Magnolia vs. Square Online

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Magnolia
Score 8.1 out of 10
Mid-Size Companies (51-1,000 employees)
Founded in Switzerland in 1997, Magnolia is a CMS used to build composable digital experiences. Magnolia helps create fully integrated customer experiences and speeds up digital delivery of content. Magnolia boasts 480 enterprise customers, thousands of Community Edition deployments, and more than 200 certified Magnolia Partners around the world. They further state that their enterprise customers include Sanofi, Generali, the Atlassian, The New York Times, Harley Davidson, and Union…
$3,500
per month
Square Online
Score 7.4 out of 10
N/A
Square Online (formerly Weebly) is a basic content management system with blogging and eCommerce features. It can be utilized for building standard websites or specialized webpages for online stores.
$13
per month
Pricing
MagnoliaSquare Online
Editions & Modules
DX Core
$3500
per month
DX Cloud
$6000
per month
Personal
$13
per month
Professional
$16
per month
Performance
$29
per month
Free
Free
Free
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
MagnoliaSquare Online
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsPricing decreases when paid annually: Personal - $10/Month Professional - $12/Month Performance - $26/Month
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
MagnoliaSquare Online
Considered Both Products
Magnolia
Chose Magnolia
Magnolia DXP offers similar or more capability compared to the other platform, while much easier to implement. For example, Adobe Experience Manager tend to be more monolithic in nature, heavier footprint compared to Magnolia. Hence when implementing a DXP, it is much faster to …
Chose Magnolia
The Broadleaf CMS was quite basic and was not a full fledged CMS and hence we had to chose Magnolia to address the business requirement for our B2B platform
Chose Magnolia
I need to specific and say I've had experiences of these platform from previous roles, they were not considered by Good Things Foundation.

My experience is that Magnolia delivers the power of these high end platforms but is generally more accessible to get going and develop …
Chose Magnolia
Magnolia is in a league of it's own vs the other platforms I have previously used. Rather than being a turnkey solution Magnolia puts the power into the hands of your company and developers allowing you to build anything you can imagine. Being a DXP rather than a CMS Magnolia …
Chose Magnolia
Magnolia is not as costly as other enterprise grade platforms and is easier to deploy, more reliable and less resource hungry. It's often also easier to use and certainly easier to use than it's Open Source counterparts. It also manages content in a much more structured manner …
Chose Magnolia
I've used several CMSs like AEM and EpiServer, and comparatively, they all excel at different things. Magnolia is the best to develop for/against. Episerver has the best/most fluid UI in terms of content editing, and the overall admin experience AEM is just all around sucks.
Chose Magnolia
Similar to how one might choose a specific programming language to solve a specific problem, Magnolia has its place among the rest, depending on the use case. While it does not have the most pleasant user experience compared to others, its customization options are streets …
Chose Magnolia
Cost was prohibitive for SiteCore. We liked the support that Magnolia gives us in terms of being an actual Company. We love open-source, but have had problems with Umbraco in the past in terms of upgrade paths etc.
Chose Magnolia
Of all the ones we looked at that met our requirements Magnolia was clearly the best value for money and had a solid background that you could trust and that could take care of you in case of problems.
Chose Magnolia
For us, Magnolia is the best option for our needs. FirstSpirit by eSpirit is missing on the list. We are moving away from FirstSpirit as it feels outdated. Wix has better usability, but is not suitable for enterprise. WordPress I would only recommend for private projects. …
Chose Magnolia
Putting all together: capabilities, support, community and price... Magnolia is the best combination, maybe not the best on each aspect, but for sure in the combination
Chose Magnolia
I choose Magnolia in front of everyone since it is one of the content managers that best adapts to all the modifications that are required by businesses
Chose Magnolia
Magnolia gains in ease of content creation but loses in documentation and practical examples for developers.
Chose Magnolia
One of the most important points that magnolia has over other products is the possibility of extending its functionalities. Being open-source, it is possible to inspect how everything is done and replicate it to change functionalities. In this way, many features that customers …
Chose Magnolia
When developing, I find Magnolia is better in many different ways, mainly in the consistency of how to create new components and page templates.
Chose Magnolia
I use magnolia because my client asked for it in the beginning because he had a long history of using magnolia for years. I think magnolia is middle-hight rated in the stack of similar products. Maybe it's not very well-publicized and it needs better marketing techniques or …
Chose Magnolia
Good documentation and examples Online demos to mess with and test functionalities Easier to install Better knowledge about the product Ability to centralize content of the same type in apps Better performance in some scenarios Better usability: In the newest versions, …
Chose Magnolia
Magnolia is a good competitor in the DXP scenario: Reduced costs License costs are contained, what brings customers the ability to develop their business with a minor impact Open source platform It helps customers to adapt the platform to some special needs DXP …
Chose Magnolia
Magnolia has all flexible capabilities that offer the user the best cloud marketing experience and great functionalities for effective data analytics generation. Reporting through Magnolia tools is also another important aspect since it allows the production of effective …
Chose Magnolia
Pricing was the major concern for us and we found this to be our option.
Chose Magnolia
Proximus was using Magnolia when I started working.
Chose Magnolia
Used CMS: Hybris CQ5/Adobe CMS AEM
Chose Magnolia
Magnolia has an automatic, and speedy social media publication extension, which spread content to all social sites. Also, the insertion of extensions and plugins is more effective when on Magnolia against the opponents. Magnolia admits and adopts diversity, hence, it is a …
Square Online
Chose Square Online
We selected Square Online because it was able to do everything we needed it to do in one, concise dashboard. From employee logins to analytics and sales data to POS sales and inventory management, this product handles it all.

