Adobe Business Catalyst for Web Design, SEO and eCommerce Review and Overview – A WordPress/ Magento Perspective
Adobe Business Catalyst is a Content Management System that has been getting a lot of attention, so we wanted to take a deeper look into the CMS. Adobe has been trying really hard to get a leading position in website hosting with Adobe Business Catalyst.
It can be difficult to find a real review of this CMS that’s not just a link to purchase the product. However, many people are asking whether it is worth it to switch to Adobe Business Catalyst from the the ever so loved WordPress CMS, Drupal, Joomla or even Magento CMS or to start up a new website using that platform.
Check out a previous article we wrote on WordPress Vs. Drupal Vs. Joomla Vs. Magento to understand more about these Content Management Systems before moving forward.
Pros and Cons of Adobe Business Catalyst for Web Design and SEO
- Why to use Adobe Business Catalyst
- Why not to use Adobe Business Catalyst
- What to use instead
Pros of Adobe Business Catalyst
Everything is built in, pretty impressive.
- HACKS!! – Business Catalyst is less likely to get hacked
- 301 Re-Directs are built in for SEO
- Integrated with Adobe Muse (we have heard good things about)
- Analytics in the dashboard is cool – GA is better!
- Ecommerce? Doesn’t Beat WooCommerce or Magento
- CRM Database.. Meehh
- Email Software and Email Marketing Built in – Very Cool!
Business Catalyst is less likely to get hacked as opposed to platforms such as WordPress, Drupal and Joomla. Being one of the least popular CMS platforms, your content and servers are somewhat secure on Business Catalyst.
Adobe Business Catalyst is great for e-commerce (with many exceptions). If you are selling anything at any significant volume, you will like this platform. Online sales are really what Adobe Business Catalyst was built for.
It’s easy to manage, easy for your customers to find what they want, and the back end is robust enough to handle a large volume of sales with ease.
301 Re-Directs in Business Catalyst
Adobe Business Catalyst also has 301 re-directs built in which is great when you are doing a re-design on a website. When you go to change URLs in Adobe Business Catalyst, you can transfer and upload previous URLs in an excel spreadsheet and then all of these URLS will pass 99% of the link juice for SEO.
Check for 404 Errors in Webmaster Tools
Once you have transferred over the website, you want to make sure all your URLs are transferring over to the new URLs. Keep checking the 404 errors in webmaster tools just in case those URLs are not pointing over.
Cons of Adobe Business Catalyst
- Bad for Blogging
- No option for Meta Description in Posts
- Not as customizable as some other CMS solutions
- No Meta Description field for Ecommerce (must use custom field)
- Monthly Fees : (
Adobe Business Catalyst kind of sucks for everything else. That’s just the truth. Content wise, it is unwieldy and difficult to use on the back end.
Style wise, it doesn’t let you build a unique site that stands out from the crowd. And information wise, you aren’t in control of your own stuff. Business Catalyst doesn’t have a way to port your content out, so basically Adobe owns your site unless you are going to spend weeks copying and pasting every post you have ever written.
Plus you are paying a monthly fee for hosting, which you could be getting free on a platform like WordPress or hosted on your own server. Who wants to pay for a CMS when you have WordPress??
Adobe Business Catalyst for Blogs
Don’t do it! Adobe Business Catalyst is not optimized for blogging like WordPress is, and you will be frustrated by how long it takes to format your text, insert pictures, or do anything else that you could do in just a couple of clicks with WordPress.
You will spend much longer than you need to just getting your content up, and then if you ever decide to change your content management system or stop paying a monthly fee for your site, you will have to choose between abandoning all your valuable content or spending hours upon hours moving it manually. Adobe Business Catalyst is good for certain uses, but a blog is definitely not one of them.
If you want a blog, consider having it hosted on WordPress or even Blogger instead. The basic subscription is free on both, though you can pay more for your own domain name, fancier themes, or for plugins that add more functionality to your site. If you can write an email and post things on Facebook, you can make a great looking WordPress site. And if you know CSS, you can customize it even more.
