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Cascade CMS

Cascade CMS
Formerly Cascade Server

Overview

What is Cascade CMS?

Cascade CMS (formerly Cascade Server) by Hannon Hill is a content management system, with built-in tools to help users eliminate stale content, increase digital outreach, and promote end-user adoption and accountability. Cascade CMS is designed for decentralized web teams…

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Recent Reviews

TrustRadius Insights

Cascade Server is a highly versatile content management system widely used by universities and colleges to manage multiple websites across …
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Cascade Server rocks!

10 out of 10
February 23, 2020
Incentivized
Cascade Server is the perfect CMS for our needs and is being used in several schools across the university. Cascade Server is powerful in …
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Cascade Server is solid

9 out of 10
September 16, 2016
Incentivized
Our Cascade Server instance hosts 185 sites, for several academic departments and programs across our entire organization. The ease of …
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Popular Features

View all 16 features
  • Publishing workflow (19)
    9.0
    90%
  • Role-based user permissions (19)
    8.0
    80%
  • Admin section (19)
    8.0
    80%
  • WYSIWYG editor (19)
    6.1
    61%
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Pricing

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N/A
Unavailable

What is Cascade CMS?

Cascade CMS (formerly Cascade Server) by Hannon Hill is a content management system, with built-in tools to help users eliminate stale content, increase digital outreach, and promote end-user adoption and accountability. Cascade CMS is designed for decentralized web teams in most major industries,…

Entry-level set up fee?

  • Setup fee optional

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services

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Features

Security

This component helps a company minimize the security risks by controlling access to the software and its data, and encouraging best practices among users.

8
Avg 8.0

Platform & Infrastructure

Features related to platform-wide settings and structure, such as permissions, languages, integrations, customizations, etc.

7.1
Avg 7.7

Web Content Creation

Features that support the creation of website content.

7.1
Avg 7.6

Web Content Management

Features for managing website content

6.9
Avg 7.3
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Product Details

What is Cascade CMS?

Cascade CMS (formerly Cascade Server) by Hannon Hill is a content management system, with built-in tools to help users eliminate stale content, increase digital outreach, and promote end-user adoption and accountability. Cascade CMS is designed for decentralized web teams in most major industries, including higher education, government, healthcare, and technology.

Included is Clive, an engagement and real-time personalization tool for collecting information and using it to craft personalized web experiences. With it, users can build profiles and engage with audiences through targeted content delivery.

Cascade CMS Features

Web Content Creation Features

  • Supported: WYSIWYG editor
  • Supported: Code quality / cleanliness
  • Supported: Content versioning
  • Supported: Admin section
  • Supported: Page templates
  • Supported: Mobile optimization / responsive design
  • Supported: Publishing workflow
  • Supported: Form generator
  • Supported: Content scheduling

Web Content Management Features

  • Supported: Internal content search
  • Supported: Content taxonomy
  • Supported: SEO support
  • Supported: Browser compatibility
  • Supported: Bulk management
  • Supported: Availability / breadth of extensions
  • Supported: Import / export
  • Supported: Website analytics

Platform & Infrastructure Features

  • Supported: API
  • Supported: Internationalization / multi-language

Security Features

  • Supported: Role-based user permissions
  • Supported: User-level audit trail
  • Supported: Version history
  • Supported: Simple roll-back capabilities

CMS programming language or framework Features

  • Supported: PHP
  • Supported: Python
  • Supported: Java
  • Supported: .NET

Additional Features

  • Supported: Full support of COPE (create once, publish everywhere)

Cascade CMS Video

Using Velocity and XSLT in Cascade Server

Cascade CMS Competitors

Cascade CMS Technical Details

Deployment TypesOn-premise, Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based
Operating SystemsWindows, Linux, Mac
Mobile ApplicationNo

Frequently Asked Questions

Cascade CMS (formerly Cascade Server) by Hannon Hill is a content management system, with built-in tools to help users eliminate stale content, increase digital outreach, and promote end-user adoption and accountability. Cascade CMS is designed for decentralized web teams in most major industries, including higher education, government, healthcare, and technology. Included is Clive, an engagement and real-time personalization tool for collecting information and using it to craft personalized web experiences. With it, users can build profiles and engage with audiences through targeted content delivery.

OU Campus and Drupal are common alternatives for Cascade CMS.

Reviewers rate Page templates and Publishing workflow and Bulk management highest, with a score of 9.

The most common users of Cascade CMS are from Enterprises (1,001+ employees).
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(58)

Community Insights

TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!

