The following are all the Component Content Management Systems (CCMSs) I can find that claim to be DITA-capable. Ultimately, this listing aims to capture all DITA CCMSs that exist in one place. Here is an article I did a while ago on choosing a DITA CCMS that best fits your organization’s needs.
List of DITA-capable CMSes (Updated November 2024)
| Name | Manufacturer | DB Type | CMS Type | Core Software Handles | Workflow Mgmt. | L10n Features | SaaS or On-Premise |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adobe Experience Manager | Adobe | Relational (MongoDB Enterprise, IBM DB2, MySQL) | WCMS, CCMS | DITA, XML | Y | Y | SaaS |
| "From content and asset management to digital forms and guides to learning management systems, Adobe can help you deliver the right content to users when and where they need it. Adobe Experience Manager Sites lets you create, manage, optimize, and deliver digital experiences across channels. And you can ensure that your content across web, mobile, and apps is built efficiently and delivered quickly. Adobe Experience Manager Assets is a DAM that gives you automation and tools to rapidly source, adapt, and deliver your assets across audiences and channels so you can spend less time searching for and adjusting content. Adobe Experience Manager Forms is an end-to-end digital document solution that makes it easy to create responsive forms that customers can easily complete and securely e-sign, making a seamless customer journey from acquisition through retention." | |||||||
| Astoria | GlobalLink | Native XML | CCMS | DITA | Y | Y | SaaS, On-Premise |
| "The Astoria Difference: When customers choose the Astoria CCMS platform, they get more than the sum of its many features and capabilities. Customers also acquire TransPerfect as a partner that supports and guides customers as they embrace the paradigm shift of structured content creation, curation, translation, and distribution. Astoria On-Demand is the brand name for the GlobalLink Astoria CCMS when it runs as a cloud-based service. We procure servers and licenses, install and configure software and storage resources, and acquire the necessary 128-bit SSL certificates that encrypt data as it moves between our servers to your users. Astoria On-Premise is the brand name for the GlobalLink Astoria CCMS when it runs on your infrastructure. You could install Astoria on your server farm or in your private cloud; Astoria is fully operational on real and virtual machines." | |||||||
| Author-it | Author-it | Relational | EAP / CCMS | DITA, XML | Y | Y | SaaS |
| "The ultimate all-in-one authoring tool for technical documentation teams. Streamline your entire content development workflow from import to delivery with Author-it. Author-it is a scalable CCMS solution with enterprise grade security for tech writers, content developers and non-technical contributors." | |||||||
| Componize | Componize | Native XML (Alfresco) | ECMS with support for DITA | DITA, DocBook, XML | Y | * | SaaS, On-Premise |
| "Enterprise-class platform for structured content: Unleash the power of modular structured content with our flexible CCMS platform. Take advantage of reusable and easily translatable content and benefit from multichannel publishing. Our CCMS excels with unmatched flexibility, empowering you to tailor your content management precisely to your needs. This flexibility drives innovation through its workflow engine, content format support, and open architecture and APIs. Experience high-quality document creation with our powerful automation tools. Accelerate your document production while maintaining a unified set of standards and requirements, while ensuring the quality output." | |||||||
| Discover CMS | Discover CX | Relational | CCMS | DITA, DocBook, HTML, Markdown, Word | Y | Y | Not listed |
| "You need a CCMS that works as hard as your team. End the content chaos. Manage any content type. Deliver anywhere. Version content like code with built-in GIT. Flexible web and desktop authoring for Oxygen, Fonto, HTML, Markdown and Word. Automate SME review with workflow. Multi-format CCMS: DITA, DocBook, HTML, Markdown, Word, and more. CCMS plus Content Delivery: Headless API and dynamic digital experience portals. Single-source web and print. Faster, Personalized Publishing: Deploy incremental updates in minutes, track maps and dependencies, and personalize by user role." | |||||||
| DITAToo DITA CCMS | Intuillion | Relational (MySQL) | CCMS | DITA | Y | Y | On-Premise |
| "DITAToo is a component content management (DITA CCMS) and content automation platform. It’s your end-to-end solution for producing, managing, and publishing product content: technical documentation, training materials, marketing collateral, sales proposals, and more. Create and update content faster with content reuse capabilities. Don’t re-create the content that already exists, just reuse what you already have. Customize reusable content to various products, releases, audiences, and other contexts. Leverage your existing content by automating content assembly, generation, and aggregation. With the DITAToo Assembly Engine, you can automatically align product documentation for complex products, like aircraft, machinery, or vehicles, with the product configuration." |
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| DITAworks | DITAworks | Native XML (Alfresco), Relational (IBM Filenet) | CCMS | DITA | Y | Y | SaaS, On-Premise |
