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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Cascade CMS

    Score8.2 out of 10
    N/ACascade CMS (formerly Cascade Server) by Hannon Hill is a content management system, with built-in tools to help users eliminate stale content, increase digital outreach, and promote end-user adoption and accountability. Cascade CMS is designed for decentralized web teams in most major industries, including higher education, government, healthcare, and technology. Included is Clive, an engagement and real-time personalization tool for collecting information and using it to craft personalized…N/A

    Contentful

    Score7.6 out of 10
    N/AContentful is a cloud based CMS solution that provides the ability to manage content across multiple platforms.The editing interface allows for managing content interactively and provides developers the ability to deliver the content with the programming language and template framework of their choice.

    $0

    Pricing
    Cascade CMSContentful
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    Lite
    $300
    per month
    Community
    Free
    Enterprise
    Custom
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Cascade CMSContentful
    Free Trial
    YesYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoYes
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesYes
    Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalOptional
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Cascade CMSContentful
    Considered Both Products
    Hannon Hill
    No answer on this topic
    Contentful
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Would buy again
    7 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    5 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    7 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation went as expected
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    6 Answers
    Features
    Cascade CMSContentful
    Security
    Comparison of Security features of Cascade CMS and Contentful
    Feature
    Cascade CMS
    8.0
    19 Ratings
    3% below category average
    Contentful
    8.5
    10 Ratings
    3% above category average
    Role-based user permissions8.019 Ratings8.510 Ratings
    Platform & Infrastructure
    Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of Cascade CMS and Contentful
    Feature
    Cascade CMS
    7.1
    13 Ratings
    9% below category average
    Contentful
    9.5
    12 Ratings
    20% above category average
    API7.012 Ratings9.311 Ratings
    Internationalization / multi-language7.37 Ratings9.79 Ratings
    Web Content Creation
    Comparison of Web Content Creation features of Cascade CMS and Contentful
    Feature
    Cascade CMS
    7.1
    19 Ratings
    10% below category average
    Contentful
    7.8
    13 Ratings
    1% below category average
    WYSIWYG editor6.119 Ratings7.34 Ratings
    Code quality / cleanliness6.018 Ratings9.58 Ratings
    Admin section8.019 Ratings9.311 Ratings
    Page templates9.017 Ratings7.64 Ratings
    Library of website themes5.52 Ratings7.52 Ratings
    Mobile optimization / responsive design7.015 Ratings4.57 Ratings
    Publishing workflow9.019 Ratings9.312 Ratings
    Form generator6.47 Ratings7.01 Ratings
    Web Content Management
    Comparison of Web Content Management features of Cascade CMS and Contentful
    Feature
    Cascade CMS
    6.9
    18 Ratings
    8% below category average
    Contentful
    9.4
    12 Ratings
    22% above category average
    Content taxonomy8.013 Ratings10.011 Ratings
    SEO support7.014 Ratings10.09 Ratings
    Bulk management9.014 Ratings9.08 Ratings
    Availability / breadth of extensions6.011 Ratings9.08 Ratings
    Community / comment management4.85 Ratings9.01 Ratings
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    Cascade CMSContentful
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    Umbraco CMS
    Score7 out of 10
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    Score7 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Square Online
    Score7.7 out of 10
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    Score7.7 out of 10
    Enterprises
    RWS Tridion Sites
    Score9 out of 10
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    Score9 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Cascade CMSContentful
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.9
    (44 ratings)
    8.3
    (13 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    9.1
    (26 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Usability
    9.1
    (4 ratings)
    9.0
    (3 ratings)
    Availability
    6.7
    (4 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Performance
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    9.1
    (5 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Online Training
    5.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    9.1
    (4 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Configurability
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    6.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    5.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    6.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    5.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Cascade CMSContentful
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Hannon Hill
    Cascade Server is well suited with it's WYSIWYG editor being better than most editors that I have used in other systems. In context, editing makes adding content easy compared to the last CMS I used where you had to wing it and view the page outside of the CMS to see if it was correct. The ability mix HTML, CSS, and the Script of your choice anywhere and with ease.
    The scenarios were Cascade Server is less appropriate would be in the use of compilers or programs like Visual studio. You need to go out of Cascade Server and go to other environments to perform tasks and then copy the result to Cascade Server. You can write directly in Cascade Server, but it's easier to do in and editor that is specific to a function.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Contentful
    It's a great all rounder for content projects. It's easy in the basics and powerful in the complex, data heavy scenarios. Extending the platform is straightforward and the SDK gives you everything you need. If you have many many varying content types , it gets expensive and perhaps not the best choice .
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Hannon Hill
    • Cascade CMS makes no assumptions about your content. Templates control how the content gets displayed.
    • Workflows are intuitive and allow for one or more people to review content before it is published.
    • The published site is static (no database connection) which allows for faster page loads and reduced risk of attack.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Contentful
    • Flexible. This CMS can be easily extended and provide access to dynamic content
