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Magnolia
Effortless Content Management System
4.2
(36)
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Magnolia Reviews & Product Details

Magnolia Overview
What is Magnolia?

Magnolia is a java-based, open-source, enterprise web content management solution that allows organizations to go to market quickly, adapt quickly to changing business priorities, and integrate easily with third-party systems. Magnolia empowers companies to create outstanding multi-channel customer experiences while maintaining central control over all content assets via a simple, easy-to-use platform.

Company Magnolia International Ltd.
Year founded 1997
Company size 51-200 employees
Headquarters Basel, Switzerland
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What Magnolia is best for?
How does Magnolia compare to HubSpot CMS Hub?
What are the pros and cons of Magnolia?
Magnolia Product Details
Capabilities
API
CLI
Segment
Small Business
Mid Market
Enterprise
Deployment Cloud / SaaS / Web-Based, Desktop Mac, Desktop Windows, On-Premise Linux, On-Premise Windows
Support 24/7 (Live rep), Chat, Email/Help Desk, FAQs/Forum, Knowledge Base, Phone Support
Training Documentation
Languages English
Magnolia Features
API Access
Asset Management
Collaboration Tools
Content Analytics
Content Archiving
Content Migration
Content Personalization
Content Preview
Content Scheduling
Customer Support
Customizable Templates
Drag and Drop Interface
E-Commerce Integration
Form Builder
GDPR Compliance
Inline Editing
Media Library
Mobile Editing
Multilingual Support
Plugins and Extensions
Responsive Design
SEO Management
Search Functionality
Social Media Integration
Tagging and Categorization
Template Management
User Roles and Permissions
Version Control
WYSIWYG Editor
Workflow Management
Magnolia Media
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Magnolia Screenshots
Disclaimer
Our research is curated from diverse authoritative sources and meant to offer general advice. We don’t guarantee that our suggestions will work best for each use-case, so consider your unique needs when choosing products and services. Feel free to share your feedback.
Last updated: December 07, 2024
Magnolia Logo
36 Magnolia Reviews
4.2 out of 5
Small Business (50 or fewer emp.)
Dec 27, 2020
 Source
Overall Rating:
5.0
Dragan V. avatar
Dragan V.
Senior Software Engineer
Share
"Magnolia CMS - simple to use, rapid development and plenty of enterprise built-in features"
What do you like best about Magnolia?

Magnolia offers a great authoring experience for content writers and thanks to that the road to happy and satisfied customers is already started. For developers, it is quite easy to get familiar with magnolia development environment.

What do you dislike about Magnolia?

If you are not an experienced developer it is very difficult to start and do things in the right way. Even the community is growing in the past years there is still a lot of space for growing.

What problems is Magnolia solving and how is that benefiting you?

Magnolia has plenty of enterprise features already built-in like workflow and personalization. Thanks to that we are able to resolve requirements that are quite standard and required for today's modern websites. PUR(public user registration) module is a very useful and helpful module for creating a login/register form if necessary. Managing roles, groups and users is another thing that magnolia already has simplified.

Mid Market (51-1000 emp.)
Dec 02, 2019
 Source
Overall Rating:
5.0
Jurij K. avatar
Jurij K.
Project Manager
Share
"Highly intuitive for use"
What do you like best about Magnolia?

In the latest version UX is highly intuite so building a site is easy and fast. It also offers a lot of predefined templates which one could use.

What do you dislike about Magnolia?

I have faced a problem where I needed a detailed explanation of a particular module, which was not covered enough in the documentation.

What problems is Magnolia solving and how is that benefiting you?

It supports our Business needs and also covers easy deployment in customers environments.

Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)
Sep 12, 2023
 Source
Overall Rating:
4.5
Jenna H. avatar
Jenna H.
Software Engineer
Share
"Magnolia Fast, Robust, and Reliable"
What do you like best about Magnolia?

Magnolia CMS guarantees extremely smooth coordination with a few outsider applications. It is strong, quick, and dependable. With magnolia, we can now effectively make pages and oversee content.

What do you dislike about Magnolia?

Magnolia's group needs to zero in more on rolling out new improvements as change is the only thing that is steady and takes into account the speed at which the contenders give refreshes. Aside from that, we have not noticed any deficiencies in the device.

What problems is Magnolia solving and how is that benefiting you?

