AEM Alternative: Own Your Infrastructure & Data
Break free from Adobe's black box. Decipher CMS allows deployment on your own Google Cloud, offering full data sovereignty and transparent billing.
Everything Adobe Experience Manager does —
plus everything it doesn't.
Break free from Adobe's black box.
Transparency
Ownership
Deploy on your own infrastructure
Complete platform ownership
s complex
and
Why teams outgrow Adobe Experience Manager
Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) is the Goliath of the CMS world, but it imposes severe 'Vendor Lock-in'. It acts as a black box where customers have little visibility into the underlying infrastructure or true resource usage.
The pricing is arguably the most expensive in the industry, often bundled with other Adobe Cloud products that you may not need. Data portability is difficult, making it hard to leave once you are in the ecosystem.
For agile teams, AEM feels like an aircraft carrier—powerful, but impossible to turn quickly.
A content production engine — not just a database.
Decipher CMS differentiates on 'Transparency' and 'Ownership'. We advocate for a model where you 'Deploy on your own infrastructure' (GCP).
This means you own the database, the code, and the logs. You have 'Complete platform ownership'.
If you ever leave Decipher, you walk away with your infrastructure intact. Decipher replaces AEM's complex 'Sites' and 'Assets' modules with a unified 'AI Content Management Platform' that handles 'AI Image & Visual Creation' natively, removing the need for separate Adobe Creative Cloud licenses for basic asset generation.
Take back ownership of your digital experience. Switch to Decipher.
Enterprise-grade architecture —
without the enterprise complexity.
AEM Cloud Service is a shared environment. Decipher’s 'Private Infrastructure' option allows for true isolation.
You can configure 'Custom security settings' and network policies that AEM’s managed service might not support. Additionally, Decipher’s 'Direct cloud billing' means you pay Google exactly what your traffic costs (typically $200-$2000/mo), exposing the massive markup Adobe charges for hosting.
Pricing that doesn't punish growth.
Transparent plans that scale with your content — not against you.
Individual
For creators & growing teams
- AI-powered content generation
- Built-in SEO optimization
- Unlimited content pages
- Custom domain & branding
- Priority support
Enterprise
For large teams & organizations
- Everything in Individual
- Dedicated account manager
- SSO & advanced security (IAP)
- Custom integrations & API
- SLA & premium support
- Data residency options
Total Cost of Ownership
Decipher's Enterprise License ($24,000/yr) is often less than the sales tax on an AEM contract. By decoupling the software license from the hosting cost, Decipher offers a 'Total Cost of Ownership' that is sustainable.
You get 'Unlimited Users' included, whereas Adobe often monetizes user seats or 'solution partners' required to operate the tool.
Build a better CMS experience —
without starting from scratch.
Break free from Adobe's black box.