Orchard Core
Depends
Confidence: Medium
Buy it if you have .NET developers and want a free, modular, self-hosted CMS . it costs nothing but demands engineering time.
New check
Comparison
Orchard Core vs Squarespace
Orchard Core and Squarespace both land on Depends.
Squarespace
Depends
Confidence: Medium
Buy if you're a creative, photographer, or small business wanting a polished no-code site.
| Compare | Orchard Core | Squarespace |
|---|---|---|
| Verdict | Depends | Depends |
| Best for | .NET/C# developer teams | Photographers and creative portfolios |
| Who it's not for | Non-technical teams wanting a simple site | Anyone needing deep customization or plugins . use WordPress |
| Privacy | Public CVE history: multiple XSS issues since 2020; recent releases like 3.0.1 include security fixes.⁶ | Mature platform with strong infrastructure, but 2024 domain hijacks exposed weak security defaults during domain migration. |
| Support quality | Community and docs only; no vendor SLA | Insufficient evidence in sources reviewed |
| Public sentiment | Reddit .NET threads show a small, loyal developer community, with some questioning real-world adoption.⁵ | Users love the design and ease for portfolios and small business sites, but increasingly complain about price hikes, design limitations, and backend issues.⁹ |
| Biggest gotcha | ~20 CVEs listed; you need a patching and monitoring process⁷ | Repeated price hikes reported up to 48%; users pay more without new features. |
Pick Orchard Core when
- .NET/C# developer teams
- Modular or headless CMS builds
- Government and public-sector .NET sites
- Zero-budget projects with dev capacity
When Orchard Core is not a fit
- Non-technical teams wanting a simple site
- Marketers needing WYSIWYG editing without devs
- Anyone without C#/.NET skills in-house
- Teams needing vendor support SLAs
Pick Squarespace when
- Photographers and creative portfolios
- Small businesses wanting a polished site, no code
- Freelancers building client sites
When Squarespace is not a fit
- Anyone needing deep customization or plugins . use WordPress
- Price-sensitive buyers; hikes keep coming
- Teams building custom web apps
- Enterprises needing full infrastructure control
Sources
- Orchard Core . official siteorchardcore.netofficial
- OrchardCMS/OrchardCore on GitHubgithub.comofficial
- Orchard Core 3.0.1 release notesdocs.orchardcore.netofficial
review
- Shoutout to Orchard Core . Redditreddit.comreview
security
security
- Orchard Core . Jamstack headless CMS listingjamstack.orgofficial
- Squarespace Reviews | Trustpilottrustpilot.comreview
- Squarespace Review 2026: Honest 5-Year Testwebsite-builders.cybernews.comreview
- Squarespace Review - Tooltestertooltester.comreview
- Squarespace Reviews | G2g2.comreview
- Squarespace Reviews | Capterracapterra.comreview
- Reddit: Do not use Squarespacereddit.comreview
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