured week treatment, and it’s now time to delve into the philosophy behind its powerful content management features.
Telerik Sitefinity is an ASP.NET web content management and marketing platform. Some of the world’s biggest brands trust Sitefinity with their websites, including Toyota, Audi, Kraft Foods and NASA. Recently, the platform received the <a href="/2014-critics-choice-award-winner-best-enterprise-net-cms/">2014 Critics' Choice CMS Award for Best Enterprise .NET CMS</a>.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sitefinitylogo_wtagline_rgb_400x0.png" />
Mike Johnston recently <a href="/cms-critic-interviews-robert-mattson-of-telerik-sitefinity/">interviewed Robert Mattson, Telerik's Director of Product </a>Marketing while on the CMS Critic North American Tour. He also had the pleasure of witnessing a detailed<a href="/telerik-sitefinity-walkthrough-video-with-cms-critic/"> product walkthrough delivered by Telerik’s Product Marketing Manager, Svetla Yankova</a>.
Now, back to those content management features.
<h2>Great Customer Experience Starts with Great Content</h2>
The act of producing and presenting content is at the heart of every website and digital marketing campaign.
Sitefinity CMS empowers marketers with user-friendly drag-and-drop interfaces for when it comes to general content management such as in-line page editing, as well as form building.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/web-content.jpg" />
The inline editing feature enables marketers to add and edit all forms of content on the fly, right there on the page. Not only does this streamline the entire process, but it also simplifies it so that almost anybody can make changes.
Content administrators can also benefit from features like approval workflows, versions histories and granular permissions help to keep both content and marketers in check.
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-assets_1.jpg" />Naturally, this unified method of digital asset management saves an abundant amount of time and money, while also serving to help marketers produce better content, faster.
Sitefinity CMS also offers a centralized approach to website management. The platform’s multisite management makes it easy for organizations to manage a collection of websites and microsites through a centralized interface.
Learn more about <a href="http://www.sitefinity.com/content-management">Telerik Sitefinity’s content management features</a>.
<h2>Personalized Customer Experiences at Scale</h2>
Converting customers in today’s market demands a personalized experience.
The first step is always to segment your audience, before delivering the content most relevant and valuable to each segment.
For this, Sitefinity CMS provides marketers with a simple interface for defining segments through various criteria such as where the visitor came from, what they searched for, their location, duration of their visit, etc. You can define custom criteria and have any combination of AND/OR criteria to define your segments.
Sitefinity CMS then enables allows marketers to serve different content and information.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/personalization.jpg" />
For example, visitors of a business background will need to be presented with articles and whitepapers discussing relevant topics. Whereas, visitors with a developer background will want to see some code samples. Sitefinity CMS caters for all of this, and more.
All the final results can of course be tested by marketers, as Sitefinity CMS allows for the marketer to impersonate a visitors from each segment, so that they can test each personalized experience first hand. Of course, analytical data including key performance indicators can also be reviewed.
Social media integration makes up another dimension of Sitefinity CMS ’s’ personalization power.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/social-media_1.jpg" />
For instance, customers can log in with their existing social media handles, while marketers can improve social media presence by adding social sharing buttons to website pages, pushing content to Twitter and RSS feeds automatically, and more.
Sitefinity CMS also serves up targeted email marketing features along with A/B testing to hone campaigns.
Learn more about <a href="http://www.sitefinity.com/customer-experience-management">Telerik Sitefinity’s personalization features</a>.
<h2>Integration For The Sake Of Retention</h2>
Retaining customers is an ongoing, multi-faceted process. However, it’s fair to say that exercising integration capabilities can play a key role.
As well as the social media integration previously mentioned, Sitefinity CMS also integrates with a number of popular CRMS, DAMs and marketing suites.
Among the popular tools and platforms which play nice with Sitefinity are; Google Analytics, Akismet, PayPal PayFlow Pro, Dropbox, Salesforce, Marketo and Microsoft SharePpoint.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/integration-platform.jpg" />
Naturally, this wide range of integratable platforms only extends the power of Sitefinity CMS as a content management solution.
Perhaps more importantly though, such integrations will help marketers retain customers by making use of third-party customer relationship managers, analytical data, and more.
Furthermore, the overall user experience can be enhanced thanks to integrated tools and solutions such as PayPal and Akismet.
Learn more about <a href="http://www.sitefinity.com/website-integrations">Telerik Sitefinity’s integration options</a>.
For more details on Sitefinity CMS <a href="http://www.sitefinity.com/" target="_blank">visit their website</a>. You can also explore more of <a href="/products/sitefinity">Sitefinity via our CMS Directory</a>.

Designed to Engage, Convert & Retain: A Look at Sitefinity's Content Management Philosophy

mike-johnston

Are you a fan of Umbraco? Then you'll be glad to know they've had a new release of the popular open-source CMS.
Umbraco 7.1.0 was just released and it comes with a score of new features.
Let's take a look at what's new in this release.
<h2>Image Cropping</h2>
Image cropping has been added to the core of the CMS but it's not just any cropping tool, it also doubles as an upload field, meaning you can replace any upload field with a cropper field and your previously uploaded file is still there but become croppable. Of course, without a file, you get the option of uploading one.
<img style="max-width:473px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/umbraco_image_scaling473x0.png" alt="Umbraco Image Cropping" />
<h2>Breadcrumbs and Warnings</h2>
New warnings have been added to the CMS to alert you when you are about to navigate away from a page without saving changes as well as breadcrumbs to let you know where you are within the CMS.
<img style="max-width:411px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/umbraco_breadcrumbs_and_warnings.png" alt="umbraco breadcrumbs and warnings" />
<h2>Changing Content / Document Types</h2>
In those instances where you start filling a page with content and then realize you are using the wrong content type, you can now switch the content types and remap the fields without losing your content.
<img style="max-width:469px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/umbraco_content_types_switching.png" alt="umbraco content types switching" />
<h2>Members</h2>
Last but not least, the members API has been reworked and MemberService is now available and completely in line with ContentService and Media Service.
In addition, they've attempted to make working with members easier by providing snippets for Register, Login, Login Status, and Edit Profile when you create a new Particle View.
<img style="max-width:479px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/umbraco_members.png" alt="umbraco members" />
And there you have it.
Would you like more information on Umbraco? Check them out in our <a href="/products/umbraco/">CMS Products Directory</a> or <a href="https://umbraco.com/">visit them on the web.</a>

Umbraco CMS 7.1.0 is out with lots of new features

3dcart, the popular eCommerce platform, has unveiled a Point of Sale App that is compatible with the Apple iPad. With it, merchants using 3dcart for their online stores can now present their products and process sales from their physical outlets, pop-up stalls, and while on the move. Here's a video explaining how it all works.<figure class="media"><div data-oembed-url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPUE-Xo3NYA"><div style="position:relative;padding-bottom:100%;height:0;padding-bottom:56.2493%"><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZPUE-Xo3NYA" style="position:absolute;width:100%;height:100%;top:0;left:0" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe></div></div></figure><h2>A Fully Integrated Retail System</h2>3dcart users can make use of the POS App as an additional arm of their retail business.The cloud-based app synchronises all sales and activity for online and offline sales, keeping everything under one roof for easier management.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/grow-and-expand511x0-is.png" />Features include:<ul><li>Presenting products and catalogs to customers via the iPad</li><li>Accepting card, cash and cheque payments</li><li>Processing refunds</li><li>Sending email receipts</li><li>Discount code generation and application</li></ul>3dCart provides the hardware in the form of a card reader, and other optionals like a barcode scanner, a register drawer and/or a printer.Not many of the world's leading eCommerce platforms offer a native Point of Sale app, so this is definitely a noteworthy win for 3dcart and its users. There's no word on how much the extra hardware costs, although I'm guessing it won't be cheap.3dcart's website <a target="_blank" href="https://www.shift4shop.com/">also sheds more light on their new app</a>.