    • Simple. The WYSWG is very easy to work with and identifying pages and content in the system is fairly easy
    • Clean Interface. The interface is clean and uncluttered keeping focus on the content and not other factors.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Hannon Hill
    • Cascade CMS is not an out-of-the-box pre-built system that you can install, turn on and expect to be serving sites and pages on day one. It's not a blogging system like WordPress, or a drag-and-drop system like SquareSpace (both of which I've used for their own purposes). You need to have someone tasked with management and system administration – and if you implement the on-premise self-hosted version, you ought to have several people. We have the university's IT shop handling infrastructure (server hardware, containers, clustering, operating systems, load-balancing, DNS, database servers, NAS/SAN drives), our Web & Design team managing Cascade CMS (system settings, sites, templates, permissions) and managers coordinating each respective academic unit (A&S, business, education, law, marine science).
    Read full review
    Contentful
    • Contentful uses "references" to allow you to build very modular content. If I have a "slider" content type, I can create a "slide" content type which references a "button" content type, and so forth. This works well, but I occasionally wish there was a better solution for one-off content, like a settings page. Currently, this is done for creating an entire content type called "settings" with a single entry. Not a big deal, but not ideal, either.
    • There are a few quirks with GatsbyJS integration, etc, but these issues are being fixed and improved upon very quickly.
    • A minor gripe, but Contentful does not have a way to organize fields within an entry. Entries with many fields are somewhat tiresome to scroll through.
    Incentivized
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    Likelihood to Renew
    Hannon Hill
    Changing systems would require too much effort. Our institution is using Cascade Server, WordPress and Drupal but we only serve 2200 students so we have 1 too many content management systems. Reflecting on current technical resources we would like to drop down to 2. This effort hasn't moved forward because of the extensive work required to migrate content and train users in a new system.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Contentful
    No answers on this topic
    Usability
    Hannon Hill
    Cascade CMS is completely usable on mobile devices, we can train our content editors in a single 2-hour session, and we support 1,000 users with a very small team.
    There is a level of complexity for the system administrators, site managers and web programmers who implement templates and content types. But the complexity is neither arbitrary nor inconsistent – and once learned provides a powerful environment within which we can develop robust sites that are beautiful and powerful, yet easy for our content editors to manage.
    Read full review
    Contentful
    It is a very easy to use and configure application. I find that it is on the user to manage the content after the models have been created, yet I still do not encounter issues finding or creating new components for our site. It is easy to set up and easy to navigate.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Hannon Hill
    Amazing customer service and VERY customizable.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Contentful
    No answers on this topic
    Performance
    Hannon Hill
    Does a great job.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Contentful
    No answers on this topic
    Support Rating
    Hannon Hill
    They have always regarded any question or problem we encountered as very important. We have never felt that they ignore or downplay any issue and not once has anything been left unresolved. They also hold an annual conference where users are invited to attend and share their experiences and wisdom with the entire Cascade community. And with the care and support the provide, we all feel a part of that community.
    Read full review
    Contentful
    No answers on this topic
    In-Person Training
    Hannon Hill
    Training was helpful.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Contentful
    No answers on this topic
    Online Training
    Hannon Hill
    Still needed that physical help
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Contentful
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation Rating
    Hannon Hill
    The key to any CMS implementation is PLAN, PLAN, PLAN. Proper planning with Cascade can increase your satisfaction exponentially once the site migration/creation is complete. When all is said and done, your implementation can make your site run like a Yugo or Maserati. Be smart and deliberate in your decisions. Drive the Maserati. It is already paid for.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Contentful
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    Hannon Hill
    We selected Cascade server seven years ago, and the CMS environment at the time was clearly different than it is today. We decided to go with a vendor solution rather than a free solution because the long term cost in hosting a free solution is not, in fact, free; we've found Cascade to have been an excellent choice for us.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Contentful
    Easy to use and much more organized as a single platform versus multi. The layout is clean and easy to read and we don’t have to worry about certain users safe guarding data or content then losing it when they leave the company. It’s a one stop shop for imagery
    Incentivized
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    Scalability
    Hannon Hill
    I used it only a few times.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Contentful
    No answers on this topic
    Return on Investment
    Hannon Hill
    • Initially, ROI was positive - because we completely redesigned the website when we implemented Cascade.
    • Over time, the inability to keep up with the latest interactive tools has reduced visitors time on site.
    • Also over time, the difficulty of use has led to less buy-in by backend users, leading to outdated pages, little timely information, and lower visitors.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Contentful
    • Contentful has saved us valuable development time that was previously spent doing deploys for minor content updates.
    • Contentful has helped us maintain consistent documentation, reducing time needed to review for consistency.
    • Can't say we've really experienced any negative ROI impacts from using Contentful, but we've run into some limitations in adding too many content models and the next pricing tier is substantially more expensive.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    Contentful Screenshots

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