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Gerardo Blackaller - PeerSpot reviewer
Presales Manager at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
Real User
Apr 17, 2023
Good tool to improve productivity and efficiency of your organization
Pros and Cons
  • "My client has been able to improve productivity with the use of the tool. The solution has them develop several tools that addressed their specific needs. They have become more efficient and safe with the use of the product."
  • "The solution needs to improve its adaption capability with a third-party company. I want to see more communities or open knowledge resources with the tool."

What is our primary use case?

My client uses the solution to develop an internal solution. 

How has it helped my organization?

My client has been able to improve productivity with the use of the tool. The solution has them develop several tools that addressed their specific needs. They have become more efficient and safe with the use of the product. 

What needs improvement?

The solution needs to improve its adaption capability with a third-party company. I want to see more communities or open knowledge resources with the tool. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the solution for three years. 

Buyer's Guide
Adobe ColdFusion
June 2026
Learn what your peers think about Adobe ColdFusion. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: June 2026.
902,894 professionals have used our research since 2012.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I would rate the product's stability a nine out of ten.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I would rate the tool's scalability a ten out of ten. My client has plans of increasing the software's usage. 

How was the initial setup?

The tool's deployment is complex because there are many ways to deploy it. 

What was our ROI?

We have seen ROI with the use of the tool. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The tool's pricing is high but it's totally worth the investment. 

What other advice do I have?

I would rate the solution an eight-point five out of ten. I would recommend anyone looking to use the solution to make a complete analysis of their business requirements before using it. 

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
CEO / Owner at Aelion - Netherlands
Real User
Oct 22, 2018
Compared to other server-side languages, it has a way more developer friendly approach and a less steep learning curve.
Pros and Cons
  • "I believe that developing with ColdFusion saved me about 25% time compared to Java and PHP projects."
  • "My major concern is the fact that Adobe is not actively pushing the development of ColdFusion since they bought Macromedia."

What is our primary use case?

I develop applications with Coldfusion to service the requirements from my clients and help them grow their business.

How has it helped my organization?

Especially the integration with the client-sided programming is really friendly. Of course, other languages have improved a lot and this valuable features is getting less and less important for choosing ColdFusion.

What is most valuable?

When I started using ColdFusion, I only had experience with PHP, and compared to that language, I was amazed by the simplicity and the structure. From that moment forward, I got experience with Java, JavaScript, Mendix, and more. And compared to other server-side languages, it has a way more developer friendly approach and a less steep learning curve.

What needs improvement?

My major concern is the fact that Adobe is not actively pushing the development of ColdFusion since they bought Macromedia. However open source development initiatives like Railo, Blue Dragon and Lucee are picking up the pace and making sure development stays possible.

For how long have I used the solution?

More than five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

With larger applications I had issues.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I had no issues with scalability.

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer Service:

Never had direct contact with Adobe ColdFusion customer service.

Technical Support:

Never had direct contact with Adobe ColdFusion customer service.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

PHP for about 6 months, I switched because my employer utilized ColdFusion, however after using it for a couple of months I was sold on the product. And that's why up to today I keep on using the product.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was straightforward.

What about the implementation team?

We implemented it by using an in-house team and my own personal experience in later projects.

What was our ROI?

I believe that developing with ColdFusion saved me about 25% time compared to Java and PHP projects. ColdFusion has a lot of useful built-in functions that the others lack by default. Although via scripts created by others you will still be able to implemented those.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Adobe ColdFusion
June 2026
Learn what your peers think about Adobe ColdFusion. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: June 2026.
902,894 professionals have used our research since 2012.
PeerSpot user
Marketing & Innovation Director at Navita BR
Real User
May 30, 2018
A mature, reliable, consistent platform, which offers outstanding customer service and product support
Pros and Cons
  • "Apart from providing a mature, reliable, consistent platform, Adobe also offers outstanding customer service and product support."
  • "No need to import libraries from outside the environment."
  • "Among the most valuable features are an almost unlimited set of tags (ready-to-use components), which accelerate development in at least 50%, compared to other development languages that I have used (PHP, JavaServer Pages, .NET, and Node.js)."
  • "Need to be able to Be able to inject Python, Java, Groovy, or PHP code into a CFML page."
  • "It is a shame that Adobe does not provide ColdFusion Training anymore, but there is a network of Training Partners where you can find basic and advanced ColdFusion training anywhere."

What is our primary use case?

