What differentiates uPortal from other portal solutions?

The primary differentiator is that uPortal is focused on the requirements of higher education institutions, whereas other products are mostly focused on the requirements of large corporations, even if the product is marketed to higher education institutions. uPortal is a framework that provides the Java programmers on your staff with the classes, interfaces, XML data files and XSL stylesheets they need to develop a customized portal for your campus. JA-SIG realizes that a portal, in order to be truly useful, can't something you take out of a box and install, it has to be something you customize for the needs of your institution. Some portal "solutions" are actually third party packages that a vendor of a non-Java, non-portal product acquired in order to enter the portal market without doing any R & D. uPortal was designed from the ground up to provide the tools you need to build a portal and has always been is a 100% pure Java. Still other portal "solutions" are services that are no charge to your campus, but require your campus to accept advertising in exchange for the use of the service. With uPortal, you don't have to run advertising in your portal, but if you wish to, your campus can keep the revenue produced. Last but not least, uPortal is also available free to member universities, most commercial portal "solutions" cost upwards of $50,000 per year for a typical campus' license.