Should we build our next generation web application on the DotNetNuke platform?

Question

We are currently considering using DotNetNuke as a base for our future portal-based and client-customizable web application that is going to be hosted centrally. The idea is

Answer 1

I've been using it on and off since its beta nearly 2 decades ago and probably have a good 10k hours of my time invested in building website and web apps on top of DNN. Here is my take...

I know I'm late to the party, but for anyone else considering DNN, please realize that there is a good chance you'll regret it in the long run.

To Answer the OP's direct question, its not a terrible solution for building on, if, and only if the modules that your building don't need to interact with DNN core and are not content management centric. Its might be ok for a basic customer portal where you want users to be be able to login, access some info or assets, etc.

However there are some MAJOR drawbacks to DNN you should be aware of. I used to love it. Now days, I wouldn't even consider using it for a greenfield project.

Here are just a few of the issues with DNN:

1. DotNetNuke in NOT an true CMS! You cannot manage content types with it without adding a pricey third party module.
2. Nearly impossible to tweak the admin UI to meet your customer's requirements or to improve the below par authoring UX.
3. Zero Inovation - DNN is lightyears behind other CMS like Drupal and Wordpress on all fronts. They haven't done anything innovative with there product since its first few years of existence back in the early 2000's
4. It remains unpolished and buggy, the DNN team seems to continually reinvent the wheel, changing things for the sake of changing them.
5. It is built on very antiquated technology webforms and there no plan to revitalize its core.
6. Its becoming more and more commercialized and less and less open source. There isn't much of a sense of community that you'll find prevalent in many other open source projects.

I have a full, more detailed writeup on the drawbacks of DNN here on my blog. HTH