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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Percussion CMS

    Score8.6 out of 10
    N/APercussion 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

    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
    Percussion CMSSquarespace
    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
    Percussion CMSSquarespace
    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
    Percussion CMSSquarespace
    Considered Both Products
    Percussion Software
    No answer on this topic
    Squarespace
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    No answers on this topic
    97%
    Would buy again
    35 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    35 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    No answers on this topic
    94%
    Happy with the feature set
    34 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    97%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    31 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    No answers on this topic
    97%
    Implementation went as expected
    33 Answers
    Features
    Percussion CMSSquarespace
    Security
    Comparison of Security features of Percussion CMS and Squarespace
    Feature
    Percussion CMS
    3.0
    1 Ratings
    93% below category average
    Squarespace
    8.4
    67 Ratings
    2% above category average
    Role-based user permissions3.01 Ratings8.467 Ratings
    Web Content Creation
    Comparison of Web Content Creation features of Percussion CMS and Squarespace
    Feature
    Percussion CMS
    3.0
    1 Ratings
    89% below category average
    Squarespace
    7.5
    99 Ratings
    4% below category average
    WYSIWYG editor6.01 Ratings9.284 Ratings
    Code quality / cleanliness3.01 Ratings6.778 Ratings
    Admin section2.01 Ratings7.398 Ratings
    Page templates1.01 Ratings7.099 Ratings
    Publishing workflow5.01 Ratings8.386 Ratings
    Form generator1.01 Ratings6.580 Ratings
    Library of website themes00 Ratings7.296 Ratings
    Mobile optimization / responsive design00 Ratings8.195 Ratings
    Web Content Management
    Comparison of Web Content Management features of Percussion CMS and Squarespace
    Feature
    Percussion CMS
    1.6
    1 Ratings
    130% below category average
    Squarespace
    6.1
    89 Ratings
    21% below category average
    Content taxonomy1.01 Ratings7.376 Ratings
    SEO support1.01 Ratings6.380 Ratings
    Bulk management3.01 Ratings5.851 Ratings
    Availability / breadth of extensions1.01 Ratings5.565 Ratings
    Community / comment management2.01 Ratings5.567 Ratings
    Platform & Infrastructure
    Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of Percussion CMS and Squarespace
    Feature
    Percussion CMS
    1.0
    1 Ratings
    155% below category average
    Squarespace
    6.6
    58 Ratings
    17% below category average
    Internationalization / multi-language1.01 Ratings6.237 Ratings
    API00 Ratings7.051 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Percussion CMSSquarespace
    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
    Percussion CMSSquarespace
    Likelihood to Recommend
    2.0
    (1 ratings)
    8.6
    (100 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (4 ratings)
    Usability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.5
    (14 ratings)
    Support Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Percussion CMSSquarespace
    Likelihood to Recommend
    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
    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
    Percussion Software
    • Separate CMS environment publishes to remote server environment - great for security
    • Highly scalable
    • Full scale workflow allows for custom routing, approving, etc..
    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
    Cons
    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.
    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
    Percussion Software
    No answers on this topic
    Squarespace
    Unless our website requires significantly more functionality in the future, I can't see us terminating our contract
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    Percussion Software
    No answers on this topic
    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
    Support Rating
    Percussion Software
    No answers on this topic
    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
    Alternatives Considered
    Percussion Software
    No contest. I can't wait to get off of Percussion CMS.
    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
    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.
    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—