# dotCMS Reviews 2026. Verified Reviews, Pros & Cons | Capterra > Is dotCMS the right Content Management solution for you? Explore 39 verified user reviews from people in industries like yours to make a confident choice. Source: https://www.capterra.com/p/139924/dotCMS/reviews --- dotCMS 4.2 (39) Provider data verified by our Software Research team, and reviews moderated by our Reviews Verification team. [Learn more](https://www.capterra.com/our-story/) * * * Last updated March 13th, 2026 # Reviews of dotCMS Ease of use 3.7 Customer Service 4.0 ## Pros and Cons in Reviews FL Finn L Full Stack DeveloperTransportation/Trucking/Railroad, 11 - 50 employeesUsed the software for: More than 2 years. “We are capable to provide our front-end customers with a straightforward method to modify and add data to their sites, regardless of their skillset, owing to dotCMS.“ June 24, 2022 FL Finn L Full Stack DeveloperTransportation/Trucking/Railroad, 11 - 50 employeesUsed the software for: More than 2 years. “Certain UI flaws we've found irritate us since they appear to be so basic that they might not have happened with certain UI/UX efforts.“ June 24, 2022 BF Benjamin F Senior Programmer/AnalystAirlines/Aviation, 1,001 - 5,000 employeesUsed the software for: More than 2 years. “The main reason we chose dotcms over other products was its ability to be customized to fit our needs without being overly complex.“ August 15, 2022 LZ Lorenzo Z senior software developerInformation Technology and Services, 10,001+ employeesUsed the software for: More than 2 years. “Sometimes the backend visualization is quite slow; in some places the code is inflexible and not very optimized“ August 18, 2022 LZ Lorenzo Z senior software developerInformation Technology and Services, 10,001+ employeesUsed the software for: More than 2 years. “ease of use for users, time machine feature and the integration with elastic search“ August 18, 2022 ## Showing most helpful reviews Showing 1-25 of 39 Reviews Sort by: Most Helpful Rating Company Size Reviewer's Role Length of Use Frequency of Use James C. Executive Director of Digital Marketing and Communications Higher Education Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Solid cloud-hosted CMS for the Enterprise" July 12, 2019 4.0 My experience overall has been very good. We use their enterprise cloud-hosted service so we pay one reasonable fee for the annual license, support and hosting. It is advisable to purchase some sort of training package to get started. Otherwise, you may spend extra time figuring out how to ideally work within the system. For instance, you need to become familiar with the Velocity language that is related to Apache/Tomcat/Java. Pros This is an ideal CMS for an enterprise environment that needs a product that is flexible, highly customizable and reasonably priced. Cons There are bugs at times that are identified and either resolved via a hotfix or held for resolution in the next iteration. I have received emails saying that a bug was identified and proactively already fixed. However, other times I notice an issue that is documented as a feature yet doesn't work and you must wait until the next iteration is released. One example is an automatic sitemap generator tool. While the configuration of the module is in the documentation there are known reports that not all of the features work. Rather than prioritize it as a hotfix, it is idle until the next release. In the meantime, I have to defer to a third-party sitemap tool. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Web Engineering Team Lead Wireless Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "dotCMS gave us the freedom we were looking for." January 3, 2019 4.0 Overall this platform has opened doors to us that were previous closed. I'm generally very happy with the freedom this software has given my team. Pros We appreciated that we could make tweaks and changes that we needed to get the platform to do what we need. Thanks to dotCMS, we are able to give our front end users an easy way to edit and add content to their pages no matter what their skill levels are. We also have the freedom to push to production without having to involve the System Administrators which gives us AMAZING turn around time. If there is a problem in production, we can fix it in minuted, which makes our client very happy and lowers their impact to revenue. Cons Sometimes it feels like the software falls short in some instances. Some UI bugs that we have encountered frustrate us as they seem to simple that with some UI/UX focus, shouldn't have occurred. Better documentation could also help us in leaps and bounds. When we have issues, it can be so frustrating to find the correct way to do things, or how to fix our problem. It is often found to be out of date or inaccurate. Review Source BD Bill D. Director of Web Initiatives Higher Education Used the software for: 2+ years ### "DotCMS (hosted/Enterprise edition) might be perfect for you – but it wasn't for us" December 14, 2018 3.0 I think the biggest problem over the years (we are no longer clients) was the lack of a good, consistent working relationship. As a result, we missed years of updates and then had a very painful period where everything seemed to break while, version by version, we got our system up to date. During this time our stakeholders lost faith in DotCMS, so when it came time for a site redesign, there was no question that we would move to another platform even though the capabilities of the updated software were solid. Pros The ability to create widgets and place them in any container on the page allows for a ton of flexibility for pulling in and displaying content. The interface for content editors was generally easy enough for them to use effectively. Cons If you're not a developer who already knows the language, there's a long learning curve before you're able to code Velocity to do what you want. Also, some things that require little or no setup in other systems require customization. (Example: generating friendly URLs, which is automatic in something like Wordpress.) We also didn't like the strange URLs auto-generated for file