TrustRadius: an HG Insights company

Plone vs. Terminalfour Digital Engagement and Web Development Platform

Save this comparison

Save this comparison

Add Product

Recommended Comparisons

    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

    Terminalfour Digital Engagement and Web Development Platform

    Score7.8 out of 10
    Enterprise companies (1,001+ employees)
    TerminalFour Site Manager is the principal product from the global software company of the same name, a content management system available for local-hosting or cloud-based, primarily targeted at educational institutions, government and international bodies, but also retail and financial services organizations.N/A
    Pricing
    PloneTerminalfour Digital Engagement and Web Development Platform
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    PloneTerminalfour Digital Engagement and Web Development Platform
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoYes
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup fee$15,000 organisation per year
    Additional Details—Generally the initial cost is between $15,000 to $100,000 with ongoing support and hosting subsequent years.
    More Pricing Information
    Features
    PloneTerminalfour Digital Engagement and Web Development Platform
    Security
    Comparison of Security features of Plone and Terminalfour Digital Engagement and Web Development Platform
    Feature
    Plone
    10.0
    5 Ratings
    19% above category average
    Terminalfour Digital Engagement and Web Development Platform
    8.5
    2 Ratings
    3% above category average
    Role-based user permissions10.05 Ratings8.52 Ratings
    Platform & Infrastructure
    Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of Plone and Terminalfour Digital Engagement and Web Development Platform
    Feature
    Plone
    10.0
    5 Ratings
    25% above category average
    Terminalfour Digital Engagement and Web Development Platform
    5.0
    1 Ratings
    44% below category average
    API10.05 Ratings6.01 Ratings
    Internationalization / multi-language10.05 Ratings4.01 Ratings
    Web Content Creation
    Comparison of Web Content Creation features of Plone and Terminalfour Digital Engagement and Web Development Platform
    Feature
    Plone
    9.4
    6 Ratings
    18% above category average
    Terminalfour Digital Engagement and Web Development Platform
    7.0
    2 Ratings
    11% below category average
    WYSIWYG editor10.06 Ratings8.52 Ratings
    Code quality / cleanliness10.05 Ratings8.02 Ratings
    Admin section10.05 Ratings8.02 Ratings
    Page templates10.05 Ratings8.52 Ratings
    Library of website themes5.05 Ratings6.01 Ratings
    Mobile optimization / responsive design10.05 Ratings4.01 Ratings
    Publishing workflow10.05 Ratings8.02 Ratings
    Form generator10.05 Ratings5.01 Ratings
    Web Content Management
    Comparison of Web Content Management features of Plone and Terminalfour Digital Engagement and Web Development Platform
    Feature
    Plone
    9.4
    5 Ratings
    22% above category average
    Terminalfour Digital Engagement and Web Development Platform
    6.7
    2 Ratings
    11% below category average
    Content taxonomy10.05 Ratings7.42 Ratings
    SEO support10.04 Ratings7.01 Ratings
    Bulk management10.05 Ratings5.01 Ratings
    Availability / breadth of extensions8.05 Ratings6.01 Ratings
    Community / comment management9.05 Ratings7.92 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    PloneTerminalfour Digital Engagement and Web Development Platform
    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
    PloneTerminalfour Digital Engagement and Web Development Platform
    Likelihood to Recommend
    10.0
    (13 ratings)
    8.0
    (2 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    10.0
    (11 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Usability
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Availability
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Performance
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 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
    PloneTerminalfour Digital Engagement and Web Development Platform
    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
    Terminalfour
    It's an extremely flexible solution. It can be a nightmare to work with if not properly planned out or fantastic if well thought out. If you have a team and an application owner with a plan it's a great option.
    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
    Terminalfour
    • Ease of use
    • Nice interface
    • Web-based site manager
    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
    Terminalfour
    • It can be a bit buggy with media library management.
    • The html editor can act pretty wonky sometimes with the html it translates things into.
    • The navigation builder tool is pretty confusing.
    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
    Terminalfour
    No answers on this topic
    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
    Terminalfour
    No answers on this topic
    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
    Terminalfour
    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
    Terminalfour
    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
    Terminalfour
    No answers on this topic
    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
    Terminalfour
    No answers on this topic
    Online Training
    Plone
    Well organized, professional training with good materials and instructions
    Read full review
    Terminalfour
    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
    Terminalfour
    I was not part of the decision process, but I was very happy with the choice to use TerminalFour.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Scalability
    Plone
    Plone has no limits. We have massive sites and can run them just fine
    Read full review
    Terminalfour
    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
    Terminalfour
    • Increased employee efficiency.
    • Happier internal customers because changes are much easier than they used to be and we can often empower them to make their own changes to their websites.
    • For our application owner it's become a huge project that consumes all of his time. Not ideal but it's working for now. Knowledge sharing the more intricate pieces can be really difficult.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    Terminalfour Digital Engagement and Web Development Platform Screenshots

    Screenshot of Direct Edit with AnalyticsScreenshot of Login ScreenScreenshot of Media LibraryScreenshot of Form BuilderScreenshot of Form Results ReportScreenshot of Direct Edit