| "DITAworks Webtop For Enterprise Tech Documentation Management: A standalone software with secure infrastructure, extensive off-the-shelf functionality, and boundless customization capabilities — DITAworks is your SaaS heavy hitter for hurdle-free technical documentation management." | |||||||
| DX4 | DITA Exchange | SharePoint | CCMS | DITA | Y ** | N | SaaS, On-Premise |
| "The DitaExchange solution helps organizations establish a “single-source of truth” for all content developed within the organization. All information developed using Dx4 is structured into topics or pieces that can be pulled into document maps that are published as needed. This dynamic process speeds time in authoring, reduces approval cycles, facilitates re-use and ensures consistency across the organization." | |||||||
| Heretto CCMS | Heretto | Native XML | CCMS | DITA | Y | Y | SaaS |
| "Revolutionize content creation and collaboration with Heretto CCMS, the advanced DITA-powered platform that unifies content development for enterprise-grade productivity. Heretto is the only platform that supports true real-time collaboration. Imagine your whole team in the same file simultaneously — no file locking, no checking in and out of files. Finally, work together. Heretto's clean and intuitive UI feels like a familiar text editor (think Word or Google Docs). With Heretto, power users and casual contributors alike will be able to work with ease. Heretto is a highly secure, SOC 2 Type II certified cloud platform ready to work wherever you are. This simplifies the implementation and configuration process while reducing associated costs. Heretto CCMS provides an entire content ops ecosystem. Authoring, content management, version control, branching, workflow management, publishing, translation management, and much more all in one platform. Create technical documentation that is both portable and scalable with DITA, the structured content gold standard." | |||||||
| MadCap IXIA CCMS | MadCap | Native XML (TEXTML Server) | CCMS | DITA | Y | Y | SaaS |
| "Streamline the technical communication process with our enterprise-class DITA CCMS. It's a scalable, adaptable, and collaborative component content management system. The results will speak for themselves. MadCap IXIA CCMS is a component content management solution designed to streamline your technical communication process. As an enterprise-class DITA CCMS based on the DITA standard (Darwin Information Typing Architecture), our solution can be tailored to meet your needs. This open XML-based method of managing and creating technical publications, offers technical writers the ability to create and manage technical documents with ease. MadCap IXIA CCMS makes it easy for technical writers to do what they do best: create high-quality, accurate content. Built with the oXygen XML Editor, our product simplifies each step of the process, including authoring, collaborating with other authors or SMEs, and reviewing content with editors. Key features include Track Changes Review and Collaborative Review." | |||||||
| RSuite Standard | Contiem | Native XML (Alfresco) | CCMS | DITA | Y | Y | SaaS, On-Premise |
| "Our versatile SaaS-based software, RSuite® Standard, gives users the flexibility, agility, and scalability needed to easily manage high volumes of documents and data on a component level. RSuite Standard provides a secure platform where users can store, access, reuse and approve content with automated workflows. As a result, organizations experience improved publishing processes and reductions in the volume of authored content, errors and business costs. As an out-of-the-box software solution, RSuite Standard can easily be implemented in days, instead of weeks or months." | |||||||
| Sirius DITA | Acolada | Native XML | CCMS | DITA, DocBook, SGML/XML | N | Y | On-Premise |
| "Successful publishing in the information age: the information age has made it necessary for more and more information to be created, maintained, translated and made available in a number of digital formats at ever shorter intervals. Content management and XML overcome all these challenges." |
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| Tektur | Tektur | Relational (MongoDB NoSQL) | CCMS | DITA | Y | N | On-Premise |
| "Tektur will be an easy to use Component Content Management System (CCMS) which allows for collaboration in real-time. Starting with a fast web-based listing that can handle thousands of DITA topics. You can add new topics using a Word-like tagless XML editor and import/export of existing topics in ZIP format." | |||||||
| Tridion Docs | RWS | Native XML | CCMS | DITA | Y | Y | SaaS, On-Premise |
| "Tridion Docs - the #1 intelligent content platform for technical knowledge. Easily govern and deliver multilingual product and support information, procedures and guidelines with our enterprise DITA CCMS. Your world moves fast. Staff and customers need real-time access to technical information that’s current, compliant and tailored to their context. When your content is trapped in static documents that lack proper governance, information gets out of date and users are confused. Managing this chaos is a costly drain on time and resources. But with Tridion Docs, you can manage the complexity with confidence. This enterprise DITA Component Content Management System (CCMS) turns your mission-critical information into intelligent content - reducing your risk, boosting your productivity and delivering better content experiences." | |||||||
| Vasont Inspire CCMS | GlobalLink | Relational | CCMS | DITA | Y | Y | SaaS, On-Premise |