A Look at 3dcart's New POS App

As our featured coverage of <a href="http://www.sitefinity.com/" target="_blank">Telerik Sitefinity</a> continues, I’m taking a look at Sitefinity as an eCommerce solution.
Recently acquired by <a href="https://www.progress.com/" target="_blank">Progress</a>, Telerik Sitefinity is an ASP.NET web content management system, a marketing platform and an eCommerce solution. A CMS powerhouse, to say the least.
<img style="max-width:400px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sitefinitylogo_wtagline_rgb_400x0.png" />
Over 200 brands worldwide trust Sitefinity to power their online retailing systems. Recently, the platform received the <a href="/2014-critics-choice-award-winner-best-enterprise-net-cms/">2014 Critics' Choice CMS Award for Best Enterprise .NET CMS</a>.
During the recent CMS Critic North American Tour, Mike Johnston had the chance to interview Robert Mattson, Telerik's Director of Product Marketing. Mike also had the pleasure of witnessing a detailed Sitefinity walkthrough delivered by Telerik’s Product Marketing Manager, Svetla Yankova.
Recently, I touched on <a href="/designed-to-engage-convert-retain-a-look-at-sitefinitys-content-management-philosophy/">Sitefinity’s extensive content management features</a>, as well as the platform's <a href="/an-overview-of-sitefinitys-content-management-digital-experience-features/">digital marketing functions</a>.
Let’s now delve into Sitefinity’s enterprise-grade eCommerce features.
<h2>Personalized Product Catalogs &amp; Multi-store Management</h2>
The Sitefinity CMS platform provides everything an online retailer expects and needs, before offering a little more.
With personalization already being such a large part of the Sitefinity CMS story, let’s first take a look at the solution’s personalized product catalogs.
Marketers can easily set up and manage all necessary product catalogs and departments from a central system, promoting the right product for a specific customer more easily than ever before.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/product-catalogs.jpg" />Sitefinity CMS also gives merchants an avenue into improving sales in regional markets through multi-store management.
Differing storefronts, shopping carts and checkout processes are easy to configure, catering for localized markets in any language or currency.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/multiple-storefronts.jpg" />
Furthermore, automatic updates of real-time exchange rates from XE or ECB help to reduce currency risk on localized pricing. A massive time and money saving feature if there ever was one.
<h2>Targeted Offers, Powerful Order Management &amp; More</h2>
The personalization features seep further into the Sitefinity CMS eCommerce offering with targeted offers, designed to help merchants appeal to the right audiences.
For example, retailers can offer special promotions, discounts and custom pricing targeted at specific customer and partner segments, defined by none other than themselves.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/targeted-offers.jpg" />
Marketing teams can also schedule and run promotions easily, set pricing tiers and have more control over campaigns across multiple channels, including web, mobile, email and social media.
As for order management, Sitefinity CMS enables merchants to easily process online and offline orders and manage their pending, paid, shipped or returned status.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/order-management.jpg" />
Sitefinity CMS also helps marketers monitor sales trends with an order reporting dashboard.
Merchants also have the ability to offer customers a wide range of popular payment gateways. These include PayPal, Authorize.Net, SagePay, PayFlow Pro, eWAY and more.
Meanwhile, real-time rates from FedEx, UPS or USPS make up the shipping options.
Learn more about <a href="http://www.sitefinity.com/ecommerce">Sitefinity CMS as an eCommerce solution</a>.
For more details on Sitefinity CMS <a href="http://www.sitefinity.com/" target="_blank">visit their website</a>. You can also explore more of <a href="/products/sitefinity">Sitefinity via our CMS Directory</a>.

Getting to Know Sitefinity as an eCommerce Solution

The final release of Drupal 8 is drawing closer, as the first release candidate becomes available for users to tinker with.
<a href="http://www.drupal.org/" target="_blank">Drupal</a> is a widely popular open source platform, used and maintained by a community that's nearly 700,000 strong. During the 2014 CMS Awards, Drupal was named the <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/cms-critic-awards/">People's Choice Best Enterprise PHP CMS</a>.
<img style="max-width:400px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/drupal_logo-blue-1_400x0.png" /> 
There's no sign of a release date yet, though. Drupal have simply said that they will continue releasing release candidates twice a month until they are confident in the project's stability.
That's a fair stance to take, although I'm sure Drupal users are growing impatient. After all, <a href="https://www.drupal.org/core/dev-cycle" target="_blank">Drupal 8 has been in development since 2011</a>, with the <a href="/drupal-8.0.0-first-beta-released/" target="_blank">first beta releasing over a year ago</a>.
<h2>WYSIWYG Editing, Improved Mobile Support &amp; More</h2>
Drupal 8 is going to bring web development closer to the average web user, thanks to a revamped user interface that boasts WYSIWYG and in-place editing.
“Significantly improved mobile support” is also on the cards, along with added and improved modules including Views, Date, and more. I suppose that means an easier ride for those making edits on smartphones and tablets.
Further enhancements include:
<ul>
<li>New object-oriented backend leveraging <a href="https://symfony.com/">Symfony</a> components</li>
<li>revamped configuration management</li>
<li>improved multilingual support</li>
</ul>
Plus hundreds of other improvements, <a href="https://www.drupal.org/drupal-8.0">many of which are detailed here</a>.
<h2>Ready for Action</h2>
According to the Drupal team, Drupal 8 in its current form is highly functional straight out of the box, and boasts many of the top Drupal 7 modules. They're confident that, for most standard website projects, Drupal 8 has everything needed built into its core already.
It'll be interesting to see how the final stages of Drupal 8 pan out. According to Drupal, there are no known issues with this latest version – as far as they know.
So, let's hope nobody finds anything major, enabling Drupal to get this show on the road for real, sooner rather than later.
The official announcement for this release candidate <a href="https://www.drupal.org/drupal-8.0.0-rc1" target="_blank">can be found here</a>. Also, be sure to check out <a href="/products/drupal/" target="_blank">Drupal via our CMS directory</a>.

