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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Drupal

    Score7.1 out of 10
    N/ADrupal is a free, open-source content management system written in PHP that competes primarily with Joomla and Plone. The standard release of Drupal, known as Drupal core, contains basic features such as account and menu management, RSS feeds, page layout customization, and system administration.N/A

    Squarespace

    Score8.4 out of 10
    N/ASquarespace is a CMS platform that allows users to create a DIY blog, eCommerce store, and/or portfolio (visual art or music). Some Squarespace website and shop templates are industry or use case-specific, such as menu builders for restaurant sites.

    $25

    per month

    WordPress VIP

    Score7.5 out of 10
    Enterprise companies (1,001+ employees)
    Wordpress VIP, from a team at Automattic, is enterprise WordPress hosting with customer or digital experience features for enterprises.N/A
    Pricing
    DrupalSquarespaceWordPress VIP
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    Basic
    $25
    per month
    Core
    $36
    per month
    Plus
    $56
    per month
    Advanced
    $139
    per month
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    DrupalSquarespaceWordPress VIP
    Free Trial
    NoYesNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details28% to 36% discount available for annual pricing.
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    DrupalSquarespaceWordPress VIP
    Considered Multiple Products
    Open Source
    Chose Drupal
    I inherited Drupal from a developer who made the website for our nonprofit many years ago. It was increasingly obvious that it wasn't a fit for our organization, which has multiple staff and volunteers who need to edit or update the website but don't have coding experience. Wix
    Incentivized
    Chose Drupal
    We have used many content management systems — WordPress, Wix, Squarespace, ExpressionEngine, and more. Drupal is more powerful and flexible than most.
    Incentivized
    Chose Drupal
    I've used Squarespace and WordPress for other businesses, and Drupal was honestly selected due to cost. It does a good job of scaling across our organization - and many units have benefited from having a space to provide content. Squarespace is more modern, and WordPress may …
    Incentivized
    Chose Drupal
    Drupal excels at allowing seasoned programmers to really get creative with marketing initiatives in terms of working with a theme and the core code. That being said, it is definitely much more challenging for average developers and front-end builders to use, especially at …
    Incentivized
    Chose Drupal
    Drupal is certainly a more complex animal, comparatively. But its power lies in its flexibility, extensibility, and stability. And the API is fantastic. There's really nothing else like it.
    Incentivized
    Chose Drupal
    Between these products, as a developer I would most likely go with Drupal unless I had a very specific reason to go with something else. To put it simply, Drupal is capable of anything that these other products can do. It may take a little longer to configure it in some cases, …
    Incentivized
    Chose Drupal
    Drupal is highly customizable unlike WordPress and Joomla. It may take a longer time to set up but it works well for the needs of the organizations it is set up for.
    Incentivized
    Squarespace
    Chose Squarespace
    Again, Squarespace is the best option for small businesses seeking an e-commerce solution. If you need more robust features, look to Drupal or WordPress, depending on site size. Weebly or Wix are solid options for basic sites, but I personally have had significant issues with …
    Incentivized
    Chose Squarespace
    WordPress is much more flexible and offers a much broader and deeper range of capabilities that Squarespace. However, setting up a WordPress site can be quite time consuming in comparison, and you must commit to spending time regularly - at least once a month - to updating …
    Incentivized
    Chose Squarespace
    SquareSpace is infinitely easier to use than any CMS I've used before. It's more reliable and saves a lot of time. I wouldn't recommend SquareSpace for large e-commerce sites or big government sites, but for small business, it's ideal.
    Incentivized
    Automattic
    Chose WordPress VIP
    Wordpress VIP is optimized for sites developed in Wordpress, making everything smooth and easy compared to other options
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    76%
    Would buy again
    13 Answers
    97%
    Would buy again
    35 Answers
    100%
    Would buy again
    22 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    88%
    Delivers good value for the price
    14 Answers
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    35 Answers
    95%
    Delivers good value for the price
    18 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    76%
    Happy with the feature set
    13 Answers
    94%
    Happy with the feature set
    34 Answers
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    22 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    92%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    12 Answers
    97%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    31 Answers
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    16 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    87%
    Implementation went as expected
    13 Answers
    97%
    Implementation went as expected
    33 Answers
    95%
    Implementation went as expected
    18 Answers
    Features
    DrupalSquarespaceWordPress VIP
    Security
    Comparison of Security features of Drupal and Squarespace and WordPress VIP
    Feature
    Drupal
    8.3
    74 Ratings
    1% above category average
    Squarespace
    8.4
    67 Ratings
    2% above category average
    WordPress VIP
    7.3
    2 Ratings
    12% below category average
    Role-based user permissions8.374 Ratings8.467 Ratings7.32 Ratings
    Platform & Infrastructure
    Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of Drupal and Squarespace and WordPress VIP
    Feature
    Drupal
    7.8
    69 Ratings
    0% below category average
    Squarespace
    6.6
    58 Ratings
    17% below category average
    WordPress VIP
    7.3
    2 Ratings
    7% below category average
    API7.364 Ratings7.051 Ratings9.12 Ratings
    Internationalization / multi-language8.260 Ratings6.237 Ratings5.52 Ratings
    Web Content Creation
