7 Signs Your Sitecore Site Isn’t Living Up to the Brochure

Over the past 20 years, I’ve built, tuned, configured, re-built, and rescued hundreds of Sitecore implementations. Despite the incredible flexibility and power of Sitecore, the same themes tend to pop up repeatedly when projects go off track. If you’re experiencing any of the scenarios below, it may be time to pause, re-evaluate, and find out how we can help. Sitecore isn't to blame.

What Went Wrong with Your Sitecore Site? Let's Unpack it:

1. “That’s Just How Sitecore Works” or “Sitecore Can’t Do That”

If I had a nickel... Every Sitecore developer, every Sitecore MVP has heard this at some point and I can feel the heavy eye roll from here. Too often, a content team will assume Sitecore is the limitation when something feels too complicated or clunky. In reality, Sitecore is extremely extensible and can do a lot, but it must be set up correctly.

If you're saying this about an interaction on your site, an integration, a feature, anything on your site. It's not Sitecore. From a technical standpoint, Sitecore isn't even part of that. It's how it was built.

What We Hear

• “Sitecore is just naturally hard to use.”
• “We need a ton of custom code because the out-of-the-box features don’t work for us.”
• "Sitecore is just really slow, that's how it is."

The Real Cause

In most cases, the root issue is lack of proper training, an incomplete implementation, missed configurations or improperly installed, or a poorly planned information architecture that makes otherwise straightforward features seem
impossible.

2. Content Authors Stuck in Content Editor Because Experience Editor Breaks

One of Sitecore’s biggest draws is the Experience Editor, which promises “What You See Is What You Get” page editing. But if your implementation is riddled with broken renderings or dependencies that only function in Content Editor, your marketing teams lose that crucial WYSIWYG convenience.

What We Hear

• “The Experience Editor is inherently buggy; just avoid it. It never worked.”
• "Sitecore just isn't as easy to use as something like WordPress"
• “Developers are needed to create or change page layouts.”

The Real Cause

Often, the Experience Editor fails when renderings aren’t coded correctly for editing, or datasources weren't understood by the development team, or front-end code interactions and sloppy javascript conflicts with Sitecore’s own editing controls. It’s not an inherent Sitecore flaw,. It’s how the solution was implemented.

3. Marketing Features (Personalization, Analytics, Automation) Never Worked

Sitecore touts robust analytics, personalization, and marketing automation tools. However, many organizations discover these features were never fully set up, tested, or integrated with their existing marketing workflows. The result? A “fancy” platform that’s only used for basic content publishing.

What We Hear

• “We tried personalization rules but it was too confusing”
• “Analytics just never worked, it's always had errors”

The Real Cause

Failing to configure, activate and test these features is the usual culprit. If your organization never mapped out clear marketing goals, or if the environment was rushed live without properly installing the Sitecore Experience Database (xDB)or other modules, you’ll end up with dormant marketing capabilities. We often find that xDB never worked because the implementation team didn't notice or care or understand it.

4. You "Downgraded to XM"

If you’re not using advanced marketing features. They never worked in the first place. You might have been told, “We should just downgrade to XM and save licensing costs.” While that can be a strategic move in some scenarios, it’s also a sign that the initial project may have missed the mark of delivering Sitecore’s full potential.

What We Hear

• “The features in XP don't work, we just need to publish content. Nothing fancy.”
• “We didn't need personalization anyways. We have Google for Analytics.”

The Real Cause

Typically, underutilized or misconfigured marketing features lead teams to conclude they’re not needed at all. In reality, you might be losing out on valuable data and personalized engagement just because the original setup fell short.

5. Other Teams are Running Laps Around You, Launching Forms Overnight in Pardot or One-pagers in Salesforce.

You know it’s trouble when your colleagues are rolling out new forms in Pardot overnight or spinning up slick new onepagers in Salesforce with minimal friction. Meanwhile, your team grapples with endless deployments just to tweak a form field.

You ask your team and they tell you "No problem, we'll do that next sprint and deploy it next month".

What We Hear

• “Sitecore is too slow for rapid campaigns.”
• "Sitecore needs a deployment for any type of new landing pages"
• “You have to choose between an enterprise CMS and agile marketing tools - can’t have both.”

The Real Cause

Slow release processes often stem from complex workflows, improper DevOps, or manual deployment procedures, not an inherent flaw in Sitecore.

Your experience should be what I call a "blank canvas". Where you can start with a blank page and have a robust library of drag and drop components that allow you to build any page on your own. Lego analogy anyone?

If you don't have that experience as an author, it's likely the implementation team misunderstood or wasn't Sitecore trained on proper usage of Sitecore SXA, partial designs, placeholders, placeholder settings, rendering parameters, datasourcing, dynamic placeholders, template design, ok the list is going to go on and on. The point is things need to be developed with Sitecore best practices otherwise you won't get the value. A team of super talented developers are liable to make these oversights, if they aren't Sitecore certified developers. It's a different animal.

6. You're Questioning if XM is Even Worth the Cost

Even if you’ve pared your Sitecore implementation down to XM (content-only mode), you might find yourself wondering if you’re getting enough bang for your buck. The license still comes with an enterprise-level price tag, and if your organization’s needs have evolved. You never quite aligned with Sitecore’s strengths. You could be rethinking the investment.

What We Hear

• “We can’t scale down more; we’re stuck with XM.”
• “We’ve already sunk so much time into Sitecore, might as well keep paying.”

The Real Cause

Your business goals may have evolved over time, or initial scoping might have been off. You’re paying for an enterprise class platform even though you’re primarily publishing static content.

7. Considering Other Platforms Because “The Grass Is Greener”

Frustrations can lead you to believe there’s a magical alternative that’ll solve everything. But every platform has quirks, hidden complexities, and a learning curve. If you’ve invested in Sitecore, and your team has spent time learning it,
jumping to a new platform might simply swap one set of challenges for another.

Your authors are complaining. Your internal devs are complaining. Your IT team is complaining. Your users are complaining. Now your leadership is complaining. Time to make a decision.

What We Hear

• “This other CMS will just work out of the box.”
• “Switching platforms is cheaper than fixing what we have.”
• "Sitecore is just too old"

The Real Cause

Often, poor implementation or lack of in-house expertise is the real reason Sitecore isn’t shining. Replacing your platform altogether can be more expensive and time-consuming than addressing the root issues.

Where can Nishtech Help

Sitecore can be a powerful engine for delivering personalized, data-driven customer experiences, if it’s implemented and maintained properly. Whether you need a quick tune-up or a full-blown rescue, Nishtech has the experience to help you:

Audit Your Existing Setup

We’ll deep-dive into your technical architecture, configuration, and code quality to pinpoint what’s holding you back. We highly recommend a Sitecore Audit, it might inform you that some of these things are easier to fix than you think.

Plan Realistic Goals

Together, we define which Sitecore features align with your organization’s objectives and how to better leverage the features of the platform and your investment.

Leverage Sitecore Expertise

Our team specializes in Sitecore solutions, from basic XM deployments to advanced XP features like personalization, analytics, and automation.

Don’t let implementation woes overshadow Sitecore’s robust capabilities. Contact Nishtech to see how we can help you turn things around and build a stable, scalable digital experience platform that truly meets your needs.