Acoustic Content vs. Adobe Business Catalyst (Discontinued)

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Acoustic Content
Score 1.2 out of 10
N/A
Acoustic Content (formerly Watson Content Hub) gives business owners the power to create, robust and consistent brand experiences using cloud-based, cognitive content management capabilities. Marketing and merchandising professionals can quickly select content to create relevant offers delivered across multiple channels, such as mobile, web-based or email. Acoustic is an independent spun off from IBM Watson Marketing in 2019.N/A
Adobe Business Catalyst (Discontinued)
Score 8.9 out of 10
N/A
Adobe Business Catalyst was a cloud-hosted system for building and managing web content and online stores with a built-in CRM framework in addition to sales, service, and marketing features including eCommerce and Email Marketing tools. It has been end of life (EOL) since 2020.N/A
Pricing
Acoustic ContentAdobe Business Catalyst (Discontinued)
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Acoustic ContentAdobe Business Catalyst (Discontinued)
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Acoustic ContentAdobe Business Catalyst (Discontinued)
Considered Both Products
Acoustic Content
Chose Acoustic Content
Acoustic Content stands out mainly in 3 areas, Digital Asset Management system AI Based metatags More secure CDN and REST API to share content All these three features play a huge role in Acoustic Content CMS in terms of finding matching images for our content, categorize …
Chose Acoustic Content
I have never had any experience without IBM applications but I can confirm that compared to other content tools provided by IBM, this is one of the complete packages.
Chose Acoustic Content
I haven't had experience outside of the IBM applications but can confirm that compared to other content tools provided by IBM, this is one of the more complete packages.
Adobe Business Catalyst (Discontinued)
Chose Adobe Business Catalyst (Discontinued)
We use Adobe Muse and this was our introduction to BC, we did not have a choice in this topic. But we have a good experiance with Adobe products generally as we also use most products within Adobe CC
Chose Adobe Business Catalyst (Discontinued)
Adobe Business Catalyst has Web Apps which makes all the difference between them and competitors. Without that, BC would be behind many of the other CMS systems out there. Being a hosted system without any maintenance needs also puts it ahead of others. LightCMS is easier for …
Chose Adobe Business Catalyst (Discontinued)
I would say that all things considered Adobe Business Catalyst is an excellent product. It does have some short-comings, but it is fantastic all around. It has a nice way of tying everything in your digital presence together nicely. If you do not have a ton of money to spend on …
Chose Adobe Business Catalyst (Discontinued)
The largest competitor in my portfolio is GoDaddy. I tend to use them for larger products or for all inclusive domain registration and web presence. I prefer using BC for most everything due to its simplistic nature. It is a very streamlined product and is easy to add users …
Chose Adobe Business Catalyst (Discontinued)
As far as the CMS for BC goes, there is none out there that compares. In the past we have utilized Joomla, Wordpress, Mambo, Drupal, Concrete 5 and others. None of them were as easy to use and train on that Adobe's Business Catalyst. Our alternative to BC is WordPress when our …
Chose Adobe Business Catalyst (Discontinued)
We prefer Adobe Business Catalyst over WordPress. Adobe Business Catalyst websites are more secure and you don't have to update plug-ins. Saving our clients in cost over time.
Chose Adobe Business Catalyst (Discontinued)
I have worked with BigCommerce, ExpressionEngine, WordPress and other custom content management systems. The speed of the setup and ease of use are the primary reasons I choose BusinessCatalyst over other systems. While the CRM and Email platform are not as extensive as others, …
Chose Adobe Business Catalyst (Discontinued)
I use Wordpress along with Adobe Business Catalyst for CMS but I strongly prefer BC, mainly because of constant Wordpress updates that I have to manage.
Chose Adobe Business Catalyst (Discontinued)
Business Catalyst is extremely easier to use and navigate than most other options. In comparison to other CMS systems, the setup time is minimal and very straight forward.
Chose Adobe Business Catalyst (Discontinued)
I prefer Adobe Business Catalyst to the open source competitors because they require a bit of upkeep to keep versions and plug-ins updated; BC does the versioning and updating for you.
