Analyst reports are useful snapshots of the market

By Janus Boye

Matt Garrepy from CMS Critic are among the industry analysts joining CMS Kickoff 26

What matters just as much is who actually shows up for the conversation.

Looking across recent perspectives from industry analysts IDC, Forrester and Gartner, and practitioner-led recognition such as the CMS Critic Awards, a number of the vendors joining CMS Kickoff 26 are already well recognised:

  • Brightspot (IDC MarketScape, CMS Critic Awards)

  • Contentful (IDC MarketScape, Gartner Magic Quadrant, CMS Critic Awards)

  • dotCMS (IDC MarketScape, CMS Critic Awards)

  • Kentico (Gartner Magic Quadrant, CMS Critic Awards)

  • Kontent.ai (IDC MarketScape, CMS Critic Awards)

  • Magnolia (Gartner Magic Quadrant, CMS Critic Awards)

  • Progress Software (Forrester Wave, Gartner Magic Quadrant)

  • Sitecore (Forrester Wave, Gartner Magic Quadrant, CMS Critic Awards)

  • Umbraco (IDC MarketScape, CMS Critic Awards)

Beyond those, CMS Kickoff also brings together a wider and deliberately diverse ecosystem of platforms, tools, and open source projects:

Agility CMS, ai12z, aigensei, ButterCMS, Dynamic Solutions, Fastr, Kajoo.ai, Pantheon, SearchStax, Solodev and TYPO3.

Open source does not always get the industry recognition it deserves, especially given its wide adoption, but it is very much part of the conversation next week, with experienced voices from the WordPress, TYPO3 and Drupal ecosystems in the room.

Some of these names appear regularly in analyst charts. Others are emerging, specialised, or intentionally taking a different path. That mix is very much by design.

What makes the conversation valuable is not just hearing from vendors. It is the mix. Customers comparing notes, agencies and experienced implementation partners sharing what actually works in practice, and vendors engaging in the same open discussions.

Among the analysts joining us are Dan Drapeau from DXP Catalyst Consulting, Matthew Garrepy from CMS Critic, and our host Janus Boye from Boye & Company in Denmark, adding further perspective and challenge to the conversations.

That combination helps teams make better choices about platforms, partners, and direction, based on real-world experience rather than just charts.

The real story often comes to light somewhere between the charts.

See you soon in Florida.