assets. Permissions were buggy, partly because some of our files were so old ("legacy" assets). Review Source Response from dotCMS January 16, 2019 Hey Bill, We completely understand your frustrations and valued having Oberlin College as a customer This feedback is representative of the why behind our investment in customer experience and customer success. We've built out a customer centric program over the last two years to ensure more optimal customer experiences. Since your departure, we've also built out a much more intuitive and business friendly UI with the launch of the dotCMS 5 series. This release has a cleaner UI, new drag-and-drop features, and an added reporting module. dotCMS 5.0 follows our \`NoCode¿ initiative, offering non-technical users, editors, and marketers the autonomy they need. We're happy to walk you through any of the latest enhancements. Please feel free to contact me with any additional suggestions or feedback at kristina.couchon@dotcms.com. We're always striving to move forward with the voice of our customers in mind. Kristina Couchon Director of Customer Success Will G. Senior Web Developer Higher Education Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Great CMS for the non-techy" December 18, 2018 4.0 My background is in web development, with most of my experience in frameworks and content management systems like Drupal, WordPress, and Laravel; one organization that I work for specializes in web development. However, another organization that I work for (the one that uses dotCMS) does not specialize in web development. This organization does want each of its employees to be able to add content to the website on a routine basis, though, and dotCMS fits this use case perfectly - its familiar concepts and simple interface make dotCMS an easy tool to learn and get comfortable with. Pros dotCMS uses concepts familiar to the average computer user, such as files and folder, so it's easy for people who know nothing in particular about web development to add and maintain content. Support is very courteous and responsive. Cons Not very developer-friendly: On the job, the main thing I do in dotCMS is write code for templates, detail pages, etc. I often end up copying and pasting code back and forth between dotCMS' interface and a text editor like Notepad++ because I find the built-in code editor fields too small. While dotCMS has WebDAV support, I have never been able to get it to work - and I've tried about a dozen times on a dozen different computers. The closest I've come to getting WebDAV to work is getting a list of all folders in the dotCMS installation -- but no files. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Technical Manager Information Technology and Services Used the software for: 2+ years ### "DotCMS - The definitive Web Content Management System" August 17, 2022 5.0 Pros Ease of installation and customization. Front End management and customization of themes Cons Nothing. I think dotcms, compared to other CMSs, offers unparalleled uptime and build times. Alternatives considered [Liferay DXP](https://www.capterra.com/p/196561/Liferay-DXP/) Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Website Content and Design Specialist Aviation & Aerospace Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Powerful CMS for Complex Content" December 14, 2018 5.0 dotCMS brought our website down from thousands of separate files and pages into a well organized CMS that if much easier to manage. It also gave us the ability for other users within the company to add and edit content without having to go to the web team. Pros dotCMS was a great out-of-the-box solution for our organization. It is able to handle complex content and relationships and makes it realitvely easy to build your website or app around your content and data. Cons The interface and learning curve can be intimidating for first-time or casual users. However, it had improved significanlly over the last few years with more improvements constantly coming down the line. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Front End Web Developer Higher Education Used the software for: Less than 6 months ### "New employee learning a new CMS" December 14, 2018 4.0 I work for a large college within a university and we needed a solution to organize and centralize all the websites within that college. This product gave a platform for managing each department's sites while giving us a way to generalize the content and share the content between the different departmental units. We have defined content types and the template tool and reused content and widget editor allows us to display those content types in ways that make the code reusable. For regular content creators it is a slight struggle to train them but as time goes on they are able to add their own content more intuitively. We have needed to customize a lot of solutions on our own to accomplish this but dotCMS is very accommodating when we have difficult questions. Pros \- Lots of room for customization - templating and layout options are robust - file management is a breeze - personalization and personas - ability to establish workflows for publishing content - reasonably priced for a product of this size Cons \- Complex for non power users - Documentation is overwhelming with examples not always being clear - Velocity is some what limiting when programming certain features - Large macro code base but they don't always function or stay up to date Review Source JL Jonathan L. Web Programmer Higher Education Used the software for: 2+ years ### "This is an intuitive CMS that gets better with each iteration. Technical support is top-notch." December 12, 2017 4.0 Pros Easy to use folder/html-page style site interface. Extensive API uses Java viewtool objects to interact and code with the data programmatically. Apache velocity is a nice templating language for front-end development. Easy to create and deal with new structures. Cons Permissions can be difficult and involved to set up and maintain. There are limits on datatypes in content structures (which is understandable) but I can't think of why the text limit and date limit should be the same. We are always running into the text type limit because so many field types use the text data type. On the other hand, the most we've ever used the date data-type is twice in a structure. We don't need 25 date fields. