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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Axero

    Score8.7 out of 10
    N/AAxero's Communifire is an Enterprise Social and Collaboration platform. Used internally, it connects employees, key customers and partners to pursue shared goals. Used to build an online community, it puts the emphasis on working together, not just meeting socially. The platform, designed to encourage the spread and expansion of ideas is suited for organizations that want their community to not only get connected but also feel they are getting things done.

    $49

    per month

    Concrete CMS

    Score9.2 out of 10
    N/AConcrete CMS (formerly Concrete5) is a free and open source, PHP built content management system for content on the web and also for intranets. It is optimized to support the creation of online magazines and newspapers.N/A
    Pricing
    AxeroConcrete CMS
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    AxeroConcrete CMS
    Free Trial
    YesNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoYes
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional DetailsAxero tailors your investment to meet your unique needs. Custom pricing and volume discounting available. Contact Axero for details.—
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    AxeroConcrete CMS
    Considered Both Products
    Axero Solutions
    No answer on this topic
    Portland Labs
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Would buy again
    22 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    22 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    22 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    22 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    22 Answers
    Features
    AxeroConcrete CMS
    Security
    Comparison of Security features of Axero and Concrete CMS
    Feature
    Axero
    -
    Ratings
    Concrete CMS
    9.5
    38 Ratings
    14% above category average
    Role-based user permissions00 Ratings9.538 Ratings
    Platform & Infrastructure
    Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of Axero and Concrete CMS
    Feature
    Axero
    -
    Ratings
    Concrete CMS
    9.7
    33 Ratings
    22% above category average
    API00 Ratings9.731 Ratings
    Internationalization / multi-language00 Ratings9.730 Ratings
    Web Content Creation
    Comparison of Web Content Creation features of Axero and Concrete CMS
    Feature
    Axero
    -
    Ratings
    Concrete CMS
    8.4
    42 Ratings
    7% above category average
    WYSIWYG editor00 Ratings9.342 Ratings
    Code quality / cleanliness00 Ratings10.037 Ratings
    Admin section00 Ratings10.040 Ratings
    Page templates00 Ratings10.040 Ratings
    Library of website themes00 Ratings4.238 Ratings
    Mobile optimization / responsive design00 Ratings9.739 Ratings
    Publishing workflow00 Ratings7.737 Ratings
    Form generator00 Ratings6.639 Ratings
    Web Content Management
    Comparison of Web Content Management features of Axero and Concrete CMS
    Feature
    Axero
    -
    Ratings
    Concrete CMS
    6.9
    40 Ratings
    9% below category average
    Content taxonomy00 Ratings8.939 Ratings
    SEO support00 Ratings9.039 Ratings
    Bulk management00 Ratings6.039 Ratings
    Availability / breadth of extensions00 Ratings5.439 Ratings
    Community / comment management00 Ratings5.439 Ratings
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    AxeroConcrete CMS
    Small Businesses
    HCL Connections
    Score9 out of 10
    Umbraco CMS
    Score7 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    HCL Connections
    Score9 out of 10
    Square Online
    Score7.9 out of 10
    Enterprises
    HCL Connections
    Score9 out of 10
    RWS Tridion Sites
    Score9 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    AxeroConcrete CMS
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.0
    (8 ratings)
    9.2
    (59 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    9.1
    (2 ratings)
    8.0
    (22 ratings)
    Usability
    9.0
    (2 ratings)
    9.1
    (13 ratings)
    Availability
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Performance
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    9.0
    (2 ratings)
    10.0
    (3 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    9.1
    (2 ratings)
    9.8
    (6 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    AxeroConcrete CMS
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Axero Solutions
    Specific scenarios where Communifire would be well suited to an organisation, would be companies that are people focused and committed to frequent and open communication channels from both the top-down and bottom-up. It also would suit organizations that are committed to providing the staff opportunities to collaborate, share and actively contribute to company initiatives and planning. If these aren't elements of your organization's culture, the system would still work for you or those companies who just want to push information out and have an effective intranet. Communifire would cater to these scenarios just as well and is more than capable of providing that type of simple solution.
    Read full review
    Portland Labs
    Suitable if you are part of small to large scale companies or web-houses which have PHP developers and frontend engineers with some budgets. [Also suitable if] you or your client want to build a website that requires some features or uniqueness [and needs] some customization and freedom. Additionally suitable if you want this project to be DevOps based project or if the project requires very tight security and is inside of a closed network.
    Read full review
    Pros
    Axero Solutions
    • Communifire allows people to connect easily through instant chat and messaging. It works similarly to other social media platforms like Facebook so its not hard to learn.
    • Communifire makes it easy to share news and events with our community and the presentation of this information looks very professional.
    • I found Communifire quite easy to configure to our individual needs. There were a lot of options to turn things on or off. This was important to us because in some areas of our community we wanted to allow our contractors many features and in other areas we wanted to really limit what was on offer.
    • We had a big list of things we needed a platform to do. Communifire ticked all the boxes.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Portland Labs
    • As a dev, the Page object (coupled with page attributes, nav menus and page lists) makes structuring a website or web app a dream. The separation of page templates from page types also helps, the former being about layout while the latter is more conceptual.
    • As an admin, you pretty much have as much control as the developers of the site decide to give you.
    • The versioning system allows admins to roll changes back and work on changes before publishing them.
    • The permissions system is exceptionally powerful, allowing roles and/or individual users to be included or excluded from each permission.
