# Optimizely Agentic CMS: One Name, Two Platforms > Optimizely now sells an Agentic CMS and calls itself the AI platform for marketing. Underneath, two different content platforms are still for sale, and the contract names one of them. Analyst Editorial by DXP Principal Analyst Group · Published 2026-11-09 · Not updated Source: https://www.dxpscorecard.com/editorials/optimizely-agentic-cms-saas-vs-cms-13 ## The short answer Optimizely Agentic CMS is a marketing name, not a product. Underneath it Optimizely sells two content platforms: CMS (SaaS), a versionless headless CMS Optimizely runs that accepts no custom server code, and CMS 13, the .NET 10 platform your developers extend, hosted on Optimizely's DXP cloud or your own servers. Both share Visual Builder, Optimizely Graph and the Mark agents. Ask which one is on your order form first. ## Key takeaways - Agentic CMS is the label on Optimizely's website and price list, not a product you can license. The documentation and the order form use three names, CMS (SaaS), CMS 13 and CMS 12, and the one on your contract decides your architecture, the team you need and your upgrade calendar. - The split is about who runs the code, not about features. CMS (SaaS) is versionless, hosted by Optimizely and accepts no custom server code. CMS 13 is a .NET 10 application your developers extend, hosted on Optimizely's managed cloud or your own. Visual Builder, Optimizely Graph, Content Manager and the Mark agents are on both. - DXP did not disappear at Opticon, it moved downstairs. Optimizely stopped calling the company a digital experience platform on 1 September 2026 and now calls itself the AI platform for marketing, but DXP is still the name of the managed Azure hosting that CMS 13 customers buy, and the documentation still has a DXP section. - Mark is the agent layer, and it is a separate line on both platforms. Opal became Optimizely Agent Platform on 1 September 2026 and the Opal name was retired on 15 October. Mark is what Optimizely calls it in conversation. It is provisioned separately, metered in credits and needs Opti ID, so a CMS 13 installed on your own servers cannot run it. - Two CMS lines under one brand is a pattern, not an accident. Sitecore has Sitecore XP and SitecoreAI, Kentico has Kentico Xperience 13 and Xperience by Kentico, and both gave the new product a new name. Optimizely kept one name and added a bracket, which is why its buyers need this explainer and theirs mostly do not. ## Our analysts' take A marketing director evaluating Optimizely in November 2026 meets four names in an afternoon. The website says Agentic CMS and describes the company as the AI platform for marketing. The pricing page lists Agentic CMS, Agentic Experimentation and Agent Platform, all quote-only. The partner's proposal says CMS 13. The developer documentation, which moved to a single site at docs.optimizely.com this autumn, lists CMS (SaaS), CMS 13 and CMS 12 as three products side by side, with a fourth section called DXP that turns out to be hosting. None of these pages points at the others, and the word agentic appears on only one of them. The confusion costs real money because the two platforms behind the label are built, staffed, hosted and upgraded differently. A team that signs for CMS (SaaS) expecting to port its CMS 12 .NET customizations will discover that no custom code runs inside the product and that the migration is a rebuild. A team that signs for CMS 13 expecting a cloud product it never has to upgrade will discover a .NET 10 application with an annual major release cadence, a mandatory move off Search & Navigation and a list of third-party packages to replace. Both are good platforms. Neither is the other. We score them separately for exactly this reason: CMS (SaaS) appears on this site as Optimizely SaaS CMS and CMS 13 on Optimizely's managed cloud as Optimizely PaaS DXP. This editorial is our reading of what Optimizely's names mean today, drawn from the documentation and the Opticon announcements, what actually differs between the two content platforms, what the agent layer costs on each, and the questions to settle before a proposal becomes a contract. ## What to look for 1. **Which product the order form names.** Optimizely's own naming guide for its agent platform says the contract uses the formal name, not the friendly one. Apply the same test to the CMS: ask for CMS (SaaS) or CMS 13 in writing on the proposal, with the hosting named alongside it. Agentic CMS on a quote is a label, not a specification. 2. **Where your custom code can run.