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Assistant Director of Web and Digital Marketing Higher Education Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Over 10 Years with dotCMS" June 28, 2019 4.0 We need an easy-to-use but flexible CMS; dotCMS is a good balance of both. Pros It's easy for new users to grasp. Permissioning is granular. Custom content types are fairly easy to create. Cons Getting satisfactory answers from support is sometimes frustrating. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Solution Developer Information Technology and Services Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Very usefull tools for making (almost) any potal" December 18, 2018 5.0 I've done several portals, all with customers satisfaction. Pros Very simple to use, customizable, time to market Cons Expensive Enterprise license Site documentation is poor Review Source NO Nash O. Senior Analyst Health, Wellness and Fitness Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Hit the ground running with this innovative and evolving CMS" December 18, 2018 4.0 Customer service was always responsive and we were able to get the corporate site up and running on this platform in a few short months. Pros This tool was much more approachable than previous CMS and the APIs that they provide allow you to extend the product with ease Cons Some of the desired customizations weren't always possible Review Source SJ Syrine J. Analyst Higher Education Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "dotCMS does the job!" January 8, 2019 5.0 Pros I have minimal use with the software on a daily basis. However, when I do need to go in and make a change for our company's website, it is fairly easy and quick. I am able to get in and out. Cons I wish it would be a bit more user friendly and not so cumbersome in some areas. It could be the way my company initially structured the software for our needs. Review Source RT Rod T. Used the software for: ### "dotCMS Software Reflection" March 1, 2017 5.0 Great experience for over twelve years. Review Source FL Finn L. Full Stack Developer Transportation/Trucking/Railroad Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Core CMS software for cross-channel sites!" June 24, 2022 4.0 Overall, this tool has unlocked previously blocked channels for us. I'm usually pleased with the flexibility this product has provided. We liked that we might make necessary adjustments to have the system achieve what we required. We are capable to provide our front-end customers with a straightforward method to modify and add data to their sites, regardless of their skillset, owing to dotCMS. We possess the ability to force deployment without involving Sys Admins, giving us an AMAZING delivery time. Unless there's an issue in execution, we can solve it in minutes, which pleases our customers and reduces their income effect. Ascertain that you have a solid agreement in place on "outside the box" vs structure against modification. dotCMS is likely to be recommended for a website commencing from the initial point rather than a stacked-out site and experiences that must endure. Construct provided the dotCMS capacity and then fine-tune for defined standards. Pros Elegance in the back-end CMS interfaces, considering simple interconnections and data searching and editing. Generally, spreading concepts is a wonderful way to obtain content across requirements. I enjoy how versatile it is and allows me to create bespoke material kinds. That's what I believe, with enough planning, a self-serve website is feasible, while still considering unique layouts and styles. Cons A few issues with "system coding" principles, where personalization is intended to make use of this package's Capabilities. Nevertheless, modification implies effort and necessitates platform testing. In certain cases, it appears that the software comes up short. Certain UI flaws we've found irritate us since they appear to be so basic that they might not have happened with certain UI/UX efforts. Improved documentation might also assist us tremendously. If we have problems, it may be quite hard to figure out what to do and how to solve them. It is frequently discovered to be outdated or wrong. Review Source BF Benjamin F. Senior Programmer/Analyst Airlines/Aviation Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Dotcms is flexible and easy to use" August 15, 2022 5.0 Dotcms has served us well for an intranet application. We are happy with the product and will continue to use it for the foreseeable future. Pros The main reason we chose dotcms over other products was its ability to be customized to fit our needs without being overly complex. We need a product that folks without an IT background can navigate and use. Dotcms fit the best of both worlds for us. Cons The biggest challenge for us is upgrading. We host our instance of dotcms and all our upgrades are done manually. It would not have been so bad if we didn't write custom plugins to begin with. Alternatives considered [WordPress](https://www.capterra.com/p/131687/WordPress/)[Joomla](https://www.capterra.com/p/161648/Joomla/) Review Source SJ Stan J. IT Manager Financial Services Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Great content management - not always easy to setup" August 9, 2022 4.0 Pros Ease of use, lots of freedom in HOW to use it. Cons Initially it was pretty hard to setup. That might not have been dotCMS' 'fault', because our environment was a little different then the standard installation. Reason for choosing dotCMS We needed a CMS that would work on our JAVA environment. Review Source Christopher F. Interactive Developer Staffing and Recruiting Used the software for: 2+ years ### "dotCMS is a great Content Management System and Development Platform for Enterprises" July 2, 2019 4.0 We use dotCMS to drive over 2 dozen websites and web apps. We integrate it with our custom internal