Cohesion makes sense for Acquia

The recent acquisition of Acquia by Vista Equity Partners for $1billion probably overshadowed the smaller acquisition of Cohesion by Acquia a few weeks earlier. The move helps Acquia enhance its portfolio by also acquiring the DX8 page editor and site builder tools:

1. DX8 page editor is the functionality to allow CMS users to edit the site content which uses the DX8 layout canvas.  These are usually experiential pages rather than those driven by paragraphs or a content type. 
2. DX8 Site Builder is used by the agency to build the site using DX8 functionality including template creation, style creation, UI  components and settings manager. These licenses are for agency use only (including internal agencies) and include the editor license. They are not available for non-administrator use such as within the marketing department.

The DX8 experience can be added to either a new or existing site, and the DX8 page editor provides a range of tools out of the box to enable web editors and administrative users to make changes to the existing website that also leverage many of the core features that have been added to Drupal 8 core and various other contributed and custom modules.

In Dries words:

With Cohesion DX8, users can create and design Drupal websites without having to write PHP, HTML or CSS, or know how a Drupal theme works. Instead, you can create designs, layouts and pages using a drag-and-drop user interface.

Details of pricing were not available at the time of writing but this is likely to be offered by Acquia as a product to its enterprise customers and certain approved agencies can apply for a Site Builder licence.

Drew Griffiths, Cohesion CEO and founder, said:

Cohesion’s vision was to revolutionise the way Drupal websites are built through low-code, visual solutions. With the addition of Cohesion DX8’s technology, Acquia will make it possible for organisations and agencies with demanding requirements to launch websites faster, while maintaining consistency across multiple brands, regions, or divisions. This allows technical resources to focus on more complex functionality, so organisations can spend more developer time on high value areas of the website and less time pushing pixels.

How Acquia Cohesion takes off remains to be seen, but this is likely something you will hear more of in the near future. If it does take off, it could have a significant impact on Drupal development and site building.