What users are saying about
55 Ratings
<a href='https://www.trustradius.com/static/about-trustradius-scoring' target='_blank' rel='nofollow noopener'>trScore algorithm: Learn more.</a>Score 7.4 out of 100
Based on 55 reviews and ratings
358 Ratings
<a href='https://www.trustradius.com/static/about-trustradius-scoring' target='_blank' rel='nofollow noopener'>trScore algorithm: Learn more.</a>Score 7.3 out of 100
Based on 358 reviews and ratings
Feature Set Ratings
- Drupal ranks higher in 4 feature sets: Security, Platform & Infrastructure, Web Content Creation, Web Content Management
Security

8.0
Cascade Server
80%

9.6
Drupal
96%
Drupal ranks higher in 1/1 features
Drupal ranks higher in 1/1 features
Role-based user permissions

8.0
80%
19 Ratings

9.6
96%
64 Ratings
Platform & Infrastructure

7.1
Cascade Server
71%

9.0
Drupal
90%
Drupal ranks higher in 2/2 features
Drupal ranks higher in 2/2 features
API

7.0
70%
12 Ratings

9.0
90%
57 Ratings
Internationalization / multi-language

7.3
73%
7 Ratings

9.0
90%
52 Ratings
Web Content Creation

7.1
Cascade Server
71%

8.3
Drupal
83%
Drupal ranks higher in 5/8 features
Drupal ranks higher in 5/8 features
WYSIWYG editor

6.1
61%
19 Ratings

8.5
85%
60 Ratings
Code quality / cleanliness

6.0
60%
18 Ratings

8.6
86%
65 Ratings
Admin section

8.0
80%
19 Ratings

7.6
76%
67 Ratings
Page templates

9.0
90%
17 Ratings

7.8
78%
66 Ratings
Library of website themes

5.5
55%
2 Ratings

8.8
88%
57 Ratings
Mobile optimization / responsive design

7.0
70%
15 Ratings

8.8
88%
62 Ratings
Publishing workflow

9.0
90%
19 Ratings

7.4
74%
66 Ratings
Form generator

6.4
64%
7 Ratings

8.8
88%
62 Ratings
Web Content Management

6.9
Cascade Server
69%

8.4
Drupal
84%
Drupal ranks higher in 3/5 features
Drupal ranks higher in 3/5 features
Content taxonomy

8.0
80%
13 Ratings

8.7
87%
62 Ratings
SEO support

7.0
70%
14 Ratings

6.8
68%
61 Ratings
Bulk management

9.0
90%
14 Ratings

8.4
84%
58 Ratings
Availability / breadth of extensions

6.0
60%
11 Ratings

9.0
90%
60 Ratings
Community / comment management

4.8
48%
5 Ratings

8.8
88%
60 Ratings
Attribute Ratings
- Cascade Server is rated higher in 4 areas: Likelihood to Recommend, Likelihood to Renew, Support Rating, Implementation Rating
- Drupal is rated higher in 6 areas: Usability, Availability, Performance, In-Person Training, Online Training, Product Scalability
Likelihood to Recommend

