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Differences between Sitecore Cloud SDK and Sitecore Engage SDK

PersonalizeCustomer Data Platform

Published: 2024-10-11

In this article, we will review the differences between Sitecore Cloud SDK and Sitecore Engage SDK as SDKs for integration with Sitecore Personalize.

About the SDK to work with Sitecore CDP + Personalize

Sitecore offers two SDKs for implementing Sitecore CDP, which functions as a CDP based on website visit history, and Sitecore Personalize, an engine that uses that data to personalize the site.

Sitecore Engage SDK

This SDK is designed to simplify the setup and operation of Sitecore CDP + Personalize. The SDK can be used with almost any website, as long as it uses Next.js, React web applications, and JavaScript.

Sitecore Cloud SDK

This is an SDK optimized for Next.js applications hosted on Sitecore XM Cloud and available in JSS 21.6 and later.

Cloud SDK and Engage SDK Comparison Chart

A comparison chart regarding the above two tools is available on the following page.

The points of difference are as follows

  • Cloud SDK is available as a license for use with XM Cloud, while Engage SDK is a tool released for CDP + Personalize users.
  • Cloud SDK is for XM Cloud + Next.js JSS 21.6 or later.
  • Engage SDK targets Next.js, React.js and Vanilla JavaScript Application
  • Only the Engage SDK is available for tools such as Google Tag Manager
  • Only the Cloud SDK can retrieve Form events.
  • However, custom event capture is available in both
  • Cloud SDK supports XM Cloud personalization

Implementing the Cloud SDK in XM Cloud

In fact, if you go to browse the sxastarter code, you will see that the Cloud SDK is implemented as standard. For example, let's look at Package.json.

TypeScript 
  "dependencies": {
    "@sitecore-cloudsdk/events": "^0.3.1",
    "@sitecore-feaas/clientside": "^0.5.17",
    "@sitecore-jss/sitecore-jss-nextjs": "~22.1.3",
    "@sitecore/components": "^1.1.10",
    "bootstrap": "^5.1.3",

As shown above, sitecore-cloudsdk/events is installed by default.

It is necessary to install packages as needed, but we will introduce the various settings in a separate topic at a later date.

Summary

In this article, we introduced the two SDKs available for Sitecore CDP + Personalize and how they differ from each other. In the next article, we will check how it works when both XM Cloud and CDP + Personalize are subscribed.

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