| "The Vasont Difference: At TransPerfect we understand that just as no two organizations produce products in the same way, there is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all CCMS solution. That’s why we offer the Vasont Inspire system for organizations new to XML-based authoring. It's never been easier for content contributors and subject-matter experts to create, edit and review their content. The Vasont Inspire Component Content Management System (CCMS) presents an intuitive and simple user experience to advance the content development and publishing cycles for content contributors that are not familiar with the dynamics of XML. This web-based XML publishing system can be conveniently accessed anywhere, anytime for prompt updates." | |||||||
| XDocs DITA CCMS | Bluestream | Relational (MySQL) | CCMS | DITA | Y | Y | On-Premise |
| "Realize the potential of your content with the XDocs DITA CCMS. XDocs DITA CCMS is the leading single-vendor solution for companies that want to improve and enhance their information flow. Whatever your industry, you’ll find Bluestream's XDocs DITA CCMS being used there, manufacturing, policies and procedures, IT, training and assessments, and more. Constant innovation and development have crafted XDocs DITA CCMS into the definitive solution for teams working with DITA. Unrivaled functionality and flexibility enable XDocs to solve any content challenge. As a result, teams of authors worldwide are creating powerful user-focused content and delivering it to all kinds of devices and platforms. XDocs DITA CCMS integrates seamlessly with XML Authoring Tools for the ultimate user experience. As a result, users can browse the XDocs database and check-in/check-out files, etc. from within Oxygen Author using a built-in menu. Additionally, RESTful APIs connect XDocs to other systems such as ERP, PLM, or CRM." | |||||||
Market Consolidation
There has been considerable market consolidation since the last update, including:
- Astoria and Vasont are now both owned by the localization firm TransPerfect
- Ixiasoft bought by MadCap
- RSuite (formerly DocZone) bought by Contiem
- Teamcenter from Siemens is now Platform Lifecycle Management (PLM) software
This is on top of previous exiting or consolidation from over a year ago, which included:
- SiberSafe products now focus on using the S1000D standard
- PTC Windchill was also repurposed as a PLM
- RDW bought out SDL and their Tridion Docs
- Cinnamon and eXact Learning apparently ceasing to exist
This further market consolidation really underscores the maturity of the DITA CCMS marketplace, as the market continues to focus on the winners with proven track records.
Not All DITA CCMSs are Alike
First, a word on what’s in the list: I had to start somewhere, and the very basics struck me as the following:
- Name of DITA-capable CCMS software
- Manufacturer
- A description (from the manufacturer’s website) of the CCMS
- SaaS or On-Premise
- Whether the CCMS worked with other XML standards
- The type of database or repository being used
- Workflow and localization features
These are features covered in the list. There are more criteria that could be used, but I believe these are core to understanding the strengths of each system.
SaaS or On-Premise Systems?
When I first made this list, there was a definite trend toward DITA CCMSs that operate as SaaS (Software as a Service). This trend continues, with most of the offerings available as a cloud-based service, sometimes in addition to an On-Premise (formerly called “Standalone”) instance.
SaaS systems do not require the capital outlay necessary for buying servers and software, though you can expect to be tied to a service contract. On-Premise systems offer the possibility of greater flexibility and security, though with the additional IT and development costs that come with it. Each documentation team and its circumstances are different, so knowing the types of options available in this area is important.
More than Just DITA?
In the previous version of this listing, many of the CCMS vendors were originally designed as a more general-purpose XML authoring system, so some systems were not just DITA-capable but could be used for other documentation specifications, such as S1000D, or DocBook. While a few vendors in this listing provide this capability, most CCMS vendors now focus squarely and solely on the DITA XML standard. This is definitely to the benefit of buyers, as the DITA CCMSs have an extra incentive to make using DITA easier and more transparent for its users.
Database, SharePoint, or an XML Repository?
The type of database in which the XML information is stored is another factor that can play into the decision-making process of choosing a DITA CCMS. XML repositories offer the advantage of working with DITA in its native environment where an XML topic is the fundamental unit of storage and is more readily manipulated using other XML-based languages such as XQuery, XPath and Microsoft SharePoint. Having said that, relational databases can often perform just as well and there are many more experienced relational database administrators out there than XML repository experts. For many organizations Microsoft SharePoint is already available under a corporate license, and it may make the most sense for some documentation groups to leverage what you have rather than going out and getting a system based in a database/repository that is unfamiliar. This information is hard-to-find on the CCMS vendor sites, and I have done the best I can with what I have been able to track down.
