Businesses are under constant pressure to deliver seamless, connected experiences to their customers. Digital Experience Platforms (DXPs) have emerged as essential tools for managing customer interactions across multiple touchpoints, from websites and mobile apps to email and social media. As we look ahead in 2025, the DXP market continues to expand, with businesses weighing the pros and cons of integrated systems versus disparate systems.
This article will explore the leading DXPs for 2025, examine the benefits of integrated platforms, and discuss why strutoCX, a DXP enablement tool built on HubSpot, offers a powerful solution for businesses looking to deploy digital experiences quickly and cost-effectively.
What is a DXP and Why Does it Matter?
A Digital Experience Platform (DXP) is a software solution that enables businesses to deliver personalised, connected experiences across a variety of digital channels. It allows companies to manage content, customer data, and workflows in one place, ensuring that every interaction is consistent and tailored to the customer’s journey. DXPs are vital for businesses looking to stay competitive by enhancing customer engagement, improving operational efficiency, and driving revenue growth.
Integrated vs Disparate Systems: What’s the Difference?
When choosing a DXP, businesses must decide between an integrated system and a disparate system. Both options have their merits, but understanding their differences is key to making the right choice for your organisation.
Integrated Systems
An integrated DXP brings together all digital touchpoints into a single platform. This means that content management, customer data, marketing automation, and analytics are seamlessly connected, providing a unified view of the customer journey. Key benefits of integrated systems include:
- Unified customer data: All interactions and data are centralised, allowing businesses to deliver highly personalised experiences based on real-time insights.
- Simplified management: With all tools and processes integrated into one platform, teams can collaborate more easily, reducing friction and improving efficiency.
- Scalability: Integrated systems allow businesses to scale their operations without having to manage multiple vendors or platforms.
Disparate Systems
In contrast, disparate systems involve using multiple, often siloed, platforms to manage different aspects of the digital experience. For example, a company might use one tool for content management, another for customer relationship management (CRM), and yet another for email marketing. The main challenges with disparate systems include:
- Fragmented customer data: Managing customer data across multiple systems can lead to data silos, making it harder to deliver cohesive, personalised experiences.
- Complex integrations: Connecting disparate systems often requires custom integrations, which can be time-consuming and costly.
- Inefficiencies: Teams may struggle with managing different platforms, leading to inefficiencies in workflows and communication.
The Best DXPs for 2025: A Comparison
1. Adobe Experience Manager (AEM)
AEM is widely regarded as a top-tier DXP, offering extensive customisation and scalability. Its content management capabilities are robust, allowing businesses to deliver personalised experiences across multiple channels. However, AEM’s complexity comes with a high price tag, making it best suited for large enterprises with significant budgets and technical resources.
- Strengths: High customisation, powerful content management, enterprise-level scalability.
- Challenges: High cost, complex implementation, requires significant technical expertise.
2. Sitecore
Sitecore is another enterprise-grade DXP known for its ability to create personalised customer journeys. It excels in content management, personalisation, and customer data integration. However, similar to AEM, Sitecore’s complexity can lead to longer deployment times and higher costs, making it more suitable for large organisations with technical teams.
- Strengths: Excellent for personalisation, strong content management, integration with CRM systems.
- Challenges: High cost, longer time to value, requires technical resources.
3. HubSpot Content Hub
HubSpot’s Content Hub stands out as a more accessible DXP option, especially for mid-market and digitally mature organisations. As a fully integrated platform, HubSpot combines CRM, marketing automation, and content management into a single ecosystem, making it easy for businesses to manage the entire customer journey. Its user-friendly interface and scalability make it a compelling choice for businesses looking for a more straightforward and cost-effective DXP solution.
- Strengths: All-in-one platform, user-friendly, cost-effective, scalable for mid-market businesses.
- Challenges: May lack the depth of customisation offered by more complex systems like AEM or Sitecore.
Why Integrated DXPs Offer the Edge
When evaluating DXPs, integrated systems clearly offer several advantages over disparate systems, particularly when it comes to delivering cohesive, connected experiences. By centralising all digital touchpoints, integrated DXPs enable businesses to manage customer data more effectively, streamline workflows, and provide real-time personalisation. This leads to better customer engagement, improved operational efficiency, and a stronger return on investment.
strutoCX: A DXP Enablement Tool for HubSpot Content Hub
For businesses considering HubSpot as their DXP of choice, strutoCX offers an exceptional enhancement. As a DXP enablement tool, strutoCX provides pre-built, out-of-the-box experiences that are designed to extend the functionality of HubSpot’s Content Hub. This makes it a powerful option for businesses looking to deploy digital experiences quickly, without the need for extensive custom development.
1. Rapid Deployment
strutoCX’s pre-built experiences, such as Learning Management Systems (LMS), customer self-service portals, and Digital Asset Management (DAM) tools, can be deployed rapidly. This significantly reduces the time to value, allowing businesses to start delivering connected, personalised experiences faster.
2. Seamless Integration with HubSpot
Because strutoCX is built on HubSpot, it integrates seamlessly with HubSpot’s CRM, marketing automation, and content management tools. This eliminates the need for complex custom integrations and ensures that all customer data is unified and accessible across the organisation.
3. Simplified Customisation
strutoCX allows businesses to customise their digital experiences without the need for extensive development. Its flexibility enables businesses to tailor pre-built solutions to fit their brand and customer journeys, all while keeping costs manageable.
4. Cost-Effective Solution
Compared to complex, enterprise-grade DXPs like AEM or Sitecore, strutoCX offers a more cost-effective approach. By leveraging HubSpot’s infrastructure, businesses can achieve enterprise-level digital experiences without the associated high costs and lengthy deployment times.
Conclusion: Integrated DXPs and the Power of strutoCX
As businesses evaluate their DXP options for 2025, the choice between integrated and disparate systems will be a critical consideration. Integrated DXPs like HubSpot Content Hub offer a clear advantage in terms of scalability, data unification, and streamlined management. When paired with strutoCX, businesses gain a powerful enablement tool that delivers out-of-the-box experiences quickly, seamlessly, and cost-effectively.
For digitally mature organisations and marketing-driven leaders, strutoCX offers the ideal solution to enhance HubSpot’s platform as a DXP, allowing businesses to deliver personalised customer journeys that drive engagement and growth. Contact us to explore strutoCX and see how it can transform your digital experience strategy.