9.9
Cascade Server
99%
44 Ratings

8.0
Drupal
80%
76 Ratings
Likelihood to Renew

9.1
Cascade Server
91%
26 Ratings

8.2
Drupal
82%
18 Ratings
Usability

9.1
Cascade Server
91%
4 Ratings

10.0
Drupal
100%
9 Ratings
Availability

6.7
Cascade Server
67%
8 Ratings

9.7
Drupal
97%
6 Ratings
Performance

8.0
Cascade Server
80%
2 Ratings

8.9
Drupal
89%
4 Ratings
Support Rating

9.1
Cascade Server
91%
10 Ratings

5.0
Drupal
50%
8 Ratings
In-Person Training

7.0
Cascade Server
70%
1 Rating

8.0
Drupal
80%
1 Rating
Online Training

5.0
Cascade Server
50%
1 Rating

6.0
Drupal
60%
2 Ratings
Implementation Rating

9.1
Cascade Server
91%
8 Ratings

5.1
Drupal
51%
8 Ratings
Product Scalability

5.0
Cascade Server
50%
1 Rating

8.0
Drupal
80%
2 Ratings
Likelihood to Recommend
Cascade Server
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.

Verified User
Professional in Other
Higher Education Company, 201-500 employeesDrupal
Drupal is suitable for design or development professionals looking for a more robust platform than Joomla or WordPress. It has many better features. With a little thought and creativity, Drupal allows you to do many amazing things. The possibility of integration with PHP modules is really the limit for customization. However, Drupal is not suitable for amateurs; someone who wants to make just one website for themselves; or a professional on a tight deadline. The learning curve can be a very big obstacle and is sometimes not worth it.
I have been working for some time and sometimes give up on some projects and choose another tool. It is definitely not a technology for those in a hurry, it is necessary to have time and dedication. The newer versions of Drupal are more friendly and intuitive and allow the construction of many cool things.
I have been working for some time and sometimes give up on some projects and choose another tool. It is definitely not a technology for those in a hurry, it is necessary to have time and dedication. The newer versions of Drupal are more friendly and intuitive and allow the construction of many cool things.
Especialista de Desenvolvimento Industrial
SENAI-DNNon-profit Organization Management, 10,001+ employees
Pros
Cascade Server
- 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.
Web & New Media Specialist
Cleveland State Community CollegeHigher Education, 201-500 employees
Drupal
- Content Types... these are amazing. Whereas a more simplistic CMS like Wordpress will basically allow you to make posts and build pages, Drupal 8 gives you the ability to define different types of content that behave differently, and are served up differently in different areas of the website.
- Extensibility... it scales, ohhhh does it scale. They've really figured out server-side caching, and it makes all the difference. Once a page has been cached, it's available instantly to all users worldwide; and when coupled with AWS, global redundancy and localization mean that no matter where you're accessing the site, it always loads fast and crisp.
- Workflows... you have the ability to define very specific roles and/or user-based editorial workflows, allowing for as many touchpoints and reviews between content creation and publication as you'll require.
Senior Project Manager
OnMetricInternet, 11-50 employees
Cons
Cascade Server
- 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).
Senior Web Architect
William & MaryHigher Education, 1001-5000 employees
Drupal
- Drupal's admin side is very powerful and flexible, but it's a little bit harder to wrap one's mind around. If a customer is familiar with using a basic WordPress site, showing them the full Drupal back-end might be overwhelming and confusing at first. Luckily you can easily limit and customize the admin pages that each role sees.
- Drupal is huge and complex. Doing simple things is generally simple, but more advanced capabilities of Drupal have a higher learning curve (as can be expected). You can build a Drupal site quickly, but don't expect to build your dream site with loads of custom features in a week.
- Ready-made themes are more sparse than something like WordPress. If you're most interested in simply plugging an existing theme in and using it, you won't find as many professional-looking themes out of the box. There are some, but with Drupal, the best results are usually achieved by finding a good base theme and creating your own child theme based off of it.
Head of Development Technologies
Top Floor TechnologiesInternet, 11-50 employees
Pricing Details
Cascade Server
General
Free Trial
Yes
Free/Freemium Version
—Premium Consulting/Integration Services
Yes
Entry-level set up fee?
Optional
Starting Price
—Drupal
General
Free Trial
—Free/Freemium Version
—Premium Consulting/Integration Services
—Entry-level set up fee?
No
Starting Price
—Likelihood to Renew
Cascade Server
Cascade Server 9.1
Based on 26 answers
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.
Associate Director of Web Communications
Union CollegeHigher Education, 501-1000 employees
Drupal
Drupal 8.2
Based on 18 answers
The time and money invested into this platform were too great to discontinue it at this point. I'm sure it will be in use for a while. We have also spent time training many employees how to use it. All of these things add up to quite an investment in the product. Lastly, it basically fulfills what we need our intranet site to do.
Learning and Development Specialist
Omnitec Solutions Inc.E-Learning, 51-200 employees
Usability
Cascade Server
Cascade Server 9.1
Based on 4 answers
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.
Senior Web Architect
William & MaryHigher Education, 1001-5000 employees
Drupal
Drupal 10.0
Based on 9 answers
It's a great CMS platform and there are a ton of plugins to add some serious functionality, but the security updates are too complex to implement and considering the complexity of the platform, security updates are a must. I don't want my site breached because they make it too difficult to keep it up to date.

