Cascade 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
Divi
Score 9.5 out of 10
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More than just a WordPress theme, Divi is a website building platform that replaces the standard WordPress post editor with a new visual editor. The vendor states it can be enjoyed by design professionals and newcomers alike, and is designed to give users the ability to create spectacular designs with ease and efficiency.
$89
per year
Pricing
Cascade CMS
Divi
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Divi
$89
per year
Divi Pro
$277
per year
Divi Lifetime + Pro Services
$297
today + 212 each following year
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Cascade CMS
Divi
Free Trial
Yes
No
Free/Freemium Version
No
No
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
Yes
No
Entry-level Setup Fee
Optional
No setup fee
Additional Details
—
Lifetime subscriptions are also available for a one time fee.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Cascade CMS
Divi
Features
Cascade CMS
Divi
Security
Comparison of Security features of Product A and Product B
Cascade CMS
8.0
19 Ratings
3% below category average
Divi
8.7
8 Ratings
6% above category average
Role-based user permissions
8.019 Ratings
8.78 Ratings
Platform & Infrastructure
Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of Product A and Product B
Cascade CMS
7.1
13 Ratings
9% below category average
Divi
6.6
8 Ratings
16% below category average
API
7.012 Ratings
9.17 Ratings
Internationalization / multi-language
7.37 Ratings
4.16 Ratings
Web Content Creation
Comparison of Web Content Creation features of Product A and Product B
Cascade CMS
7.1
19 Ratings
9% below category average
Divi
8.8
10 Ratings
12% above category average
WYSIWYG editor
6.119 Ratings
10.09 Ratings
Code quality / cleanliness
6.018 Ratings
8.37 Ratings
Admin section
8.019 Ratings
9.210 Ratings
Page templates
9.017 Ratings
8.610 Ratings
Library of website themes
5.52 Ratings
8.110 Ratings
Mobile optimization / responsive design
7.015 Ratings
9.310 Ratings
Publishing workflow
9.019 Ratings
9.98 Ratings
Form generator
6.47 Ratings
6.710 Ratings
Web Content Management
Comparison of Web Content Management features of Product A and Product B
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.
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).
The load time of the builder could be faster. On some websites it takes a long time to load, and may crash the page. (I believe they've said they're working on this stability issue.)
Warnings on updates if they're difficult for some sites to run. I have one website that has crashed more than once from Divi's theme updates. I always back it up before the update so I restore the site, but this is still a bit of an inconvenience.
Integrated (or more clearly marked) tutorials within the builder. I migrate site maintenance and ownership to clients after the site is complete and some could use refreshers within the builder on what happens where i.e. the difference between a section, row, module.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.