Sitecore vs Core dna

Enterprises evaluating their next digital experience platform (DXP) are likely to be looking at Sitecore vs other DXPs. This makes total sense as Sitecore has consistently been named one of the leading DXPs by multiple analyst firms, such as Gartner and Forrester, and boasts decades of experience in the space.

Sitecore is clearly and elephant in this space. Big, notorious and complex. On one side we have the legacy platforms Sitecore XM or Sitecore XP and the more modern approach they took with the composable suite that includes XM Cloud, Personalize, OrderCloud, Search, and others. It's a lot and it can be overwhelming and expensive. 

In this piece, we want to through a detailed comparison of Sitecore vs Core dna. Why? Sitecore is a great platform and has its time and place. but for most mid-market enterprises, their collection of products and features is an overkill. At Core dna we took a different approach focusing on an all-in-one approach to take out complexity and focus on end-results: one system, everything you need, never add a plugin. 

Sitecore vs Core dna: ​Key Comparison Criteria

What Is Sitecore?

Sitecore is a DXP vendor that helps enterprises manage content and create personalized customer experiences. Historically, Sitecore was known for its Sitecore XP (Experience Platform) product, a complete DXP that included an integrated CMS, analytics, marketing automation, and rules-based personalization.

Sitecore also offered the Sitecore XM (Experience Manager) product, which is an omnichannel CMS that includes multi-site, multilingual, and analytics capabilities. While Sitecore XP is still available today, Sitecore’s flagship product is XM Cloud, a SaaS-based headless CMS that is part of its composable suite of products.

Whereas customers previously needed to purchase the assortment of features in Sitecore XP as a complete suite, they can now purchase XM Cloud and other products individually. This includes Sitecore Search for search and discovery, Sitecore Personalize (with Sitecore Customer Data Platform (CDP)) for real-time testing and omnichannel personalization, and OrderCloud for headless commerce and order management functionality.

There are also other products that can be added, including Sitecore Send for marketing automation, Content Hub for digital asset management, and Sitecore Stream to enable AI orchestration.

What is Core dna?

Core dna is a composable digital experience platform for mid-market enterprises. Built for the enterprise, but without the additional enterprise bloat, Core dna enables businesses to manage content, commerce, data, and personalization using a single, unified backend. 

The platform gives marketers and developers the freedom to choose between a fully headless approach for multi-channel experiences or use templates and built-in tools for fast and flexible site launches.

Core dna supports composable, hybrid, and headless setups, allowing businesses to streamline their operations and launch faster without sacrificing stability by offering integrated workflows, APIs, and content delivery in one place.

Sitecore vs Core dna: ​Key Comparison Criteria

For enterprises, these are the most critical criteria to consider when selecting a DXP.  Now, let's dive deeper into each one of these:

Architecture & Customizability

Sitecore

Sitecore’s composable SaaS approach enables businesses to select the products that are most beneficial for them. Typically, this involves using XM Cloud (headless CMS) as a base and then integrating additional products, such as Sitecore Search or Content Hub (digital asset management). However, it could also involve adding those products to an existing Sitecore XP implementation using APIs.

Businesses have the flexibility to connect solutions via low-code or no-code integrations through Sitecore Connect; however, the more products added, the more challenging it becomes to manage. Developers can also extend Sitecore using webhooks and APIs, as well as by building custom workflows.

Core dna

Core dna is built on a composable architecture that allows businesses to integrate all of their most critical tools while also providing the flexibility to meet current and future needs. The architecture supports deep integrations via APIs, custom event hooks, workflows, and automation. 

Core dna is designed for flexibility, whether businesses need to connect internal systems, third-party tools, or build microservices and acts as the connective tissue that brings everything together within the digital ecosystem.

Unlike with Sitecore, and other bloated DXPs, with Core dna, most functionality is ready out-of-the-box in a lean unified platform, which reduces the number of moving parts and additional glue code and integrations required. Also, every feature, whether it’s content modeling, workflows, or commerce logic, can be adapted to meet specific client needs. This balance allows businesses to launch quickly without sacrificing flexibility.

Hosting Options

Sitecore

Sitecore XP and XM are typically hosted on-premises however, organizations can also rely on managed cloud services offered by Sitecore or host the platform in the cloud themselves using an Azure-based solution.

With XM Cloud, developers need to build headless websites and also add a separate frontend hosting solution such as Vercel or Netlify. These hosting options require a separate contract and can add another $30k+ per year to enterprise bills.

Core dna

Core dna is a fully managed SaaS platform that handles everything from hosting to updates, scalability, and security. This frees digital teams to focus on creating and optimizing digital experiences, rather than managing infrastructure.

Content Authoring Experience

Sitecore

Sitecore centralizes content in one place, allowing teams to plan, produce, and publish more efficiently. Content authors can assemble pages and layouts with drag-and-drop components while managing text, videos, and documents in a single workflow.

XM Cloud’s Pages editor in particular, offers a modern WYSIWYG page builder as well as responsive and reusable components. However, creating advanced or custom components requires a developer and often the assistance of a Sitecore partner.

Core dna

Core dna puts all your content in one place and lets marketers build pages fast with a visual, drag-and-drop page builder. It also employs a component-based structure, which enables teams to create reusable, global components that can be used across multiple sites. 

This means faster content management, easier duplication, and centralized updates without repetition. Core dna also supports template creation for various page types, allowing marketers and content teams to speed up workflows and maintain consistency.

Content Governance & Workflow

Sitecore

Sitecore provides mature and granular workflows across Sitecore XP and XM Cloud products. Teams can take advantage of multi-step approvals and approve/reject, preview, or compare content versions, while governance is enforced through role-based permissions, access controls, and required item locking to prevent conflicting edits.

Core dna

Core dna offers advanced versioning and scheduling capabilities along with a host of enterprise-grade features. Teams can create branches, compare changes, roll back to previous versions, and track every action with full audit trails. Versioning applies site-wide from entire pages to individual components. You can schedule content at the component or page level, enabling precise control over when updates go live.

Additionally, Core dna offers a visual workflow builder that allows teams to automate tasks and orchestrate complex logic across content, commerce, and third-party systems without writing code.

Users can create workflows triggered by specific events (such as form submissions, purchases, or content updates) and define conditional logic, notifications, status changes, approvals, and more. This empowers entire teams, including marketers, operations teams, and developers, to build scalable automation tailored to business needs.

Multi-Site & Multi-Language Support

Sitecore

Sitecore offers multi-site and multi-language functionality, enabling enterprises to manage multiple sites and content in different languages from a single instance. Teams can localize content experiences using language versioning and translation workflows from a unified interface. 

Core dna

Core dna offers out-of-the-box multi-language, and multi-site support as well as multi-currency support for commerce experiences. It helps franchises and global retailers with multi-brand portfolios to maintain consistent experiences while personalizing the experience by locale with the help of translation and other localization features.  

Integration Flexibility

Sitecore

Sitecore offers several integration options, including APIs and low-code integrations via Sitecore Connect, to integrate its multiple composable products within the suite. Sitecore can also leverage these APIs to connect with additional third-party systems, including CRMs, commerce solutions, and more.

Core dna

Core dna is highly extensible through its APIs and SDKs and integrates seamlessly with a wide range of third-party systems, including ERP, CRM, PIM, WMS, shipping, and marketing platforms.

The API-first approach, combined with native webhooks and automation tools, enables real-time data exchange and custom workflows tailored to business needs, making Core dna the integration hub of your digital ecosystem.

Scalability & Performance

Sitecore

Sitecore offers enterprise-grade scalability as the SaaS functionality of XM Cloud enables companies to offload scaling responsibility to Sitecore and have content delivered via CDN while offering a 99.9% uptime SLA. Additionally, with Managed Cloud capabilities for Sitecore XP, enterprises can scale up or down as necessary.

However, with XM Cloud, businesses need to factor in the added hosting requirements of Vercel or Netlify for handling headless frontends.

Core dna

Core dna is built to scale across industries and technical architectures, including multi-site, multi-brand, and multi-region. Its enterprise-grade scalability supports franchises with hundreds of locations and thousands of SKUs. This includes dynamically scaling to meet demand during high-traffic events using a multi-layered infrastructure. 

The platform also supports auto-scaling for backend services, load balancing to distribute traffic evenly, and a CDN-first architecture to offload static content. For added resilience, a virtual waiting room can be configured to control traffic spikes without compromising user experience or uptime. Additionally, Core dna is optimized for improved website performance and offers a built-in CDN for all assets and pages and a 99.99% uptime SLA for enterprise customers.

Security & Compliance

Sitecore

Sitecore provides several security and compliance capabilities, including role-based access controls and authentication as well as single sign-on (SSO) via SAML, OAuth, and 2FA/MFA. Additionally, it maintains a portfolio of security certifications and compliance programs including ISO 27001/17/18, CSA STAR, and SOC 2 Type 2. Sitecore also offers HIPAA readiness across its composable products, as attested by a third-party auditor. 

Core dna

Core dna offers multiple security features including granular role-based permissions across modules, content, and workflows. It provides detailed audit logs for content, user actions, and data events. Core dna also supports single sign-on (SSO) via SAML, OAuth, and 2FA/MFA for user access and offers regular penetration testing to guarantee security. Core dna also maintains security certifications and compliance programs including ISO 27001, GDPR, PCI DSS, and HIPAA. 

Implementation, Maintenance Overhead, and Migration

Sitecore

Implementation and maintenance for Sitecore will vary based on the specific product. For instance, Sitecore XP requires regular updates and infrastructure upgrades, which are typically handled by Sitecore partner agencies, as older versions frequently lose support, leaving enterprises vulnerable to malicious actors. With the SaaS-based XM Cloud, infrastructure and security updates are handled by Sitecore, which can reduce maintenance costs.

For enterprises migrating to Sitecore XM Cloud, even if migrating from Sitecore XP, the migration process can be costly and extensive, particularly if migrating from on-premises to the cloud. Once again, this requires enterprises to locate a partner to help them.

Core dna

Core dna’s SaaS upgrades are handled automatically, removing the burden from enterprise teams. End-to-end migration support is available, including content imports, data mapping, and redirect logic to streamline the migration process. Additionally, extensive documentation, SDKs, CLI tools, GraphQL and REST APIs, and sandbox environments are provided to streamline the migration process. 

Total Cost of Ownership

Sitecore

Even with upgrades and maintenance handled by Sitecore, if using SaaS products like XM Cloud, Sitecore products have a high total cost of ownership, with annual licenses, frontend “head” hosting, and solution partner bills totaling over six figures. Total Economic Impact studies from the likes of Forrester show that Sitecore can achieve a positive ROI, but only after a prolonged period of over three years.

Core dna

Core dna offers subscription-based pricing based on modules and usage tiers. There are no hidden fees with a transparent billing structure. There is a high value-to-cost ratio due to built-in capabilities versus add-ons, with customers often seeing a clear ROI within just 3–6 months, based on reduced stack complexity.

AI-Readiness

Sitecore

Sitecore Stream is Sitecore’s AI tool that can be activated and embedded throughout its suite of products. As an AI assistant, it offers similar functionality to third-party LLMs like ChatGPT and Claude, allowing users to create, personalize, and translate content or create additional workflows. This AI functionality extends beyond content products and can enhance capabilities and improve features such as personalization, segmentation, and more.

Core dna

Core dna’s orchestration system allows businesses to build and deploy custom AI agents tailored to their specific workflows and needs. Alongside a pre-built AI agent library, including automated SEO metadata, on-the-fly translation, and AI personalization, users can design unique AI-powered apps within the platform. These agents integrate seamlessly into workflows, enabling truly intelligent automation that evolves with your business.

Partner Ecosystem & Vendor Support

Sitecore

Sitecore has a global partner ecosystem with hundreds of partners and an MVP community that celebrates the leading Sitecore developers and solutions partners. This provides Sitecore customers with a range of options for expert implementation, maintenance, and migration support.

However, the quality and size of partner agencies will vary due to the sheer size of the ecosystem. Additionally, Sitecore agency costs can be almost as high as the product license costs, as Sitecore offers limited support itself and enterprises are reliant on finding the right partner.

Core dna

Core dna offers extensive, hands-on support with real people behind every interaction. Enterprises are paired with a dedicated account manager who becomes a long-term partner in digital success. 

Solution engineers are involved from day one, starting with a discovery phase to understand business needs and continuing to be involved through implementation and optimization with regular check-ins to ensure the digital experience evolves with business goals. Additionally, there is an active partner ecosystem including digital agencies and consultants that can provide additional support. 

Why Select Core dna as an alternative to Sitecore

Sitecore offers several advantages for enterprises seeking a robust digital experience platform with all the necessary features. But many businesses will also find that there’s a lot of additional feature bloat and a high total cost of ownership, even if they opt for something from the composable suite of products.

On the other hand, Core dna offers a number of benefits for mid-market enterprises that need to go to market and scale at a moment’s notice.

• Lower Total Cost of Ownership: Core dna offers enterprises a DXP that can meet their complex requirements and improve speed to market at a lower total cost of ownership. This includes more manageable pricing and subscription fees, as well as eliminating the need to pay for additional hosting for headless websites.

• A More Flexible Architecture: Core dna’s composable architecture and orchestration capabilities enable flexibility to connect systems, automate workflows, and build microservices with optional pre-built workflows & modules.

• True Vendor-Customer Partnership: Unlike DXP vendors that hand off all of the implementation, maintenance, and support requirements to third-party agencies, Core dna offers a true partnership that includes fast responses and follow-ups, as well as direct vendor-driven support and access to solutions engineers.

How YMCA of Greater Toronto Transformed Digital Engagement

How YMCA of Greater Toronto Transformed Digital Engagement

YMCA of Greater Toronto was struggling with the Frankenstein-like project that its Sitecore implementation had become. Marketing teams couldn’t modify the website without third-party Sitecore development help, which was becoming a significant cost expenditure. As a result, there were numerous frustrated customers and missed opportunities, as the team couldn’t go to market quickly enough.

To solve this problem, they moved to Core dna to achieve greater user-friendliness (WYSIWYG capabilities), API integration, analytics, content reuse, microsites management, security, and the ability to handle large traffic volumes. Since that move, they achieved a 500% increase in online registrations, setting a new standard in user engagement and operational efficiency.

Learn more about how YMCA improved the digital experience by moving to Core dna.