Avalara is great at tax management and Stripe …
Chose Square Online
Square Online is a lot like the other quick build e-commerce systems out there (such as Wix and Weebly). It helps you get online quickly, neatly, and with very minimal overhead. We specifically used it as a checkout method from some targeted landing pages teaching customers …
Chose Square Online
We kind of bounce between Square Online and Paypal Zettle. We have tried a lot of different programs (and I mean a lot), and of course, there are negatives and positives to each, but Square Online has landed on top. It is the easiest to use on the go, customers are familiar …
Chose Square Online
This is a much easier platform for web editing. You very rarely need to use HTML codes for anything. It's all drag and drop. WordPress is integrated with GoDaddy. Using that program will make you mad after using Weebly. I am sure WordPress offers more in the line of design, but …
Chose Square Online
Five years ago we did a rebrand for our company and built a completely new website. This was good opportunity for us to make sure that Weebly was the platform we wanted to use for our web design. We looked into several other companies and found that Weebly offered the most …
Chose Square Online
Weebly stacks up well against its competitors because it is priced relatively, has excellent functionality and the option to add lots of plug-ins and add-ons. Weebly is ranked as one of the top Blogging and eCommerce site builders online for someone without the expertise of …
Chose Square Online
Weebly is easier to use than these platforms. One can easily create stylish looking websites without needing to type even a single line of code. We find Weebly super easy to use and they also provide a code editor which is usually not present in the similar website creators. …
Chose Square Online
Wix doesn't have the ease of use that Weebly has. I get more frustrated using that when I need specific items.

Instapage has many SEO limitations and I don't feel like my SEO efforts are fully utilized within the platform they offer.
Chose Square Online
I selected Weebly because I thought their themes weren't as janky as WordPress. I also like their price structure and overall easiness of maintaining the app. It also syncs with other applications that I use, like Hatchbuck. I like the support and reliability of Weebly so far …
Chose Square Online
I have not explored many alternatives. You can also sell digital downloads on Wix for example - that would be the one thing that I would have to have in a competing service. Wix also has more templates and more styling options. Weebly also lets you export your entire website - …
Chose Square Online
Weebly is the easiest to use and most robust platform I've found so far. It has its downsides relative to the other ones, like a limited number of templates, and not being great for e-commerce or blogging. It's really a matter of figuring out what's right for your business in …
Chose Square Online
If you want convenience and cost-effectiveness, Weebly is the go to. If you need a tool that's much more than just a basic website builder, Hubspot would be a great alternative (more expensive, more coding required, but a lot more features). Alternatively, since Weebly doesn't …
Chose Square Online
Weebly's designs, plugins, and customization options are a little more advanced in some cases than other similar programs. Wordpress requires a different level of expertise and knowledge of code, keywording, and plugins, so I wouldn't even compare them. Wix is a little more …
Chose Square Online
Weebly has a different selection of themes that I just believed better suited my needs. It all depends on what you need out of your website builder. Weebly’s interface can be more appealing to the user, cleaner and more accessible to those not well versed in code and who need a …
Chose Square Online
We used Weebly because the online sales platform for GoDaddy at the time was WAY too complicated, and truthfully, we could not figure out to use it. Weebly really worked for us because of how easy and intuitive it was for the user. That was a really big selling point for us.
Chose Square Online
Weebly is very intuitive and practical to use software, though prices of ".com" domains are too high they are presenting quality service to create and edit your site on the way you want. I used WordPress and Squarespace myself for my blog, they are also reasonable and good …
Chose Square Online
Firstly, especially the design difference was shown among them. Weebly has the most modern design. The the second difference is the simplicity, besides other ones also have drag and drop feature, Workflow is completely different. Weebly is ultimately easy to set up, navigate …
Chose Square Online
Weebly is a great tool for marketing and advertising. It is perfect for a small business and allows us the ability to get information to customers regarding merchandise, current sales and promotions, store hours and locations etc. The other softwares that I have used are …
Chose Square Online
I personally did not select Weebly for the business that I currently work for. The business owner selected Weebly as the software for the company and this was the first marketing software of this type that I have used so I do not have any other experience to compare it to.
Chose Square Online
Weebly is 100x easier to use than GoDaddy! I will always recommend Weebly to anyone who is looking to get started with a website.
Chose Square Online
Weebly is still one of my favorite web builder software which means they continue to modify the platform for simplicity and speed. Weebly has a robust small business, e-commerce upgrade and almost for every type of website. All you have to is create your website quickly using …
Chose Square Online
I tried WordPress and Blogger.