First Release Candidate For Drupal 8 Now Available

Canadian <a href="https://www.shopify.com/" target="_blank"> Shopify</a> customers were in for a treat yesterday, as the Shopify Card Reader was made available in Canada for the first time.
Shopify is a world-renowned e-commerce solution powering over 90,000 stores and was the winner of our <a href="/2013-people-s-choice-winner-for-best-ecommerce-solution/#.Uz0_hfldXvU" target="_blank"> 2013 People's Choice for Best Ecommerce Solution</a> award.
The Shopify card reader is a free device that allows Shopify merchants to accept credit card payments on the go using the Shopify Mobile iPhone app, or in-store using  Shopify POS, Shopify's iPad-based point of sale system.
<h2>Sell Anywhere with the Shopify Mobile App</h2>
Using the Shopify Card Reader, merchants can accept all major credit cards from their offline stores. These cards include Visa, MasterCard and American Express all at one flat rate based on your Shopify plan, as shown below.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/chart_1c12954b-ec07-4fd2-9512-2096d6d9f98b700x0.jpg" alt="Shopify POS Plans" />
This means that Canadian Shopify merchants who also sell offline can now accept credit card payments using the Shopify Mobile iPhone app. You can sell your existing products or even create custom sales on the spot.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/shopify-mobile-payments_7b9f3468-1b0a-47e6-93c7-3f120e8296d3.png" alt="Shopify Mobile App" />
If you’re in Canada or the U.S., you can order your free Shopify mobile card reader by logging into the app, navigating to the ‘Accept Payments’ screen, and confirming your mailing address.
Shopify Mobile is free for all existing Shopify merchants and can be downloaded in the Apple App Store.
<h2>Sell From Your Physical Store</h2>
As well as mobile selling, Shopify enables you to sell easily and professionally from your physical retail store using Shopify POS.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/shopify_pos_online_and_in_store.jpg" alt="Shopify POS " /> 
Shopify POS is a fully integrated point of sale system that bridges the gap between your offline retail location  and your online store. Canadian merchants can now use the Shopify card reader to accept credit card payments with Shopify POS, which works seamlessly with the Apple iPad.
Furthermore, Shopify has also opened their Canadian <a href="http://hardware.shopify.ca/" target="_blank">hardware store</a> which means you can order Shopify POS hardware kits and other optional accessories like receipt printers and bar code scanners.
If you'd prefer to get a closer look before purchasing, you can head down to Shopify's Toronto pop-up store from April 1st to April 4th to get a free mobile card reader or buy Shopify POS hardware kits.
To find out more about the Canadian Shopify Card Reader release, check out the official blog announcement.
Also, don't forget to check out <a href="/products/shopify/" target="_blank">Shopify via our CMS Directory</a>.

Shopify Card Reader Launches in Canada

<a href="https://www.ucraft.com/" target="_blank">ucraft</a> is a new entry in the website builder market. It's touted as being simple and easy to use with a user interface that is unique. Today, I'm going to take a look at it in this Ucraft Review.
Before we begin, I'd highly recommend watching this quick video which gives an excellent overview of the interface and how easy it is to use. It's not a long video but well worth the time to watch and I'm going to assume you've watched this before you start reading below:
<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/179479422?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
You can get started for free as ucraft also offers a free plan for those in need of a simple 1 page website.
<h2>ucraft Pricing</h2>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/download_fssucs.png" />
ucraft offers a host of features including:
<ul>
<li>1 Website</li>
<li>Unlimited Pages</li>
<li>Edit Content</li>
<li>Add Content</li>
<li>Custom Domain</li>
<li>Articles App</li>
<li>SEO App</li>
<li>Call your team</li>
<li>Free Hosting</li>
<li>24/7 Support</li>
<li>Your Brand</li>
</ul>
When you first log into ucraft, you'll be greeted with your homepage. Along the left side of the browser is the menu which consists of a number of icons that expand to display menus as you click on them.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/ucraft-review-11556x0-is.png" />Let's take a look through some of them now. The first menu item lets you preview your website as it would appear on desktop, tablet and phone.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/ucraft-review-5.png" />
Moving down, the next icon allows you to launch new apps:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/ucraft-review-2-1.png" />Pages allows you to manage and add pages to your website, designer tools lets you design and create buttons, typography and layout options, media lets you manage your media library and so on.
Next in line is the blocks icon which allows you to drag and drop predefined blocks of content (sliders, hero content, etc) into your website to make building something out incredibly quick and efficient.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/ucraft-review-31117x0-is.png" />
The blocks of content that are available are pretty extensive and should serve the majority of users. I found the experience of adding them to a page pretty seamless and they were all quite easy to edit.
Next comes elements. Elements are things such as images, titles and other chunks of content which can be quickly dragged and dropped wherever you want on your new site. There's a very solid selection of options here that you can work with.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/ucraft-review-61140x0-is.png" />
It's funny how if you make something simple, it makes it more fun to use. For some reason, I'm in love with the simple drag and drop color icon which is next in line on the sidebar. The fact that you can pre-select a bunch of colours to match your scheme and then simple drag and drop them onto any element to change it instantly is simply brilliant and one of my favourite features of ucraft.
Last but not least is the FX button which lets you drag and drop special effects onto your content blocks such as fade in and other animations.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/ucraft-review-81067x0-is.png" /> 
UI wise, the developers have done a great job of giving the system powerful capabilities without overwhelming the user. The entire experience of using ucraft screams ease of use and somehow, makes building your website fun to do. Sure, this isn't something you'd use for an insanely huge website but that's also not the target audience of most website builders. They are there to give you all of the tools you need to get online efficiently and at a low price point and ucraft does just that and more.
<h2>Conclusion</h2>
My experience with ucraft just in writing this review and going through the various elements of the builder was nothing but positive. This is truly an excellent tool and I'm very excited by how simple and easy to use it is. Things feel like they were put together given a lot of thought and the user interface is one of the best I've seen to date. It's quick, easy and fluid while at the same time staying out of your way so you can get what you need done.
In fact, given how simple it is, I was surprised by how extensive the features are. The logo design tools that are integrated do the job nicely and the ability to use UiKit to build out buttons very easily is brilliant.
I highly recommend checking out ucraft and giving it a try for your next website, I'd be surprised if you didn't fall in love with it like I have. If I was going to give this a rating out of 10, I'd probably give it a 9 which is not something I do very often and the only reason I'd give it a 9 is because there isn't an easy way to get to their knowledge base from within the interface. To access it, you have to go to their home page and then to their menu to find it. While there is a live help feature, it makes more sense to have the knowledge base easy to get to from the interface. In my opinion, it should be linked as one of the icons within the left menu.
Aside from this small gripe, I think this literally is one of the best tools and interfaces I've seen in a long time and I've been reviewing these things since 2008. It's just that good. Give it a try for yourself, I'll be surprised if you don't end up falling in love as well.
Check it out for yourself here: <a href="/ucraft-cms" target="_blank">ucraft.com</a>.