    • The attributes system allows pages, files and users to be given custom properties of various types (e.g. text, image, colour).
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Axero Solutions
    • You can't duplicate broadcast messages or schedule ones in advance if they've already been sent.
    • The analytics on broadcast messages is nonexistent.
    • I wish the digests had rich text.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Portland Labs
    • Allow end users to clear cache when updating pages.
    • Needs a few more built in forms.
    • The CMS is not multilingual by default. Even though I managed to 'hack' it so, it would be nice to have it included.
    • It'd be nice to make use of custom PHP modules through shortcodes more straight forward. It seems the hooks are a bit contrived.
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Axero Solutions
    Our business depends upon this software to provide information on all aspects of our business. The future of business is a marriage between web site and customer interaction. This software will allow us to move in that direction.
    Read full review
    Portland Labs
    Its a very solid, very consistent package that never lets you down or leaves you frustrated. It gets a 10/10 because its so much better than anything else currently available. It also gets a 10/10 because, even if not compared to others, it does not leave you wanting for features or functionality. It is an excellent piece of software that will answer almost every CMS need.
    Read full review
    Usability
    Axero Solutions
    This rating has a caveat - there is always room for improvement, and this team gets it. You always learn from customers how to do things better and easier, so it is a constant learning of how people use the site. Although the search engine is exceptional, most people do not use it as their first line of research. Much of the usability has to do with layout - and is not just a software usability item, so the rating is severely dependent up on the layout/options you choose for your usage. And their team will do anything in their power to get the results and layout you want. The areas that need improvement - and acknowledged by the team - are the administrative tools. There are a ton of options, and it takes a little to learn some of those. For most people, however, this won't be an issue, because the support team will always help you. This is always the case with more power. If there were fewer options it would no doubt be easier, but they give you the keys to all of the cars in the lot; so a little more to learn.
    Read full review
    Portland Labs
    I have used it on over 30 projects in the past 3 years and it's still a pleasure to work in. Doesn't always have all the answers, no CMS does, but I still find it very easy to use from prototyping to working to final project. Also there is no problem working on a localhost then moving to a live site, like there is with WordPress. It's my go to app in my CMS quiver.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Axero Solutions
    Never any problems. Quite impressed
    Read full review
    Portland Labs
    Since it's not tied to a central server (other than for authorizing updates and assigning licenses to specific sites), it's available pretty much 100% of the time.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Performance
    Axero Solutions
    Works in real time.
    Read full review
    Portland Labs
    The site works extremely well, the front end flies, searches and form submissions are very fast indeed. The reason its a 9 not a ten? the back end can be a little slow at times, and this is unfair, because for the backend to be so amazing, it has to do a huge amount of work!
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Axero Solutions
    I have always found Communifire support to be exceptional. We have had a personal account manager who has been very helpful.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Portland Labs
    Concrete5 is open-source and has an incredibly strong, polite, and supportive community. You can get an answer to nearly anything you want to do with Concrete5 by googling for it, searching the Concrete5 discussion forums or stack overflow, or posting your question to the forum. Members are very courteous and do not look down on those with less knowledge. And answers are always quick, informative, and supportive.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    Axero Solutions
    I found the system to be very flexible and the Communifire team very supportive in helping me identify solutions for my goals.
    Read full review
    Portland Labs
    Build off of an existing theme to speed up the creation of custom designed themed. Bootstrap is a good one but there are many others that are probably much simpler to build from than the Bootstrap one was. Make sure you host on a Unix/Linux server so you don't have to install PHP or MySQL separately. It's just smoother on those platforms.
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Axero Solutions
    We selected Communifire for the excellent sales support, strong feature set and quick set up time. We were able to get started immediately and build out features as need required which led to faster execution and higher adoption rates among our team.
    Read full review
    Portland Labs
    WordPress at the time was riddled with security breaches in the news and while Concrete5 was smaller (and therefore a smaller attack vector), after eleven years of use, Concrete5 has only had one published incident with an add-on that resolved within hours and with excellent communication. You can talk to the CEO and the CTO (or the rest of the team). They are very engaged and you're working with a small company of people who care, not a call-center with people just waiting to go home.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Axero Solutions
    • We are still building out features of the platform but with implemention of paid features by members, we will be able to cover our operating cost of the platform.
    Read full review
    Portland Labs
    • Concrete5 is the customer-facing side of our business. It's where we host the site that potential customers see before they choose to purchase and create an account with us. We are able to keep that site clean, user-friendly, and with a lot of available options for customers to interact with thanks to Concrete5
    • The ability to have multiple users and admins for the site means that we all members of our team can go in and create new content, fix or troubleshoot issues, and edit the site easily.
    • Our CRM isn't directly integrated with Concrete5, so when customers go to make a purchase with us, they have to leave our Concrete5 site.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    Axero Screenshots

    Screenshot of Mobile intranetScreenshot of Knowledge managementScreenshot of Recognition

    Concrete CMS Screenshots

    Screenshot of In-context editing is simple to understandScreenshot of Change text just like a word processorScreenshot of Versioning and workflow built on top of powerful permissionsScreenshot of Flexible backend to power complex communities and intranets.