Verified User
Director in Other
Education Management Company, 1-10 employeesReliability and Availability
Cascade Server
Cascade Server 6.7
Based on 8 answers
Amazing customer service and VERY customizable.
Webmaster
Jacksonville State UniversityHigher Education, 1001-5000 employees
Drupal
Drupal 9.7
Based on 6 answers
Drupal itself does not tend to have bugs that cause sporadic outages. When deployed on a well-configured LAMP stack, deployment and maintenance problems are minimal, and in general no exotic tuning or configuration is required.For highest uptime, putting a caching proxy like Varnish in front of Drupal (or a CDN that supports dynamic applications).
Principal Engineer
AcquiaComputer Software, 51-200 employees
Performance
Cascade Server
Cascade Server 8.0
Based on 2 answers
Does a great job.
Web Administrator
True Value CompanyInformation Technology and Services, 51-200 employees
Drupal
Drupal 8.9
Based on 4 answers
Drupal page loads can be slow, as a great many database calls may be required to generate a page. It is highly recommended to use caching systems, both built-in and external to lessen such database loads and improve performance. I haven't had any problems with behind-the-scenes integrations with external systems.
Programmer Analyst
Goodwill of Central ArizonaInternet, 11-50 employees
Support Rating
Cascade Server
Cascade Server 9.1
Based on 10 answers
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.
Manager, Campus Web Technology
SUNY Upstate Medical UniversityHospital & Health Care, 5001-10,000 employees
Drupal
Drupal 5.0
Based on 8 answers
As noted earlier, the support of the community can be rather variable, with some modules attracting more attraction and action in their issue queues, but overall, the development community for Drupal is second to none. It probably the single greatest aspect of being involved in this open-source project.
Programmer Analyst
Goodwill of Central ArizonaInternet, 11-50 employees
In-Person Training
Cascade Server
Cascade Server 7.0
Based on 1 answer
Training was helpful.
Web Administrator
True Value CompanyInformation Technology and Services, 51-200 employees
Drupal
Drupal 8.0
Based on 1 answer
I was part of the team that conducted the training. Our training was fine, but we could have been better informed on Drupal before we started providing it. If we did not have answers to tough questions, we had more technical staff we could consult with. We did provide hands-on practice time for the learners, which I would always recommend. That is where the best learning occurred.
Learning and Development Specialist
Omnitec Solutions Inc.E-Learning, 51-200 employees
Online Training
Cascade Server
Cascade Server 5.0
Based on 1 answer
Still needed that physical help
Web Administrator
True Value CompanyInformation Technology and Services, 51-200 employees
Drupal
Drupal 6.0
Based on 2 answers
The on-line training was not as ideal as the face-to-face training. It was done remotely and only allowed for the trainers to present information to the learners and demonstrate the platform online. There was not a good way to allow for the learners to practice, ask questions and have them answered all in the same session.
Learning and Development Specialist
Omnitec Solutions Inc.E-Learning, 51-200 employees
Implementation Rating
Cascade Server
Cascade Server 9.1
Based on 8 answers
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.
Marketing Manager
HCC Medical Insurance ServicesInsurance, 51-200 employees
Drupal
Drupal 5.1
Based on 8 answers
Plan ahead as much you can. You really need to know how to build what you want with the modules available to you, or that you might need to code yourself, in order to make the best use of Drupal. I recommend you analyze the most technically difficult workflows and other aspects of your implementation, and try building some test versions of those first. Get feedback from stakeholders early and often, because you can easily find yourself in a situation where your implementation does 90% of what you want, but, due to something you didn't plan for, foresee, or know about, there's no feasible way to get past the last 10%
Programmer Analyst
Goodwill of Central ArizonaInternet, 11-50 employees
Alternatives Considered
Cascade Server
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.

Verified User
Manager in Information Technology
Higher Education Company, 1001-5000 employeesDrupal
Drupal is community-backed making it more accessible and growing at a faster rate than Sitefinity which is a proprietary product built on .NET. Drupal is PHP-based using some but not all Symphony codebase. Updates for Drupal are frequent and so are feature adds.
Application Developer
Kansas State Historical SocietyMuseums & Institutions, 11-50 employees
Scalability
Cascade Server
Cascade Server 5.0
Based on 1 answer
I used it only a few times.
Web Administrator
True Value CompanyInformation Technology and Services, 51-200 employees
Drupal
Drupal 8.0
Based on 2 answers
Drupal is well known to be scalable, although it requires solid knowledge of MySQL best practices, caching mechanisms, and other server-level best practices. I have never personally dealt with an especially large site, so I can speak well to the issues associated with Drupal scaling.
Programmer Analyst
Goodwill of Central ArizonaInternet, 11-50 employees
Return on Investment
Cascade Server
- 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.

Verified User
Professional in Marketing
Higher Education Company, 51-200 employeesDrupal
- Our overall site traffic has grown exponentially since we have moved to it.
- We have been able to bring a standardized format to all of our resources and communications.
- Promoting new products is much easier due to the easy to use interface of Drupal, we can get a new product launch page up in record time compared to our old platform.

Verified User
Technician in Marketing
Computer Software Company, 1001-5000 employees