Chose Adobe Business Catalyst (Discontinued)
All-in-one solution, no need to worry about compatibility
Chose Adobe Business Catalyst (Discontinued)
Adobe Business Catalyst is our favorite web content management system - it has everything built in and, being in the cloud, never needs manual updating like the open source stuff out there. It's contact database isn't as robust as SalesForce or Sugar, but it works and is …
Chose Adobe Business Catalyst (Discontinued)
BC may not be as customizable as these two, but it is a much more of a secure option.
Chose Adobe Business Catalyst (Discontinued)
Business Catalyst outperforms other CMS systems out there. Because it's a hosted content management system maintained by Adobe we have to spend less time worrying about server setup, maintenance, and security and more time building better websites. We also don't have to worry …
Chose Adobe Business Catalyst (Discontinued)
We didn't really used many products before deciding to use Business Catalyst. When we started we developed sites using an old product (GoLive) and then created a few sites in Wordpress. We didn't like that fact that Wordpress needed an add-on every time we wanted additional …
Chose Adobe Business Catalyst (Discontinued)
WordPress, out of the box, is a very powerful platform. It, however, might need a lot of third-party plugins to make it do exactly what a client needs. In contract, Business Catalyst, out of the box, has many more features. For certain clients, a solution like BC is the perfect …
Features
Acoustic ContentAdobe Business Catalyst (Discontinued)
Security
Comparison of Security features of Product A and Product B
Acoustic Content
8.4
Ratings
4% above category average
Adobe Business Catalyst (Discontinued)
-
Ratings
Role-based user permissions8.40 Ratings00 Ratings
Platform & Infrastructure
Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of Product A and Product B
Acoustic Content
8.4
Ratings
10% above category average
Adobe Business Catalyst (Discontinued)
6.6
Ratings
14% below category average
API8.30 Ratings7.90 Ratings
Internationalization / multi-language8.40 Ratings00 Ratings
Web Content Creation
Comparison of Web Content Creation features of Product A and Product B
Acoustic Content
8.6
Ratings
11% above category average
Adobe Business Catalyst (Discontinued)
-
Ratings
WYSIWYG editor7.40 Ratings00 Ratings
Code quality / cleanliness8.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Admin section8.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Page templates8.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Library of website themes9.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile optimization / responsive design9.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Publishing workflow9.40 Ratings00 Ratings
Form generator9.40 Ratings00 Ratings
Web Content Management
Comparison of Web Content Management features of Product A and Product B
Acoustic Content
8.8
Ratings
18% above category average
Adobe Business Catalyst (Discontinued)
-
Ratings
Content taxonomy8.30 Ratings00 Ratings
SEO support8.40 Ratings00 Ratings
Bulk management8.90 Ratings00 Ratings
Availability / breadth of extensions9.40 Ratings00 Ratings
Community / comment management8.90 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Acoustic ContentAdobe Business Catalyst (Discontinued)
Small Businesses
ManageWP
ManageWP
Score 10.0 out of 10
ManageWP
ManageWP
Score 10.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
RWS Tridion Sites
RWS Tridion Sites
Score 9.0 out of 10
RWS Tridion Sites
RWS Tridion Sites
Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises
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RWS Tridion Sites
Score 9.0 out of 10
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Score 9.0 out of 10
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User Ratings
Acoustic ContentAdobe Business Catalyst (Discontinued)
Likelihood to Recommend
8.3
(0 ratings)
6.0
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
9.4
(0 ratings)
Usability
-
(0 ratings)
9.7
(0 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
8.2
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
-
(0 ratings)
8.6
(0 ratings)
Online Training
-
(0 ratings)
8.6
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
9.6
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
8.2
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
8.2
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Acoustic ContentAdobe Business Catalyst (Discontinued)
Likelihood to Recommend
It is advisable to create custom designs that call for specific programs and content without giving direct access to those programs. We still have to meet the proposed use case where it should not be used.
Read full review
The service provision is good the accounts customer service is poor so I would struggle to give BC a better than average review, if only they could offer customers a better accounts service then the value would be much higher.
Read full review
Pros
  • Ease of use of the tool
  • Fast results for sales from automated merchandising
  • Great insight into top performers
  • Good support
Read full review
  • The Web Apps element of Business Catalyst is unique among hosted CMS systems. It helps us solve unique challenges without involving heavy-duty programmers.