Workflow and Localization as Built-in Features
When deploying a DITA CCMS, many documentation departments are not just looking to make their processes more efficient, but also to formalize them. This is where having built-in workflow mechanisms within a CCMS can be a big plus.
Similarly, many firms justify their purchase of a DITA CCMS on the basis of localization cost savings, so having access to some mechanism that allows users to create localization kits or has some direct tie to a system where translators can work with the content is clearly worth having. Where this information is available, I have noted it in the list.
Future Updates
I intend to make updates to the list incrementally in the future.
If you spot something in this list that is either incorrect or absent, please let me know !
You’ve left off the RSuite CMS product from RSI Content Solutions.
RSuite CMS is not a DITA-primary CMS but it provides many DITA-specific features and is used to manage DITA content. RSuite CMS is targeted primarily at Publishers so it does not provide out of the box some of the features that technical documentation requires (integration with localization tools like XTM, integration with desktop versions of the common DITA-aware XML editors).
RSuite CMS is highly customizable and extensible.
Hello Keith,
regarding IBM FileNet and DITAworks I’d like to add following Information: as an IBM Partner we are now offering DITAworks Webtop pre-packed with IBM FileNet. This package provides full Enterprise-rage DITA support. How DITAworks adds substantial DITA support to IBM FileNet is listed on DITAworks product site: http://ditaworks.com/products/ditaworks-webtop-web-based-dita-authoring/ditaworks-webtop-with-ibm-filenet/
Kind regards,
Gunthilde
Bluestream XDocs is also Japanese enabled
It would be a good idea to reference the requirements in ISO/IEC/IEEE 26531, which was edited by me, Casey Jordan, and Bob Boiko. The title is: “Content management for product life-cycle, user, and service management documentation.” The draft standard, which is in its final stages of completion, can be purchased from ISO or IEEE. We did not make it DITA specific but extended it to XML environments, such as DocBook and general SGML. However, the details about the management of the content by the CCMS will provide a solid set of requirements for anyone evaluating a CCMS that claims to be DITA compliant.
That’s a good idea JoAnn, and as I review the feature-sets of the latest DITA-capable CCMSes I am finding less quantitative differences between them. What I mean by this is that most of the CCMS out there share similar basic features, but it is how they are implemented (their “quality”) that makes all the difference, and that’s not something I am easily capable of covering, and am not sure the new proposed spec will help me much.
From what I can make of summaries of the ISO/IEC/IEEE 26531 spec., the chief features to use as a basis for searching for a good CCMS are:
– Structured authoring
– Single sourcing
– Content reuse
– Content conditionalizing
– Multilingual publishing
– Workflow/governance
– Metadata/search
– CMS should have an API
Many of these are already pre-requisite conditions for DITA-capable CCMSes. So we come back to the question of “quality” that I cannot easily answer, such as “how good is Product A’s workflow?” or “how efficient is Product B’s localization process?” or “how robust is Product C’s API?”
Am certain that the draft spec would help determine which products would not make it to this list (am pretty sure Madcap Flare would fail on a couple of these points for example) but wouldn’t act as a differentiator for those that do make it to this list.
Am planning on doing an interim update to this list shortly, certainly before the end of this month. For the next full revamp though I will certainly seriously consider utilizing the draft spec!
Hello ditawriter, I would like to add the following to the existing information:
DITA and Sitecore CMS as single source for technical documentation
Writing technical documentation, providing this via a range of channels and translating it are demanding tasks. Particularly if the number of products, versions and various authors increases. This also means that increasing numbers of different parties in various environments would not only like access the documentation in general, but also specific information within the documentation. Add to this a desire to work more efficiently and save costs and the challenge is complete.
On the basis of this challenge, we implemented a content management system (Sitecore) with the xml standard DITA as the basic principle for Neopost. The content management system is the single source for the technical documentation (topics, files etc.) Publication from the content management system takes place in DITA, PDF or to one or more websites. DITA can also be imported and a connection has been made with a translation service.
Could you contact me separately about this at: keith@ditawriter.com please? Based on the link you provided the SiteCore/iquality combo might qualify for inclusion on this list, but I need answers to a few specific technical questions that I cannot find on the iquality website. Cheers!