Magnolia works with its clients by furnishing them with a lot of adaptabilities. One can become familiar with the fundamental level of this CMS in several days attributable to its decent UI. It is an open-source platform for effectively taking care of dynamic substances. Efficiency sponsor.

Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)
Aug 29, 2021
 Source
Overall Rating:
4.5
Nainish A. avatar
Nainish A.
Assistant Systems Engineer
Share
"Best content management tool"
What do you like best about Magnolia?

Magnolia is a powerful and robust content management system that helps create custom apps and helps store the data in those apps. It is secure and provides multisite support. It is an open-source platform that provides cloud storage and multi-level security. It also prevents any data loss and due to the presence of a web-based app, it is easier to access it from anywhere. My favourite feature of Magnolia is multi-site management as it helps to manage multiple sites in one place without any hassle. This saves a lot of time for developers as well as solution architects. Another feature I love is it provides smooth content migration which makes the whole process very efficient and hassles free. It also provides multilingual support which basically helps in the wider reach of our product.

What do you dislike about Magnolia?

Magnolia user interface is complex to understand which can make its customer lose interest in using it. Magnolia must have a discussion forum to clear the doubts of their clients and to have a healthy discussion about new features and their usage. Also while using angular js with magnolia the whole process becomes very slow.

What problems is Magnolia solving and how is that benefiting you?

The biggest business problem was assembling sites, so by using this CMS tool, assembling the sites became easier and helped provide the client with an opportunity to modify some sort of functions. It has improved the overall efficiency and availability.

Small Business (50 or fewer emp.)
Jan 20, 2021
 Source
Overall Rating:
4.5
Aniket K. avatar
Aniket K.
Software Developer
Share
"Middleware Development for one of the largest Airline Industry"
What do you like best about Magnolia?

New 6.1 UI, Available components and way we can customise them as our need.

What do you dislike about Magnolia?

Loading speed can be improved. 6.1 version is little slower.

What problems is Magnolia solving and how is that benefiting you?

I was creating components for my website. Most of the components were available but for some components I was customising as per need

Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)
Jan 11, 2021
 Source
Overall Rating:
4.5
Nand Kishore P. avatar
Nand Kishore P.
Assistant Consultant
Share
"Magnolia is best content management platform"
What do you like best about Magnolia?

Magnolia is very strong open source CMS platform which help end user to manage dynamic content e.g. Websites, videos, images, blogs, publishing content to various environments and many more. Its having rich inbuilt features to integrate with many social media platforms and use the contents within out portals. I like the apis available for development its made very easy code for developers.

What do you dislike about Magnolia?

There are some areas where magnolia team would be need to more focus on the adoption of new changes more frequently as the world is changing very fast. Although they are doing great job in all the way to add improvements, I appreciate it.

What problems is Magnolia solving and how is that benefiting you?

I have done digital transformation for an legacy java portal

Small Business (50 or fewer emp.)
Dec 30, 2020
 Source
Overall Rating:
4.5
Jagruti P. avatar
Jagruti P.
Senior Analyst
Share
"Magnolia : Open source, Powerful and robust Java based Content management system(CMS)"
What do you like best about Magnolia?

- I never thoughts that Java has fantastic CMS like "Magnolia" compare with other languages its easy to use and learn, I just learned basic level of Magnolia CMS in two to three days as its just have good User Interface to handle content. -Powerful and robust content management platform. -Customizable based on user needs. -Updates available based on new changes. -Any developer with basic knowledge of Java and JSP can assemble and create website. -Secure and provide the multisite support.

What do you dislike about Magnolia?

Sometimes if we have update template and other layout related things for example replacing of textbox control with drop down box or list box with some default value, it will update other component alignment as well and forcefully need CSS change externally to handle user interface rest things well and good.

What problems is Magnolia solving and how is that benefiting you?

- It has been used as a Web Content Management tool for the Milan, Italy's fashion platform which is very big fashion company. - It provides the multisite support for the multiple website using the single platform for example I have used for four different language. - Creation of common templates which could be used across all the sites.

Small Business (50 or fewer emp.)
Dec 21, 2020
 Source
Overall Rating:
4.5
Stojan P. avatar
Stojan P.
Senior Developer And Consultant
Share
"Magnolia got me started in my Web Development career"
What do you like best about Magnolia?