Cascade Server is a highly versatile content management system widely used by universities and colleges to manage multiple websites across various departments and administrative offices. Users with no web technology experience have found Cascade Server to be easy to navigate and use, resulting in an efficient web publishing environment. This has allowed departments with high update rates to have immediate control and updates through the IT department's back-end design and structural support.

Scripps Research, for example, has implemented Cascade Server across its entire institute, empowering individuals, studies, and departments to create their own websites without extensive intervention from the IT department. This has significantly saved time and costs. Northern Illinois University also relies on Cascade Server as its main web client, enabling everyone in the organization to easily update and manage their web pages, particularly in the Marketing and Web Communications Department.

Cascade Server's robust features such as versioning, check-in/out assets, workflow management, and cross-site sharing capabilities make it a powerful tool for managing multiple sites, approving content, and maintaining version control. With its intuitive user interface, staff can efficiently retrieve information from the content repository throughout the workday. Additionally, Cascade Server's integration with Spectate allows for personalized web content, easy form generation, and lead tracking. It serves as a comprehensive suite of web content tools that cater to diverse organizational needs.

The flexibility, adaptability, and scalability of Cascade Server have made it ideal for universities and organizations seeking a powerful CMS solution. Its ability to assign different roles and levels of access has been praised by users for providing a self-service tool for end users without web management experience. Furthermore, Cascade Server has enabled departments and programs without technical resources to build and maintain their own sites effectively. It has become instrumental in managing content from hundreds of university web pages while ensuring consistency across the organization. Additionally, Cascade Server has proven valuable for managing online journals by simplifying text placement, image inclusion, document attachment tasks, thus enhancing efficiency in journal management.

Time-saving Tool: Users have found Cascade Server to be a valuable time-saving tool for monitoring stale content and broken links on their public site. They appreciate the automatic handling of version upgrades on the cloud, which has been lightning fast and only takes about half an hour to convert a site with a large number of assets.

Intuitive Permissions: Setting permissions in Cascade Server is described as intuitive and easy to set up at both high or granular levels. Many users have praised the CMS for its ability to track assets and links when moved, deleted, or renamed, as well as its capability for allowing relational publishing of all affected assets.

Great Integration with Third-Party Products: The integration of Cascade Server with third-party products such as Google Analytics, SiteImprove, and WebDam is highly valued by users. They specifically mention the excellent customer service provided by Hannon Hill, the company behind Cascade Server.

Cons:

  1. Overwhelming and Challenging Interface: Many users have found Cascade CMS overwhelming and challenging to understand, especially without programming knowledge. The complex nature of the system makes it difficult for non-technical users to navigate and utilize effectively.
  2. Limitations with Images: Users have mentioned that Cascade CMS has limitations when it comes to working with images. Specifically, they find it challenging to save multiple versions of uploaded images and encounter difficulties in managing image-related tasks within the system.
  3. Complex Maintenance for Large Websites: Maintaining a large website can be difficult in Cascade Server due to its push architecture and the need to write a web services application for re-publishing template-specific pages. Users express frustration with these complexities, which make it time-consuming and labor-intensive to manage their websites efficiently.

Users commonly recommend purchasing consulting time from Hannon Hill to configure and set up Cascade CMS. They suggest considering WordPress for its ease of use and overall design, while acknowledging that Cascade CMS excels in revisions and file structure management. Additionally, users find Cascade CMS to be a powerful solution for enterprise-level content management, although it does require familiarity with Velocity templating language, XML, and structured content markup. They also highlight the ease of use for basic daily functions in Cascade CMS and praise Hannon Hill's customer support. Lastly, for users with advanced technical expertise, they suggest considering Drupal as an alternative option.

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-3 of 3)
Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
July 09, 2015