  • WordPress: a bit more complicated to use and not as user-friendly. I tried it 2 years ago. Not a fan. It may have improved since then.
Chose Square Online
Weebly was always one of the top-rated solutions in the website-builder arena. We had experience with GoDaddy, and were sadly disappointed in the clunkiness and general lack of quality features. We finally chose Weebly over its runner-up, Squarespace, because it was a cheaper …
Chose Square Online
Wix, for some reason, seems to be the latest, newest, freshest option and competition for Weebly. Their drag and drop design is VERY easy. Their tempates seem more fresh and hip.
Chose Square Online
Weebly allows us to do more customized work than WordPress does. This allows us to tell a better, more complete story than we were able to through WordPress and gave us more freedom to put our storyboards that were in our heads to life on the website. It was easier to format …
Features
MagnoliaSquare Online
Security
Comparison of Security features of Product A and Product B
Magnolia
8.0
Ratings
1% below category average
Square Online
5.4
Ratings
40% below category average
Role-based user permissions8.00 Ratings5.40 Ratings
Platform & Infrastructure
Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of Product A and Product B
Magnolia
8.1
Ratings
7% above category average
Square Online
6.4
Ratings
17% below category average
API8.50 Ratings6.40 Ratings
Internationalization / multi-language7.70 Ratings6.40 Ratings
Web Content Creation
Comparison of Web Content Creation features of Product A and Product B
Magnolia
8.0
Ratings
4% above category average
Square Online
7.5
Ratings
3% below category average
WYSIWYG editor8.50 Ratings8.70 Ratings
Code quality / cleanliness8.40 Ratings6.70 Ratings
Admin section8.00 Ratings7.30 Ratings
Page templates8.90 Ratings6.40 Ratings
Library of website themes7.00 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Mobile optimization / responsive design8.50 Ratings9.30 Ratings
Publishing workflow7.50 Ratings7.30 Ratings
Form generator6.90 Ratings7.40 Ratings
Web Content Management
Comparison of Web Content Management features of Product A and Product B
Magnolia
7.5
Ratings
2% above category average
Square Online
6.8
Ratings
8% below category average
Content taxonomy7.60 Ratings6.70 Ratings
SEO support7.20 Ratings7.70 Ratings
Bulk management7.60 Ratings7.40 Ratings
Availability / breadth of extensions7.90 Ratings5.70 Ratings
Community / comment management6.90 Ratings6.40 Ratings
Best Alternatives
MagnoliaSquare Online
Small Businesses
ManageWP
ManageWP
Score 10.0 out of 10
ManageWP
ManageWP
Score 10.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
RWS Tridion Sites
RWS Tridion Sites
Score 9.0 out of 10
RWS Tridion Sites
RWS Tridion Sites
Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises
RWS Tridion Sites
RWS Tridion Sites
Score 9.0 out of 10
RWS Tridion Sites
RWS Tridion Sites
Score 9.0 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
MagnoliaSquare Online
Likelihood to Recommend
8.1
(0 ratings)
7.5
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.1
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.0
(0 ratings)
6.0
(0 ratings)
Performance
8.5
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
9.1
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
8.2
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
MagnoliaSquare Online
Likelihood to Recommend
If you need a business CMS that brings along a good amount of features and also give you the chance to develop features on your own, Magnolia would be a good choice. Even if you have not the fitting infrastructure around, Magnolia provides you different ways like SAAS oder PAAS. If you have to review your code our have any problems the team behind will helps in a short time. Without using the connectors it is not so easy to connect special functionalities like Marketing tools or optimization tools. The DAM is very slow if you have an huge amount of documents and pictures to store for your website - you have to add an external DAM.
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Weebly is a great platform if you need a brochure-ware website. It's got some great features and you can't beat how easy it is to use. On the downside, the blog and e-commerce functionality is limited. Although there are several fairly easy to use platforms out there, I use it for many of my clients that are just starting out or need one they can eventually manage and update themselves as their businesses evolve -- which is especially true in the beginning or at the startup of a business. However, it can also scale, since you can create almost any number of pages and add content like audio and video. Additional functionality may be added through embeds.
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Pros
  • Use of YAML to define content models with code.
  • Versatility of defining actions for custom handlers.
  • Reloading classes when code is modified in a local dev environment is nice. While it doesn't seem to work when changes extend beyond the method body (i.e., adding methods), it remediates the pain of long startup times.
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  • Weebly makes it easy for users who are not very tech savvy to create a site that looks professional and well thought out.
  • Weebly provides users with a variety of templates for creating new pages quickly and efficiently.
  • The software allows users to make updates to their site and pages quickly and changes are published immediately.
Read full review
Cons
  • As a developer the learning curve is long, you can start developing relatively quickly but getting to know the platform in depth takes time.
  • Having a history of modifications not only at the page level but also at the Content Apps level would be very useful.
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  • Plugins leave a lot to be desired. Not a ton of custom options and many require additional subscriptions.
  • SEO options are also pretty elementary - if SEO if a focus for you, avoid Weebly
