Contentstack’s “Retire the Legacy” offers big savings by shedding older CMS tech. What’s behind the deal?

For brands in any industry, competing on price can be a slippery slope. In some cases, it’s an elevator to the bottom floor – even an indicator of broader commoditization.

There’s a case to be made for aggressively grabbing market share if conditions are ripe, like when products are experiencing higher-than-average churn or delivering a poor experience. Sometimes, buyers might already be looking to upgrade to an alternative and simultaneously trim the bottom line. If the timing’s right, a deep discount can lead to quick wins.

For Contentstack, the stars are apparently lining up for an ambitious play on price, and they’re throwing down the gauntlet. 

Yesterday, the composable digital experience platform and enterprise headless CMS announced its new “Retire the Legacy” offer. The program is pointed at brands that feel trapped in their legacy CMS solutions and are struggling with long-standing technical debt entrenched in their marketing tech stacks. 

“Retire the Legacy” provides a sort of life ring for customers struggling to stand out amidst a brand relevancy crisis – something I’ve spoken about with Neha Sampat, Contentstack’s founder and CEO, in multiple interviews. This program aims to de-risk the move to a modern DXP for new customers, helping them mitigate the barriers in a meaningful way. 

"We speak with hundreds of customers every month who are regularly disappointed by their legacy, monolithic CMS," Sampat noted. “These brands want to modernize, but they feel stuck, technologically and contractually. We're taking this all off the table, betting on ourselves and on the power of our technology to reimagine possible for these customers.”

Not only is Contentstack banking on its value proposition as a leading composable DXP to move the needle for brands, but it’s also suggesting that customers who move to their platform can reduce their current license fees by 50%.

That’s a big number. And, as you might guess, requires a bit of qualification. 

First, the “Retire the Legacy” offer only applies to customers who have existing DX implementations using Adobe Experience Manager, Sitecore, and Oracle. There are also explicit terms and conditions, which require attending a demo by December 31st, 2024. You can mull through some of the other T’s & C’s on their website. 

Look, platforms are under increasing pressure to grow, particularly when there are expectations from investors to drive returns. It's not a shocker that this trifecta of specific competitors is the focus of this program (they are, indeed, legacy platforms). It tells us a lot about how Contentstack is reading the tea leaves across the competitive landscape, and where they see potential opportunity.

Will a deal like this shake enough trees? Here are some things to consider.

Helping brands get “unstuck”

Contentstack has consistently framed the existential ecosystem challenges over the last year. Its case is quite clear: brands are mired in the muck, trying to remain relevant in a market of fleeting loyalty, particularly in digital commerce and retail. In my last discussion with Sampat, we even touched on the state of physical stores as businesses drift towards digital. 

I recommend checking out a few of the recent Cocktails & Commerce newsletters for some sobering stats (see what I did there?)

We all know that consumers are being profusely bombarded with marketing detritus from every direction, and standing out is becoming increasingly difficult. Based on one metric from Contentstack, 90% of markets have seen their digital channels lose effectiveness. That’s a hit – and an urgent call to action.

To compete in this digital-first world, brands have to deliver dynamic, personalized experiences that are automated and augmented by high-value AI applications. Additionally, marketers can’t be hamstrung by development – they need to be nimble and agile. By answering this call with the right blend of flexibility and scalability, Contentstack is codifying its value by giving brands more control over their destiny.

The whole enchilada for half the cost? 

With its “Retire the Legacy” program, Contentstack is putting its money where its mouth is – betting on its people, processes, and technology to deliver a sustainable outcome with 50% savings on existing licensing fees. 

On one hand, it speaks to their well-earned confidence. On the other, depending on the terms of a legacy licensing agreement (this is where the terms and conditions come in), it presents obvious risks. There are multiple dimensions to any deployment; my guess is that they’ve analyzed exactly how to eat the enchilada from every conceivable direction.