    Comparison of Web Content Creation features of Drupal and Squarespace and WordPress VIP
    Feature
    Drupal
    6.5
    78 Ratings
    19% below category average
    Squarespace
    7.6
    99 Ratings
    3% below category average
    WordPress VIP
    8.2
    2 Ratings
    4% above category average
    WYSIWYG editor6.371 Ratings9.284 Ratings9.11 Ratings
    Code quality / cleanliness8.275 Ratings6.778 Ratings7.32 Ratings
    Admin section6.978 Ratings7.398 Ratings8.22 Ratings
    Page templates5.677 Ratings7.099 Ratings8.21 Ratings
    Library of website themes5.568 Ratings7.296 Ratings00 Ratings
    Mobile optimization / responsive design6.572 Ratings8.195 Ratings9.11 Ratings
    Publishing workflow6.776 Ratings8.386 Ratings7.32 Ratings
    Form generator6.672 Ratings6.580 Ratings00 Ratings
    Web Content Management
    Comparison of Web Content Management features of Drupal and Squarespace and WordPress VIP
    Feature
    Drupal
    6.6
    77 Ratings
    13% below category average
    Squarespace
    6.1
    89 Ratings
    21% below category average
    WordPress VIP
    8.0
    2 Ratings
    6% above category average
    Content taxonomy6.971 Ratings7.376 Ratings7.31 Ratings
    SEO support6.472 Ratings6.380 Ratings7.31 Ratings
    Bulk management6.467 Ratings5.851 Ratings7.32 Ratings
    Availability / breadth of extensions6.670 Ratings5.565 Ratings9.11 Ratings
    Community / comment management6.869 Ratings5.567 Ratings9.12 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    DrupalSquarespaceWordPress VIP
    Small Businesses
    Umbraco CMS
    Score7 out of 10
    Umbraco CMS
    Score7 out of 10
    Umbraco CMS
    Score7 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Square Online
    Score7.7 out of 10
    Square Online
    Score7.7 out of 10
    Square Online
    Score7.7 out of 10
    Enterprises
    RWS Tridion Sites
    Score9 out of 10
    RWS Tridion Sites
    Score9 out of 10
    RWS Tridion Sites
    Score9 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    DrupalSquarespaceWordPress VIP
    Likelihood to Recommend
    6.8
    (87 ratings)
    8.6
    (100 ratings)
    7.3
    (22 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    1.0
    (19 ratings)
    10.0
    (4 ratings)
    9.1
    (2 ratings)
    Usability
    6.9
    (20 ratings)
    8.5
    (14 ratings)
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    Availability
    9.7
    (3 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Performance
    8.9
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    1.0
    (5 ratings)
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    8.4
    (21 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Online Training
    6.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    5.1
    (4 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    8.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    DrupalSquarespaceWordPress VIP
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Open Source
    If you want to set up a basic Not For Profit (NFP) Membership system and content base, Word Press is easier than Drupal. However, if you have specific needs that require a fair bit of customisation then Drupal is the best CRM available. If the webmaster is confident with PHP and SQL, Drupal allows a lot of creativity.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Squarespace
    Squarespace is one of the best solutions out there for building a website or web experience that looks good, has great functionality and is cost-effective, even for smaller businesses. Although most people in marketing will find most of the elements intuitive, if the creator is struggling with any of the functionality, there are many, many support options and other users who can offer assistance.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Automattic
    WordPress VIP really changed the game when it comes to WordPress CMS and Content Management. A one-stop shop for all our client's business needs. We are focusing on Content Management instead of technicalities. The big advantage is the security features covering all recent vulnerabilities that any WordPress developer/user wastes lots of precious time fixing/updating. Performance-wise, WordPress VIP is definitely up there. We’ve been doing lots of optimization work over the last few years. Every client wants to score 100. With WordPress VIP we decreased the time spent on optimization significantly and now feel confident with taking more performance optimisation work than we did before. Lastly, maybe the most important for every business is the support quality. WordPress VIP runs a superb support team with phenomenal knowledge and expertise. Quick to respond and solves issues here and now. It is definitely recommended.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Open Source
    • Drag and drop functionality is easy to use
    • Easy to switch between straight text and HTML content
    • Ability to easily have multiple environments so that pages can be built in b/c-stage before they are approved and published
    • Solid user experience where it's clear how to navigate the platform
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Squarespace
    • Stupid simple to use. I know very creative people who cannot code and this is probably the easiest ever platform for them!
    • Pretty website templates and great functionality with showing off portfolios.
    • They've already figured out what are the problems that non-coding people have when creating websites and they've figured out a simple solution for all of it.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Automattic
    • Keeps us informed of upcoming releases/patches associated with the Wordpress Platform.
    • Introduces us to products/companies/Wordpress plugins as necessary when new business needs arise.
    • Amy and Allie are excellent at managing the relationship; speaking with them on our monthly calls is a pleasure.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Open Source
    • This is not an easy CMS to work with if you don't have a good understanding of website development. It isn't "plug-and-play" like Wordpress or Shopify.
    • Over time, doing major updates to the system can be taxing, especially if you aren't well-versed enough in doing system updates in line with your "child" theme and code.
    • The CMS can become somewhat cumbersome with server resources if not carefully optimized while you build and customize it to your liking.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Squarespace