Easy to setup and use. The editorial part is very intuitive and the pool of modules to use is enough to start with the essential business functions. Development environment allows adding new functionalities by extendint the existing or implementing new modules. Overall a complete Content Managment System with great focus on Business services and values.

What do you dislike about Magnolia?

The system is a bit heavy for smaller sites.

What problems is Magnolia solving and how is that benefiting you?

The ability of a client to manage their own sites. Easy editing and publishing functions.

Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)
Apr 23, 2020
 Source
Overall Rating:
4.5
EW
Emma W.
Senior Software Engineer
Share
"Powerful and robust content management platform."
What do you like best about Magnolia?

One of the easiest content management platforms to use for launching and creating new applications and websites. It helps me to share our projects completely or even have of the features apart as well. It is specially built for your heavy integration. It is an open-source platform and provides your cloud storage. No data loss and it is user-friendly easy to understand. It is a web-based app so it is easy to access from anywhere and anytime. It has a backup which gives you free space and saves your content from being messed up.

What do you dislike about Magnolia?

It has a lack of dashboard for administration and no workflow information is shown. Implementations in the admin user interface are quite difficult. Migration from previous releases is expensive and hard. Some of its version is not compatible with its older versions. If you want to uninstall any module it would be messy. You must need 2 databases one for file systems as well. The admin interface is very hard to use. The first setup of magnolia CMS seemed very confusing.

What problems is Magnolia solving and how is that benefiting you?

Magnolia is a powerful centralized platform to help users to deliver their digital experiences related to their brands and business. It provides a user content management system and this helps in creating and delivering new features of your project or even a whole project even without java. With the help of Magnolia, you can easily create apps and launch new websites without creating new content. It helps you deliver your relevant content to the right persons according to their interests.

Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)
Aug 29, 2023
 Source
Overall Rating:
4.0
DW
David W.
Founder
Share
"Magnolia CMS Platform with Best Digital Capabilities."
What do you like best about Magnolia?

This is one of the software that helps users to build the best-advanced websites. Moreover, you can integrate without any trouble through many platforms using this single content management unit. The software allows you the best cloud management services and empowers your business. You can save your content using this software from getting corrupted and the backup can be possible without using any external sources.

What do you dislike about Magnolia?

Magnolia CMS tool doesn’t support a good administrative panel and even the paid version is very time taking. Thus, there are some amendments that even the premium version needs because this one doesn’t worth the price. There come the incompatibility issues and several installations, management plus plugin issues. Therefore, the developers should address these issues as soon as possible.

What problems is Magnolia solving and how is that benefiting you?

It is the software with a bundle of premium specifications and it is quite stable for use. Additionally, you will get the top purchaser services and get to manage multiple websites using this single platform. This software provides multiple language support and stable content transaction.

Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)
Jan 03, 2021
 Source
Overall Rating:
4.0
Prateek A. avatar
Prateek A.
It Analyst
Share
"Magnolia - Digitised Content Manager"
What do you like best about Magnolia?

Easy to plug, Spring Integration with the help of blossom library. Author to Public features, Workflow management.

What do you dislike about Magnolia?

Content node was bit tricky, had issue with publishing data from Author to Public. Only once faced a blocker for which we had a connect with magnolia developers to solve.

What problems is Magnolia solving and how is that benefiting you?

Since it's a CMS i.e. nothing but a content management system, so our main agenda was to deal with dynamic content but without any deployment or server restart. Hence, we chose Magnolia as a CMS tool with which any one can change the content of a webpage without having much knowledge on technical front. Not just it's easy to use by any naive person but also one can have varied version control as well such as to rollback if needed. So over-all, it was brilliant package if you have dynamic content on your web page

Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)
Jan 03, 2021
 Source
Overall Rating:
4.0
Najiba H. avatar
Najiba H.
Software Engineer
Share
"My experience of using with magnolia for 1 year"
What do you like best about Magnolia?

I liked the ability to create custom apps, store data in those apps. It reduces the overhead of adding a new database and gives more customisation power.

What do you dislike about Magnolia?

Using react or angular with magnolia makes it very slow. Most of the UI development must be done using plain html and jquery.

What problems is Magnolia solving and how is that benefiting you?

