CommonSpot vs. Percussion CMS

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
CommonSpot
Score 7.0 out of 10
N/A
CommonSpot is a Web platform that includes a content management system, an application development framework, marketing solutions, and social media features from PaperThin, Inc, a privately held, MA-based company. PaperThin's customers span multiple industries, including: government, healthcare, higher education, and association/non-profit sectors.N/A
Percussion CMS
Score 8.6 out of 10
N/A
Percussion Software's content management system is used by higher education, government agencies, and business organizations - SMB to Enterprise. Marketers use Percussion CMS to create, publish, and share multi-channel content.N/A
Pricing
CommonSpotPercussion CMS
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
CommonSpotPercussion CMS
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details——
More Pricing Information
Features
CommonSpotPercussion CMS
Security
Comparison of Security features of Product A and Product B
CommonSpot
7.0
1 Ratings
14% below category average
Percussion CMS
3.0
1 Ratings
91% below category average
Role-based user permissions7.01 Ratings3.01 Ratings
Web Content Creation
Comparison of Web Content Creation features of Product A and Product B
CommonSpot
6.3
2 Ratings
19% below category average
Percussion CMS
3.0
1 Ratings
87% below category average
Code quality / cleanliness6.01 Ratings3.01 Ratings
Admin section6.52 Ratings2.01 Ratings
Page templates7.02 Ratings1.01 Ratings
Library of website themes7.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Publishing workflow7.02 Ratings5.01 Ratings
Form generator4.01 Ratings1.01 Ratings
WYSIWYG editor00 Ratings6.01 Ratings
Web Content Management
Comparison of Web Content Management features of Product A and Product B
CommonSpot
7.7
2 Ratings
5% above category average
Percussion CMS
1.6
1 Ratings
128% below category average
Content taxonomy7.52 Ratings1.01 Ratings
SEO support7.02 Ratings1.01 Ratings
Bulk management8.01 Ratings3.01 Ratings
Availability / breadth of extensions7.01 Ratings1.01 Ratings
Community / comment management9.01 Ratings2.01 Ratings
Platform & Infrastructure
Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of Product A and Product B
CommonSpot
-
Ratings
Percussion CMS
1.0
1 Ratings
154% below category average
Internationalization / multi-language00 Ratings1.01 Ratings
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CommonSpotPercussion CMS
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Score 9.5 out of 10
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User Ratings
CommonSpotPercussion CMS
Likelihood to Recommend
7.0
(2 ratings)
2.0
(1 ratings)
Usability
8.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
CommonSpotPercussion CMS
Likelihood to Recommend
PaperThin, Inc
Commonspot is well suited for web content management to be conducted by individuals with low-level web skills.
Read full review
Percussion Software
Best suited for large organizations where everyone knows how to deal with Java in an increasingly Java unfriendly world. Said organization should be willing to pay a huge price for a piece of dinosaur technology
Read full review
Pros
PaperThin, Inc
  • I think CommonSpot's greatest strength is its ease of use. It's relatively intuitive in it's usage, so it therefore makes it easy to train new people to use it.
  • Within my usage of it, our options were limited, which again added to it's ease of use.
Read full review
Percussion Software
  • Separate CMS environment publishes to remote server environment - great for security
  • Highly scalable
  • Full scale workflow allows for custom routing, approving, etc..
Read full review
Cons
PaperThin, Inc
  • Commonspot needs to improve on its authoring feature. It is impossible to author on more than one page at a time . (One must always click on "View work on all changes") before switching between pages otherwise, the changes will not be saved.
  • CommonSpot does not support sharing the definition of any custom element or any template layouts. Therefore, one must recreate these in each site.
  • In Commonspot, a user who has to manage content in multiple sites will have to log in to each site to see and act on any actions.
Read full review
Percussion Software
  • One word: JAVA! We don't live in the 1990's anymore! An AJAX/DHTML environment seems a long time coming.
  • Horrible end-user experience, learning curve. Our end users' inability to easily use the archaic, Java-based interface, means they send the web developer their content requests. This creates a huge bottleneck and completely defeats the purpose of a CMS.
  • Image mangement and integration with content is aweful and time consuming. An image processing tool called ImedImage was developed for Percussion at one point, and left completely stagnant with very little support.
  • Implementation is extremely complicated, given the complexity of the system. Sure, scalability is a good thing, but there is very little out-of-the box function. Don't expect to implement a site as quickly as with other CMS platforms.
Read full review
Usability
PaperThin, Inc
I had no previous background in content management, and found it very easy to use. If I could figure it out, I am pretty certain that just about anyone else could as well.
Read full review
Percussion Software
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
PaperThin, Inc
Commonspot works in tandem with Zendesk very well to accomplish tasks an an efficient manner.
Read full review
Percussion Software
No contest. I can't wait to get off of Percussion CMS.
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Return on Investment
PaperThin, Inc
  • I was working in a religious institution and based upon our usage and audience, there was no ROI to speak of. Our usage was more for providing information than having any type of interaction. In that instance, it worked very well.
Read full review
Percussion Software
  • We are locked into Percussion CMS simply due to the expense and complexity of migrating to another solution (and the lack of time and budget to do so). I long for the day when I am no longer required to support Percussion CMS, to say the least.
Read full review
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