** If your site needs server-side logic inside the CMS process, scheduled jobs in .NET, custom property types or a legacy add-on, only CMS 13 allows it. If every integration can live in a webhook, a Connect Platform app or your own front end, CMS (SaaS) will do, and it removes the .NET team from the critical path. 3. **Who runs upgrades and how often.** CMS (SaaS) is versionless, with releases arriving through deployment rings you can place your environments in. CMS 13 moves to an annual major version, and Optimizely maintains only the current and the previous one. Ask who on your side owns the yearly upgrade and what it costs, or confirm that the answer is nobody because you chose SaaS. 4. **What the meter counts.** Both are quote-only. Optimizely's developer hub describes CMS (SaaS) pricing by named users and content items, and the DXP hosting for CMS 13 as consumption-based on content items and whether sites share a code base. Mark is metered in credits on top of either. Ask for all three numbers at twice your current usage. 5. **Which features need which cloud service.** Every CMS 13 license includes Opti ID and Optimizely Graph as mandatory components, and the Mark agents, the embedded DAM and the Connect Platform all depend on Opti ID, which exists only in Optimizely's cloud. A CMS 13 on your own servers loses all three. Decide whether that trade is acceptable before anyone says on-premises in a meeting. ## Three names, one CMS: what each one means today Optimizely's names come from three different parts of the company and were never meant to be read together. The brand team owns Agentic CMS and the AI platform for marketing. The product and documentation teams own CMS (SaaS), CMS 13 and CMS 12. The hosting and contracts teams own DXP. Here is what each one covers as of November 2026. - **Agentic CMS: the website and the price list.** Since the June 2026 rebrand the content management page at optimizely.com carries the breadcrumb Agentic CMS and the headline an agentic CMS built for marketers, and the plans page offers three quote-only bundles: Agentic CMS, Agentic Experimentation and Agent Platform. The page's own definition is a CMS that stores and delivers content and then keeps working, with agents creating variations, optimizing for search and AI visibility and triggering workflows. Gartner gave the term analyst standing in its Innovation Insight on agentic CMS in May 2026. The label describes a capability Optimizely attributes to its whole CMS line. It does not tell you which CMS. - **CMS (SaaS): the versionless headless line.** Launched in July 2024, CMS (SaaS) is the product Optimizely's documentation calls a headless CMS: content is authored in Visual Builder, configured through a REST API and delivered through Optimizely Graph to a front end you build in Next.js, Astro or any framework, hosted on Optimizely's own front-end hosting, Vercel or Netlify. There is no version number because Optimizely upgrades it, and each account sits in a deployment ring, Early Adopter, Main or Conservative, that decides when a release arrives. The release notes run weekly: several layouts per experience arrived on 14 September 2026, content nesting limits and an import-completed webhook on 30 October, and Mark uploading media with required alt text on 2 November. Pricing is by named users and content items. The one hard rule is that no custom code runs inside the product. - **CMS 13: the .NET line, and the DXP that hosts it.** CMS 13 reached general availability on 31 March 2026 and is, in Optimizely's own FAQ, the PaaS version of its CMS: a .NET 10 application your developers build, extend and deploy. Every license includes Opti ID and Optimizely Graph as mandatory components, Visual Builder replaces on-page editing as the default editor, Applications replace site definitions, and Search & Navigation is not supported at all. It can run on Optimizely's managed Azure service, which the documentation and the contracts still call the Digital Experience Platform, or DXP, with Integration, Pre-production and Production environments, or on your own Azure or on premises with the features that need Opti ID switched off. CMS 12, the 2021 generation, stays maintained as the prior major version under the April 2026 policy, but Optimizely says it will not officially support .NET 10, and .NET 8 leaves Microsoft support on 10 November 2026. ## CMS (SaaS) vs CMS 13: the differences that decide it Optimizely has said since 2024 that the two are the same core code base with different options, that it is not giving up on PaaS, and that innovation comes to both. The 2026 release notes bear that out: Visual Builder, Content Manager, content variations, the embedded DAM, the REST API in the same format and the Mark agents are on both lines. What differs is everything around the content. - **Code and extensibility.