Configure a development environment

Optimizely Content Management System (CMS 13) is installed with templates through Visual Studio or the dotnet command-line interface tool, providing everything you need to get a website up and running and start developing.

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Note

See the Optimizely system requirements for detailed production and development environment requirements.

Install Visual Studio

Visit Microsoft Visual Studio to download a suitable version if you do not already have Visual Studio installed.

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Note

Visual Studio 2026 or Visual Studio Code is required for developing ASP.NET 10 applications. See Upgrade to CMS 13.

Install the Optimizely templates

dotnet new -i EPiServer.Templates

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Note

The latest version of the EPiServer.Templates require .NET SDK 10.

Licenses

A license is not required when running on localhost or domainname.local.

Eventually, you will need a commercial Optimizely license for testing and production environments. You can order a time-limited demo license for evaluation purposes from the Optimizely License Center.

Explore advanced features

When you want to explore more advanced features such as multi-site and language support and test deployment locally, you will need a more production-like development environment using Internet Information Services (IIS).

When you test deployment and backup and restore databases, you should install SQL Express or SQL Server Developer Edition and Management Studio.