Enterprise CMS decisions center on governance, personalization, multi-site management, and integration with CRM/marketing stacks.

TL;DR — best picks by need

• Top personalization & digital experience: Adobe Experience Manager, Sitecore

• Enterprise Drupal (cloud): Acquia (managed Drupal)

• .NET enterprise shops: Kentico or Sitecore

• Large legacy or portal needs: Oracle WebCenter

Top 5 — quick breakdown

1. Adobe Experience Manager (AEM)

• Why: Deep personalization, Adobe Experience Cloud integrations, strong DAM/marketing toolchain.

• Best for: Big brands and enterprises with complex content and marketing tech stacks.

• Ops: High cost and specialized implementation teams required.

2. Sitecore

• Why: Personalization + analytics + commerce integrations; strong .NET ecosystem.

• Best for: Enterprises that want tightly integrated personalization and commerce.

• Ops: Significant implementation effort; expert partners advised.

3. Acquia (Managed Drupal)

• Why: Drupal’s flexibility with a managed cloud and enterprise support. Great for content-heavy, multi-site setups.

• Best for: Organizations that want Drupal power with enterprise SLAs.

• Ops: Managed service reduces ops burden.

4. Kentico

• Why: .NET CMS with marketing automation and content-personalization features.

• Best for: Microsoft-stack environments and enterprises seeking all-in-one marketing/CMS.

• Ops: Licensing + hosting; moderate to high implementation complexity.

5. Oracle WebCenter

• Why: Enterprise portal capabilities, document/collaboration and legacy system integration.

• Best for: Large organizations with heavy document-management and portal requirements.

• Ops: Enterprise licensing and specialized teams.

Enterprise CMS selection tips

• Map integrations: CRM (Salesforce/Microsoft), DAM, analytics, SSO and identity providers.

• Plan governance: content roles, approval workflows, and localization needs.

• Proof-of-concept: always build a bounded POC before full rollout to validate personalization and scaling assumptions.

Short FAQ

What matters most in an enterprise CMS? — Integration with CRM/DAM, governance, scaling, and personalization.

Should you build a POC first? — Always — validate personalization, integrations and content workflows on a small scope.

Are enterprise CMSes expensive? — Licensing and implementation can be costly; factor in integration and long-term maintenance.

Common migration & testing notes for all scenarios

Pilot first: Migrate a small section or landing page to test performance and editorial experience.

SEO preservation: keep URL structure or set up 301s; export/import metadata where possible.

Backups & rollback: Always keep healthy backups and a rollback plan during migration.

Performance checks: measure TTFB, caching effectiveness, and CDN usage.