In our recent 20.1 release of the WCM Report, we've updated evaluations of several CMS vendors in the .NET arena, including DotNetNuke, Ektron, Kentico, and SharePoint.

The lower half of this tier -- what we call mid-market products -- is a bit like the crowded Grand Central station: arrivals are more or less according to schedule, the orchestration is in place, and innovation is sparse. The .NET CMS darlings who dominate this tier are not necessarily shaking up the universe, but merrily chugging along.

The demise of former mid-market stalwarts RedDot (OpenText Web Solutions) and Immediacy (Alterian CMC) is an indicator to the Darwinian evolution in the jam-packed space. There are many choices in the mid-market CMS product tier even as some offerings like Sitecore differentiate themselves by becoming more platform-like (read: complex). Only the fittest will survive.

SharePoint remains a plausible alternative, but as an expensive development platform, it's neither priced nor productized for broader adoption among mid-market customers.

Trying to break away from its Czech roots, Kentico has seen some adoption in North America and has expanded its feature-set to include e-commerce and social capabilities.  Yet Kentico still remains a rather niche vendor, largely fitting basic scenarios.

Ektron released a slew of new features (as they often do), along with the new API, which still remains far from prime time. Developers are yet to fall in love with the Ektron way.

DotNetNuke decided to modernize its innards and switch from VB.NET to C#. This development though is unlikely to have much impact on its usability or architectural shortcomings.

Getting squeezed on the lower end by the likes of WordPress and Joomla!, the .NET mid-market is under pressure to remain relevant and distinguish itself in a way that is appealing to organizations with limited budgets or limited IT resources.