Microsoft SharePoint vs Telerik Sitefinity

Content is one of the most critical assets for every organization, embodying its knowledge
and processes. How content is created, managed, and shared—and how users collaborate
using that content—has gone through a drastic evolution from traditional enterprise content
management (ECM) to dynamic content services.

Content Management System (CMS) is used to manages the digital content and
collaboration between users.

Microsoft ​SharePoint​ and Telerik Sitefinity both are leading Content Management System
(CMS) in the industry.

Microsoft promotes SharePoint as document management and collaboration platform which

allow multiple users to collaborate on documents while Sitefinity is emerge as content
management System (CMS) and digital marketing platform which used for general content
site that have basic features like blog, forums, news etc.So, let us compare various
aspects of both Platforms.
Content Management
Content Management Systems provide an infrastructure for content creators to create and
manage digital content like pages, videos, images, designs, medical scans, documents etc.
in a way that doesn’t require calling up the IT department every second. It enables Business
Users in Marketing, Sales, Support and other departments to keep your site fresh and up to
date without having to fire a change request with IT.

Sitefinity is mostly used for content management of a public website while SharePoint is
mostly used for content management of an private intranet site of organization.

Document Management
There are many document management features like Storage, Versioning, Searching,
Retrieval, Capture, Validation, Indexing, Distribution, Workflow, Collaboration.

SharePoint provides enterprise level document management. A main advantage SharePoint

over Sitefinity is that it is bundled with every enterprise license of Microsoft Office 365.
Office Tools like word, excel can be easily integrated with SharePoint While Sitefinity
provide basic level document management.

SharePoint’s Document repositories give an edge over Sitefinity.

Content Life Cycle or Workflow

Executing document approval-process manually can means a lot of checking up and
keeping track, forwarding documents and sending reminders and each of those tasks has to
be performed by you or by one or more of your colleagues. That means a lot of extra work
and (maybe even worse) a constant stream of interruptions.

CMS provides document approval workflow which run the process, all of that checking and
tracking and reminding and forwarding is done by the workflow, automatically. If someone is
late in completing a task, or if some other hitch arises, most of the included workflows
generate a notification to let you know about it. Nobody in the group has to proactively
monitor the process. SharePoint and Sitefinity both support workflow management. Both
provides two types of workflows default (Inbuilt) workflow and custom(dynamic) workflow.
Collaboration
Collaboration is one of the key document management features for enterprises.
Collaboration​ ​allow team members to view, edit and work simultaneously on a document
without sending emailing attachments to each other all day so employees not needs to
waste time on emailing and downloading. Employees can easily share document, calendar,
notebook, chat, website and others with each other.

SharePoint is well-known for its co-authoring capability, it provides real-time collaboration. It

helps employees not to waste time on re-opening of documents and waiting for their turn for
editing. Real-time collaboration allows users to edit the same document simultaneously
while Sitefinity provides lock/unlock collaboration item.

SharePoint allows for a really good relationship between Microsoft Office products and
allows for collaboration in those tools to happen a bit more seamlessly. SharePoint provides
more advanced collaboration features compare to Sitefinity.

Ecommerce Integration
SharePoint required add-ons integration for to achieve Ecommerce functionality. There are
many third-party ecommerce Add-ons are available like SharePointAMS, Kintivo,
OfferCommerce etc., While Sitefinity have built-in eCommerce module with features like
Multi-Currency, PayPal, Product catalogue, Coupon/Discount etc.

Multilanguage Support
A multi-language site is a single website that’s reproduced and published in more than one
language. Most of the content on the site is the same but is localized to reflect the language
and culture of customers in various regions.

SharePoint and Sitefinity both have provision for multilanguage support.

Morden Web design
Sitefinity uses MVC with Bootstrap and Morden layout and web design to provide
responsive to mobile device while SharePoint uses legacy GUI framework but there are
Open Source Tools available which used JavaScript embed pattern to convert Site into
Mobile friendly responsive site.

Digital Marketing
SEO tools improve content discoverability in search engine results. SharePoint and
Sitefinity both provide Search Engine Optimization functionality.

Sitefinity have modules like Email Designer, A/B Test, Schedule Email Delivery, Analytics
etc. which allows to build comprehensive digital marketing campaigns and captures leads
across systems

Deployment
Onsite SharePoint installation must require server operating system like (Windows Server
2012 R2, 2016, 2019) with Active Directory support. In addition, SharePoint also required to
install many prerequisites before installing main setup package while Sitefinity can be install
on almost all Windows Operating System.

Siteinfinity installation process is very easier compare to SharePoint Server installation

process

Sitefinity gives Deployment option on Azure, Amazon etc. cloud platform while SharePoint
also deploy on windows VMs hosted on cloud.

Adopting new technology is difficult initially but when the company tweaks and releases a
newer and stable version it offers a pool of benefits. Same goes with the Dynamics 365.

Dynamics 365 with SharePoint​ offers robust security and access controls for apps and
data that are built on cloud services.
Development, Customization and Integration
Platform
SharePoint provides various programming interfaces Like SSOM (Server Side Object
Model), CSOM (Client Side Object Model), JSOM (JavaScript Object Model) and REST API
for developing Add-ins and Webparts. Latest SharePoint Framework (SPFx) (available on
on-premise version 2016 and above and SharePoint Online) supports cross platform
development support.

Sitefinity provides extensibility with key technology and platforms like asp.net mvc,
angularjs, bootstrap etc. Sitefinity can be easily modified by ​ASP.Net MVC developers​.
Sitefinity supports integration with SharePoint, Microsoft Dynamic CRM, Salesforce CRM,
Google Analytics, PayPal Pay Flow Pro etc.

Licensing
SharePoint is available in two different forms SharePoint online and SharePoint on premise.
SharePoint Online come with Enterprise level Office365 license and on premise with CAL
license.

Sitefinity is available with three type of license editions Professional, Online Marketing and
Enterprise. Enterprise edition supports unlimited concurrent users, third party integration
and analytics.

Conclusion
SharePoint is document management, and collaboration tool that is more suitable for
intranet. It is not a proper CMS. Having said that, it doesn’t mean you cannot build a public
facing website with SharePoint, it is just that there will be limitations when it comes to using
SharePoint as CMS such as limited design/layout and strong programming skills needed in
order to have SharePoint as a CMS. Typically, customers use SharePoint as their intranet
portal and Sitefinity as their internet website.
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