** CMS 13 is a .NET application: content types are C# classes, dependency injection, middleware, content events and scheduled jobs are yours to use, and a bench of about 590 partners knows the stack. CMS (SaaS) defines content types in the user interface or through the REST API, and any logic has to live outside the product, in webhooks, Connect Platform apps or your front end. Optimizely's own developer hub says moving an implemented CMS 12 or CMS 13 site to SaaS migrates the content through Graph but none of the .NET code, and calls it a re-implementation exercise. - **Hosting and the front end.** CMS (SaaS) is hosted only by Optimizely, with the front end anywhere you like. CMS 13 runs on the DXP cloud, your own Azure or your own servers, and still renders through ASP.NET MVC if you want a coupled site, which CMS (SaaS) cannot do. Both deliver headless through Optimizely Graph, and CMS 13's Graph schema now aligns with the SaaS one, so a Next.js front end can be written against either. The on-premises option for CMS 13 is real but narrow: Opti ID is cloud only, so Mark, the embedded DAM and the Connect Platform do not come with it. - **Upgrades and release rhythm.** CMS (SaaS) has no upgrade project. CMS 13 has an annual one from now on: Optimizely plans a major release every year and maintains the current version plus one, which it says makes the CMS 13 lifecycle shorter than customers are used to. The move from CMS 12 is the first of these and the largest: Optimizely's FAQ puts it at two to six months on average, with the Search & Navigation replacement, third-party package compatibility and Graph query changes as the main work. Budget for the yearly cycle, not just the first one. - **Pricing meters.** Neither has a published price; the plans page routes every product to a custom quote. The structures differ: CMS (SaaS) is priced on named users and content items, with environments, storage and Graph languages as options; the DXP service for CMS 13 is consumption-based on content items and on whether several sites share one code base, with managed services and a monthly performance report included. Personalization, experimentation, analytics, email and commerce are separate Optimizely products on both lines, and the Mark agents are metered in credits on both. - **The parallel at Sitecore and Kentico.** Optimizely is not the only .NET vendor running two content platforms. Sitecore sells Sitecore XP, the self-managed line, next to SitecoreAI, the SaaS one. Kentico sells Kentico Xperience 13, which leaves support at the end of 2026, next to Xperience by Kentico. In both cases the new product got a new name, so a buyer can tell them apart from the proposal alone. Optimizely chose one name, Optimizely CMS, and a bracket. The products are as distinct as its competitors' pairs; only the naming hides it. ## What to settle before a proposal becomes a contract Here is where we land. Agentic CMS is a fair description of where Optimizely is taking both platforms, and DXP is a fair description of what one of them is hosted on. Neither is the name of the thing you are buying. Settle these five points with the vendor and the partner before you sign. - **Get the product name in writing.** Ask for CMS (SaaS) or CMS 13 on the proposal, and for CMS 13 add the hosting: DXP, your own Azure or on premises. Optimizely's own guidance for its agent platform is that order forms carry the formal name, Optimizely Agent Platform, while everyone says Mark. The same discipline applied to the CMS removes most of the confusion in one line. - **Decide where custom logic will live.** List every integration, scheduled job, custom property and legacy add-on in the current site and mark each one as runs in the CMS process or runs outside it. If anything in the first column cannot move, you are buying CMS 13. If the column is empty, CMS (SaaS) is the lower-upkeep choice, and the partner's .NET team becomes optional rather than permanent. - **Put the upgrade cycle on the calendar.** For CMS 13, write the yearly major release into the budget and name its owner. If you are on CMS 12 today, note that .NET 8 leaves Microsoft support on 10 November 2026, that Optimizely says CMS 12 will not officially support .NET 10, and that the move to CMS 13 averages two to six months. For CMS (SaaS), ask which deployment ring production sits in and how far ahead the staging ring can run. - **Price the agent layer and the companions separately.** Mark is provisioned separately, metered in credits and needs Opti ID on either platform, and Optimizely says it must be discussed with your customer success manager. Experimentation, personalization, analytics, email and commerce are their own products. Ask for the CMS price, the hosting price, the credit price at your expected agent volume and each companion product as separate lines, so the renewal cannot move one into another. - **Match the scorecard to the product.