Here's how they're similar:
- Both have pages that are stand-alone with content. They can sometimes have their own layout/design and can be treated as individual areas of the site. For instance, the Home page is usually different than a page of blog posts (on WP) much like the home page is different from a list of Knowledge Base articles (NOW).
- Instead of Posts (WP) you have Knowledge articles (NOW). The categorization is not as fluid on the NOW side as you can only choose one category per article, but you can do related tables to try and accomplish multiple categorization. They both can serve up articles based on date, author, updated, tags, etc. You can also set a "featured image" for NOW articles (if you add that field to your form) like you can with WP.
- Where NOW has Blocks, WP has Widgets. The idea is about the same, but you have "blocks" of code that can be used in drop zones (NOW) or sidebars (WP). Edit the block and it will edit it on all pages/articles using that block. Some blocks can be dynamic or personalized or specific to roles - true for both WP and NOW.
- CSS is handled in the same way for each. For WP the CSS files are included in the header of the theme, but on NOW they are included in the selected Theme.
- In WP you can enable a new theme just by uploading it whereas on NOW you can import an update set of a new template (though the options for uploading a new template are much more limited than what is available for WP).
- Each page/area can have it's own layout/design. For WP it's accomplished based on the URL structure of the page or blog category. In NOW you can assign a theme at the site level or at the individual page level.
- You don't really need to know how to code (once the layout/theme has been created). Settings and content can be updated via a simple UI. For NOW, most of the content is coming from either Knowledge articles, Catalog items or ticket data. Those admins have control over the CMS by keeping their content up to date - all without having to touch the actual "code" stuff. Same with WP as you rarely have to touch the actual theme files to make changes.
- Adding content is done via a simple WYSIWYG editor. I will give a nod to Wordpress on this one, as the OOB editor is really simple and powerful. NOW's editor is good, especially if you customize the experience to try and keep some semblance of control over style.
- Versioning is available for content on both, though seems a bit simpler to access on WP.
How they're different:
- The #1 complaint I get (mainly from "marketing types") is the URL structure. In WP it's really easy to define a custom way of presenting the URLs to make them more "clean" or descriptive. Not possible with NOW unless you do some pretty heavy DNS lifting and even with that you're not going to fair well. How most defeat this is by setting up a clean URL redirect on their server (or use something like bit.ly) so they can do branded URL that then forwards to some wonky NOW URL.
- Comments are handled a bit differently in NOW and restricted to just Knowledge articles. If you are serving up a Catalog item, you won't see a comments field. As well, when you post a comment, it's pretty hard to get in there and customize the "experience" of the comment. I have used integration with Disqus in the past to try and bring some comments together, but in reality, it's a hack. To be fair, many enterprise organizations are less concerned with commenting (community) within a Service Management application than they are with getting their needs met quickly.
- Adding/accessing forms is a tough one for NOW. Currently (though is changing in Geneva!) you really only have the option to Iframe in the form. While this is good for a number of reasons, it's horrible for mobile (and sometimes IE9). It's also challenging for trying to customize the CSS (through the Iframe) or look/feel of the form. You're left with the native UI coming through which leaves a bit to be desired. WP handles forms much more simply, but to be fair, there is not a world-class workflow system behind it!
Hopefully that helps keep the 1:1 conversation going! If you have any other questions about similarities/differences, send them through in the comments.
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