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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Plone

    Score10 out of 10
    N/APlone is a free and open source content management system built on top of the Zope application server. Plone can be used for any kind of website, including blogs, internet sites, webshops, and internal websites.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
    PloneSquarespace
    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
    PloneSquarespace
    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
    PloneSquarespace
    Considered Both Products
    Plone
    Chose Plone
    Since 2004, when we first started using Plone, here hasn't been any feature or request or system that we couldn't have been done with Plone.

    Sometimes there have been cases, where we pilot or test other workflow-based systems, but usually the problems come with licences …
    Incentivized
    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
    PloneSquarespace
    Security
    Comparison of Security features of Plone and Squarespace
    Feature
    Plone
    10.0
    5 Ratings
    19% above category average
    Squarespace
    8.4
    67 Ratings
    2% above category average
    Role-based user permissions10.05 Ratings8.467 Ratings
    Platform & Infrastructure
    Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of Plone and Squarespace
    Feature
    Plone
    10.0
    5 Ratings
    25% above category average
    Squarespace
    6.6
    58 Ratings
    17% below category average
    API10.05 Ratings7.051 Ratings
    Internationalization / multi-language10.05 Ratings6.237 Ratings
    Web Content Creation
    Comparison of Web Content Creation features of Plone and Squarespace
    Feature
    Plone
    9.4
    6 Ratings
    18% above category average
    Squarespace
    7.5
    99 Ratings
    4% below category average
    WYSIWYG editor10.06 Ratings9.284 Ratings
    Code quality / cleanliness10.05 Ratings6.778 Ratings
    Admin section10.05 Ratings7.398 Ratings
    Page templates10.05 Ratings7.099 Ratings
    Library of website themes5.05 Ratings7.296 Ratings
    Mobile optimization / responsive design10.05 Ratings8.195 Ratings
    Publishing workflow10.05 Ratings8.386 Ratings
    Form generator10.05 Ratings6.580 Ratings
    Web Content Management
    Comparison of Web Content Management features of Plone and Squarespace
    Feature
    Plone
    9.4
    5 Ratings
    22% above category average
    Squarespace
    6.1
    89 Ratings
    21% below category average
    Content taxonomy10.05 Ratings7.376 Ratings
    SEO support10.04 Ratings6.380 Ratings
    Bulk management10.05 Ratings5.851 Ratings
    Availability / breadth of extensions8.05 Ratings5.565 Ratings
    Community / comment management9.05 Ratings5.567 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    PloneSquarespace
    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
    PloneSquarespace
    Likelihood to Recommend
    10.0
    (13 ratings)
    8.6
    (100 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    10.0
    (11 ratings)
    10.0
    (4 ratings)
    Usability
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    8.5
    (14 ratings)
    Availability
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Performance
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Online Training
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    PloneSquarespace
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Plone
    The larger your organization, the more appropriate Plone will be. This is not to say that Plone is a worse choice for small websites, only that the minimum investment for a Plone site is certainly higher than for other platforms. If you already use Plone for your site and are looking for a redesign or an overhaul, I would only advise switching to a different platform such as WordPress or Drupal if your organization is downsizing. For any other situation, Plone is the natural choice for your growth.
    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
    Plone
    • Plone is a folder-based system, organising content in a similar way desktop-users are doing for the last two decades. No need to teach non-tech customers some relational-database like paradigm for content management.
    • Plone is secure. It is the most secure CMS you can get your hands on.
    • Plone is flexible, and makes fast development easy.
    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
    Plone
    • Not everything is configurable or editable by Plone, and when you need to adjust or add custom pieces in, you need to deal with Zope. Zope has an ugly, confusing and difficult UI and structure as a backend.
    • Using 3rd party products is difficult to do - there are a few different ways to get them installed, all of which take a bit of luck to get right.
    • Building custom products for Plone is not fun. You've got to deal with an archaic framework to tie in that is not well documented (there is documentation about many things, but not great documentation and there are a lot of holes in the documentation).
    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
    Plone
    We have critical systems running on Plone so will need it in the future.
    Free to use since its Open source, so we don't have to worry about licence costs.
    We know how to use and develop Plone and it has no limits.
    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
    Plone
    Compared to the amount of Plone sites, users and customizations we have in our organization, the amount of support requests and training needed is really small.
    The new user interface in Plone 6 is even better, it is super fast, has lots of different blocks for enhancing the page, has flexible layout system and is easy to extend with more features.
    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
    Reliability and Availability
    Plone
    Our Plone sites are very robust. We have critical systems on Plone and we have been running sites on Plone for over 20 years with very little unexpected downtime.
    Read full review
    Squarespace
    No answers on this topic
    Performance
    Plone
    Plone is very intensive in its operations, and if not configured well it can be slow. However it is designed and built with speed in mind and with proper use of coding, templates and caching can perform extremely well under high loads. It is capable of scaling to very high load availability environments with no specific coding requirements.
    Read full review
    Squarespace
    No answers on this topic
    Support Rating
    Plone
    There are not too many Plone companies in the world. But the ones who are, are high level professionals
    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
    In-Person Training
    Plone
    I have been participating Plone training and the trainers have always been professional. Materials were good and the instructions clear
    Read full review
    Squarespace
    No answers on this topic
    Online Training
    Plone
    Well organized, professional training with good materials and instructions
    Read full review
    Squarespace
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    Plone
    Drupal: Plone is cheaper, so with Drupal is more complex to reach the required ROI. However, Drupal has a lower learning curve WordPress: For our necessities it has a more expensive learning curve than plone. Joomla, is easier to use. However, it have some issues on security and web content where Plone is much better
    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
    Scalability
    Plone
    Plone has no limits. We have massive sites and can run them just fine
    Read full review
    Squarespace
    No answers on this topic
    Return on Investment
    Plone
    • The impact Plone has had at the University of Oshkosh is as follows: this software allows student workers to learn about IT departments and CMS's in a user-friendly way. It gives many students great jobs that look great on their resumes.
    • Since there are great training manuals for Plone, there is increased employee efficient in the workplace. Training doesn't take long, and if there's ever a question, the Plone manual is a great tool to refer to.
    • If an employee using Plone quits, its easy to find someone to replace them with quick training and great resources.
    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
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