  • As a Hosted CMS, it has a lot of great features without a ton of cost or liability being taken on which is important to us.
  • BC has a growing developer community and has made significant upgrades over the past few years, which don't end up costing us more, and would be very expensive or time consuming in a traditional CMS
  • Our client's like that it is from "Adobe" and that it has Dreamweaver integration. This provides them with a level of comfort that helps us sell the project.
Read full review
Cons
  • Application is less user friendly as some of the commonly used functions even hidden inside menus.
  • Community support is very low as Acoustic Content is not widely used by many people.
Read full review
  • I love web apps but it can be time consuming to get the bulk import file just right the first time
  • Support is good, but the effort to research can be massive for unusual issues
  • Metadata on blog posts and pages can require lots of content editing at a slow pace
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Likelihood to Renew
No answers on this topic
Actually with Business Catalyst there is no renewal; once you are a partner, you are a partner for as long as you like. It is an investment in your business not simply a product you purchase...and as an investment in partnership with Adobe, both are committed to each other's success.
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Usability
No answers on this topic
Overall it is a "plug and play" interface. The majority of the work is done in other software interfaces. Managing billing, user roles and custom reports are all that you need to manage in the actual BC user interface. For my business this is an incredible benefit as I have to leave my preferred software less.
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Reliability and Availability
No answers on this topic
very few issues with availability
Read full review
Performance
No answers on this topic
Very few issues
Read full review
Support Rating
No answers on this topic
The support provided by Adobe is excellent. Though the knowledge base, forums, blogs and online chat questions most all answers can be found. In the event that you are unable to find an answer or you have a unique situation simply post a question to the forums. These forums are regularly monitored by Adobe and its users.
Read full review
Online Training
No answers on this topic
bcgurus.com kiyuco
Read full review
Implementation Rating
No answers on this topic
Pretty easy to do
Read full review
Alternatives Considered
Acoustic Content stands out mainly in 3 areas, Digital Asset Management system AI Based metatags More secure CDN and REST API to share content All these three features play a huge role in Acoustic Content CMS in terms of finding matching images for our content, categorize and sort our content automatically and finally secure way to publish our content.
Read full review
I would say that all things considered Adobe Business Catalyst is an excellent product. It does have some short-comings, but it is fantastic all around. It has a nice way of tying everything in your digital presence together nicely. If you do not have a ton of money to spend on a company website, and want things like e-mail marketing, analytics, a reliable web-site, then this is probably a very real option that should be considered. If you want a website that can grow with your company, this is also a great possibility. For smaller companies with less technical resources, I don't know if you could ask for a much better all in one solution. If you want something that can be completely customized, then there are better options out there, but they will be more expensive and require more technical knowledge to use well.
Read full review
Scalability
No answers on this topic
It's easy to build small sites or large sites and there is lots of templating.
Read full review
Return on Investment
  • Freed up user time to call a variety of applications quicker.
  • Allowed developer an easier tool to integrate other applications for end users.
  • Allowed us to have a single method of application implementation and usage that is easier to debug, saving time.
Read full review
  • Surprisingly enough and despite having a second, less expensive hosting solution, a majority of our clients prefer to use the Adobe Business Catalyst solution. We are then able to enjoy the commissions that are returned as we sign up new customers for annual contracts.
  • Being able to store and utilize data that comes from web form submissions has been very helpful in customer retention since we became a partner in 2011. Since that time, we have only lost two clients. That's 3 times better than our other hosting solution.
  • Our largest negative impact has come from having only one choice in SSLs. For example, we had a great client in a local and growing bank. We spent 2 months getting the web site built to their specifications and we were very clear on the SSL situation. However, once the site went live, problems arose. In the past they had submitted their site to search engines with their secure URL and that was all that was indexed. Then when their customers searched for their site and clicked on the secure URL, it either showed that the site could not be found OR it said that they were entering to a site with an unverified SSL. People would then call the bank and complain. We then had to quickly move their site to another solution costing us days of re-development time and resources.
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ScreenShots

Acoustic Content Screenshots

Screenshot of Cognitive TaggingScreenshot of Flexible, Easy EditingScreenshot of Automatic renditions createdScreenshot of Card-based Asset Library