At the core of its value play is the company’s headless CMS, which has been infused with a wide range of capabilities to support the needs of marketers. This includes some dynamite visual building capabilities – which we covered last month – buoyed by an API-first, cloud-native MACH architecture. This enables everything from personalization to brand-aware GenAI to enhanced automation and workflows.

Underneath it all is the company’s signature “No-fail Promise,” part of its Care Without Compromise platform. Powered by people, knowledge-based programs, and a bevy of resources, these vital structures have earned Contentstack a 98% customer satisfaction rating and a 97% customer retention rate. Those are gloat-worthy figures.

This dedicated commitment to success is serving them well. Jasmin Guthmann, Head of Contentstack’s corporate communication, states in a video on the site that supporting customers on every step of their composable journey is “just how we operate.” The proof is clear in Contentstack’s numerous success stories with global brands.

So what’s the real deal with this deal?

I mentioned commoditization in the very beginning. “The Great Rebalancing” has cometh, and most platforms in our market have become… well, universal in what they offer (I guess that word is catching on). 

It doesn’t mean they do it all, or that everything is in perfect parity. I'd be suspicious of any platform making that claim, and I prefer messaging that clearly details what a product is as much as it isn't. But between the plethora of visual builders, headless capabilities, hosting, etc… many of the pure categorical differentiators have been washed away. That could make price a more pertinent factor.

To further confuse the category dilemma, platforms like Contentstack have joined the chorus of DXPs on the analysts’ radars, giving them far more competitive clout in the evaluation matrix. At the same time, legacy vendors have been ebbing further into the land of composability (or a certain definition of the term). That includes Sitecore, which has been making headway with its XM Cloud.

Again, everyone’s ending up in the same place. 

Where does this land Contentstack? In a solid position – one where it can capitalize on the churn and disappointment that customers have with their legacy products. Even if a vendor is now offering more composable solutions, brands are looking to the future. And for many, these legacy vendors might feel like the past. 

It’s no mistake that we see AEM, Sitecore, and Oracle (maybe less so) in the competitive crosshairs. They’re big targets, but also the ones fighting their own legacy tech and the old paradigms around licensing. We’re not seeing this offer volleyed at open source platforms or other downstream targets – just the platforms with domain over large enterprise accounts. In this sense, it’s a logical strategy.

About that 50% pitch: Sure, it’s a familiar tactic. Will it work? The devil’s in the details, and I think it depends on a number of factors. The real key for Contentstack is selling outcomes and focusing on where it shines. I’ve watched it nail its AI roadmap from the beginning, investing early in high-utility automation and rolling into brand-relevant personalization.

Along with its AI-boosted roadmap, bolstering the soft benefits can be critical to expressing its differentiated value. This includes that “No-fail Promise,” which provides more confidence for brands considering a MACH strategy – and we know those journeys can be fraught with peril. In this regard, Contentstack has been a sort of glue for MACH stacks, where performance accountability is often an open-ended question.

Cutting costs is cool, and it may become a more decisive factor as economic conditions shift. But remember, buyers are smart. Odds are, they’re doing their homework, carefully weighing options beyond just the budget. Can this platform really deliver what I need? Can I compete more effectively? What exactly am I “future-proofed” for?

As Contentstack’s CRO Todd Rathje observed, brands are entrenched in a battleground that looks nothing like it did in the decades prior. They need an experience edge, and Contentstack has been delivering that in spades and at scale. But even with those advantages, it's a crowded range with more choice – and more confusion. As such, clear is the new clever.

CMS vendors have to be flexible with their licensing and pricing models. It’s the SaaS way, and composable is where the traction is. But at the end of the day, it’s really all about the value they deliver. To that end, brands need to carefully consider their goals when making their selections. 

I like Contentstack. It has many of the pieces it needs to make a strong case in modern composable stacks. Maybe it can snare more share by offering a 50% deal like this, but it might already have 100% of what it needs to keep winning. 

Looking for guidance on Contentstack? If you’re evaluating platforms, talk to us. 

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