Adobe Business Catalyst for Style
Many people want a website that is going to look really unique and attract customers based on how trendy and innovative the company appears to be. If this is you, don’t use Adobe Business Catalyst. The options for customizing your website are extremely limited. If you know how to code a website, then of course, you can do anything. But, this review is for people who are not experts in PHP, ASP.NET and ASP.
After working with the platform for a while, it becomes easy to spot a website built with Adobe Business Catalyst from a mile away, the functionality is similar to a squarespace in my opinion. If your business image is based on your creativity, innovation, or style, don’t undermine that message with a web design that looks like a million other websites out there. Choose a platform that allows for more customization, such as WordPress.
Adobe Business Catalyst for Content Management
Adobe Business Catalyst’s content management is great — as long as you aren’t ever going to leave. It’s really a clever scheme that they have going on. They get you to spend hundreds of hours building up your content on your website, and then because it’s locked away on Adobe’s cloud servers (which are not accessible to you), you have to keep paying to continue to access it.
It’s guaranteed revenue for Adobe, because they’re banking on you not having the time or inclination to manually remove every bit of content you have ever put online.
If you want control of and ownership over your content, choose a platform that gives it to you. Google and WordPress are both good about this.
Don’t just look at their legal policies about ownership; also scrutinize access and portability. Remember, if your content is yours, then you can do with it as you please.
That means downloading your whole website and porting the content to another CMS if you want.
Adobe Business Catalyst for E-Commerce
This is the area where Adobe Business Catalyst shines. If your business focuses on e-commerce, it can be worth the other drawbacks to use Adobe Business Catalyst.
It has the size and resources to handle a large volume of sales, and it is simple to manage sales. Also, it has integrated features such as analytics and email lists which can help you grow your business.
Adobe Business Catalyst should be taken at its word: it’s for business. It’s not for content, it’s not for blogging, and it’s really not for SEO superstardom. It does great for business, and if that is what you are using it for then you will be happy with it.
Adobe Business Catalyst vs Adobe in general
I am a huge fan of Adobe products. I use them all the time. I can’t imagine a time when I’m not a loyal Adobe customer, because they build powerful tools to do basically everything that I need to do in my profession. However, I feel they somewhat missed the mark with Adobe Business Catalyst.
There are enough drawbacks to the CMS to give me pause about using it, and for many clients I find that WordPress is a much better option to fit their needs. Of course, I’m here to help you build an outstanding website that fits your business’s requirements perfectly, and I will use whatever platform will work best for you.
Give Front Street Media a call today to get started on the perfect website for your business!
Thanks for writing this! It’s been hard for me to find a review of Adobe Business Catalyst that wasn’t written by one of their partners. I’m glad I checked out the 2nd page of search results in Google.
Thanks Ashley,
Yeah, most of the reviews out there are from people that use it everyday or someone internally at Adobe or Adobe Partners. Glad I could help sort through the rubble.
For the nontechnical person, I think business catalyst would be great (if you want to pay for it). The reason is, with that price you also get support. However, if you aren’t afraid to get into some slight technical stuff, WordPress can be much more flexible because of the countless plugins, huge community, and the fact that most everything is free.
By the way, great overview and review of Adobe business catalyst! I also like how you mentioned the hacks. That is another benefit of adobe business catalyst vs. WordPress. Since WordPress is so widespread, it is targeted more by hackers. Simple solution, though, install wordfence or a login attempt blocker plugin. And don’t use admin as your username!
Jeff,
Totally Agree. Whats cool about Catalyst (in my opinion) is that its not overly hacked, the 301 redirect features are awesome and the integrated CRM out of the box. It is tough for developers and designers to make the jump and justify the cost, and learning a new Content Management System is not always a blast.
Thanks for the feedback.