We are using it for managing dynamic content on our websites. The marketing team can change stuffs without contacting dev team. They can easily add/remove components, change content of static pages like about us , control styling to a certain extent, change banners, temporarily add offers etc.

Mid Market (51-1000 emp.)
Nov 16, 2020
 Source
Overall Rating:
4.0
Bhushan B. avatar
Bhushan B.
It Analyst & Java Developer
Share
"Magnolia CMS System - Easy & Fast"
What do you like best about Magnolia?

Magnolia is the powerful, easy and fast way to create and manage the content of your website. With the latest versions and updates, it is even more easy to develop the website using Light-Weight modules and are cloud based. The latest version also provide with the CLI tool for the development. As the end user of the tool, it also provides the multisite support.

What do you dislike about Magnolia?

The only downside I have seen is for the existing user who are using quite outdated version of Magnolia. It is not very easy to migrate from 4.x version to the latest version as there is huge change in internal structure and specification used by the tool.

What problems is Magnolia solving and how is that benefiting you?

- It was been used as a Web Content Management tool. - Providing the multi site support for the different website in the single platform. - Creation of common templates which could be used across all the sites.

Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)
Nov 14, 2020
 Source
Overall Rating:
4.0
Abhinav S. avatar
Abhinav S.
Software Specialist
Share
"Magnolia - CMS Overview"
What do you like best about Magnolia?

Magnolia comes with a ton of features like any other CMS tool in the market. The one thing that distinguishes this product from its competitors is the ability to develop custom features for enterprise grade applications. It is highly adaptable and can be leveraged with other frameworks quite easily.

What do you dislike about Magnolia?

There is a lesser documentation available on the internet for this tool. Also lots of time you will be doing custom development for which reference resources might be hard to find. Overall a good dedicated team to help you out with your needs.

What problems is Magnolia solving and how is that benefiting you?

We were using the tool to centrally manage the web content across multitude of sites with internationalization features. Customize the websites for local country specific needs.

Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)
Dec 05, 2019
 Source
Overall Rating:
4.0
Kumar R. avatar
Kumar R.
Software Development Advisor
Share
"A CMS FOR ALL"
What do you like best about Magnolia?

Managing content is super easy with Magnolia. It's makes easier to create a website with the basic computer knowledge. At the same it fulfill the complex requirements like multilingual support, URL redirection and many more features. And best part is a developer can easily extend the core feature and customised as per his reqirement.

What do you dislike about Magnolia?

Upgrading to 5+ version was a tough task.

What problems is Magnolia solving and how is that benefiting you?

Right now we are in process to create a websites, which uses the data from different out of box content app and some custom content app. Since data are stored in app and not on the pages, changing at one place reflects across the website.

Mid Market (51-1000 emp.)
Sep 06, 2019
 Source
Overall Rating:
4.0
Amberly S. avatar
Amberly S.
Software Engineer
Share
"Very useful content management system "
What do you like best about Magnolia?

It delivers a categorized explanation to the users having the characteristics for sending an interesting digital experience to all the networks, products, and markets. Java API, SOAP, REST, XML, CMIS, etc. can be used to do the association of other software with Magnolia CMS. This platform is an open, high quality, secure, reachable, flexible, extendible, and safe and it differentiates the performance form the public things. This is well-suited for enterprise IT systems that is inscribed in Java.

What do you dislike about Magnolia?

This tool is only limited to laptops and is not mobile or tab friendly. When you are publishing a new form of your self-made module, there is no way to go back if the issues happen. Uninstallation process of the module is very unorganized. Implementation of the customization in the organizational UI of Magnolia demands the developer to know how to use Vaadin. The organizational control panel in the Magnolia is deficient.

What problems is Magnolia solving and how is that benefiting you?

Magnolia is extensively used for the expansion of advanced websites, extranets and intranets. You can easily customize your content and pages through its easy to use web-based apps. It is very supportive in the launching of new apps or sites even without creating new content. You can restructure and reutilize your current content into small, reusable segments. In this way, visitors find interesting content relevant to their needs.

Small Business (50 or fewer emp.)
Aug 31, 2019
 Source
Overall Rating:
4.0
Anna S. avatar
Anna S.
Software Engineer
Share
"Enables organizations to create their digital content"
What do you like best about Magnolia?