    • Customizing the sites can be highly UN intuitive
    • Navigation for editing the sites can be difficult and frustrating
    • Squarespace has different versions and it's hard to know which version you're on. You can't switch after you start making a site with one version.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Automattic
    • Too many different dashboard formats
    • Everything should have the same look and feel.
    • The admin portal looks different than the user content portal
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Open Source
    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.
    Read full review
    Squarespace
    Unless our website requires significantly more functionality in the future, I can't see us terminating our contract
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Automattic
    It's true enterprise ready hosting framework providing unparalleled hosting infrastructure for WordPress. Where an organisation has high load needs, but with stability and scale VIP delivers. It provides complete peace of mind that the hosting, security and scalability are taken care of and organisations can focus on developing out their website strategies
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    Open Source
    As a team, we found Drupal to be highly customizable and flexible, allowing our development team to go to great lengths to develop desired functionalities. It can be used as a solution for all types of web projects. It comes with a robust admin interface that provides greater flexibility once the user gets acquainted with the system.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Squarespace
    It's simple to use for someone who is really good with computers as well as those who are not. I've been using my personal squarespace for years and have also helped clients build a starting page which they are later able to manage theirselves.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Automattic
    There is documentation for everything you might need.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Open Source
    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).
    Read full review
    Squarespace
    No answers on this topic
    Automattic
    No answers on this topic
    Performance
    Open Source
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Squarespace
    No answers on this topic
    Automattic
    No answers on this topic
    Support Rating
    Open Source
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Squarespace
    Help is available directly from the back end and uses full sentence searching to find answers to questions others may have asked before. With a ton of articles and support questions documents, it is very likely that your question has been answered. If not each page has the ability to open a direct email to support. Each case has a number and can be followed. Responses are often quick and have links and directions clearly stated
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Automattic
    The people who work for WordPress VIP clearly are passionate about representing the organisation. Therefore when support is required, they do go above and beyond what you may expect in terms of overall support. They take security very seriously, and due to the nature of VIP, it's rarely a concern for the end-user, if at all.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    In-Person Training
    Open Source
    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.
    Read full review
    Squarespace
    No answers on this topic
    Automattic
    No answers on this topic
    Online Training
    Open Source
    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.
    Read full review
    Squarespace
    No answers on this topic
    Automattic
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation Rating
    Open Source
    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%
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Squarespace
    No answers on this topic
    Automattic
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    Open Source
    Drupal can be more complex to learn, but it offers a much wider range of applications. Drupal’s front and backend can be customized from design to functionality to allow for a wide range of uses. If someone wants to create something more complex than a simple site or blog, Drupal can be an amazing asset to have at hand.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Squarespace
    Squarespace was quicker to set up and more accessible to manipulate the theme, pictures, and content. The page layouts are more versatile and fluid. With WordPress, more time-consuming efforts go into making a template work the way you want it to (because of the lack of the drag-and-drop grids that Squarespace has).
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Automattic
    Our team manages 4 different brands' websites and before WordPress VIP we were using multiple different hosts including DreamHost and AWS. These were convoluted and didn't offer the enterprise features for our organization that WP VIP was capable of. We also considered Pantheon, but they were not Wordpress-centric enough for the direction we were going.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Scalability
    Open Source
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Squarespace
    No answers on this topic
    Automattic
    No answers on this topic
    Return on Investment
    Open Source
    • Given the endless possibilities that Drupal can have, we tend to have great support going on when we get a website launched
    • It has become much much faster and easier for us to launch a new project due to reusability
    • Configuration management in Drupal helps greatly with CI/CD, saves us costs
    Read full review
    Squarespace
    • The cost is reasonably decent. My client says they spent about $20 a month or $240 a year. I asked her if she could add Google AdSense to her blog one day, and they believe they can. They said a custom site would cost them $3000-10,000 depending on who does it. And I agreed, but I found the website they created was on the lower end of that range.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Automattic
    • Working as a WordPress VIP gold partner has helped our business grow from 12 staff to 28 staff in 2 years. They have brought many projects to the table that are always the right ones for us and they really understand our goals as a business.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots