Platform has supported a global web presence but now needs stronger support and performance
What is our primary use case?
My main use case for
Acquia Digital Experience Platform (DXP) is to manage our public-facing global website at both Bio-Rad and a previous company.
I use Acquia Digital Experience Platform (DXP) to manage our global website by utilizing its primary hosting environments for Drupal, which is an open-source CMS, partnering with Drupal to provide not just hosting but also additional peripheral services, solutions, and tools. At both companies where we used Acquia, they were our primary host and provider of CDN capabilities in addition to other tools such as heat mapping and marketing automation tools.
Currently, I use Acquia Digital Experience Platform (DXP) as our main host for our content management system as well as our CDN.
What is most valuable?
Acquia Digital Experience Platform (
DXP) offers the ability to provide a managed services cloud hosting environment for Drupal CMS, which is an open-source platform and can be a challenge to maintain independently due to the frequent updating and security patching required. This is a strong use case for us as we handle it internally, ensuring uptime and utilizing their caching capabilities with various CDN partners.
Acquia Digital Experience Platform (DXP) positively impacts our organization by providing the tools and capabilities needed for a successful digital presence and digital footprint. However, the real challenge comes down to ensuring we have the right strategy and the right team to drive and enable that strategy on their platform, since they give us the tools but we have to handle the strategy and building.
What needs improvement?
Acquia Digital Experience Platform (DXP) can be improved by enhancing their service and support capabilities and continuing to build partnerships with strategic solution providers.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Acquia Digital Experience Platform (DXP) for about four to five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Acquia Digital Experience Platform (DXP) is stable most of the time, approximately eighty percent of the time, though there are issues.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Acquia Digital Experience Platform (DXP) is scalable, but you have to pay for it.
How are customer service and support?
In practice, those features work for us, but it is a double-edged sword because while they provide the tools, depending on the support tier paid for, we find ourselves pretty much on our own to configure the environment.
I have been involved with Acquia Digital Experience Platform (DXP) in two different roles. In a previous experience at a different company, we faced many challenges with their service and support, requiring frequent contact for issues where responsiveness was sometimes lacking. I am not in the same role here, so I cannot speak directly to how challenging it might be for our IT team who manages the tool physically, but I have not heard anything negative, although I know I had a more challenging time previously.
My experience with customer support for Acquia Digital Experience Platform (DXP) was terrible. I would have rated the customer support a five based on my previous experience before joining Bio-Rad.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have used various solutions, but the decision to switch to Acquia Digital Experience Platform (DXP) was made before I arrived at the companies where we used it.
I did not choose Acquia Digital Experience Platform (DXP), as the decision was made before I arrived. However, I did evaluate other options, and Acquia was not on my list of recommendations.
How was the initial setup?
In the past, I found the pricing of Acquia Digital Experience Platform (DXP) to feel somewhat steep despite using an open-source platform, but setup and licensing were handled by other groups.
What was our ROI?
It is difficult to quantify a return on investment with specific metrics, such as money saved or time saved.
What other advice do I have?
Acquia Digital Experience Platform (DXP) seems to have improved some features. They have purchased a few smaller companies and rolled those capabilities in, such as
Monsido, which has been beneficial for us.
When using Acquia Digital Experience Platform (DXP), the outcomes I notice include cost savings since using an open-source platform such as Drupal, which saves us money compared to enterprise options such as Adobe AEM or Optimizely. However, we still face challenges with uptime and page performance.
My advice to others looking into using Acquia Digital Experience Platform (DXP) is that if you are looking to save money without investing in a large-scale enterprise DXP, it is probably a good option. However, you need to understand that the customer service you expect might not meet your expectations even if you pay for the top tier of support. I would rate this review a seven overall.
Managing hundreds of reusable content sites has become efficient but page performance still needs work
What is our primary use case?
My name is Sujin Tommy, and I was a web developer at TCS. I left TCS in January 2026 and am now looking for opportunities in the United Kingdom. My experience comes under Drupal CMS, and we were using Acquia for our back-end cloud technology. We used Acquia-supported front-end components such as Site Studio for our front-end built-in components. We built sites for a pharmaceutical company called Bayer Germany.
I worked for five years at TCS, and during that entire period, I worked under the same project for the pharma company. We managed their product sites, which totaled around 800 sites built in Drupal CMS. We used JS frameworks such as React and some decoupled architecture components in the front-end to overcome the limitations of Acquia-provided Site Studio components.
I used Acquia Digital Experience Platform (DXP) throughout my entire experience. When I joined the company, I learned that Acquia was a cloud tool. We were able to log into Acquia cloud and see the back-end in a UI manner. We could delete, clone, and perform cache clearing through a simple interface, which was very beneficial. For the front-end, we used Acquia-supported Site Studio components, which were drag-and-drop components that we could easily use to build our web pages, such as image components, header components, and paragraph components. Building pages using Site Studio components was very easy, and using Acquia Digital Experience Platform (DXP) for our website and project was really great. It reduced our effort significantly.
