Brightspot Reviews & Product Details

I use Brightspot as a Content Management System to manage our business brands, and it allows my team to easily create, edit, and publish digital content. I appreciate Brightspot for offering an impressive balance between out-of-the-box functionality and flexible content modeling capabilities. The native workflow engine aligns well with our editorial processes, and the platform is designed for ease of use and efficiency. It's intuitive and easy to use, making it accessible for my team without extensive technical knowledge. Additionally, I like that Brightspot provides enterprise-grade security and compliance. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Even though Brightspot provided an excellent hands-on support experience from one of their product managers, our site rollouts for migrations have been rather lackluster. Brightspot claimed that our WordPress sites could easily be migrated to their API-first architecture, but it seemed that the planned headless implementation project took longer than expected. After working on 8 weeks of the migration of one of our sites, we still haven't finished the projected plan. The project management team needs better communication, cooperation and coordination between clients and suppliers so that the expected timeline can be met. Promising a timeline and then having to face continuous delays is not an ok interaction. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What I like best about Brightspot is its flexibility and efficiency. It allows me to manage, organize, and deliver high-quality content across the channel smoothly. The ability to customize workflows and templates makes our production faster and ensures everything meets our editorial standards. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

One thing I find challenging about Brightspot is that some of the more advanced features come with a learning curve, especially when you’re customizing workflows or templates. That said, once you get used to it, the platform becomes very powerful and efficient. On the downside, our website has gone down twice in the last four months. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I really like how Brightspot is responsive and works well for users. As an administrator, I appreciate the self-service nature of most of the customization tools. I can edit workflows, user types, document UI elements, and dashboards without needing any developer inputs, which allows us to evolve our working practices easily without time or cost constraints. It's particularly valuable that we can adjust these things on the fly. The ability to review and change document fields is really valuable for driving continuous improvement and efficiency for users. I find it super easy to introduce new user types, like when we needed a new persona to both author and review content. The initial setup was excellent, and I've found Brightspot to be among the best and most engaged external development organizations I've worked with. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I have a few frustrations with Brightspot, mostly due to our unique setup. Our external DAM integration isn't as smooth as it could be, but that's partly because we chose an outside tool instead of Brightspot's DAM. Users often accidentally click the edit button for collections, causing collapses or corruption of folders, which stops work until an admin fixes it. This happens about once a week and affects everyone until resolved. The revisions tool can be unreliable, with mixed-up or abandoned revisions occurring frequently. There are also some quirks with our custom Maps and Topics that get frustrating, but I think that's down to our specific configuration. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I like how intuitive Brightspot is to use, along with its flexibility and customization options. The WYSIWYG editor is a great feature, especially since our editors are not tech-savvy. With Brightspot, they can publish independently without it taking a long time or needing tech support. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

It doesn’t support ads very well and we’ve had trouble with implementation. Granted, we have lots of ad customization but it has been a big pain point. And the initial setup of Brightspot was honestly very blundered. A lot went wrong in the migration and we lost a lot of traffic as a result. Took a long time to recover and I’m not sure if we ever fully did. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The thing I actually tell people about is how well Brightspot works as a real-time collaborative tool. It’s very easy to collaborate in real-time because there is little-to-no delay when you want to add to something before others have completed their edits. There isn’t an issue with overwriting each other while editing. This collaborative feature has truly helped save hours of back-and-forth when creating content and I was literally thinking about how much time the collaborative features saved us today after finishing a long shift. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

When first starting out with Brightspot, the learning curve is definitely more significant than what the marketing would suggest. If you’re relatively inexperienced with Structured Content or API’s, it’s going to take some effort to learn how to use Brightspot effectively. Additionally, the documentation for many of the more complex aspects of BrightSpot is somewhat thin and often times you’ll find yourself trying to piece together information from various Community Posts. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I like Brightspot’s unique ability to handle content across multiple websites. As a local publication serving 30+ cities across the United States, it’s important for our users to collaborate and share content across our various sites. Brightspot makes standardization, content sharing, and third party integrations a breeze. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

If a feature that you’re looking for is not “out-of-the box”, Brightspot can get quite costly as a platform. I recommend hiring in-house front end and backend developers if you plan to move forward with the Brightspot CMS platform. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Brightspot is indeed a shining star due to its amazing flexibility as a content management system. Its customizable content modeling, where we can define our own specific content types to exactly match our purpose, not limiting us to a few templates, is something we love too. Its multi-channel publishing features are also of premium quality; it is very easy to spread content to our site, our mobile app, and even to our partners in a central hub. The user-friendly editorial process also radically accelerates our content approval process. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The only thing that has left me uneasy about Brightspot is the first set-up and configuration which is at times rather complex and consuming of resources. Customizing the platform to particular needs can sometimes need a lot of developer skill to completely customize it to the needs of that specific requirement, as opposed to a plain out-of-the-box implementation. This may be a challenge to teams that do not have specific development support. Besides, smaller organizations may be concerned with cost structure. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Brightspot has also enabled me to categorize various pieces of content such as event listings and employee profiles with ease and without the fear of them being mixed together. I also prefer that I can configure precisely the fields that I require, which further ensures that our data is clean and consistent. Permission settings are clear and I understand, the right individuals are doing the right things in the right locations. All in all, it has made the management of our content a lot easier and kept our team on track. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Although Brightspot is robust, there is a steep learning curve on high-feature aspects. At times, locating the very place of a certain customization is like going on a treasure hunt. Also, the interface, though being generally clean, might provide more visual indications on complex configurations. It is not a dealbreaker, but a bit of additional information on how to be set up initially would be helpful. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I like how Brightspot organizes content creation and publishing in one platform. I use it for managing articles, media, and workflows, which keeps everything organized. The number of features around scheduling and content approval is what I value most because it helps avoid mistakes. It also integrates well with our editorial processes, allowing us to assign tasks and track progress easily. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I find it can be limiting when managing unique or non standard content layouts. Some processes require additional steps to achieve the right design. These limitations can slow progress and sometimes add stress during project deadlines. Standard workflows are fine, but special cases take extra attention and effort from the team. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I think the platform worked well for us. It's important for us to be able to administer the various sites, and the permissions are pretty good. The extensibility is great, as within their framework, you can do almost anything. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The system has been put together over many years, supporting lots of different clients, leading to some aspects feeling like an afterthought or outdated from current patterns. The development team is responsive in improving these areas, though maybe not as quickly as we'd like. Also, as just one client among many, our priorities aren't always aligned with the platform's priorities. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.