Concrete CMS vs. DNN Platform

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Concrete CMS
Score 9.2 out of 10
N/A
Concrete 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
DNN Platform
Score 9.0 out of 10
N/A
The DNN Platform (formerly DotNetNuke) is a free web content management systems (CMS) from DNN Corporation headquartered in San Mateo, California.N/A
Pricing
Concrete CMSDNN Platform
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Concrete CMSDNN Platform
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
YesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Concrete CMSDNN Platform
Considered Both Products
Concrete CMS
Chose Concrete CMS
I think Concrete5 is much easier to do web development with than Drupal, DotNetNuke and Joomla. For me, Drupal, DotNetNuke and Joomla were harder to template and customize than Concrete5. I find Concrete5 to be more flexible and useful for general web development than …
DNN Platform

No answer on this topic

Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
Concrete CMSDNN Platform
Security
Comparison of Security features of Product A and Product B
Concrete CMS
9.4
38 Ratings
16% above category average
DNN Platform
10.0
4 Ratings
22% above category average
Role-based user permissions9.438 Ratings10.04 Ratings
Platform & Infrastructure
Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of Product A and Product B
Concrete CMS
9.7
33 Ratings
23% above category average
DNN Platform
9.5
3 Ratings
21% above category average
API9.731 Ratings10.03 Ratings
Internationalization / multi-language9.730 Ratings9.02 Ratings
Web Content Creation
Comparison of Web Content Creation features of Product A and Product B
Concrete CMS
8.4
42 Ratings
10% above category average
DNN Platform
8.6
4 Ratings
12% above category average
WYSIWYG editor9.242 Ratings10.04 Ratings
Code quality / cleanliness10.037 Ratings9.04 Ratings
Admin section10.040 Ratings8.04 Ratings
Page templates10.040 Ratings9.04 Ratings
Library of website themes4.438 Ratings8.02 Ratings
Mobile optimization / responsive design9.739 Ratings10.03 Ratings
Publishing workflow7.837 Ratings8.04 Ratings
Form generator6.539 Ratings7.04 Ratings
Web Content Management
Comparison of Web Content Management features of Product A and Product B
Concrete CMS
7.1
40 Ratings
3% below category average
DNN Platform
8.6
4 Ratings
16% above category average
Content taxonomy8.839 Ratings9.03 Ratings
SEO support9.039 Ratings8.04 Ratings
Bulk management6.139 Ratings7.03 Ratings
Availability / breadth of extensions5.739 Ratings9.04 Ratings
Community / comment management5.739 Ratings10.03 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Concrete CMSDNN Platform
Small Businesses
Divi
Divi
Score 9.8 out of 10
Divi
Divi
Score 9.8 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Image Relay
Image Relay
Score 9.5 out of 10
Image Relay
Image Relay
Score 9.5 out of 10
Enterprises
Tridion
Tridion
Score 9.0 out of 10
Tridion
Tridion
Score 9.0 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Concrete CMSDNN Platform
Likelihood to Recommend
9.3
(59 ratings)
9.0
(4 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.0
(22 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.0
(12 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Availability
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
9.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
10.0
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.8
(6 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Concrete CMSDNN Platform
Likelihood to Recommend
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.
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DNN
DNN [Platform] is great for organizations of any size who wish to have a robust CMS to manage their site. DNN is not ideal for a small site that is better suited to a super easy to user interface such as Wix. DNN [Platform] is plenty strong enough for enterprises and large entities.
Read full review
Pros
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).
Read full review
DNN
  • Very easy to use CMS - Ease of use is paramount with CMS products to minimise on support calls. Also the template structure of pages ensures that content editors cannot inadvertently corrupt the layout of the page.
  • Powerful application framework - The existence of APIs for all functionality within the CMS provides limitless scope in terms of developing bespoke applications which sit within the CMS.
  • Commercially supported option available - For larger clients, the comfort factor of having a direct line to the developers of the application is a big selling point.
Read full review
Cons
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.
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DNN
  • Out of the box, it has some modules, but not enough unless you do a paid version.
  • The support is a bit slow.
  • The menuing can be confusing and terms used a bit strange. which makes training difficult.
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Likelihood to Renew
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.
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DNN
No answers on this topic
Usability
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.
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DNN
No answers on this topic
Reliability and Availability
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.
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DNN
No answers on this topic
Performance
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!
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DNN
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
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.
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DNN
No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
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.
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DNN
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
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.
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DNN
My experience with Joomla! was over six years ago so a lot could have changed. However, I prefer DNN over Joomla because DNN offers more modules and a better administration user interface.
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Return on Investment
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.
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DNN
  • DNN helps us win bids on projects through the improvements the community has done over the past few years; we were ready to scrap it all together but it has made great strides
  • DNN's community has come back and is actively working to improve and expand the capabilities of the cms
  • on a negative note, the confusion between evoq and dnn has caused us headaches
Read full review
ScreenShots

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.