Magnolia CMS is a compact solution which provides a digital experience to the organizations to have a better experience at marketing. You can even execute a whole project without the use of Java, which is a great edge.

What do you dislike about Magnolia?

With a lot to offer, it has been seen that Magnolia requires a proper learning before being able to operate well. It also lacks in proper documentation and consistency. It is also not well suited for small businesses.

What problems is Magnolia solving and how is that benefiting you?

It presents a great system to organize all your work, where you can reuse the blocks and add tags on them, which is easy.

Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)
Aug 29, 2023
 Source
Overall Rating:
3.5
PS
Philipp S.
Full Stack Developer
Share
"Magnolia has assisted us with making gigantic enhancements to our advanced capacities."
What do you like best about Magnolia?

It is among the easiest-to-use CMS tools for laying out and creating current sites and applications. It permits me to completely coordinate our items or maybe have a portion of the perspectives discrete. It is explicitly intended for your broad consolidation. Simply an open-source administration enables cloud administrations. There's no information overt repetitiveness, and it's easy to use. Since it is cloud-based programming, it very well may be gotten to from wherever whenever. It contains a reinforcement that offers you additional room and keeps content material from being undermined.

What do you dislike about Magnolia?

It comes up short on the managerial connection point and shows no interaction subtleties. Executing the managerial point of interaction is an intricate undertaking. Overhauling from earlier renditions is exorbitant and tedious. Many of its releases are contrary to past variants. It'd be challenging to eliminate any module. You'll require two datasets, one for shared organizers and one for all the other things. The regulatory point of interaction is truly challenging to utilize. The underlying establishment of Magnolia CMS gave off an impression of being muddled.

What problems is Magnolia solving and how is that benefiting you?

Magnolia is a serious area of strength for a tool that empowers clients to fabricate web compositions for their organizations and organizations. It offers an easy-to-use CMS, which supports the creation and conveyance of inventive capacities of your program or even a whole business without the use of Java. We may easily develop applications and present different pages with Magnolia without creating new happy. It empowers us to give pertinent material to the right individuals in light of their inclinations. A ready-to-utilize tool with every one of the necessary capabilities and a heavenly client experience for a wide range of clients. For everybody wishing to foster a web-based personality, this would be the best arrangement.

Mid Market (51-1000 emp.)
Jul 06, 2022
 Source
Overall Rating:
3.5
MS
Mohsin S.
Principal Software Developer
Share
"A strong and stable CMS platform!"
What do you like best about Magnolia?

Among the most user-friendly CMS platforms for establishing and developing modern websites and apps. It allows me to entirely integrate our products or perhaps have some of the aspects separate. It is specifically designed for your extensive incorporation. It's just an open-source service that empowers cloud services. There's no data redundancy, and it's simple to utilize. Because it is cloud-based software, it can be accessed from everywhere at any time. It contains a backup that offers you extra room and prevents content material from being corrupted.

What do you dislike about Magnolia?

It lacks an administrative interface and displays no process details. Implementing the administrative interface is a complex task. Upgrading from prior versions is costly and time-consuming. Few of its editions are incompatible with previous versions. It'd be difficult to remove any plugin. You'll need two datasets, one for shared folders and one for everything else. The administrative interface is really difficult to use. The initial installation of Magnolia CMS appeared to be pretty complicated.

What problems is Magnolia solving and how is that benefiting you?

Magnolia is a strong centralized platform that enables users to build website designs for their companies and businesses. It offers a user-friendly CMS, which aids in the creation and delivery of innovative capabilities of your program or even an entire business without the usage of Java. We may effortlessly construct applications and introduce multiple web pages with Magnolia without having to produce fresh content. It enables us to provide relevant material to the correct people based on their preferences.

Mid Market (51-1000 emp.)
Jan 05, 2021
 Source
Overall Rating:
3.5
PP
Pavel P.
Java Programmer
Share
"I have implemented 4 projects with Magnolia CMS"
What do you like best about Magnolia?

It is a Free CMS It is easy to start It is fast and good scale

What do you dislike about Magnolia?

Very poore oportunities to modify BPMN worklows. Very poore oportunities to update ierarchical data. Very simple to make mistate during data update.

What problems is Magnolia solving and how is that benefiting you?

We used it with a big project and has been solved a problem with complicated publishing workflow and adaptive layouts.