Top 8 alternatives to Liferay in 2025

Liferay is a popular solution on the Digital Experience Platforms (DXP) market, not least because of its modularity and open-source approach. It enables companies to build customized web portals and intranets with multisite and multilingual capabilities. But the solution can quickly prove cumbersome to deploy and complex to administer. Between hidden costs, high technical requirements and the need for numerous integrations to access key functionalities, some companies find themselves faced with a tool that doesn't always meet their expectations in terms of simplicity, agility and scalability.

If you're looking for an alternative that retains the advantages of a DXP, with Liferay's flagship features (open-source, Java, scalable...) while offering greater administrative simplicity and faster implementation, several solutions exist on the market. Discover our selection of the best alternatives to Liferay in 2025, and choose the platform that best meets your web portal, multisite and multilingual needs, without unnecessarily complicating your digital ecosystem.

Comparison Table of Different Solutions

Customer ratings

*Based on G2 and Gartner Peer Insights

Pros and Cons

*Based on G2 reviews

1. Jahia

The DXP Jahia focuses on the experience of developers and business users. Designed to meet the needs of marketing and IT teams, it offers fluid management of content and digital experiences, without excessive complexity. Whether for a web portal (intranet or extranet) or a customer platform, Jahia guarantees rapid implementation and intuitive management.

With its ergonomic interface, unified content management, modern stack (including React) and native connectors, Jahia makes it possible to personalize digital experiences and integrate easily with existing tools (CRM, ERP, marketing automation). Unlike platforms requiring numerous complex integrations, it ensures rapid deployment and optimized cost, while offering a robust, scalable architecture.

In an environment where personalization and speed of execution are essential, Jahia enables marketing teams to manage their campaigns and content autonomously, without depending on technical resources. Its secure infrastructure (HIPAA, ISO 27001, PCI DSS certifications, etc.) and 24/7 support guarantee optimum reliability for companies with high availability requirements.

We shortlisted Jahia and Liferay. Liferay seemed a little more advanced in terms of portal functionalities, but less easy in terms of CMS administration, so we chose Jahia.

2. Kentico

Kentico is a CMS from the Microsoft universe. It combines content management and marketing automation tools, enabling companies to centralize their digital strategies on a single platform. Feedback from Kentico users indicates, however, that the solution's strength lies more in its editorial features (WYSIWYG editor, good learning curve) than in its more limited marketing functionalities.

Kentico is a good option if you have in-house .NET (Microsoft) developers and expertise, as it leverages the .NET framework, which is commonly found in legacy systems. However, if your team lacks experience in this technology, it may be better to consider other options, as the reliance on .NET can become a significant challenge. Its hybrid model, between open-source and SaaS, offers a degree of flexibility according to integration needs, making this approach suitable for companies looking for an all-in-one solution. However, its more restricted ecosystem and advanced integration with Microsoft may limit its interoperability for those using diversified environments.

3. Magnolia

Magnolia relies on a headless, modular approach, enabling companies to design personalized, scalable digital experiences. Its microservices-based architecture facilitates integration with various third-party tools, offering great flexibility for projects requiring a high degree of customization.

However, this modularity implies a more technical implementation, requiring experienced IT resources to exploit its full potential, and particular attention to security issues (setting up a WAF in a more complex microservices environment, for example). For business users, Magnolia offers a complete and functional interface, even if the headless orientation adopted by the editor tends to make use less intuitive for marketing teams. 

Magnolia is aimed at companies looking for a customized, scalable solution rather than a turnkey platform.

4. Adobe Experience Manager (AEM)

In fourth place is Adobe Experience Manager, a powerful solution that is often perceived as complex, costly and oversized for the needs of most companies. Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) is a premium platform that integrates seamlessly with the Adobe suite (Adobe Analytics, Adobe Target and Adobe Sensei), optimizing the personalization of digital experiences and refining marketing campaigns with advanced insights. AEM is particularly appreciated by large companies looking for centralized, omnichannel management of their digital content and assets.

However, Adobe Experience Manager is known for being expensive and makes it difficult for users to cancel their subscriptions. Moreover, it doesn’t integrate well with third-party tools and tends to push the adoption of the entire Adobe product line, making it challenging for companies to use other solutions alongside it. This “Suite” type DXP encourages the replacement of the customer’s existing technical stack with Adobe’s own software bricks, which is better suited to companies already integrated into the Adobe ecosystem, looking to capitalize on its synergies for a more effective marketing approach.

5. Sitecore 

Sitecore is a .NET DXP recognized for its personalization and marketing automation capabilities. Thanks to its artificial intelligence engine, it dynamically adapts content to users to improve engagement and conversion. It also offers a fine-tuned customer journey management, integrating advanced segmentation and analytics tools.

