Sitefinity Hosting: Compare Hosting

What is Sitefinity Hosting?

Sitefinity is an active server pages .NET (ASP.NET) Content Management System (CMS) for enterprise level businesses. When you think of CMS, the popular solutions that come to mind may be little more than blogging platforms. Sitefinity is so much more than that type of CMS solution. Beyond content management, it includes robust e-commerce and marketing tools.

Web-based content management gives you access anywhere you have a browser. Tablets, laptops, mobile devices as well as your traditional desktop are valid work areas. You create a layout using a simple drag-and-drop interface, templates, and themes. You may edit text inline and personalize content. Multiple site management is support in all editions, except Standard. It also features a hypertext markup language (HTML) editor, an image editor, event calendar, and a file manager.

Benefits

Sitefinity has many benefits that lead with its usability. Sitefinity is extremely focused on great usability so that site admins can spend less time on site management and get their projects out quicker. The interface and management built in to the experience is centered on the user experience.

Another benefit of Sitefinity is that its roadmap is set some time ahead by Telerik, the company behind the software. While other leading CMS projects benefit from the open, collaborative and volunteer nature of its communities, Sitefinity has cultivated their own culture and dedicated development resources to get tasks accomplished. That bodes well for the ongoing life of Sitefinity as the updates are always coming. Sitefinity also comes with an enterprise-friendly trove of documentation.

It also makes it easy to import data from other content management systems and data sources. Sitefinity also integrates well with a windows server environment. It’s code is regularly integrated with Microsoft tools like ASP.NET, which makes for smooth co-existing development. The company also has a very polished presentation in all their communications, which makes it an easy sell in the decision rooms as well as the free trial they offer.

Behind everything is Telerik, which is the manufacturer of Sitefinity and has evolved in functionality and value since the beginning. They have paid special attention to hiring extremely talented staff and listening to customer feedback. The result has been a well-groomed and essentially custom product that has been honed over a history of product experience dating back to 2002 and through customer feedback.

All editions of Sitefinity support several content types, including but not limited to: blogs, forums, news, images, videos, documents, events, and lists. Content is organized with tags, categories, facet taxonomy, network taxonomy, and hierarchical libraries.

Knowing how important Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is in today’s dramatically changing digital landscape, Sitefinity has tools built in to help maximize this. SEO is an effective and important marketing strategy that leads to increased traffic, better search positions, better conversions, and sometimes it comes down to powerful on-page optimization. SEO is one of the most cost-effective marketing strategies today because it targets active users right on your site. It makes sense to maximize that return on any technical points whenever possible and Sitefinity has you covered. The tools allows search-friendly uniform resource locators (URLs) which are localizable and canonical. Title, description, and keyword metadata are supported. Web analytics are also built in.

Tools for mobile optimization include, but are not limited to: mobile apps builder, responsive Web design, device-based page redirection, and a built-in device emulator.

Social media and email marketing tools cover all the bases, such as RSS and Atom syndication and mailing list management.

Myriad e-commerce tools are included with all plans, except Standard. They may be purchased at an additional fee with Standard. E-commerce tools include, but are not limited to: customized online store, tax management, order management, and pre- and post-purchase hooks.

Other important features include, but are not limited to: digital asset management tools, site performance optimization, integration with software like Marketo, extensive website security options, and support.

Licenses are costly, but they are one-time fees. This is best for businesses who require enterprise solutions, not small businesses or freelancers.

Hosting Options

Hosting plans are available from many providers that meet the minimum requirements for Sitefinity, however you should always check with your hosting provider to be sure your plan is compatible before installing Sitefinity. Usually, all you will need is file transfer protocol (FTP) access to your site to install and setup Sitefinity.