I have been developing (and teaching) ColdFusion for more than 20 years. I have used it for almost any possible web-based application imaginable (and even some non web-based), but my main use case was to develop CMS (Web Content Management Systems), including solutions for Haymarket Business Publishing and the Brazilian Post Office. ColdFusion is a multi-platform, so it does not really matter what environment you are deploying. Among the most valuable features are an almost unlimited set of tags (ready-to-use components), which accelerate development in at least 50%, compared to other development languages that I have used (PHP, JavaServer Pages, .NET, and Node.js).

How has it helped my organization?

Apart from providing a mature, reliable, consistent platform, Adobe also offers outstanding customer service and product support. It is a shame that Adobe does not provide ColdFusion Training anymore, but there is a network of Training Partners where you can find basic and advanced ColdFusion training anywhere.

What is most valuable?

No need to import libraries from outside the environment.

ColdFusion and CFML (ColdFusion Markup Language) provide almost everything that a web developer needs, which is  probably a lot of things that they do not even know that they need, such as integrated Solr, ORM, the capacity for creating APIs, the frictionless integration with SMS by the ColdFusion SMS event gateway, and so many more: cfmail, cfftp, cffile, cfhttp, etc.

What needs improvement?

  • Be able to inject Python, Java, Groovy, or PHP code into a CFML page.
  • CF Git, CF Ant, and maybe CF Subversion would be nice to have.

Most of what I wanted seems to already be built into the new Public Beta (ColdFusion 2018 release): https://coldfusion.adobe.com/2...

For how long have I used the solution?

More than five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Anything that I might have found over my years as a ColdFusion instructor and software architect was due to bad code or bad practices. Some issues were easily fixed with the help of Adobe ColdFusion enterprise support, which was expensive, but worth every dollar.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Not at all. I used ColdFusion to run the Brazilian Post Office website, and it serves many millions of pages really fast.

How are customer service and technical support?

When needed, the Adobe Support team was helpful, quick, and solved our problems (mainly cluster configuration issues) really fast.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We used Perl and some others. However, ColdFusion proved to be faster and more reliable than anything else.

How was the initial setup?

Next > Next > Next, and that was it!

What about the implementation team?

We implemented using an in-house team, which I led.

What was our ROI?

It is hard to calculate this, but considering a US$400K project cost where 80% of the cost was coding ($320K) and considering a very modest 15% increase in learning/productivity over the main competitor (PHP), you can easily get to US$48K which pays for the developers' tool (CFBuilder) plus training and support, and even the software (3 x US$8.499/2 CPU servers).

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

If you really want to save money, there is a free open source CFML engine (former Railo, now Lucee) out there. 

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We evaluated .NET, PHP, Node.js, Ruby and Python.

What other advice do I have?

I recommend trying it for a little bit. It is not for the classical Java/.NET developer though, since it is more like developing in PHP without all the syntax confusion and lack of consistency. However, the learning curve is smooth and fast that you will be hooked very quickly. 

The OO features are a must and the best you can get in any web server-based technology.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
Managing Director, Application Services & Digital Technologies at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Real User
Feb 26, 2018
We save enormous amounts of time in development using this tool
Pros and Cons
  • "The ability to write SQL queries was very helpful as we did not need to bother our DBAs in writing stored procedures for simple tasks."
  • "This tool was very easy learn, yet powerful enough to manage many sites on a single instance."
  • "We save enormous amounts of time in development using this tool."
  • "Installation of the server software was formidable due the number of configurable options."

What is our primary use case?

I use ColdFusion to build internal and external applications for a major oil company. We had several teams totaling about 100 developers using this tool at our client. 

How has it helped my organization?

This tool was very easy learn, yet powerful enough to manage many sites on a single instance. 

We save enormous amounts of time in development using this tool.

What is most valuable?

The ability to write SQL queries was very helpful as we did not need to bother our DBAs in writing stored procedures for simple tasks.  

What needs improvement?

I have since moved into a management role and have not kept abreast of changes with this tool.

For how long have I used the solution?

More than five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

None.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

None.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We did not use a different solution. We did use .NET for some applications, but I preferred CF.

How was the initial setup?

Installation of the server software was formidable due the number of configurable options.

The client had the software running prod but did not have dev or test servers. I was tasked with setting those up after the fact. It took some time to get the dev/test server to match prod, but that was not an issue with the tool. This was not setting up the environments properly.

What about the implementation team?

I was part of a vendor team that did this for a client.

What was our ROI?

It was not determined.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

It is a very effective solution and worth the price.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Not applicable.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Adobe ColdFusion Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: June 2026
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Adobe ColdFusion Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.