Its advanced integration with Microsoft makes it a preferred choice for companies already firmly rooted in this ecosystem, facilitating connection with tools such as Azure, Dynamics 365 and Power BI. Often compared to Adobe Experience Manager (AEM), but designed for the .NET environment, Sitecore is a powerful yet extremely complex platform. Optimizing its use requires in-depth technical expertise and dedicated IT resources, making it an ideal solution for companies looking for hyper-personalization and an advanced data-driven approach. However, a Sitecore project is anything but simple: licensing and implementation costs are high, and implementation can be long and demanding, requiring a substantial investment in development and maintenance.

6. Progress Sitefinity

Sitefinity focuses on simplicity of use, with an intuitive interface that makes it easy for non-technical teams to manage their content. Its turnkey approach appeals to companies looking to rapidly deploy their sites and portals without heavy reliance on IT teams.

This ease of use suits SMEs and companies looking for fluid content management. On the other hand, for projects requiring a high degree of customization or scalability, its limitations may lead to a preference for more modular solutions.

7. Drupal

Drupal is one of the most flexible and powerful open-source PHP CMSs, offering a high degree of customization based solely on access rights and fine-tuned workflow management. Its extensive ecosystem and large community make it a scalable, highly customizable solution.

However, Drupal is considered the least secure option among popular CMSs, making it a viable choice only if security is not a critical requirement. Its operation requires advanced technical skills, which can slow down companies looking for a more ready-to-use solution, and its ergonomics don't always make Drupal very popular with marketing teams. For organizations with dedicated IT teams, Drupal offers a robust and adaptable framework.

Deployment can be time-consuming and costly. Although it can be used without paying for a software license, the days when Drupal could be taken over by any PHP developer are long gone. Development has become considerably more complex, and deployment and maintenance are equally resource-intensive. Custom development, integrations and optimizations therefore require substantial budgets.

8. Joomla

Joomla is a historic PHP-based CMS. It enables the creation of websites thanks to a wide range of modules and extensions. Its flexibility and active community, inherited from its long history, make it an affordable option for standard content management projects. However, Joomla suffers from a major shortcoming for large enterprises: it was designed by developers who think in terms of individual editors. As a result, the CMS is well suited to centralized management by a single administrator, but is sorely lacking in features designed for large, organized teams.

This approach, more focused on the single editor, severely limits its effectiveness in complex environments where many users (authors, contributors, translators, marketers...) need to collaborate simultaneously. This problem, also found in Drupal, complicates its adoption in large organizations or projects requiring advanced collaborative management.

Faced with growing needs for personalization and omnichannel management, Joomla struggles to compete with modern DXPs. It remains an effective solution for classic web projects, but for more ambitious digital strategies, more specialized and ergonomic platforms should be favored.

What's the best alternative to Liferay?

As we've seen in this article, there are many solutions available to replace Liferay, each with its own specific features and benefits. 

Choosing the best alternative depends primarily on your needs, resources and digital objectives.

Best web portal alternative

For a high-performance web portal, the ability to integrate business tools, personalize experiences and manage user access is essential. Jahia offers a complete, intuitive solution for creating customer, partner or employee portals, while guaranteeing fluid content management and native integration with CRM and ERP systems.

Other solutions are available to meet specific needs. Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) and Sitecore are ideal for highly personalized marketing and e-commerce portals, although both require a substantial technical and financial investment. Oracle WebCenter Content, on the other hand, excels in document management and compliance, but is less suited to interactive experiences. For a portal that's quicker and easier to put online, Progress Sitefinity or Umbraco offer a more accessible solution albeit with more limited advanced functionality.

Best CMS/DXP alternative

An effective DXP must offer optimized content management, advanced personalization and seamless integration with marketing and analytical tools. Jahia combines these elements with an intuitive interface, advanced personalization features and native connectors for rapid implementation and marketing team autonomy.

Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) and Sitecore are powerful alternatives for companies seeking fine-tuned personalization and advanced segmentation, but they require dedicated technical resources. 

Drupal and Magnolia offer great open-source flexibility, with advanced customization, but require heavy investment in development. Finally, Kentico offers a hybrid approach between CMS and DXP, integrating marketing automation functionalities, while remaining less modular than other solutions.

FAQ

What is a web portal?

It's a platform that centralizes access to services and information, used by hospitals, administrations, businesses and organizations to connect their customers, employees or partners.

Which CMS/DXP offers marketing automation features similar to Liferay?

Jahia, Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) and Sitecore offer advanced personalization and automation tools, ideal for customer portals, e-commerce and corporate intranets.

How can I easily migrate from the Liferay web portal to another platform?

A successful migration requires the reworking of content, integrations and user paths; Jahia simplifies this process with its native connectors and open architecture.

Why choose Jahia for your web portal?

Jahia enables you to create a high-performance, scalable portal for universities, banks, local authorities and industrial groups, offering simplified management and seamless integration with business tools.