  • Overall templates are pretty boring compared to something you could create on WordPress
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Likelihood to Renew
Magnolia is an innovative CMS, for example it is possible to use the ipad to manage the contents. Magnolia’s team works hard to improve the product; the community is small but active and the support for the enterprise version is good. Magnolia’s team asks the users what they think and what they need, and the new functionalities planned for Magnolia 5.3 are very exciting for example the content personalization.
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Weebly is consistently adding features that line up with our needs. The ease of use makes it the perfect program for us since we have users of multiple age brackets and knowledge of web design. We love that we can give users access to only the pages they are affiliated with
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Usability
There are a ton of small things that could make this CMS great Off the top of my head... 1) Better navigation between a component and its corresponding node in the jcr ( devs often have to flip between a page and a spot in the jcr even though there could be a button to take you from a page/component in the pages app to its location in the JCR) 2) Why does a content editor need to open the page to edit the page properties? They could just as easily edit the dialog from the tree view if they have many pages to touch, and it would save them time by not having to render the page.
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Very easy to use and intuitive to design after all of our business needs. From the website and POS system to how we represent ourselves internally and to our customers... Square is second-to-none in helping our business and others in our same boat become the kind of businesses we want to be when it comes to our inventory and sales of these kinds of products.
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Performance
It's a lean and performant platform. You don't need to put reverse proxy servers in front of it to speed it up (although that does make it go even quicker) as there are various layers of caching built in to the application. While it's a little cryptic, the internal caching system is actually quite configurable and can be tuned to the right sort of content.
Often what tends to surprise many an IT manager is that you can run it on relatively modest hardware. We've often been met with "are you sure ?" but the reality is that it doesn't need a whole lot of horsepower.
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No answers on this topic
Support Rating
You always get an answer based on your SLA. But you always get a solution. That's the successfactor in this case. To often i was frustrated about people in a company without even a clue what there product is about or how to solve a problem. Magnolia's Support Team does a very good job and try to help you in most of the cases
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No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Magnolia DXP offers similar or more capability compared to the other platform, while much easier to implement. For example, Adobe Experience Manager tend to be more monolithic in nature, heavier footprint compared to Magnolia. Hence when implementing a DXP, it is much faster to build using Magnolia, at a much lower TCO. The other platform like Kontent.ai and Strapi are pure headless platform and offer lesser features. What really make Magnolia different is the APAC team, who are all out to support their client in the implementation, ensuring their client maximize their platform and the project implementation is successful. This is some thing that is not experienced when using other platform(s)
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Overall, Weebly is a fantastic app to integrate into the classroom or school setting. I usually give students an option when designing web pages/websites and Weebly is often the choice. However, when it comes to pure blogging and older students learning how to track their digital footprint, I usually lean toward having them use WordPress. But Weebly is simpler with less time needed to get started as opposed to WordPress. Students need to understand simple HTML, embedding other tools/apps, and the basics of web design without the coding/HTML background and Weebly helps support this.
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Return on Investment
  • We have placed web content management in the hands of the organisation than retained it within the technology team.
  • We were able to quickly move to MVP and release and we are now focussed on moving the platform forward at some pace whilst not being burdened with BAU work inside the technology team as so much as self-service to trained organisational users
  • The use of the SAAS/PASS has inbuilt business resiliency as specialist work and aspects such as underlying security is done by Magnolia and we are able to focus internal effort on building out the platform.
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  • Weebly has saved us a lot of time with site maintenance - if we need to make a change, it's easy to get in and out without spending a lot of time trying to code.
  • Weebly is cost effective, and right now we're getting just about everything we need from the tool so we're saving money (compared to other products).
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ScreenShots

Magnolia Screenshots

Screenshot of the Magnolia App Launcher, used to switch between workspaces and manage pagesScreenshot of the customer experience. This brings together content and audiovisual digital assets to form more compelling digital experiences.Screenshot of global search that brings relevant content, no matter where it resides.Screenshot of customizing the ecommerce experience.Screenshot of Magnolia Orchestratem where users can manage and track campaignsScreenshot of the WYSIWYG page editor