Liferay Digital Experience Platform (DXP) vs. Liferay Experience Cloud (LXC)

3 min read

Liferay currently provides two distinct offerings to the marketplace: Liferay Digital Experience Platform (DXP) and Liferay Experience Cloud (LXC). On the surface, the two provide the same functional capabilities, but there are significant differences in the deployment models, with DXP being the older and more traditional on-prem scenario and DXP the cloud SAAS scenario. Let’s take you through a comparison and then provide insights to help you choose which is right for you:

Liferay Digital Experience Platform (DXP):

  • Liferay DXP is an on-premises or self-hosted solution that provides a comprehensive suite of tools and features for building and managing digital experiences. It includes capabilities for content management, collaboration, personalization, social engagement, analytics, and more. Liferay DXP is highly customizable and can be tailored to meet specific business needs. It is typically used by organizations that want full control over their digital experience platform and have the necessary resources to manage and maintain the infrastructure or utilize a managed services provider like Veriday to host on their behalf.

Liferay Experience Cloud (LXC):

  • Liferay Experience Cloud, on the other hand, is a cloud-based solution offered by Liferay as a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform. It provides similar features and functionalities as Liferay DXP but is hosted and managed by Liferay in the cloud. With Liferay Experience Cloud, organizations utilize Liferay for cloud hosting, automatic updates, scalability, and reduced infrastructure management overhead. It is suitable for organizations that prefer a cloud-based solution and want to focus more on creating and delivering digital experiences without the burden of managing the underlying infrastructure.

Key differences:

  • Hosting: Liferay DXP is hosted on-premises, self-hosted, or deploys a managed services provider like Veriday who can host on their behalf, while Liferay Experience Cloud is a cloud-based SaaS solution.
  • Maintenance: Organizations using Liferay DXP are responsible for managing and maintaining the infrastructure, whereas Liferay Experience Cloud handles the infrastructure maintenance for its users.
  • Customization: Liferay DXP offers greater flexibility for customization and control over the platform, while Liferay Experience Cloud may have more limitations due to the nature of cloud-hosted platforms.

The Choice:

  1. The choice between Liferay DXP and Liferay Experience Cloud depends on several factors:
  2. Are you new to Liferay? If you are new to Liferay and looking to choose between DXP and LXC, then ask yourself this question, what future are trends pointing toward? Clearly the marketplace is favouring cloud vs on prem solutions. Liferay is no different. While DXP is a supported platform, more investments are targeted at LXC and clearly this is Liferay’s future too.
  3. Are you an existing Liferay Client?  If you are an existing Liferay DXP customer and looking to choose between DXP and LXC going forward, then ask yourself the same question , but also ask where am I at today and how realistic is adopting LXC moving forward? What is my migration path? What obstacles do I need to overcome? What’s my cost/benefit analysis?
  4. Whether you are new to Liferay or an existing customer, understanding your unique internal controls, customization and integration requirements is key to understanding your choices and timing between DXP and LXC. Infinite flexibility in these areas implies control and therefore DXP; while that is not always best for long term maintainability it may be best for your near term business requirements. This does not mean LXC is not right for you, it just means you have more analysis and planning to deliver these requirements in LXC in the way that you need to satisfy your business needs.  
  5. While on the surface cloud vs. on prem seems like you will save significantly with ongoing operations there is a grey area between the two. In general terms while you have transferred infrastructure and platform management in the LXC scenario you still have what one might call Dev/Ops responsibility. This is the area between the application you have built on LXC and the responsibility to support that application. You must ensure that your business case accounts for this. 
  6. Still have questions? Maybe this has even prompted a few more? Please reach out to us. We are experts at Digital Transformation, Liferay and Cloud enablement and are happy to help!

Recent Posts

Want a closer look at Appian?

Book a Demo now, and we’ll show you how we utilize Appian technologies to help our clients be more agile and effective

Book A Demo
Enhancing Customer Experience in the Banking Industry with AppianWhy Financial Services Companies Need to Consider Liferay Experience Cloud ...