Just a quick note, PTC product Windchill (also known as Arbortext content manager) runs on a relational Database. we have it installed with an Oracle database.
Thanks for the info! It appears as though they have gone back to their old “Windchill” name in a fresh re-branding effort, so their listing now appears under “PTC Windchill Service Information Manager”. Thanks for mentioning the database you use with it–I derive much of my information on these systems from what is published online, and in some cases the vendors do not make it easy to discover specification details like this. Much appreciated!
A couple of nits:
1) It’s RWS that bought SDL/Tridion.
2) Your table is not accessible on a phone browser. It gets cut off at the beginning of the column listing the do types each CCMS works with.
1) Thanks for the correction. 2) I will have to look into the table component in WordPress to see if there is an optimized setting for viewing on a phone. Thanks!
DitaExchange now offers its latest version of the product, now called Dx4, in two deployment options: SharePoint on-premise or with SharePoint Online (part of Office365). With SharePoint Online, Dx4 is already available as a ‘Provider Hosted App’ and set-up is a breeze! And with robust support for DITA content (using a number of available authoring tools) and native Word content (“Word topics”), the appeal to a broader set of content authors, contributors and reviewers has also grown!
Inmedius is no longer selling DITA Storm. The URL (inmediusdita.com) redirects to a Japanese site, and DITA Storm no longer appears on the Inmedius product pages.
Thanks for that info! I have taken the opportunity to do a full update. Inmedius has been removed (and ditto for another vendor which appears to have left the DITA CCMS marketplace), and the info for all of the other vendors’ info has been updated. I also found a way to fix the problem of the table display width at the same time.
Just wanted to note that easyDITA no longer offers an on-premises (‘standalone’ in your parlance) solution. Our SaaS solution offers much greater flexibility and regular upgrades.
Thanks for letting me know! Have updated the listing accordingly.
Hi, Keith. Vasont CCMS can be deployed SaaS, Hosted, or Standalone.
Hi. If you are considering a complete list of DITA-capable CMS’s (CCMS’s), then you have to include Empolis Content Lifecycle Suite (CLS) by Empolis Information Management GmbH. Here are two reference links – one to Empolis and one to Ovitas, the US representative of CLS, which we brand as Ovitas CMS.
https://www.empolis.com/en/project-reference-examples/
http://ovitas.com/technology/content-management-platform/
Thanks,
Charles Andrews
Hi,
4D CONCEPT is a french software publisher who developped a documentary worshop based on DITA standard.
The software name is DITA FACTORY and it has been improved/specialized for owner manuals content: creation and publishing for car manufacturers (glovebox documentation) and technical information.
The latest version of DITA FACTORY is for general purposes (without the automotive parametrization).
DITA MANAGER is the CCMS of DITA FACTORY based on a NoSQL technology with a powerfull search engine, semantics and editing features.
Kind regards,
Thomsa
Am I correct in assuming that there is virtually no activity in open source here ?
Open-source, but no recent updates: PressGang CCMS
https://github.com/pressgang-ccms
https://pressgang-ccms.github.io
One of the founders supposedly left to found Corilla for technical writing, but Corilla’s site and various domain names are variously abandoned or non-functional.
There *was* an organization that released a CCMS called Cinnamon which I believe was open sourced but that has disappeared. And while not open source, Tektur appears to be an effort at a relatively light-weight CCMS.
Will the list be updated soon? I notice that the acquisition of IXIASoft by Madcap isn’t reflected, so assume other updates may not be shown.
The most helpful piece of information that’s missing is the suitability for different team sizes. For example, looking at the list, I assume these are all mid-six-figure to seven-figure systems for larger teams, and that there is nothing suitable for a small team wanting to move into structured authoring. Helpful information would be what’s suitable as a single-license, small-team license, and enterprise-only software.
Hey there Rahel: I’ve finally gotten around to updating this listing. And while I like your suggestion of including information on the proper team size for each CCMS, I decided not to as most companies would likely object to being pigeonholed like that. The information that is here is otherwise all objectively obtained, and that would be (or be considered to be) subjective.
Thank you for compiling this information Keith, it’s very helpful.
What are thoughts on Paligo: https://paligo.net/
I find it is a solid product, though it is not based in DITA. It is a structured authoring environment build on a modified version of DocBook. Optimized for ease-of-use by writers, with a simple but powerful user interface. I understand that it is the fastest-growing CCMS in the technical writing space at the moment. Definitely worth checking out, though again, it is not DITA, which is why I do not have it in my CCMS listing.
Thank you for your inputs.
Adobe’s CCMS is called AEM Guides not AEM Sites