ucraft Review: Simple, Efficient Website Building with a Beautiful Interface

2022: The CMS Critic Year in Review

cms-critic-staff

2022 Year in Review graphic with text and fireworks in the background

Weglot - The easiest way to translate a website

The easiest way to translate a website

#18164c

<h2>What is Gutensite?</h2>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/gutensite-about-the-company-700-620x435.jpg" alt="Gutensite" />
Gutensite is one of those small start-ups that have been around awhile, perfecting their service and earning a loyal following. Their passionate member base recently pushed them to second place in the <a href="/peoples-choice-winner-for-best-website-builder-is/">CMS Critic People's Choice Awards</a>, second to Squarespace.
Gutensite is a California design firm that helps small businesses and non-profits build and manage websites that are exceptionally designed and powerful. Gutensite's intuitive CMS is the backbone of an affordable, full-service ecosystem that supports businesses with strategy, design, development and ongoing website management.
Before reading more, you should watch their fun video below to get a quick feel for their design and how the CMS works.
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/egVPI3GwhfY?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<h2>About the CMS</h2>
Gutensite is unapologetically a Content Management System. That means it separates design and content creation/management roles. Gutensite's devotion to design is evident in their visually appealing control panel which is both powerful and simple, with uniquely illustrated icons and friendly buttons. The platform allows total customization of design and functionality, but unlike other “visual website builders” like Wix, <a href="https://www.weebly.com/">Weebly</a> or Squarespace, Gutensite ensures that only qualified designers can change significant visual elements. So tasks can be delegated throughout a team and content creators can easily publish anything without worrying about how things will look. The CMS includes all the essentials expected for modern websites, but it also includes powerful, industry-specific functionality that can be activated with one click.
<h2>What Makes Gutensite Unique?</h2>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/gutensite-what-makes-us-unique-700-620x442.jpg" alt="Gutensite-What-Makes-Us-Unique-700" />
The first thing that sets Gutensite apart is the beautiful design of their CMS and of every website they create. Other CMSs like Squarespace have also made design a priority, but overall it's pretty special.
Secondly, Gutensite has targeted their CMS to serve professional organizations, and they offer an interesting hybrid of two extremes in the CMS market. Their platform has the power, flexibility and scalability of an enterprise level CMS like Drupal and Concrete5, but the instant setup and easy to use features of hosted platforms like Squarespace and Wix. It comes with a full support ecosystem that makes it a plug and play option for small businesses who need a website that delivers a great return on investment and a team to help them accomplish their goals. And it is hosted on a framework that allows anything to be customized so that there is flexibility to grow as business needs change.
The last obvious difference is that Gutensite's platform is more restrictive than visual website builders like Wix or <a href="https://www.weebly.com/">Weebly</a>. For people with design experience that want full creative license or people building a hobby site, that could be frustrating. But the result is that websites built on Gutensite are much more beautiful and professional. If you are a business, Gutensite's focused approach will result in a website that protects and promotes your brand much better.
<h2>Easy to Get Started</h2>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/gutensite-sign-up-info-700-620x529.jpg" alt="Gutensite-Sign-Up-Info-700" />
Creating a website is easy and instant by going to gutensite.com/Start. First you will select the <a href="http://www.gutensite.com/Website-Packages-and-Pricing?refcode=CMSCRITIC" target="_blank">package</a> that fits your organization's immediate needs. There are affordable options for every size organization, even a free package. If you are just starting to get your business online you can start at the lowest $15/mo package and upgrade as your requirements increase. If you choose the top tier Pro package, you qualify for a free 14 day trial. And if you enter your credit card right away, you won't get charged right away but you will get an additional $50 credit on your account, so your first month is essentially free.
Next you will enter some basic information, including your website name and a temporary shortcut like mysite.gutensite.com (you can port over or purchase a new domain from the control panel when you are ready to go live). This shortcut will let you access your site until you point a domain name.
<h2>Beautiful Design</h2>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/gutensite-sign-up-design-700-620x484.jpg" alt="Gutensite-Sign-Up-Design-700" />
On the sign-up page, you can pick one of Gutensite's beautiful, free design templates to get started. To streamline the signup process they have limited the initial selection, but there are more choices within the control panel and you can preview and change at any time. Gutensite also works with top quality, <a href="http://www.gutensite.com/Design-Partnership?refcode=CMSCRITIC" target="_blank">third-party design agencies</a> (including their own in-house team) and you can request a fully custom design or bring a design with you from your own favorite designer. Anything can be customized, from the look and functionality of the home page and shell, to individual content type pages. If you are on a budget, you can also request a hybrid by requesting tweaks to any of the free templates.
<h2>Setting Up a Site</h2>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/gutensite-control-panel-dashboard-700-620x544.jpg" alt="Gutensite-Control-Panel-Dashboard-700" />
After you click the “Take Me to my New Site” button on the sign-up page, an entire website is created for you in a couple of seconds and you are immediately logged into your Control Panel. You can view your website by clicking the “View Your Site” button. This initial website has sample pages and a basic menu that are common for your type of organization, and it helps you understand how the Control Panel organizes your website content so that you can easily get started with your own content.
<h2>Orientation Tour</h2>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/gutensite-control-panel-tour-content-700-620x457.jpg" alt="Gutensite-Control-Panel-Tour-Content-700" />
When you first access your account, you are greeted with a really slick orientation tour. There are 5 parts to the tour, with several steps in each part. If you actually read everything and follow the instructions it will take you about 15 minutes. If you decide to invest the time you will definitely understand how to manage content on the website and at least know where to find many of the advanced features once you need them. If that's not your thing, Gutensite will give you a human tour on the phone, or just help with specific questions when they arise.
The tour can be delayed or dismissed, and you can take any of the available guided tours again if you ever want. Every time you create a new admin account, the new user is greeted with the tour. You can check if your team members have taken their tour, how far they progressed, and you can reset the tour for them if you feel they need to take it again.
<h2>Creating a New Page</h2>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/gutensite-control-panel-basic-page-700-620x550.jpg" alt="Gutensite-Control-Panel-Basic-Page-700" />
Creating a basic page is a lot like WordPress. From the main page of your Control Panel you select “My Pages”, and then when you see the list of all your basic pages you click the big “Add” button. This provides you with a simple form that lets you set a page title, a friendly URL, and page content. You can use a WYSIWYG editor to layout a page yourself, or you can use some of the prebuilt layout options under the “Extras” tab to set a heading, sub heading, pull out quotes, info lists, secondary content, etc. And the result is a page that looks carefully designed. You can have a designer create custom pay layouts that can be applied for different purposes.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/gutensite-basic-page-700-620x899.jpg" alt="Gutensite-Basic-Page-700" />
There are a lot of pre-designed content types that let you enter a few fields of data, and then Gutensite creates a page layout with images, headers, description, comments, sharing, slideshows, video, file downloads, etc. The default layouts are beautiful, and you can have a designer create custom layouts for each content type if you need something special.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/gutensite-profile-list-700-620x466.jpg" alt="Gutensite-Profile-List-700" />
So if you want to create a team page, you simply go to the Profiles icon in your Control Panel and create a new category page called “Our People”. Give it a friendly url like /Our-People, and under an advanced tab you can control a lot of different display options, decide if you want a list format or an image grid, etc.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/gutensite-control-panel-profile-700-620x550.jpg" alt="Gutensite-Control-Panel-Profile-700" />
Then you can add individual team members one by one and associate them with the “Our People” page. You can enter basic profile information like name and bio, as well as contact information, slideshow, files, and even associate the team member's calendar. The result is a beautiful team page that links to the details for each team member.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/gutensite-profiles-details-700-620x829.jpg" alt="Gutensite-Profiles-Details-700" />
<h2>Proactive Support</h2>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/gutensite-team-collaborating-700-620x349.jpg" alt="Gutensite-Team-Collaborating-700" />
Gutensite makes it clear on their website that <a href="http://www.gutensite.com/Website-Support?refcode=CMSCRITIC" target="_blank">customer service is really important</a>. They make sure their team is empowered to do whatever it takes to help you accomplish your goals and they want to make sure you never feel frustrated when calling. You can tell they are serious about proactive support because they don't bury their contact information in a dark corner, but give it prominence on the Control Panel Dashboard. They actually want you to call, and they will even help you transfer or set up your site. If you are on their Pro package you get a <a href="http://www.gutensite.com/Features/Dedicated-Webmaster-Assistant?refcode=CMSCRITIC" target="_blank">dedicated webmaster assistant</a> that you can call or email requests to and they'll add pages, update menus, upload photos or videos, or whatever you need. And it's free.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/gutensite-proactive-support-700-620x465.jpg" alt="Gutensite-Proactive-Support-700" />
They seem to understand that many small businesses are overwhelmed by the options and are too understaffed to create and maintain a value-driven website on their own. In addition to phone and email support, Gutensite also has guided tours, tutorials, how-to knowledge base, community forums and live Twitter Q&amp;A.
<h2>Noteworthy Administrative Features</h2>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/gutensite-control-panel-enhanced-lists-700-620x454.jpg" alt="Gutensite-Control-Panel-Enhanced-Lists-700" />
After using the control panel for a little while, you begin to realize there is a ton of power tucked away in subtle “Advanced” tabs and special tools. Here are a few of the things that will come in handy:
<ul>
<li>Multiple Administrators. Add an unlimited number of team members with different editing roles.</li>
<li>Content Staging. Make simple or complex changes to your by setting the status of any content (pages, menu, promo modules, etc) to “Staging” or “Deactivate on Staging Sync” and then preview how your site will look before pushing everything live at once.</li>
<li>Preview Designs. Preview how new designs will look for your website before switching. Use in conjunction with Content Staging to make sure that the content is compatible with the new design.</li>
<li>Enhanced Lists. Drag records to reorder. Click words to edit directly in the list. Click icons to toggle status or delete individual records, or select multiple records to perform group actions.</li>
<li>SEO. Control everything that you need to optimize your site for search engines, e.g. keywords, descriptions, metadata, friendly urls, etc.</li>
<li>Shortcuts. Create friendly shortcut links to any page on the site.</li>
<li>Custom CSS, Javascript, Metadata. Add custom css, javascript or metadata to interact with third party tools on any site, control search engine access to specific pages, etc.</li>
<li>Custom Design Shells. Set special design templates for special landing pages, or for entire sub-sections of your site.</li>
<li>Header Images. Set single or random image headers on individual pages, or for entire sub-sections of your site.</li>
<li>Custom Page Layouts. Choose alternative page layouts for basic pages or specific content types.</li>
<li>Gutensite FX. Add simple classes to elements in your content to create interactive FX, e.g. sliders to show and hide parts of the page when you click a link/button.</li>
<li>Member Accounts and Private Content. Create custom access keys for your members and restrict access to pages or files based on those keys. Set menu links to be hidden if visitors don't have the correct access level.</li>
<li>Account and Sales Tracking. Track new account and sales referrals, which page was last visited, which promo codes were used, etc.</li>
<li>Analytics. Integrate with Google Analytics and other third party optimization tools.</li>
<li>A/B Testing. Alternative Page Versions for A/B testing or delivering custom content based on referrals.</li>
</ul>
<h2>A Few Other Features to Love</h2>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/gutensite-dynamic-home-page-700-620x829.jpg" alt="Gutensite-Dynamic-Home-Page-700" />
<ul>
<li>Dynamic Home Page. The home page allows for a lot of dynamic content, linkable image slideshow, tons of promo modules, social media links, interactive image buttons, contact information, welcome text, logo, etc.</li>
<li>Content Types. Adding beautifully designed pages to your website is easy with pre-designed content types, e.g. blogs, forms, link lists, profiles, portfolio, maps, video library, FAQ, MLS property listings, Shopping Cart and Online Store, etc. (<a href="http://www.gutensite.com/Features/Popular-Website-Features?refcode=CMSCRITIC" target="_blank">see a full list of content types</a>).</li>
<li>Custom Display Options. There are tons of options to customize how lists are sorted and limited, which elements are displayed on a page, what size images should be used, when articles should be published, how menus should work, etc.</li>
<li>Promo Modules. Add custom promotional modules to your home page, sidebar, or integrated with page content, e.g. calendars, slideshows, link lists, search, account login, featured videos, latest blog, image buttons, Subscribe to Newsletter, etc.</li>
<li>Search Engine Site Map. All sites publish their full content map to search engines for better indexing.</li>
<li>Private Intranet for Collaboration. For those that need a private intranet, Gutensite provides a lot of productivity and collaboration tools in a private intranet, that includes a CRM, Project Management, Task Management, Hourly Reporting, Creating of Quotes, File Sharing, Management of custom billing types, and more.</li>
</ul>
<h2>Gutensite is Not Ideal for…</h2>
Gutensite is optimized for creating websites for professional businesses and non-profits. You can easily create a simple portfolio site or a blog on their platform, but there are definitely other platforms that are better for the hobby website builder and which are more streamlined for just displaying art or writing blogs (e.g. Tumbler, Wix, WordPress).
Gutensite makes websites that are HTML5 compliant and their control panel is also accessible on mobile devices, but the control panel is not optimized for mobile resolutions yet (although they are working on it). So if mobile management is absolutely critical, look elsewhere.
Gutensite has a robust framework that works for many enterprise level sites that started simple and grew over time (some eventually migrating to independent servers). But because it's a shared platform, it's not ideal for large corporations or companies that are developing a fully customized platform for their own online product.
<h2>Gutensite is Great for…</h2>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/gutensite-business-websites-700-620x851.jpg" alt="Gutensite-Business-Websites-700" />
In summary, Gutensite would be a great platform for a wide range of websites, from simple brochure sites to enterprise, mission-critical websites that need advanced customization. It has the cost advantages and the simplicity of a shared hosting website builder, but it's a platform that can grow with you, because like an open source CMS literally anything can be customized. Gutensite for those that value good design and need customer support or a dedicated webmaster.
<h2>Design Agency Partnership</h2>
As a final note, Gutensite is positioning themselves as a <a href="http://www.gutensite.com/Design-Partnership?refcode=CMSCRITIC" target="_blank">platform that designers and agencies can use to build websites for their clients</a>, so that designers can serve more clients and focus on what they love. Gutensite promises to share the monthly subscription revenue for the hosting and support, and Gutensite will provide technical expertise wherever the designer's interest and expertise reach their limits. This moves Gutensite toward their stated goal of becoming an open platform and provides you with more options for customizing the design.
Check them out today at <a href="http://www.gutensite.com?refcode=CMSCRITIC" target="_blank">Gutensite.com</a>