** When you compare vendors, compare the product you are actually buying. On this site CMS (SaaS) is Optimizely SaaS CMS and CMS 13 on the DXP cloud is Optimizely PaaS DXP, and their strengths differ: the SaaS line on zero-ops delivery and release pace, the PaaS line on commerce depth, coupled rendering and the partner bench. Put the right one in the head to head against SitecoreAI, Xperience by Kentico or whichever rival is on the shortlist. ## Platforms in this piece - [Optimizely SaaS CMS](https://www.dxpscorecard.com/platform/optimizely-saas) (Markdown: https://www.dxpscorecard.com/platform/optimizely-saas.md) - [Optimizely PaaS DXP](https://www.dxpscorecard.com/platform/optimizely-paas) (Markdown: https://www.dxpscorecard.com/platform/optimizely-paas.md) - [SitecoreAI](https://www.dxpscorecard.com/platform/sitecore-ai) (Markdown: https://www.dxpscorecard.com/platform/sitecore-ai.md) - [Sitecore XP](https://www.dxpscorecard.com/platform/sitecore-xp) (Markdown: https://www.dxpscorecard.com/platform/sitecore-xp.md) - [Xperience by Kentico](https://www.dxpscorecard.com/platform/xperience-by-kentico) (Markdown: https://www.dxpscorecard.com/platform/xperience-by-kentico.md) - [Kentico Xperience 13](https://www.dxpscorecard.com/platform/kentico-xperience) (Markdown: https://www.dxpscorecard.com/platform/kentico-xperience.md) ## Frequently asked questions ### What is Optimizely Agentic CMS? Agentic CMS is the name Optimizely's website and pricing page use for its content management products since the June 2026 rebrand. It describes a CMS whose AI agents keep working after publishing: creating variations, optimizing for search and AI visibility and triggering workflows. It is not a separately licensed product. The contract names CMS (SaaS) or CMS 13, and the agents come from Optimizely Agent Platform, known as Mark. ### What is the difference between Optimizely CMS (SaaS) and CMS 13? CMS (SaaS) is a versionless headless CMS that Optimizely hosts and upgrades, where no custom code runs inside the product and the front end is built separately. CMS 13 is a .NET 10 application your developers extend and deploy, on Optimizely's managed DXP cloud or your own servers, with an annual major release. Both use Visual Builder, Optimizely Graph, Content Manager and the Mark agents. ### Is Optimizely CMS 13 PaaS or SaaS? PaaS. Optimizely's own FAQ says CMS 13 is the PaaS version of its CMS, with full control of the application, custom code in the process and deployment flexibility. The SaaS version is a separate product that Optimizely calls CMS (SaaS). CMS 13 reached general availability on 31 March 2026, requires .NET 10, and includes Opti ID and Optimizely Graph as mandatory components. ### Did Optimizely drop the DXP name? At Opticon in New York on 1 September 2026 Optimizely stopped describing the company as a digital experience platform and now calls itself the AI platform for marketing. The initials survive inside the product: the managed Azure hosting that CMS 13 customers buy is still called the Digital Experience Platform, or DXP, in the documentation and contracts, with Integration, Pre-production and Production environments. ### What is Optimizely Mark, and what happened to Opal? Mark is the everyday name for Optimizely Agent Platform, the agent orchestration layer that works across Optimizely's products. Opal was renamed Optimizely Agent Platform on 1 September 2026 and the Opal name was retired on 15 October 2026. The family also includes Mark-1, marketing-trained models announced as coming soon, Mark-IQ, the brand and data context layer, and Mark-Bench, an open-source marketing benchmark. Mark is metered in credits and needs Opti ID. ### Will Optimizely CMS 12 still be supported after .NET 8 reaches end of support? Partly. Under Optimizely's April 2026 major version policy, CMS 12 is the maintained prior version, so it receives fixes for severe bugs and security issues, and Optimizely does not force end of life. But Optimizely says CMS 12 will not officially support .NET 10, and .NET 8 leaves Microsoft support on 10 November 2026, so the supported path is the upgrade to CMS 13, which Optimizely estimates at two to six months. ## About this editorial A position the DXP Principal Analyst Group took on 2026-11-09. It is not updated; a changed view is published as a new editorial. The linked scorecards carry the current ratings for every platform named here. Scorecards and platform inclusion are unsponsored: no vendor pays to be named in an editorial or to change a rating.