tooling, as well as many third-party integrations like: Eloqua, Taleo, and Google's entire suite of SEO tooling. We also integrate with many different APIs and back-end infrastructures. Pros The flexibility and toolset gives our team a lot of options and methods to integrate with our complex ecosystem. Cons IMO, dotCMS is not for the small team. It provides a ton of features and power, but the complexity makes it hard to jump in to. Review Source TS Todd S. IT Manager Consumer Goods Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "dotCMS at Lennox International" January 20, 2023 5.0 Pros Self-serve capabilities for our Marketing team to manage their own content. Cons There is still a way to go from the Enterprise perspective in terms of being able to monitor resource usage, when using dotCMS on the dotCMS cloud. Reason for choosing dotCMS Excellent value to cost ratio Review Source MC Melinda C. Marketing Director Higher Education Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Poor CMS system" April 14, 2017 2.0 Dot CMS does not give you a lot of flexibility as a web publisher. I have experience with many other platforms and this is the hardest to use, meaning it is not intuitive. It is also dated in terms of some of the plug ins. Review Source Response from dotCMS May 2, 2017 Hey Melinda! We really value customer feedback and transparency (truly, it effects the request we prioritize and future releases so customer feedback is essential) . We'd love the chance to speak with you in more depth around your experience as we're value centric and want to help remedy any of your current pain points here. We've had a relationship with IPFW for quite some time and want to make sure all parties are satisfied with their experience from the platform. I've reached out to you personally so please do let me know when you're available to connect. Thanks Melinda, I look forward to hearing from you. dotCMS Customer Success JH Joshua H. Solution Architect Internet Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Best Value of any Enterprise CMS " May 10, 2017 5.0 Fast paced team development built around technologies that we're already using with mainstream clients to tackle enterprise problems. Pros We've been using the software with out clients since almost the inception of the software. Their support is great, and more affordable than most that are comparable amongst enterprise CMS providers. As mainly a development shop, the flexibility of the different frameworks we can use (Spring MVC, Struts, OSGi, AngularJS) allow us to use cutting edge technologies along with their scalable architecture and tackle just about anything you could want. Cons Software still has some legacy functionality that needs refactored; the impact is very low but from time to time creeps up from a "want" to a "need". Review Source LZ Lorenzo Z. senior software developer Information Technology and Services Used the software for: 2+ years ### "A good product that can be better" August 18, 2022 3.0 Pros ease of use for users, time machine feature and the integration with elastic search Cons Sometimes the backend visualization is quite slow; in some places the code is inflexible and not very optimized Review Source RP Robin P. DevOps Engineer Research Used the software for: 2+ years ### "dotCMS for our intranet platform" December 18, 2018 3.0 Pros Adding and maintaining content in dotCMS is simple and easy for non-technical staff. The editor is intuitive and has all the features needed without being overwhelming and difficult to master. Content maintainers are up and running within minutes, its brilliant. Cons dotCMS has a fairly large footprint and can be quite complex to set up initially. There are some minor quirks which we have come across that their technical support wasn't able to solve for us, but I believe it is specific to our installation and may not affect other installations. Other than that their support has been outstanding. Review Source VF Valerie F. Sr. Channel Manager, Marketing Construction Used the software for: Less than 6 months ### "Great all around solution" August 15, 2022 5.0 Pros DotCMS is providing both content management and digital customer experience through personas. The platform cost was reasonable considering all the features. Maintaining updates at the business unit level is crucial to our productivity. Cons Would really like an LMS or event management component that is as simplified and integrated with marketing content. Alternatives considered [Adobe Commerce](https://www.capterra.com/p/227129/Magento-Commerce/)[MindTouch](https://www.capterra.com/p/137969/MindTouch/)[ON24](https://www.capterra.com/p/158766/ON24/)[NiCE CXone](https://www.capterra.com/p/134775/inContact-Call-Center-Software/)[PhotoShelter for Brands](https://www.capterra.com/p/143701/Libris/) Reason for choosing dotCMS Price and ease of integration. Review Source BM Ben M. Sr. Front End developer Investment Banking Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Ability to be flexible" February 11, 2019 5.0 Pros dotCMS is a powerful tool that could be customized to your need without having to modify the core. Allowing you to create content and use it in many different ways. From totally headless to hosting the pages in itself. You can make it fit your needs. Cons Like any CMS, having to create template for special things might be challenging some times. Review Source DB Dennis B. Manager of Web Services Higher Education Used the software for: 2+ years ### "dotCMS is pretty great" December 21, 2018 5.0 we have been able to use the system to unify over 500 websites which now are able to share content and features for easy management! Pros we were looking for a highly configurable system that would allow us to create and manage a large number of abstract content types using taxonomies, workflow and other best practices. dotCMS definitely provided this for us. Cons the system is pretty abstract so it takes some planning to get started. we also ended up going with the cloud solution, which was easier than installing it and managing it ourselves. 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