What is most valuable?
We used Site Studio components as our main use case. We used Site Studio components for creating pages. They were reusable components that we could use for creating pages easily.
We faced some issues with Site Studio components, such as loading time and performance issues. We solved these issues using some Drupal fixes, and it worked well afterward. The main thing about Site Studio was its compatibility with Drupal. The overall functionality and user experience with Site Studio components was great, and it was really very compatible.
I have only used the Site Studio component product of Acquia Digital Experience Platform (DXP). I know Acquia has other digital experience products, but I am only familiar with Site Studio.
The main advantages include usability and the ability to make changes and create custom components. Acquia provides elements that allow us to create custom components to meet our needs, and the customization is also a positive aspect of Site Studio components.
It helps a lot because managing 800 to 1,000 sites is not an easy task, and Acquia products always help us to manage those effectively.
Considering the back-end with Acquia cloud that we used, it was very scalable and we were able to run our 800 sites smoothly for users. We needed quite a large server and needed to scale it for our new needs, so it was very compatible for us. Considering the front-end, the reusability saved a lot of time and effort. From the customer point of view, they could reduce the number of employees because using this feature, everybody can make pages using the drag-and-drop functionality. They do not need technical knowledge or development experience, so it was very easy for them as well.
The integration capabilities were really good and were really compatible with other features and integration tools.
What needs improvement?
I only have product knowledge about Site Studio, and the only missing thing was some kind of performance issues. We faced loading issues, performance issues, and some kind of optimization issues on some pages. Acquia may have optimizations that we have not purchased, but for our case, we faced some performance issues.
Since I do not exactly know if there are any existing solutions for the performance issues which we were not subscribed to, I am not an expert to comment on that. The only issue I faced was what I already mentioned, and the fix I can suggest is that they can improve performance. That thing might already be there, but I am not sure about that.
For how long have I used the solution?
I used Acquia Digital Experience Platform (DXP) for almost five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Acquia Digital Experience Platform (DXP) was really stable in my experience and worked reliably most of the time.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Considering the back-end with Acquia cloud that we used, it was very scalable and we were able to run our 800 sites smoothly for users. We needed quite a large server and needed to scale it for our new needs, so it was very compatible for us.
It was easy to scale up Acquia Digital Experience Platform (DXP) as our needs grew.
How are customer service and support?
Sometimes we felt downtimes, and then we needed to log a ticket to Acquia. The Acquia support team would fix that, and they were really prompt.
As I already mentioned, customer support for Acquia Digital Experience Platform (DXP) was really great, and the customer service was really prompt, even during downtimes.
How would you rate customer service and support?
How was the initial setup?
It is very easy for beginners to get started with Acquia Digital Experience Platform (DXP) and Site Studio.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate this solution a seven on a scale of one to ten. The things I have already told substantiate this score.
It was a private cloud, and you have to have login credentials to log into Acquia cloud.
It was really helpful, and it was really easy to access from Acquia documentation.
It was really great in terms of user interface and overall user experience of Acquia Digital Experience Platform (DXP); it was easy and intuitive to use.
It met all our needs, and the customization feature was really helpful, even for beginners.
Since I do not know the exact figures, I cannot provide a detailed answer because I was only a developer.
I cannot share any particular exact values, but I can only share around data because it obviously saves time, reduces costs for customers, and also fewer employees are needed to complete all tasks.
I have not used any security features of Acquia because we were using Drupal, and Drupal has its own security features, so we did not use any security features of Acquia.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Private Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Great digital DXP platform with asset management features and personalization tools but has unclear platform sizing
What is our primary use case?
We primarily use the Acquia Digital Experience Platform (DXP) to develop sites and apps in the financial customer and retail sectors. We also work with big brand sites. We use the platform to build websites, mobile applications, solutions for digital asset management, and marketing campaigns.
How has it helped my organization?
The main advantage of using Acquia’s platform is the opportunity to work with a recognized firm, which gives us extensive commercial and marketing support.
However, there have been some structural issues within our organization that have led to changes and restructuring, which impacted our use of certain tools within the platform.
What is most valuable?
One of the most valuable aspects is working with a recognized firm, which sometimes surpasses the commercial and marketing requirements for big customers.
Additionally, they offer useful digital asset management features and personalization tools, although there have been compatibility issues.
What needs improvement?
One area for improvement is how Acquia sizes its platform for customers, which can be ambiguous and often results in penalties after doing business.
Issues with defining site requests and visits are not standard in the market. They also need to improve their support and technical advisory services. The manuals provided lacked clear and complete information.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using the solution since 2017.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
In three years, there was only one incident involving downtime of about forty-five minutes with a Bank, which was quickly resolved. Otherwise, the stability was quite commendable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Scalability is a challenging aspect due to some mysterious elements in the platform’s design. Minimizing issues was sometimes encouraged, which was not ideal. Scaling might mean increasing capacity or decreasing it, and this last, is the complex part.
How are customer service and support?
They are usually okay, and depending on the complexity of the ticket, we can reach good experts who are far from the CX knowledge base. However, once we had customer support service in Latin America, we faced unprofessional attitudes as tech advisors. Despite participating in advisory meetings, the experience with this particular was less supportive than expected.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We had previously been developing on Drupal CMS before switching to Acquia Digital Experience Platform (DXP).
How was the initial setup?
Our first steps in 2017 were complex since we subscribed to an ambitious and complete DXP project with several modules for a mature customer. Now, we are very familiar with most of the platforms, and we have updated the Acquia methodology with our Agile way of work and always suggest approaching step by step your paint points while the customer adopts the expertise needed for the next step.
What about the implementation team?
We have implemented Acquia first for ourselves and then as a service to several customers—more than 7 customers with more than 45 sites, directories, apps, and digital signings.
What was our ROI?
On highly demanding traffic sites of large organizations with several digital channels, different brands, or assets that need to be healthy governance by efficient teams concerned with what they publish, the quality of the information, and the performance of their digital products, the ROI is over 40%/Y or hight when you quantify the easy and quick to go life with any modification.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing is considered expensive compared to other vendors, but you have to make your own TCO calculations to understand its value. The service model is based on the demand, the level of SLA needed, and the other services the customers need to build and program for any digital products. Sometimes, the Platform Sellers want to quote you everything you possibly need, and we advise you to ramp up as you need the subscription as a preferred strategy to avoid wasting costs on features that your customers are not prepared to use.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Yes, as part of the company process, we are always looking at the strengths and weaknesses of the market offer to advise our customers and develop skills around them. I have been involved in integrating and developing Oracle's Colud application for Digital Experience and Customer Experience, Adobe AEM and the Marketing Suits, and several others for several years. Technology is becoming a commodity per-ce in its features and capabilities, especially if it is a SAAS or PAAS solution, a trend in the last few years. So, the main difference is how they compile for the market you are in and how well their value satisfies your customers' needs.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend the product, as it fits well with specific dimensions and needs, depending on the customer and company's needs. However, it might be challenging for others with strong Microsoft, Google or similar product affiliations.
I'd rate the solution seven out of ten, more for the company policy and unclear partnership with the integrators than for the technical aspects of the solution, which is higher than 7.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Private Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Facilitator for Improving Experience
What do you like best about the product?
Personalized content useful for targeting
What do you dislike about the product?
Cross channel integration can be better handled
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Data for customer analytics is well presented
Solutions Consultant
What do you like best about the product?
How campaign studio connects with various accounts and instances together and generates common combined dashboards and reports
What do you dislike about the product?
The tool is not very intuitive, you have to read to understand. For example, creating and starting campaigns, integration with external tools like salesforce
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
one view of the contacts and customers
Good Digital Marketing tool (if you are using Acquia CMS)
What do you like best about the product?
Acquia Marketing cloud offers Campaign, Targeting and CPD solution that are working very well in conjunction with Acquia Drupal Cloud (CMS). In this way, the complete integration between the tools is incredible. One of the best complete suite available in the marketing.
What do you dislike about the product?
When considering Acquia Marketing Cloud as a separate tool to be integrated with non-Acquia CMS, then the situation is a little bit different due to the complext integration required.
There is also a lack of business-ready views for the data retrieved and collected.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
I'm solving the difficulty of having a single source of truth for Customer data to then enable a smooth content management and campaign management.
Acquia Marketing Cloud is indeed helping many clients I'm working with.
Easy to use
What do you like best about the product?
Optimizing digital experiences, building relevant customer moments, and enabling companies to embrace innovation
What do you dislike about the product?
No free trial, strong competition, pricing can be high
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Personalization solutions and innovative analytics with Acquia help businesses raise audience conversion rates. Its secure and resilient cloud DevOps makes it possible to effectively and efficiently launch and manage sites.
Acquia Marketing Cloud is a product of the present and the future!
What do you like best about the product?
The product is very convenient to use. Technically easy to set up. Minimal participation is required from technical personnel. Clear business logic. Convenient guide.
What do you dislike about the product?
There are no negative comments about the product.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
It decreased operating activity. Easy system monitoring does not require a separate technician. Solves a problem with fault tolerance.
Lots of capabilities, but a bit of a steep learning curve.
What do you like best about the product?
The dynamic campaign workflows make complex scenarios possible.
What do you dislike about the product?
The UI can be confusing, such as putting "greater than -2 months" to express anything newer than two months ago in segment filters. We've also experienced many bugs that take a long time, months, to get fixed.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
We are looking for a white-labeled marketing experience that we can use in a B2B setting. We have been able to build this quickly with many functionalities already available.
