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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

    Square Online

    Score7.7 out of 10
    N/ASquare Online (formerly Weebly) is a basic content management system with blogging and eCommerce features. It can be utilized for building standard websites or specialized webpages for online stores.

    $13

    per month

    Pricing
    Cascade CMSSquare Online
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    Personal
    $13
    per month
    Professional
    $16
    per month
    Performance
    $29
    per month
    Free
    Free
    Free
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Cascade CMSSquare Online
    Free Trial
    YesNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoYes
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup fee
    Additional Details—Pricing decreases when paid annually: Personal - $10/Month Professional - $12/Month Performance - $26/Month
    More Pricing Information
    Features
    Cascade CMSSquare Online
    Security
    Comparison of Security features of Cascade CMS and Square Online
    Feature
    Cascade CMS
    8.0
    19 Ratings
    3% below category average
    Square Online
    7.6
    31 Ratings
    8% below category average
    Role-based user permissions8.019 Ratings7.631 Ratings
    Platform & Infrastructure
    Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of Cascade CMS and Square Online
    Feature
    Cascade CMS
    7.1
    13 Ratings
    9% below category average
    Square Online
    9.4
    22 Ratings
    19% above category average
    API7.012 Ratings9.417 Ratings
    Internationalization / multi-language7.37 Ratings9.418 Ratings
    Web Content Creation
    Comparison of Web Content Creation features of Cascade CMS and Square Online
    Feature
    Cascade CMS
    7.1
    19 Ratings
    10% below category average
    Square Online
    6.6
    43 Ratings
    17% below category average
    WYSIWYG editor6.119 Ratings5.636 Ratings
    Code quality / cleanliness6.018 Ratings5.339 Ratings
    Admin section8.019 Ratings8.739 Ratings
    Page templates9.017 Ratings6.143 Ratings
    Library of website themes5.52 Ratings6.243 Ratings
    Mobile optimization / responsive design7.015 Ratings8.242 Ratings
    Publishing workflow9.019 Ratings5.435 Ratings
    Form generator6.47 Ratings7.136 Ratings
    Web Content Management
    Comparison of Web Content Management features of Cascade CMS and Square Online
    Feature
    Cascade CMS
    6.9
    18 Ratings
    8% below category average
    Square Online
    9.3
    40 Ratings
    21% above category average
    Content taxonomy8.013 Ratings8.626 Ratings
    SEO support7.014 Ratings9.636 Ratings
    Bulk management9.014 Ratings9.621 Ratings
    Availability / breadth of extensions6.011 Ratings9.333 Ratings
    Community / comment management4.85 Ratings9.430 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Cascade CMSSquare Online
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    Umbraco CMS
    Score7 out of 10
    Umbraco CMS
    Score7 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Square Online
    Score7.7 out of 10
    Joomla
    Score8.3 out of 10
    Enterprises
    RWS Tridion Sites
    Score9 out of 10
    RWS Tridion Sites
    Score9 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Cascade CMSSquare Online
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.9
    (44 ratings)
    9.6
    (44 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    9.1
    (26 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Usability
    9.1
    (4 ratings)
    9.5
    (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 CMSSquare Online
    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
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    Block, Inc (Square)
    If you are having students create websites or information pages about something they are studying in class, this is a great option. The fact that students can spend less time getting situated and learning the app and get right to work researching and creating their pages is great. For middle to high school, this is a fantastic app to use. However, if you want more nuanced analytics or want students to focus on blogging more than webpage building, this is limited.
    Incentivized
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    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
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    Block, Inc (Square)
    • Drag and drop interface makes it very easy to add all types of content, including images, text, video (and YouTube videos), embeddable applications and more.
    • It's very easy to set up navigation features like cascading menus and sticky navigation (where the menu stays put - may depend on the template chosen though).
    • A technical backend is fairly straight-forward for setting up a fav icon, 301 redirects, SEO, Google Analytics, etc.
    Incentivized
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    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
    Block, Inc (Square)
    • Weebly doesn't have a lot of templates to choose from, so if you don't have any experience with CSS or HTML, it's hard to customize your site to an extent.
    • Weebly isn't fully SEO friendly. They don't allow you to add H1 tags to pages out of the box.
    • You can't create folder structures when it comes to web page URLs. You can put web pages under a main menu dropdown, but they don't allow you to put all sub-menu items in a structured folder (like site.com/folder/page-1 and site.com/folder/page-2).
    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
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    Block, Inc (Square)
    Weebly is consistently adding features that line up with our needs. The ease of use makes it the perfect program for us since we have users of multiple age brackets and knowledge of web design. We love that we can give users access to only the pages they are affiliated with
    Incentivized
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    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
    Block, Inc (Square)
    Very easy to use and intuitive to design after all of our business needs. From the website and POS system to how we represent ourselves internally and to our customers... Square is second-to-none in helping our business and others in our same boat become the kind of businesses we want to be when it comes to our inventory and sales of these kinds of products.
    Incentivized
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    Reliability and Availability
    Hannon Hill
    Amazing customer service and VERY customizable.
    Incentivized
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    Block, Inc (Square)
    No answers on this topic
    Performance
    Hannon Hill
    Does a great job.
    Incentivized
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    Block, Inc (Square)
    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
    Block, Inc (Square)
    No answers on this topic
    In-Person Training
    Hannon Hill
    Training was helpful.
    Incentivized
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    Block, Inc (Square)
    No answers on this topic
    Online Training
    Hannon Hill
    Still needed that physical help
    Incentivized
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    Block, Inc (Square)
    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
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    Block, Inc (Square)
    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
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    Block, Inc (Square)
    Weebly's designs, plugins, and customization options are a little more advanced in some cases than other similar programs. WordPress requires a different level of expertise and knowledge of code, keywording, and plugins, so I wouldn't even compare them. Wix is a little more user-friendly because you can drag and drop your design, which was very convenient for customizing your site. I didn't personally select Weebly, but it is user-friendly and nearly anyone comfortable with a computer could figure it out. Weebly support is also pretty good.
    Incentivized
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    Scalability
    Hannon Hill
    I used it only a few times.
    Incentivized
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    Block, Inc (Square)
    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
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    Block, Inc (Square)
    • Weebly has allowed our business to create a connection with our customers by offering home decor, cooking and styling tips.
    • Weebly gives us the chance to relay information to customers regarding merchandise, current sales and promotions, store hours and locations etc. Which has helped increase business.
    • Weebly has given our not very tech savvy business the opportunity to have a website and stay relevant with our competitors.
    Incentivized
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