Ceros Tool Review | Scripted

What is Ceros?

According to the brand: "Ceros is a cloud-based design platform that allows marketers and designers to create immersive content without writing a single line of code. It is a tool that can transform and liberate your digital presence across all touchpoints, and it's backed up by a team of experts."

A quick look at Ceros's website makes it clear exactly what they offer. That includes a code-less, visual design tool that can help brands create more immersive experiences for their visitors. As Ceros puts it, if digital is your only presence, neglecting it could cost you your brand.

Aside from opening the doors to new digital experiences thanks to their user-friendly platform, they also brag about time savings — stating a website that used to take six weeks to create can now be live in about six days with their help.

What to Consider When Looking for a Content Creation Solution

Ceros calls itself a "content creation platform," though it's more akin to a website builder — albeit a very high-end and a custom one. They've likely avoided calling themselves a website builder for the exact reason that most website builders offer very little customization and pretty unexciting end results. Ceros, on the other hand, is trusted by brands like Red Bull and Vice.

If you're looking for a solution like Ceros, there's a good chance that you already have a digital presence, and it may even be quite large. However, you've decided to look for a new solution because you feel that your presence is not immersive, impressive, or on-brand enough to truly attract and convert visitors. That's where Ceros comes in.

Your options in this space go far beyond a "drag-and-drop" platform like Ceros. In fact, the first and oldest option is to bring in a coding and design team and contract them to start from scratch, building a unique experience from the ground-up, the old-fashioned way. Ceros points out that this takes weeks, if not months, and requires a major time and financial investment.

The goal with Ceros is not to replace your design team but to free them and save them time. Ceros does not create a website for you but instead gives you the tools you need to help you fuel creativity and turn it into memorable visitor experiences. Meanwhile, you can save money as you won't have to hire an agency or put all that time into web design.

Features and Benefits of Ceros

Ceros, while somewhat a tool, is also a service. This means the Ceros team is much more hands-on than you may have first assumed. In fact, the first step to getting started with Ceros is scheduling a conversation with one of the brand's in-house experts. If the discussion goals are well, you'll be plugged into a 30-day pilot program, where your brand can access the entire Ceros platform, team, and tools and see if it works for your brand.

Ceros offers onboarding and workshops to help set you up for success, showing you around the tools, and helping you make use of all of the platform's features. After your first 30 days are up, Ceros will talk with you about partnering in the long-term if you both think it's going well. Ceros is made up of multiple core tools:

Studio: Visual content creation made simple using a codeless editor. Whether you're a marketer or designer, you'll love Ceros Studio.
Markup: Integrated with Ceros, Markup allows you to seamlessly collect feedback on mockups so that designs go that much faster.
Chartblocks: Another integration, Chartblocks allows you to create highly visual charts with ease to display data more effectively.

In addition to these tools, the Ceros Pros team consists of 40 professionals standing by to help brands like yours.

Pros of Ceros

The user interface for Ceros is intuitive and easy to use, which is oh-so-important given Ceros' value proposition. If it didn't save you substantial time over coding or using another interface, it wouldn't be worthwhile. Ceros is credited for having a very user-friendly platform. If you know Photoshop, you can use Ceros with a little learning curve.
Ceros is also praised for listening to client feedback. Users who have been with Ceros for a long time state that the brand has only gotten better, and the company's roadmap shows a commitment to ongoing improvements, not just rapid growth.
Meetings with the Ceros team are also praised, as users say the team members are always friendly and helpful. This isn't like your typical support team — the Ceros team gets to know your brand and they always show up to meetings with fresh ideas to help you expand and get better results.

Cons of Ceros

The biggest con of Ceros is the price, which creates a major barrier to entry for most businesses. Using Ceros represents a significant investment that your company may not be ready to make.
Ceros is focused on design and user experience, but it may miss the mark on some SEO fundamentals if you don't put in the extra time and figure out what to check for.

Ceros Plans & Pricing

Ceros doesn't publish its pricing online, and it doesn't offer a tiered pricing model. Instead, the amount you pay for Ceros will be determined based upon the size and needs of your company. For instance, the number of designers/users you need to collaborate on a Ceros project, or the number of Ceros projects you have open at any given time, will increase the price you pay.

Ceros does offer a 30-day pilot program, but that should not be confused with a free trial since you'll need to schedule a conversation with the Ceros team and get approved for the pilot. At the end of the pilot, you'll get the opportunity to discuss with the team and determine if you're ready to move forward. If so, you'll get to pick and choose your tools.

Customer Reviews

"Ceros is the WYSIWYG platform for an interactive design that every non-web designer has been looking for. I'm simply a graphic designer who can bob and weave my way around InDesign and Illustrator in my sleep, but once Dreamweaver and HTML are involved, I'm lost. When you think about how advanced design is getting on the internet, graphic design gets to be very limiting. Ceros solves that problem. I, as a traditionally static designer, can jump into this easy-to-use platform and whip up lively experiences with fun interactions and animations." - Gina L.

"As an Adobe based designer, the Ceros platform is easy to create a layout with previous Adobe InDesign experience. Ceros Inspire is an amazing tool for quick layout templates to get your ideas following and also features some custom-created sites for inspiration. The animation is easy to add and elevate any layout as someone who hasn't worked much with After Effects or other timeline animation tools." - Gabby G.

"We are still early in our work with Ceros but the experience across the board has been excellent. We have loved the support we get, the design features, the templates, and the learning tools that the team offers us. We use it for new content creation, repurposing older content, and enhancing our website experience. It's an excellent way to grow your marketing on a small or large scale." - via Capterra

Give Power To Your Content

Ceros is a unique solution that can help your brand breakthrough into new realms of web design and immersive content with the ability to produce new, beautiful websites, microsites, and pages on the fly. While the price may be a barrier to entry for smaller businesses, any marketer or designer who has the budget to utilize Ceros will likely have an incredible experience with this innovative, supportive platform.

Of course, your content marketing is about more than just how you present your content — you also need to spend a great deal of time considering how you create your content across the web. Scripted's service can help by putting your content into the hands of professional writers.

With Scripted, your brand will save time planning content and content ideas. Ready to learn more?

Published by Ciara Antolini on Thursday, February 17, 2022 in Marketing Agencies, Tool Review, Tools, Tools Reviews.