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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Joomla

    Score8.3 out of 10
    N/AJoomla! is a free and open source content management system used to publish web content. Included features are page caching, RSS feeds, printable versions of pages, news flashes, blogs, polls, a search function, and support for language internationalization.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

    Pricing
    JoomlaSquarespace
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    Basic
    $25
    per month
    Core
    $36
    per month
    Plus
    $56
    per month
    Advanced
    $139
    per month
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    JoomlaSquarespace
    Free Trial
    NoYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details—28% to 36% discount available for annual pricing.
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    JoomlaSquarespace
    Considered Both Products
    The Joomla Project
    Chose Joomla
    Joomla and Concrete5 have about the same capability and similar issues. Purchasing a SAAS like Squarespace, Weebly or Wix would be worth the price to remove the hassle of Joomla. A more robust free CMS like WordPress or Drupal would be a better solution if you wanted to remain …
    Incentivized
    Chose Joomla
    Simpler and easy to visually understand elements and tools. We don't need to do any fancy coding or use too many plugins. çompared with WordPress and Webflow, we believe Joomla! has a more accurate and easy interface that allows the user to finish tasks in less time than the …
    Incentivized
    Chose Joomla
    Joomla! is the #2 Open Source CMS behind WordPress, which we also use, and ahead of Drupal, which we have evaluated but decided not to pursue. Joomla! generally performs better than WP for clients that need more complexity to their websites, including flexibility in templating, …
    Incentivized
    Chose Joomla

    Before I settled in on using Joomla for the City of Pomona, I experimented with WordPress and Drupal, as being the right fit for the new website. Each time I went through the analysis, research and development, both WordPress and Drupal, came up short for quickly delivering a …

