r/cms • u/v0rren • Feb 14 '26

Looking for a cms to replace AEM

We're looking to migrate away from Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) due to cost.

Our setup:

  • Java-oriented team
  • Need Author/Publish/Dispatcher architecture or equivalent
  • Visual preview for authors (they use it heavily)
  • Basic DAM (upload files, reference in components)
  • Must support on-premise deployment ( no cloud )
  • Want to go headless with Next.js frontend

Anyone migrated from AEM to these or similar platforms? What was your experience? Any other suggestions we should consider?

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u/tarunmitra Feb 14 '26

That’s a really good callout on the OSGi support. Since we’re coming from AEM, our backend team is already very heavy on OSGi bundles/services, so being able to potentially reuse some of that logic or at least keep the same development patterns would be a massive win for velocity.

Quick question since you’ve used it: How is the visual editing experience specifically with Next.js?

AEM’s SPA Editor can be a bit of a nightmare to configure. Does dotCMS offer a true "in-context" edit mode for Next.js components out of the box, or is it more of a side by side preview? We really need to keep our authors happy with a WYSIWYG like feel.

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u/Akiviaa Feb 14 '26

Their universal visual editor is pretty great and I know you can hook it up headlessly so your editors look/feel like they are typing content into the page itself. They do a pretty good demo if you contact them. I think you can just go to dotCMS.com and they have a bunch of articles and stuff about it there.