Meet Gutensite, a Platform for Creating Beautiful and Powerful Business Websites

We made it!
2022 is officially in the books.
Well, almost. We’ve got one more job to do – but it’s a fun one.
Now that you’re being inundated with a litany of “top 10” and “best of” lists for film, music, books, and soups (blame that one on NPR's <a href="https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2019/01/16/winter-soup-recipes-kathy-gunst" target="_blank">Chef Kathy Gunst</a>), it’s time for the most important awards list of all…
(drum roll)
The CMS Critic Awards!
Okay, okay, enough with the fanfare. But can you blame us?
Since 2012, the <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/cms-critic-awards/">CMS Critic Awards</a> has held a special place within the CMS community. It’s the only platform of its kind that celebrates content management systems and related vendors across the market – from small to large – and highlights their innovation and service.
Each year, the CMS Critic Awards recognize a single winner in a variety of industry-specific categories such as Best Cloud CMS, Best DXP, Best Headless CMS, and more. Then, we share the results across media, along with our CMS Critic staff picks.
But it all begins with our People’s Choice Awards, where we put the power in your hands! Over the next few weeks, we invite you to nominate the platforms that rocked your world in 2022, so everyone can vote on their favorites – and a victor can be crowned.
<h2>How do I submit a nomination?</h2>
Good news: nominations are now officially open! You’ll have until January 20th, 2023 to submit your favorite platforms using the form on our website.
The rules are pretty simple: you can only submit one nomination, but you can nominate platforms in multiple categories. While we encourage you to highlight participation to your users and communities, companies that offer incentives of any kind will be disqualified from the contest.
Once we've tallied your submissions, we’ll pick the top three nominees in each category and open those to general voting shortly thereafter.
Ready to make your nominations? <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/2022-cms-critic-awards-nominations/">Click here to get started</a>!  
<h2>What are this year’s categories?</h2>
Just like in previous years, we’re asking you to nominate your favorite platform in a range of categories. You’re not required to submit a choice for each, just the ones you care about. 
This year, we’re excited to introduce a few newcomers. First, with all the buzz around composable and MACH, we're giving you a chance to nominate the "Best Composable Solution." This is a broad category where multiple contenders could fit the bill, so we're curious to see what platforms make the cut. 
Getting a bit more granular, you can also submit your pick for the “Best Digital Experience Composition (DXC) Platform." With all the attention in the market – as well as guidance from Gartner and other industry watchers – it’s clear that DXC platforms are bringing new and innovative solutions to the stack.
Finally, to complement the headless CMS category, tell us which "Static Site Generator" is tops in your book. 
Here are the categories for your 2022 nominations:
<ul>
<li>Best Enterprise CMS</li>
<li>Best DXP</li>
<li>Best Free CMS</li>
<li>Best Flat File CMS</li>
<li>Best Open Source CMS</li>
<li>Best ECM (Enterprise Content Management)</li>
<li>Best E-Commerce Solution</li>
<li>Best Headless CMS</li>
<li>Best Headless Commerce Platform</li>
<li>Best Website Builder</li>
<li>Best Digital Experience Composition (DXC) Platform</li>
<li>Best Static Site Generator</li>
<li>Best Composable Solution</li>
</ul>
<h2>When will the top three nominees be released?</h2>
Nominations close on January 20th, and we’ll be announcing the top three nominees in the following days. At the same time, we’ll be opening up the general voting, so you can pick a winner from the crop. 
<h2>When will the final list of winners be published?</h2>
Right now, we’re planning to wrap general voting sometime in mid-to-late February 2023. Shortly after, we’ll release the winners of both the Critic's Choice and People's Choice Awards. Dates are subject to change without notice, but we’ll keep you posted on our website and via social media. 
<h2>We want to hear from you!</h2>
Since 2008, CMS Critic has been proud to report on the latest news and trends in the CMS industry. Our staff works tirelessly to provide interviews with movers and shakers and commentary from leading experts and authorities. Our mission is to help our readers make sense of the CMS and DX technology landscape, and support individuals and companies as they evaluate products in an increasingly complex marketplace. 
We love engaging with our community of platform partners and sponsors. We think it’s only fair that you have a chance to share your feedback on the best-performing systems. To that end, the People’s Choice Awards are decided by you – and as always, we're thrilled to have your participation.
<a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/2022-cms-critic-awards-nominations/">Submit your nominations today</a> and follow along for updates!
 
<a href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmskickoff23/program" target="_blank"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2022/12/cms-kickoff-2023-banner-1024x151.jpg" alt="CMS Kickoff 2023 banner" /></a>
<h2>Join CMS Industry Leaders, Digital Agencies, and Users at CMS Kickoff 2023</h2>
January 17-18 in St. Petersburg, FL
Don't miss the only conference tailored for everyone working with content management systems, from beginners to experts! Featuring two packed days with a carefully curated mixture of talks, workshops, activities, world-class facilitators, thought provokers, speakers, and session leads. Mingle with CMS leaders, system integrators, and users from around the globe at this exclusive event in beautiful St. Petersburg. 
Register today at the <a href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmskickoff23/program" target="_blank">CMS Kickoff 2023 website</a>.

Nominate Your Favorite Platforms for the 2022 CMS Critic People’s Choice Awards

People's Choice Award 2022 logo against a graphical backdrop of fireworks

Highlights:
<ul>
<li>Christine Masters is driving product management for Contentstack's AI roadmap</li>
<li>The company's new AI Assistant offers generative content capabilities powered by ChatGPT</li>
<li>Contentstack’s AI approach is helping to mitigate concerns like data privacy</li>
<li>The combination of AI Assistant and Automation Hub delivers unique advantages</li>
</ul>
<hr />
 
