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Cascade CMS vs. Percolate, now part of Seismic

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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

    Percolate, now part of Seismic

    Score9 out of 10
    Enterprise companies (1,001+ employees)
    Percolate was a content marketing platform designed to help large brands create content and manage marketing campaigns. The product's capabilities have been integrated into the Seismic platform's digital marketing capabilities, and Percolate is no longer available for sale standalone.N/A
    Pricing
    Cascade CMSPercolate, now part of Seismic
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Cascade CMSPercolate, now part of Seismic
    Free Trial
    YesNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesYes
    Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalRequired
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Features
    Cascade CMSPercolate, now part of Seismic
    Security
    Comparison of Security features of Cascade CMS and Percolate, now part of Seismic
    Feature
    Cascade CMS
    8.0
    19 Ratings
    3% below category average
    Percolate, now part of Seismic
    -
    Ratings
    Role-based user permissions8.019 Ratings00 Ratings
    Platform & Infrastructure
    Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of Cascade CMS and Percolate, now part of Seismic
    Feature
    Cascade CMS
    7.1
    13 Ratings
    9% below category average
    Percolate, now part of Seismic
    -
    Ratings
    API7.012 Ratings00 Ratings
    Internationalization / multi-language7.37 Ratings00 Ratings
    Web Content Creation
    Comparison of Web Content Creation features of Cascade CMS and Percolate, now part of Seismic
    Feature
    Cascade CMS
    7.1
    19 Ratings
    10% below category average
    Percolate, now part of Seismic
    -
    Ratings
    WYSIWYG editor6.119 Ratings00 Ratings
    Code quality / cleanliness6.018 Ratings00 Ratings
    Admin section8.019 Ratings00 Ratings
    Page templates9.017 Ratings00 Ratings
    Library of website themes5.52 Ratings00 Ratings
    Mobile optimization / responsive design7.015 Ratings00 Ratings
    Publishing workflow9.019 Ratings00 Ratings
    Form generator6.47 Ratings00 Ratings
    Web Content Management
    Comparison of Web Content Management features of Cascade CMS and Percolate, now part of Seismic
    Feature
    Cascade CMS
    6.9
    18 Ratings
    8% below category average
    Percolate, now part of Seismic
    -
    Ratings
    Content taxonomy8.013 Ratings00 Ratings
    SEO support7.014 Ratings00 Ratings
    Bulk management9.014 Ratings00 Ratings
    Availability / breadth of extensions6.011 Ratings00 Ratings
    Community / comment management4.85 Ratings00 Ratings
    Content Creation
    Comparison of Content Creation features of Cascade CMS and Percolate, now part of Seismic
    Feature
    Cascade CMS
    -
    Ratings
    Percolate, now part of Seismic
    8.5
    13 Ratings
    8% above category average
    Ideation00 Ratings7.011 Ratings
    Approval workflows00 Ratings9.013 Ratings
    Content collaboration00 Ratings9.011 Ratings
    Content calendar00 Ratings8.013 Ratings
    Network for content licensing/production00 Ratings9.34 Ratings
    Content Publishing
    Comparison of Content Publishing features of Cascade CMS and Percolate, now part of Seismic
    Feature
    Cascade CMS
    -
    Ratings
    Percolate, now part of Seismic
    7.8
    13 Ratings
    0% below category average
    Content hub00 Ratings8.012 Ratings
    Content distribution00 Ratings8.012 Ratings
    Content promotion00 Ratings7.010 Ratings
    Content automation00 Ratings8.012 Ratings
    Content Reporting & Analytics
    Comparison of Content Reporting & Analytics features of Cascade CMS and Percolate, now part of Seismic
    Feature
    Cascade CMS
    -
    Ratings
    Percolate, now part of Seismic
    7.3
    13 Ratings
    1% below category average
    Closed-loop tracking and reporting00 Ratings7.011 Ratings
    Content performance analytics00 Ratings7.013 Ratings
    Campaign optimization dashboard00 Ratings8.03 Ratings
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    Cascade CMSPercolate, now part of Seismic
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    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Cascade CMSPercolate, now part of Seismic
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.9
    (44 ratings)
    9.0
    (14 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    9.1
    (26 ratings)
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    Usability
    9.1
    (4 ratings)
    -
    (0 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)
    9.0
    (1 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 CMSPercolate, now part of Seismic
    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
    Discontinued Products
    Very useful for the management, planning, and programming of all social networks, as well as marketing campaigns. One of the best tools to make life easier for community managers and automate daily tasks such as content publishing. It is my favorite for managing my clients' networks.
    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
    Discontinued Products
    • Create social content from briefing all the way through to the approval process.
    • Social planner for managing topics and content streams across multiple channels.
    • Robust API and integrations.
    • Image library (with cost-free access/rights to stock photo libraries).
    • Frequent updates to the platform.
    • Built-in community management.
    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
    Discontinued Products
    • A lot of the features in Percolate are very well built, but only provide the bare minimum as features go. Its editorial calendar for example lacks export/import features and its multimedia repository only supports images. In many ways, Percolate is trying very hard to be too much at the same time.
    • At the moment, Percolate lacks user level management. We can add users who need to be moderated before posting, but it is for example not possible to add users just for one specific function (like the multimedia database).
    Read full review
    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
    Discontinued Products
    Percolate is a great tool for us, because we need the approval process workflows. The training was great when we first signed on, and the interface is very user friendly. We have trained our interns to use it as well with no issues. It makes keeping up with our content calendar a breeze and we can easily see what posts have been approved and which ones are still pending at a quick glance
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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
    Discontinued Products
    Easy to set up approval flows, but not always necessary to follow all the requires steps
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Hannon Hill
    Amazing customer service and VERY customizable.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    Performance
    Hannon Hill
    Does a great job.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    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
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    In-Person Training
    Hannon Hill
    Training was helpful.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    Online Training
    Hannon Hill
    Still needed that physical help
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    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
    Discontinued Products
    Rarely has a company shown this much support during implementation. This almost got to the point where it was too much hand holding. Sometimes, social teams just want the keys to the car so they can drive it themselves instead of waiting on someone to drive along with them...
    Read full review
    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
    Discontinued Products
    Percolate and Falcon have many similarities and provide many of the same features, however Percolate felt a bit more robust than Falcon, although it does come with a higher price tag to match. Both platforms are excellent for content approval workflows, content scheduling, and community management. Percolate offers additional features such as an Asset Management Library and a section for creative briefs and collaboration with internal teams.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Scalability
    Hannon Hill
    I used it only a few times.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    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
    Discontinued Products
    • Percolate has made it much easier to communicate between teams and has provided a return on investment in that area in particular.
    • Percolate also helps save time because you are able to schedule social media posts across channels easily.
    • It has also been an easy way to work with remote team members, which is very helpful.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    Percolate, now part of Seismic Screenshots

    Screenshot of Percolate's integrated marketing calendarScreenshot of Percolate's integrated marketing calendar