Modern Campus CMS vs MODX

Modern Campus CMS is a web content management system marketed exclusively for higher education. It provides editorial workflows, custom roles, SEO tools, a media library, and custom content types. Editors can use WYSIWYG tools, drag-and-drop interfaces, forms, and surveys, while Layout Builder offers low-code page creation for non-technical users. Workflow management and page health checks support review before publication. Automated testing can check accessibility against WCAG 2.2, and the CMS supports on-brand webpages and search-optimized blog posts. It operates as a cloud-based solution, with browser access and publishing to institution production servers. Hosting includes DDoS protection, a web application firewall, and regular operating system patches. Authentication options include LDAP, CAS, Shibboleth, and SAML 2.0 SSO with validated identity providers. Modules and managed services can extend the system; modules are available for purchase. An August 2026 release added AI help for page titles and descriptions, requiring an institution OpenAI API key. Pricing is available on request. Modern Campus no longer sells self-hosting, but continues supporting existing customers.

MODX is a content management system and application framework for building custom digital experiences. It can model blogs, landing pages, catalogs, forms, PDFs, CSV downloads, and custom input fields. Reusable Templates, Chunks, Snippets, and Plugins render pages or add functionality and logic. Editorial workflows, custom roles, multilingual content, SEO tools, media libraries, and attribute-based access controls support publishing and content management. Community-made Extras extend it with integrations for areas such as e-commerce, maps, menus, OAuth, social, and SEO. Connections to API-enabled services can use JavaScript snippets, Extras, or Zapier, whose MODX Extra connects to over 500 applications. MODX is available as self-hosted software, through an API, and on the web. The self-hosted Free plan costs nothing. Managed MODX Cloud plans begin at $36 a month billed annually; other listed plans include self-hosted and managed options, with different storage, support, and hosting features. MODX was founded in 2004 and is headquartered in Dallas, Texas.