Artificial Intelligence has long been a popular trope in the sci-fi genre. Most of us could rattle off a string of films about machines gone amuck, from 2001: A Space Odyssey to Ex Machina.
The stories are almost always identical: Humans create AI. The world marvels at its promise. People check out. AI becomes self-aware and decides humans need to be exterminated. Epic battles ensue.
And it’s all downhill from there.
While advancements in real-world AI have been profound, they’re a far cry from the popcorn pop-culture dystopias we see in the movies. Sure, there’s trepidation, but no threat of total machine domination (we hope). And AI models like <a href="https://openai.com/chatgpt" target="_blank">ChatGPT</a> – which has captured the moment's zeitgeist – are already proving their value in multiple use cases. 
Generally speaking, the AI features being added to CMS platforms show promise, not peril. At the same time, they’re fraught with challenges – and if there’s one Schwarzenegger-level threat suffering from a bit of time dilation, it might be the customer experience. Compounded by pressure to seize the opportunity and a need to remain in competitive lockstep, many AI features have been rushed to market at hyperbolic speed.
But what makes them different? And are they really delivering value? That depends a lot on how a user creates content in a CMS.
When I was in Europe last month, I met with <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/nehasampat/" target="_blank">Neha Sampat</a>, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/conoregan/" target="_blank">Conor Egan</a>, and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/susancbeermann/" target="_blank">Susan Beerman</a> – the leadership team at Contentstack. One of the discussion topics was Contentstack's new AI Assistant, which I had previewed and found quite compelling. I wanted to dive deeper, so they sent me to the source: Senior Product Manager <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/masters/" target="_blank">Christine Masters</a>.
Christine’s bailiwick is Emerging Products, where she’s working on the front line of innovation. Her months-long mission to launch Contentstack’s new AI features has yielded dynamite results, and she gave me a guided tour. We also talked about the big challenges the market is wrestling with, and how Contentstack's approach to generative AI – from content to code – is supercharging their composable DXP.
<h2>Mastering product management</h2>
Christine joined me on Zoom from her home in Iowa – an easterly track from her California roots, but a more temperate 80 degrees on an otherwise sweltering summer day.
“I remember 119 degrees,” she reminisced. It’s worth noting that the <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/californias-death-valley-sizzles-near-record-temperatures-as-brutal-heat-wave-continues#:~:text=The%20hottest%20temperature%20ever%20recorded,as%20keeper%20of%20world%20records." target="_blank">record in Death Valley</a> is 134, which makes 80 sound downright cool.
And cool is precisely the right word for Christine. She's easygoing, confident, and genuinely passionate about her work. From an experience perspective, she's a fluent industry stalwart that’s seen the evolution of content into the digital realm, starting in print at a newspaper in Fort Wayne, Indiana – where she used tools like QuarkXPress.
After operational roles in media, she managed CMS platforms at BLOX Digital, focusing on digital transformation for media applications in cloud and SaaS. She later became a senior director of core platforms, where she conducted focus groups to help build better CMS experiences.
Coming from a more traditional monolithic CMS background, Christine brings an unmatched perspective to her work in Emerging Products, specifically with Contentstack’s new AI features. The company <a href="https://demandgenreport.com/features/news-briefs/contentstack-adds-openai-chatgpt-integration-to-its-platform" target="_blank">announced</a> its ChatGPT integration in late March, relatively early in the hype cycle.
The new AI initiative was ambitious, enabling in-line user extensions that assist in creating brand-specific content in seconds. The stated capabilities were simple but powerful: editors would be able to quickly publish summaries, outlines, metadata descriptions, keyword-optimized blogs, and more – all by using prompts. But that was just the beginning.
In April, Contentstack <a href="https://community.contentstack.com/podcast-media-and-more-81/introducing-contentstack-live-383" target="_blank">hosted a webinar</a> introducing its ChatGPT connector and the future of AI-driven composability. The messaging established that the company sees AI and automation technologies touching virtually all facets of the digital experience stack – transforming content creation, code development, and asset creation.
Quite a charter, and one that will keep Christine busy for some time to come.
<h2>Understanding customer concerns with AI </h2>
Death by PowerPoint is a common fatality in the tech world, but Christine offered a single yet poignant slide before diving into the demo – one that crystallized the key challenges most companies face when considering AI. This educational entry point has become common for her.
“We’ve had a ton of interest, but a lot of concerns as well,” she said. “Many companies are asking, what should we be doing with AI? I’ve been on maybe 30 or 40 calls not just consulting, but talking and listening to their concerns. Some people are much more AI-friendly, and some are very nervous. There’s kind of this fear that when we let ChatGPT in, it’s going to suck up all our data to learn things and use it elsewhere, even with my competition.”
It’s a real concern – and one I’ve heard repeatedly from platforms and users. Will my company’s proprietary content become fodder for the training model? Or will <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/3/23/chatgpt" target="_blank">another bug</a> allow my competitors to see my chat sessions?  
I asked Christine how Contentstack is assuaging these fears. She quickly pointed out that their new service taps the ChatGPT API, but none of the data is being trained by the broader model. Additionally, only prompt data is stored for troubleshooting purposes and cleared out after 30 days. All of these tactics meet <a href="https://gdpr.eu/" target="_blank">GDPR compliance</a>, providing greater assurance around data privacy.
<hr />
<h4>"You need to make sure you have humans at the right step, particularly if it’s content created from scratch."</h4>
<hr />
That said, OpenAI has become a powerhouse tech company with more than 100 million users, making it a prime target for hacking. Last month, <a href="https://mashable.com/article/chatgpt-stolen-accounts-passwords-dark-web" target="_blank">Group-IB reported</a> that thousands of ChatGPT login credentials were leaked to the Dark Web, forcing Google and other companies to warn employees not to add sensitive information to the large language model. Contentstack addresses some of these risks with a combination of optimization and policy.
Accuracy is another blocker, and ChatGPT’s well-documented <a href="https://www.securityweek.com/chatgpt-hallucinations-can-be-exploited-to-distribute-malicious-code-packages/#:~:text=The%20issue%20is%20related%20to,information%20that%20may%20look%20plausible." target="_blank">hallucinations</a> have caused significant challenges to trust. “Sometimes it sounds very convincing, but it’s a total lie,” Christine added. “You need to make sure you have humans at the right step, particularly if it’s content created from scratch.”
Given this, Christine focuses on the use cases where ChatGPT excels, such as creating short summaries from longer-form content or extracting keywords. “We’ve been doing things like this for years now, so it’s become table stakes,” she said, noting that AWS has been making AI scalable for quite some time with products like <a href="https://docs.aws.amazon.com/managedservices/latest/userguide/rekognition.html" target="_blank">Amazon Rekognition</a>.  
But what is novel are the prompts being used to simplify and execute – and how Contentstack is harnessing its automation capabilities to streamline AI at exactly the right places in the content creation experience.
“That’s where we’re coming from with these products,” she punctuated.
<h2>Conjuring content with AI Assistant </h2>
Contentstack’s ChatGPT integration has two main products it intersects with: AI Assistant and Automation Hub. The combination of the two provides a unique ecosystem of capabilities that enriches the generative creation of content and the automation and streamlining of its entire AI workflow.  
As Christine pointed out, an important distinction with the AI Assistant is its nature as an app in Contentstack’s composable ecosystem. I knew other platforms had instrumented their AI with a more coupled architecture, so I asked her to elaborate on the advantages.