NIU Huskies

Collan Davidson | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Cascade Server is used as our main web client for NIU. We use it campus wide, especially in the Marketing and Web Communications Department. It helps us maintain our NIU website.
  • Analytic data
  • Web content
  • Storage
  • Loading speed
  • More custom templates
Web Content Creation (8)
63.75%
6.4
WYSIWYG editor
60%
6.0
Code quality / cleanliness
80%
8.0
Admin section
70%
7.0
Page templates
30%
3.0
Library of website themes
60%
6.0
Mobile optimization / responsive design
70%
7.0
Publishing workflow
70%
7.0
Form generator
70%
7.0
Web Content Management (5)
58%
5.8
Content taxonomy
70%
7.0
SEO support
70%
7.0
Bulk management
40%
4.0
Availability / breadth of extensions
60%
6.0
Community / comment management
50%
5.0
Platform & Infrastructure (2)
60%
6.0
API
50%
5.0
Internationalization / multi-language
70%
7.0
Security (1)
50%
5.0
Role-based user permissions
50%
5.0
CMS programming language or framework
N/A
N/A
  • Efficiency
  • Cost
  • ROI
Very well. It works just for our purpose.
200
Campus wide departments
25
Training and IT
  • Web content
  • Marketing
  • Communications
  • New website
  • Update web content
Cascade serves a great purpose.
Not Sure
  • Price
  • Product Features
  • Product Usability
  • Prior Experience with the Product
  • Analyst Reports
Product reputation. We wanted a reliable product.
N/A
  • Vendor implemented
Change management was a major issue with the implementation
Takes people a lot of time to deal with change in an organization.
  • Training
Works great for what we are trying to do.
  • Online training
  • In-person training
  • Self-taught
Training was helpful.
Still needed that physical help
You really needed all training if you had never worked with it before.
Just right
Yes - we have added extensive custom code
It was easy to do with my background with code.
They are very helpful.
Yes
Yes and no, it takes a long time for certain instances.
When the servers were running slow they helped us get back on line.
  • Training
  • Templates
  • Forms
  • Make multiple common pages
Yes
Works great for our new website.
Cascade is very user friendly.
I used it only a few times.
It was slow at times.
Does a great job.
  • Mobile
  • Javascript widgets
Not to my knowledge
Wasn't hard to use.
It works to your advantage if you know what you are doing.
Very helpful
They remained very communicative.
Long term commitment
Build those relationships
  • Faster service
  • Even faster service
  • New templates
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Cascade Server is being used across a whole organization, including individual departments. It helps make all of our webpages consistent and easy for us to manage.
  • Cascade Server is easy to use and navigate through. I am not very web savvy and I particularly enjoy this product. it is easy to create, find, and edit new webpages and add photos and links
  • My organizations website looks so much better because of Cascade Server, and we have been able to train numerous people and get them on board to use it for their own departments site within the organization. Everyone is enjoying Cascade and making use of its easy-to-use format.
  • Many people can attend to a website using Cascade, making it easy to divvy up responsibilities while still maintaining a consistent, nice-looking website.
At a university where many people, units and departments need access to edit pages and areas of a website, Cascade Server is the perfect tool.
  • This has increased employee efficiency
  • Introduced many employees to web editing and creating, where we may not have had that experience before
I have used DreamWeaver before and that was much more difficult and stressful to use. Cascade Server is a dream (no pun intended).
50
Website management for an institution
Ease of use, efficiency
  • Creating new pages
  • Adding photos
  • Creating links
  • Creating titles for pages can be particular but not difficult. It is just precise.
It is very user friendly and easy to use, especially for someone like me who is not web savvy.
Graham Lewis | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Cascade Server across our entire university web site. It allows us to maintain consistency with branding while allowing individual departments to take control and ownership of their content.
  • It is very easy to customize to your needs as well as your users needs. You can build out custom editors for different departments based on what kind of content the need to display.
  • It is really easy to use one editor to populate multiple pages not only in the same site but using different sites as well.
  • Since you can have multiple publish points, it is really easy to test out different design options when working on a redesign.
  • A bit of a learning curve from administration stand point if you don't have any programming knowledge.
It is a perfect choice for a university with both a small web team or a large web team. If you want a product that is easy on your users as well as administrators, Cascade Server is the product.
  • We are able to provide content in multiple locations for our prospective and current students.
  • Our users have a better editing experience.
  • If we need to make a change to something, we can roll it out faster.
It is way beyond what LCMS is/was. Everything we wanted LCMS to do, Cascade did and did it perfectly.
Customer Service is amazing. Staff is helpful and friendly. Our users really like Cascade Server and it allows us to have a much better web experience.
150
Secretary, Director, Vice President, Staff and Faculty
3
Programming, Training, Basic Computer knowledge
  • Website Content Updates
  • Digital Signage Content Updates
  • We use it to maintain our Digital Sign in our Residence Halls
  • Mobile app content
  • Vendor implemented
No
Change management was minimal
  • Making sure that the content import went smoothly
Making sure that our export from our previous CMS was correct was crucial. If it wasn't, we would have been in a world of hurt. Thanks to the import tool Hannon Hill created, everything went great and all pages were successfully imported.
The responses are quick and right on point. There is also a huge user support group as well.
Support has helped me numerous time. If I am ever stuck on something, I know that I can e-mail support and have a response usually within the hour.
  • Easy to sync new users.
  • Very easy to edit content and publish entire site.
  • Easy to test scripts before submitting them.
  • Remembering steps can be a bit confusing at first.
  • Some terminology can take a bit to grasp.
Yes
Very well.
It is very straight forward. It's a very clean interface.
Amazing customer service and VERY customizable.
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