Kentico channel licensing model fits all business sizes

Kentico channel licensing model fits all business sizes

The new Xperience by Kentico has completely overhauled the attitude to licensing. Subscription, usually per domain, is already commonplace, but what does 'channels' actually mean?

As the leading producer of marketing-focused CMS platforms, Kentico is adapting its communication to a more marketing-related way.

The channel is the method by which the communication travels from the source or sender to the receiver. (Wikipedia).

In fact, it is very clear, simple and fresh-looking. It is a communication channel.

With this wisdom, it really is just nurturing your strategy on how to communicate with your customers (as website/channel owner).

Standard Tier

Simple web presence with no size limitations - all you need is a single channel license in the Standard Tier.

For start-ups where the primary goal is to be present on the Internet without advanced features such as email newsletters, the Standard Tier is the right choice for a fraction of the cost of the Advanced Tier.

Despite the fact that the Standard Tier is something of a "starter pack" and introduction to the Kentico world, you get a full set of services. Including regular monthly updates (they're called Refreshes), weekly hotfixes for reported bugs, and also 24/7 technical support. Pretty cool.

Streamlining content creation and management across your site, creating personalized experiences to improve customer engagement, and optimizing campaigns with marketing automation are also things that many CMS lack. Kentico adds ease of use and user-friendly work for editors, which also helps to flatten the learning curve.

Another great feature is the availability of a content hub that shares all content across the site (and in the case of the Advanced Tier, across multiple channels).

Advanced Tier

If you have a robust portal with integrated marketing tools, automation, personalization and more, then the Advanced Tier is the right choice for you. Xperience by Kentico offers an Advanced Tier for organizations looking to deliver consistent, personalized experiences across multiple digital channels. This tier is available in both SaaS and private cloud/license-only deployments (similar to the Standard Tier, which is also offered as a SaaS subscription).

What brings Advanced Tier to another "tier“ is more features the Standard Tier lack. First of all, more Main Channels are available for purchase. So there is a possibility to build a robust website environment, consisting of different sites, sharing all the contect from a single source - the content hub.

Content Hub provides all the data from one place, no duplicates, no worries about the need to update information across sites. Content hub helps to keep all the data nice and clean. Advanced Tier's hybrid headless approach also allows headless content to be shared across platforms.

Moreover, Advanced Tier is focused on marketing, so you can expect a full set of tools for better channel performance. Personalization of websites, automation (of email campaigns or, for example, sorting website visitors into specific groups or personas), everything is in the admin console and ready to work.

For more tools, there is always the option to integrate 3rd party tools. And all of this data can be AI-enriched by AIRA, Kentico's AI tool that helps with proper tagging of images, SEO optimization, building emails by enriching texts, and translations into different languages.

The Advanced tier is ideal for companies looking to manage complex digital strategies, offering tools to streamline content management, enhance marketing efforts, and deliver personalized experiences across multiple channels.

Microchannels

Xperience by Kentico offers the concept of microchannels to provide a streamlined and efficient way for organizations to manage smaller-scale content delivery across various channels. Microchannels are designed to handle a limited number of content elements, making them ideal for targeted campaigns or specialized content streams.

So if you need something in addition to your main website, such as another landing page for your campaign on another domain (i.e., another marketing channel), or a specialized tool for sending small batches of emails, microchannels are a good fit. You do not need to spend a lot of money on a whole new channel. However, there are some limitations, mainly on the content side. Microchannels are limited to a certain number of content elements, depending on the channel type.

Website

For microchannel used as a website (or headless channel) there is a limitation that allows up to 20 items in the content tree. So, 20 pages of website is the maximum for microchannel website.

E-mail

The email channel is limited to 5 email templates per microchannel. This limit applies to the number of different emails within the channel, not to the frequency or volume of emails sent. This means that you can only store 5 templates at a time, but you can send them to an unlimited number of recipients.

How to get a microchannel?

Microchannels are available with the purchase of Standard Tier or Advanced Tier. It is also possible to purchase some additional microchannels to your license with some limitations in Standard Tier, but it is not possible to purchase them separately.

*web/email microchannel only

By adopting microchannels, you can consolidate and centralize content management within the Xperience platform, reducing reliance on multiple CMS products. This consolidation results in a simplified technology footprint, reduced content duplication, and a more streamlined workflow for marketing teams.

Kentico has made great strides forward and with their new licensing policy are covering basically all the needs your business might have for reasonable price, thus good ROI and also, it allows you to grow with your needs.

For more information please do not hesitate to contact me.
 

The information in this article is valid as of 1.2.2025.