“One really great thing about our CMS is the extensibility,” she explained. “You can build your own apps and modules to extend the capabilities through a marketplace approach. With monolithic CMS platforms, you might keep adding features – but after ten years, it gets bloated and filled with toggles. By extending CMS through apps, you can keep it agile and lean.”
With the AI Assistant being an app, Christine began her demo in the most logical place: the installation process. This is critical, as users can choose to connect ChatGPT using their own API keys, or use Contentstack – which is free. In either case, the whole piece is painless.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/07/contentstack-screen-installation-1024x727.jpg" alt="Contentstack screen showing the installation process" />
Inside the tool, there are lots of pre-configured features that allow you to build prompts for almost anything. You can add a pre-defined set of icons that conform with your brand standards or build custom prompts aligned with your organization’s content style. (Sidenote: <a href="https://learnprompting.org/" target="_blank">prompt engineering courses</a> have now emerged to help assist users with this new skill. Go figure.)
In Contentstack’s AI, the prompts can get very granular. For example, a customer can enter explicit instructions like when to use associated trademarks or which competitor should never be mentioned. 
From a UI perspective, the AI Assistant “lives” where the content writer creates new entries, enhancing the experience without disrupting the editorial flow. The whole experience is lightweight and elegant, and reflects thoughtful analysis of where the elements should co-exist. Users can interface with the tool via custom actions already configured for spelling and grammar, then add functions to write summaries, extract keywords, and even provide translations. 
As Christine pointed out, writers and editors aren’t typically creating content from scratch with AI. In most cases, they use it to augment their writing in different ways.
“As a quick example, let’s say I want to write a blog post about something,” she said. “You can use our pre-built Idea Generator to create ideas and use custom prompts to be in the tone and voice of your brand. Most of the time, writers want ideas and outlines, so they have more control.”
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/07/contentstack-screen-ai-ideas-1-1024x747.jpg" alt="Contentstack screen showing the AI idea prompt." />
From a success standpoint, Christine offered some experience-based advice about prompting, explaining how the assistant can produce better and more accurate results when properly fed. This includes prompt curation around overused terms that might seem cliché or incompatible with a brand’s voice.
“You might tell ChatGPT to ‘make it more exciting’ and it returns words and phrases like ‘trailblazing’ or ‘revolutionary.’ Everything can start to sound the same. ‘In the realm of digital experiences’ is another example that you see out there. These would be my guidelines for what not to use.”
Looking at the prompt capabilities, I asked if there was a plan to make the customizations more repeatable and sharable. Christine said that’s on the roadmap – along with other features.
“We really want to make sure that we’re providing something very useful for our customers they can actually use.”
<h2>Adding some magic with Automation Hub</h2>
The 1-2 punch of Contentstack’s AI offering is the unique combo of AI Assistant and <a href="https://www.contentstack.com/automation-hub/?creative=650999267431&amp;keyword=contentstack%20automation%20hub&amp;matchtype=p&amp;network=g&amp;device=c&amp;campaign=19810684522&amp;adgroup=146523337843&amp;placement=&amp;utm_campaign=fy24-glob-dg-automation-hub-us-ca&amp;utm_medium=paid-search&amp;utm_source=google&amp;gclid=Cj0KCQjwwvilBhCFARIsADvYi7L-bNoQPTRPXR4ba5lah7uPBz6xovMlmKayTKrMh-G4nO9xaoVQ8XUaAuRDEALw_wcB" target="_blank">Automation Hub</a>.
If you’re unfamiliar with the service, it’s an existing feature of the Contentstack DXP that delivers an easy, no-code solution for streamlining business processes. It starts with a trigger or action and allows you to define a specific workflow using a graphical interface – which is incredibly lithe and intuitive. The tool is designed to help simplify the complexity of integrations and automate routine tasks. 
“Now [with Automation Hub], you can build up a series of automated steps with the ChatGPT connector, which brings in an automatic prompt trainer,” Christine described. “It’s a webhook with a trigger – like publishing a new article – and you build steps afterward that are API calls or snippets of code performing functionality.”
According to Christine, Automation Hub is ideal for applications like translations, where ChatGPT can be automatically tapped to return languages based on specific fields and requirements. ChatGPT does a decent job with translations, and there’s already broad market trust with third-party tools like <a href="https://www.weglot.com/" target="_blank">Weglot</a> that leverage AI.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/07/contentstack-screen-translation-1024x749.jpg" alt="Contentstack screen showing translation with ChatGPT and Slack connector." />
In just a few minutes, she demonstrated how simple it is to activate the "ChatGPT for Translation" automation in the UI and configure both the connector and the associated actions. Once the translation was completed, we even added a step with Slack, automatically letting team members know the task was completed. Pretty slick. 
“Summaries, keywords, translations – if you do something a hundred times over and you never have to change it, this can take the place of people. But you always want a human in the loop knowing what’s going on.”
In an upcoming version, Christine mentioned that users will be able to add in multiple prompts, but also specific function calls via API or http connections. For example, ChatGPT could be harnessed to tap a stock or sports score database at 9 AM and send an email to a list of recipients in a pre-defined format.
“Text enhancement is really the starting point,” she said. “I can’t wait to get this into the hands of more users. I don’t think we’ve even started to think about the cool ideas they’ll be able to implement.”
<h2>What’s ahead for Contentstack and AI</h2>
We’ve been on the ChatGPT “hype train” for well over six months now. I asked Christine how the landscape is unfolding, particularly with similar offerings from other platforms. She agreed that competitors are driving AI in a commoditized direction, but that Contentstack’s app architecture – and its focus on streamlining and automating processes – is unique.  
So what’s driving that value quotient for customers in these early days?
“We’re seeing a lot of use with things like extracting keywords, tapping language translations,” she motioned, “but there are also cost savings when you consider replacing other tools for things like SEO optimization. And if you’re using our Contentstack API keys, it’s even free.”
Free is good, but will it last? Christine did suggest that large organizations will likely opt to use their own ChatGPT keys – and if more translation is required, costs may increase with the scaling token requirements. But it's clear that Contentstack sees its AI features as a value-add, and having a free entry point is a smart move to build adoption. 
Based on the demo, there’s ample room to streamline the clicks required within Contentstack's AI experience. This is where Automation Hub really sings, delivering both efficiency and control to users. As she noted, it’s the “boring” integrations – the undifferentiated heavy lifting – that Contentstack is endeavoring to supplant. By doing so, users can focus on building high-value, high-utility apps and experiences. You know... the cool stuff. 
“Whatever you trust AI to do, we can automate that,” she declared.  
<h2>Get started with AI Assistant</h2>
If you want to join Contentstack’s AI Assistant program, sign up by <a href="https://explore.contentstack.com/ai-assistant?utm_medium=internal_docs" target="_blank">filling out this form</a>. After agreeing to a few terms, you’ll receive a link to install the app – which, as mentioned, is currently free.
Christine said we can expect more announcements in the coming months. You can also check out Contentstack’s recent <a href="https://www.contentstack.com/docs/changelog/#ai-assistant-june-release-highlights" target="_blank">June release highlights</a> for current details.  
All challenges aside, the introduction of AI in CMS platforms has tremendous potential to improve productivity for content editors and developers. I’ve always contended that AI should stand for augmented intelligence, because it’s really about enhancing our creativity and productivity – not replacing it.
“Humans are great at the interesting things,” Christine observed.
Exactly. Like writing sci-fi scripts... about AI.