    Incentivized
    Chose Joomla
    We do currently use ExpressionEngine (EE) as well as it gives us some more flexibility when trying to display documents/ reports in an automated manner and better file management and integration with FTP. We weren't very happy with Squarespace as it has a challenging user …
    Incentivized
    Squarespace
    Chose Squarespace
    Squarespace can't even begin to compare against any of the other options, Squarespace is a very basic, simplistic, minimal webpage builder with no special features to create a truly outstanding website. An outstanding website that brings a company customers/orders requires a …
    Incentivized
    Chose Squarespace
    Squarespace is the top of the pack when it comes to "set it and forget it" website builders. Wordpess is slightly more flexible but still requires a watchful eye from and administrative standpoint. Others, like Drupal, are more extensible but are better for larger websites that …
    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
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    93%
    Would buy again
    14 Answers
    97%
    Would buy again
    35 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    93%
    Delivers good value for the price
    13 Answers
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    35 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    87%
    Happy with the feature set
    13 Answers
    94%
    Happy with the feature set
    34 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    10 Answers
    97%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    31 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    14 Answers
    97%
    Implementation went as expected
    33 Answers
    Features
    JoomlaSquarespace
    Security
    Comparison of Security features of Joomla! and Squarespace
    Feature
    Joomla!
    8.3
    51 Ratings
    1% above category average
    Squarespace
    8.4
    67 Ratings
    2% above category average
    Role-based user permissions8.351 Ratings8.467 Ratings
    Platform & Infrastructure
    Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of Joomla! and Squarespace
    Feature
    Joomla!
    6.6
    48 Ratings
    17% below category average
    Squarespace
    6.6
    58 Ratings
    17% below category average
    API7.246 Ratings7.051 Ratings
    Internationalization / multi-language6.047 Ratings6.237 Ratings
    Web Content Creation
    Comparison of Web Content Creation features of Joomla! and Squarespace
    Feature
    Joomla!
    7.7
    54 Ratings
    2% below category average
    Squarespace
    7.5
    99 Ratings
    4% below category average
    WYSIWYG editor8.353 Ratings9.284 Ratings
    Code quality / cleanliness8.551 Ratings6.778 Ratings
    Admin section8.249 Ratings7.398 Ratings
    Page templates7.052 Ratings7.099 Ratings
    Library of website themes6.350 Ratings7.296 Ratings
    Mobile optimization / responsive design7.550 Ratings8.195 Ratings
    Publishing workflow8.450 Ratings8.386 Ratings
    Form generator7.446 Ratings6.580 Ratings
    Web Content Management
    Comparison of Web Content Management features of Joomla! and Squarespace
    Feature
    Joomla!
    7.6
    52 Ratings
    1% above category average
    Squarespace
    6.1
    89 Ratings
    21% below category average
    Content taxonomy7.951 Ratings7.376 Ratings
    SEO support7.650 Ratings6.380 Ratings
    Bulk management8.049 Ratings5.851 Ratings
    Availability / breadth of extensions7.052 Ratings5.565 Ratings
    Community / comment management7.150 Ratings5.567 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    JoomlaSquarespace
    Small Businesses
    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
    Enterprises
    RWS Tridion Sites
    Score9 out of 10
    RWS Tridion Sites
    Score9 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    JoomlaSquarespace
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.2
    (75 ratings)
    8.6
    (100 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    10.0
    (28 ratings)
    10.0
    (4 ratings)
    Usability
    8.0
    (14 ratings)
    8.5
    (14 ratings)
    Availability
    9.9
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Performance
    7.8
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    10.0
    (4 ratings)
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    Online Training
    8.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    8.7
    (3 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    9.9
    (3 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    JoomlaSquarespace
    Likelihood to Recommend
    The Joomla Project
    If your developers want to have some fun, Joomla offers the stability and friendliness to do custom coding. Certain marketing initiatives require us to get "cute" with the interface, and Joomla allows for that a bit easier than WordPress (and definitely easier than sites like Squarespace). The security of Joomla is also always a plus.
    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
    Pros
    The Joomla Project
    • Security. Its got many new features in the new Joomla! 4 which make the already good security even better. I like the ability to use my Yubi keys to log in with the new webauth standard, I don't think any other CMS has that built in
    • W3C Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 (with AA compliance)
    • Really good SEO that gets our sites to the top of the search engines again without the need for any extra things
    • Speed, it gets a really good score (100%) in the google lighthouse on our server, can't beat that
    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
    Cons
    The Joomla Project
    • Because Joomla's user community is smaller than WP, it lacks as many choices from 3rd party developers, meaning it can be a little more difficult to find the right extension for what you need to accomplish
    • Along the same vein, most of the best 3rd-party software for Joomla! is paid
    • Simple features such as Add to Menu and Cache cleaners should be adopted as part of the Joomla! core, though they are available as extensions
    • Joomla! could use a simpler and easier URL rewriting process
    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
    Likelihood to Renew
    The Joomla Project
    I gave it a rating of 10 because I just love how Joomla! works, how it is set up and how it handles many users. Also it is very fast, and there is no overload on the MySQL database or servers ever.
    Incentivized
    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
    Usability
    The Joomla Project
    Joomla! 3.x is easily installed either manually or via a script provided by your host. It contains most of the tools needed to begin creating websites right from the start. Those features that it doesn't have are easily installed via links and buttons from the thousands of extensions available in the community
    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
    Performance
    The Joomla Project
    Today's Modern Joomla performs very well and is robust and durable. The pages load faster than they ever did in the past and Modern Joomla's integration into other software or systems has become seamless. Modern Joomla sites will last long and will stay running forever.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Squarespace
    No answers on this topic
    Support Rating
    The Joomla Project
    Between the core Joomla developers who are excellent at answering questions and providing support, you have a whole community of developers who work with Joomla and are happy to help fellow developers out answering questions and supporting the Joomla project. Out of the many communities I am involved in for open-source software, Joomla's community is by far the best.
    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
    Online Training
    The Joomla Project
    It is good if you know Joomla! if not it can get a bit confusing
    Read full review
    Squarespace
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation Rating
    The Joomla Project
    Joomla has gone through tremendous growing pains. It is now better than ever. But before, when it was going from 1.5-2.5, the templates and plugins would break over and over again. If you don't understand what Joomla was trying to do back then, you might have a bad attitude toward it. Today, those pains are over and things don't break like they used to during that time period.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Squarespace
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    The Joomla Project
    We tested other platforms like WordPress, Magento and some local CMS. 
    But Joomla offered us better resources for generating content.
    Joomla is a CMS suitable for many types of projects, especially if you have several people editing content at the same time.
    It allows you to maintain visual standardization and offers many options for working with images.
    With its ability to control access to different articles, categories or even different components, it is a great tool, even if they are managed by different people.
    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
    Return on Investment
    The Joomla Project
    • Joomla has reduced our costs of rolling out a new website because it uses less developer time and can be rolled out by individual users as needed.
    • Joomla has a lot of extensions and add-ons that make it easy to create and implement advanced solutions quickly.
    Incentivized
    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
    ScreenShots