CMS comparison Adobe Experience Manager vs FirstSpirit

Adobe Experience Manager vs FirstSpirit

Adobe Experience Manager is a closed-source enterprise DXP that runs on the vendor's cloud. FirstSpirit is a closed-source enterprise DXP that you can host yourself or run on the vendor's cloud. The table below sets them side by side on 28 features. They get a different status on 8.

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Adobe Experience Manager Enterprise DXP · Closed source · 25 of 28 built in
FirstSpirit Enterprise DXP · Closed source · 19 of 28 built in

Sources checked: Adobe Experience Manager on 29 Sept 2026, FirstSpirit on 29 Sept 2026. Plans and releases can change after those dates.

WAYF is an official Payload partner and top contributor. Every platform in the table is classified by the same published definitions, and each answer lists the vendor page it came from.

Feature comparison

Built inPaid tierPlugin or add-onLimitedNot available

Adobe Experience Manager vs FirstSpirit feature comparison. Columns are the two platforms. Rows are features, grouped by area.
Platform	Adobe Experience Manager Enterprise DXP	FirstSpirit Enterprise DXP
Overview
What it is	Adobe's enterprise CMS for websites and headless content, run by Adobe as a cloud service with page, fragment and document-based authoring.	Java-based enterprise CMS with in-preview editing and a CaaS layer for headless delivery. Runs as FirstSpirit Cloud or on-premises.
Edition compared The product and release each column describes.	Adobe Experience Manager Sites as a Cloud Service Version 2026.9.0, released 24 Sept 2026	FirstSpirit 5.2 monthly release line, FirstSpirit Cloud and on-premises Version 2026.10 (5.2.261011), released 15 Sept 2026
Vendor	Adobe business.adobe.com	Crownpeak Technology GmbH, part of Rezolve Ai since December 2025 firstspirit.com
Licence	Closed source Proprietary	Closed source Proprietary
Hosting	No self-hosting Vendor cloud Cloud Service runs only on Adobe's cloud. AEM 6.5 LTS is the separate self-hosted edition.	Self-hosting Vendor cloud
Built with	Java, Apache Sling, OSGi, HTL	Java, ContentCreator web client, SiteArchitect desktop app
Database	Apache Jackrabbit Oak repository, managed by Adobe	Built-in repository, plus SQL databases such as PostgreSQL for data sources
Pricing Public list prices only. Hosting and implementation are extra everywhere.	No free option Pricing on request.	No free option Pricing on request.
Content modelling
Content model in code You define content types in files in your repository, review them like any other code and apply them from there. Imperative migration scripts alone count as limited.	Built in Components, dialogs and Universal Editor models live in the project repository. 2	Built in Templates sync to files in Git through external synchronization and FSDevTools. 3 4
Content model in the UI Admins can create and change content types and fields in the admin interface without writing code.	Built in Content Fragment Model editor. 3	Limited Developers build templates in SiteArchitect but write their forms as XML. 4 12
Reusable blocks Editors compose pages from reusable, typed components or blocks, and can reorder them.	Built in 2 9	Built in Pages consist of sections based on section templates.
Localization Editors translate content per locale inside the CMS, by field or by entry, without a separate site for each language.	Built in Language copies with translation projects and connectors. 4	Built in Language-dependent fields per project language.
Image transformations The CMS resizes, crops or converts images on request, through URL parameters or generated sizes, with no external service.	Built in Web-optimized image delivery resizes, crops and converts DAM images to WebP. 5	Built in FirstSpirit automatically generates the image resolutions defined per project.
APIs and delivery
REST API A documented REST or JSON HTTP API returns content.	Built in Content Fragment Delivery with OpenAPI. 6	Built in CaaS REST API. 5 6
GraphQL API The vendor or an official module provides a GraphQL API for content.	Built in GraphQL for Content Fragments. 6	Built in CaaS GraphQL API generated from the FirstSpirit data model. 5 6
Webhooks The CMS can call an external URL when content is created, changed or published.	Built in AEM Eventing delivers events through Adobe I/O Events. 7	Limited CaaS Change Streams push change events over WebSocket. 6
Renders the website The CMS itself renders and serves the public pages through themes or templates. Headless-only products answer no.	Built in HTL page rendering or Edge Delivery Services. 10	Built in Generates pages from templates. CaaS covers headless delivery.
Editorial workflow
Drafts Editors save changes as a draft and publish them later. The live version stays untouched until then.	Built in Edits stay on the author tier until published. 11	Built in Changes stay unreleased until the release workflow runs. 8
Scheduled publishing An editor can set a future date and time for content to publish or unpublish.	Built in Publish later and unpublish later. 11	Limited Admins set up timed schedule entries. Editors have no per-item publish date. 10
Version history The CMS keeps earlier versions of an entry, and editors can compare or restore them.	Built in	Built in
Preview Editors can see unpublished content rendered as it will appear on the site before publishing.	Built in Separate preview tier.	Built in
Visual editing Editors can click on the rendered page and edit content in place or in a side panel next to it.	Built in Universal Editor and Page Editor. 9	Built in ContentCreator in-preview editing. Omnichannel Manager for headless frontends. 7
Approval workflows Content moves through review stages you configure, such as draft, review and approved, with permissions per stage.	Built in	Built in 8
Content releases Editors group changes across several entries and publish them together as one release.	Built in Launches group changes across pages and promote them together. 8	Limited Release with dependencies publishes a page with its linked media and parents. 9
Real-time co-editing Two or more editors can work on the same entry at once and see each other's changes live.	Limited Only with document authoring in Word or Google Docs. The Universal Editor has no co-editing. 10	Not available The Collaboration module adds comments on fields. No co-editing. 11
Access and governance
Custom roles Admins define their own roles with granular permissions instead of picking from a fixed set.	Built in AEM groups with repository permissions. 12	Built in Groups with permissions per store and node.
Field-level permissions Admins can restrict access to single fields, on top of content types and entries.	Limited Repository ACL restrictions can target named properties. No per-field setting in the editors. 12	Limited Form rules hide or lock single fields per user group. 12
Single sign-on Editors can sign in through SAML or OpenID Connect against a company identity provider.	Built in SAML or OIDC federation through Adobe Admin Console. 13	Built in SAML and OpenID Connect login modules. 13 14
Audit log The CMS logs who changed what and when across the whole installation, and admins can review the log.	Built in Page, replication and DAM audit logs. 14	Built in Audit logging to the server log once enabled. 15
Platform and extensibility
Multiple sites One installation or account can manage several separate websites or brands with shared users.	Built in Multi Site Manager with live copies. 15	Built in Several projects per server. Multisite Management shares content between them. 16
Extensible admin UI Developers can add their own components, views or fields to the editing interface.	Built in UI extensions built with App Builder. 16	Built in ContentCreator and SiteArchitect plug-ins.
Plugin marketplace The vendor runs an official directory or marketplace of installable extensions.	Built in Extension Manager catalogue of Adobe and partner extensions. 16	Built in FirstSpirit Marketplace. 17
Form builder Editors can build and publish forms and collect submissions without code.	Built in Core Components form container emails, posts or stores submissions. 17	Plugin or add-on Formcentric for FirstSpirit, a partner product. 18
Site member accounts The platform handles sign-up and login for public site users or members, separate from editors.	Limited Publish-tier login via SAML or OIDC. Sign-up flows need custom code and user sync. 18 13	Not available
AI writing assistant A first-party AI feature in the editing interface generates, rewrites or translates content.	Built in Generate Variations needs AEM Cloud Service with Edge Delivery entitlement. Licence includes an action allowance; extra actions cost more. 19	Plugin or add-on AI Suite module: Content, Analyze and Image assistants. 1 17
Official MCP server The vendor publishes a Model Context Protocol server so AI agents can read or write content.	Built in AEM MCP Server for pages, fragments and assets. 20	Built in CaaS Platform MCP server builds and runs CaaS GraphQL queries. 19

Adobe Experience Manager sources

Checked 29 Sept 2026. Adobe Experience Manager Sites as a Cloud Service.

FirstSpirit sources

Checked 29 Sept 2026. FirstSpirit 5.2 monthly release line, FirstSpirit Cloud and on-premises.

Considering more platforms? Compare Adobe Experience Manager and FirstSpirit with the rest of your shortlist in the CMS comparison tool.

Where they differ

Adobe Experience Manager and FirstSpirit get a different status on 8 of the 28 features and the same status on 20. Adobe Experience Manager has 25 built in on its baseline edition, FirstSpirit has 19. Two matching statuses can still name different paid tiers or limits, so read the notes in the table before treating a row as equal.

Self-hosting: Adobe Experience Manager cannot be self-hosted. FirstSpirit can be self-hosted.

Built in on Adobe Experience Manager, a different answer on FirstSpirit 6

Content model in the UI Adobe Experience Manager: Built in. FirstSpirit: Limited.
Webhooks Adobe Experience Manager: Built in. FirstSpirit: Limited.
Scheduled publishing Adobe Experience Manager: Built in. FirstSpirit: Limited.
Content releases Adobe Experience Manager: Built in. FirstSpirit: Limited.
Form builder Adobe Experience Manager: Built in. FirstSpirit: Plugin or add-on.
AI writing assistant Adobe Experience Manager: Built in. FirstSpirit: Plugin or add-on.

Built in on neither, with different answers 2

Real-time co-editing Adobe Experience Manager: Limited. FirstSpirit: Not available.
Site member accounts Adobe Experience Manager: Limited. FirstSpirit: Not available.

More comparisons

Full write-ups with worked examples and costs: Adobe Experience Manager vs Payload.

Adobe Experience Manager against other platforms

FirstSpirit against other platforms

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