A Closer Look at Contentstack's AI Features with Christine Masters, Senior Product Manager

<a href="https://www.squarespace.com/" target="_blank">Squarespace</a> has improved upon its Cover Pages feature, which came alongside the <a href="/squarespace-releases-squarespace-7/" target="_blank">release of Squarespace 7 back in 2014</a>.
<a href="/squarespace-6" target="_blank"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/imagescauzpt5i-1_2.jpg" /></a> 
As one of the leading website builders on the market, Squarespace was chosen for coverage over at <a href="https://www.websitebuilderscritic.com/" target="_blank">Website Builders Critic</a>.
The platform's Cover Pages can be used as a bold introduction to a Squarespace website, or as a standalone landing page. It's totally up to the user.
<h2>More Responsive, New Imagery &amp; 14 New Layouts</h2>
First up, fourteen new layouts have been unveiled, with a range of experiences being catered for.
<a href="/squarespace-6" target="_blank"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-6553x0-is.png" /></a> 
New layouts like Monocle, Silhouette, Snapshot, Vanguard, and Vignette are designed to showcase personality through social media integration. Similarly, Broadcast and Session make it easy to share podcast episodes, while Projector, is all about video showcasing.
Card, Flash, Gazette, and Mission on the other hand, are the more generic options.
Existing Squarespace Cover Page layouts have been updated, too, with brand new imagery, new font choices, and background colours that automatically match user uploaded images. Plus, Squarespace has revisited each layout in terms of its mobile responsiveness.
I'm personally a fan of these Cover Pages. They can add a new dimension to your typical Squarespace website.
However, I feel it may have been wiser for Squarespace to release layouts directly complementary to existing Squarespace themes, so that users can keep their design as consistent as possible. With the current system, it could become a case of mix and match, with varied results.
To find out more about Squarespace's new Cover Pages, check out their <a href="https://blog.squarespace.com/blog/new-cover-page-layouts-and-enhancements" target="_blank">official blog announcement</a>.
Otherwise, be sure to explore more of <a href="/products/squarespace/" target="_blank">Squarespace via our CMS Directory</a>.

Squarespace Reveals New Templates for Cover Pages

My choice for Best Open Source CMS for this year (and the one that will be my #1 recommendation in this category until next years awards) is the one and only, <a href="http://modx.com/">MODX CMS</a>!
<img style="max-width:285px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/modx-logo-color1.png" />
MODX is an incredible CMS that offers an abundance of features for those looking for quality software for free. MODX Revolution starts as a completely blank slate. Start from scratch, or use the Package Manager to download and install Add-ons, Core Extensions, Templates or even Content Pack Distributions.
As my choice for this year, when asked to offer suggestions for the best open source CMS, I will point to MODX. They will receive my recommendation from now until next year’s winner is announced.

Critic's Choice for Best Open Source CMS goes to...

Best Video Experience

Give your audience the best video experience

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