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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    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

    Joomla

    Score8.3 out of 10
    N/AJoomla! is a free and open source content management system used to publish web content. Included features are page caching, RSS feeds, printable versions of pages, news flashes, blogs, polls, a search function, and support for language internationalization.N/A
    Pricing
    Concrete CMSJoomla
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Concrete CMSJoomla
    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 CMSJoomla
    Considered Both Products
    Portland Labs
    Chose Concrete CMS
    We previously used Joomla! but found clients were struggling to find their way around the eding interface. Switching to Concrete5 changed this and we now have fewer support issues and much more positive feedback from clients.
    Incentivized
    Chose Concrete CMS
    Concrete5 is superior in most usecases to all other commonly used CMS platforms. The only thing where Joomla is outpreforming it is bulk editing. WordPress needs at least 20 plugins to do what Concrete5 does out of the box.
    Programming C5 templates and custom views is a dream, …
    Incentivized
    Chose Concrete CMS
    Concrete5 is easier to use than Drupal or Joomla, and beats them in terms of features. WordPress gives Concrete5 a run for its money as far as extension and theme availability, as well as user base and support availability. But Concrete5 beats WordPress hands down with features …
    Incentivized
    Chose Concrete CMS
    While more mature CMS technologies like Drupal and Joomla offer a more expanded function set, Concrete5 represents by far the lowest learning curve that I've seen in CMS, so it's great for the end user or non-technical designer, and more approachable than these other CMS …
    Incentivized
    Chose Concrete CMS
    Although Joomla, Drupal, and Wordpress are popular, I chose Concrete5 over these primarily because of how user-friendly Concrete5 is. As I began digging deeper in Concrete5, I also discovered that Concrete5 is much less "bloated" than its main competitors, and is much more …
    Incentivized
    Chose Concrete CMS
    WordPress is a basic blogging tool that has been hacked into a CMS, it is not as intuitive or comprehensive as Concrete CMS. It requires more updates and it can be harder to locate settings that the user needs. However, as a business, the WordPress team has been very …
    Incentivized
    Chose Concrete CMS
    I didn't have to spend too much time learning Concrete CMS, whereas I had to spend a long time learning other CMSs. After struggling to develop a plugin for WordPress, developing an add-on for Concrete CMS was piece of cake thanks to many available APIs. Making custom themes …
    Incentivized
    Chose Concrete CMS
    Better user-friendly administration, more easy to be extended
    Incentivized
    Chose Concrete CMS
    Concrete5 was far easier to use than alternatives--which is very important when handling support issues for clients. As a developer, the architecture makes it easier to extend the core functions elegantly without overwriting core code. Although a few other CMS platforms have …
    Incentivized
    Chose Concrete CMS
    If your web team is tired of dealing with CMS training issues, you need to consider Concrete5. If your technical team and host are tired of dealing with website security issues, you need to consider Concrete5. If you're pulling your hair out over frequent update patches …
    Incentivized
    Chose Concrete CMS
    Concrete5 is by far the easiest for the end user. The user who edits the website can do so with very little training and not just with regards to the content. New pages and functions are easy to create and install. SEOand contact form functions are built in as standard.
    Incentivized
    Chose Concrete CMS
    I adopted Concrete5 after an end-user trial. With a variety of well known and lesser known CMS (including the above) in their fresh install state, I asked a group of users to register an account and then add a page with some text and an image on it. Concrete5 came out top by a …
    Incentivized
    Chose Concrete CMS
    Concrete5 is probably the most user friendly for clients. I selected Concrete5 mostly because I found out about it and didn't really believe its capabilities and had to try it out. It pretty much is what a non-tech savvy person would want in a CMS for content management.
    Incentivized
    Chose Concrete CMS
    WordPress has a very confusing unintuitive admin section for the user to use while Concrete5 was much more intuitive and effective for people not use to working with a CMS solution. Components are selectable by areas you create in the page template and allows a user to quickly …
    Incentivized
    Chose Concrete CMS
    Concrete5 absolutely shines in comparison. While there are areas where one system may perform a specific task better than Concrete5, when it comes to the whole package Concrete5 can't be beat.
    Incentivized
    Chose Concrete CMS
    Aside from being more stable and more secure, Concrete5 manages all the plugins, so risk of infection through a nasty plugin is removed.
    The Concrete5 user interface is much more friendly than the WordPress user interface. Ease of use, ease of install - both compelling reasons …
    Chose Concrete CMS
    I tried WordPress back when it was @ 2.5 or so. It was very blog oriented.
    Have used CMS Made Simple. I liked it but it got to be outdated.
    Drupal has a higher learning curve and would take a lo more training and time to implement.
    Incentivized
    Chose Concrete CMS
    I often use Perch for smaller site builds because it is simpler, lighter, and faster than Concrete5. Perch has become more and more capable and along the way is taking over some of the medium-size sites I build.
    WordPress was designed for blogs, and its ubiquity has made it a …
    Incentivized
    Chose Concrete CMS
    Comparing Concrete5 to Drupal and Joomla are easy. Joomla has a steep learning curve, and Concrete5 does not, this means if I have to teach a client to use a CMS, Concrete5 will be a much smoother process. Drupal also tends to have a bit of a learning curve, but beyond that …
    Incentivized
    Chose Concrete CMS
    I find significant advantages over these other products. As a designer, I appreciate not having to design within a rigid structure, or shoehorn a design into particular format. As a developer, the security, useability and developer support from the core Concrete5 developers and …
    Incentivized
    Chose Concrete CMS
    WordPress - Getting better as WCMS but still primarily for blogging sites.
    Joomla - Very robust system with large community however can be complex for authoring and site management.
    Adobe CQ (AEM) - Enterprise class system with large price tag.
    Incentivized
    Chose Concrete CMS
    Concrete5 has the simplest and most intuitive user interface that is easily understood without extensive training. Our training session literally was a two hour meeting and everyone was up to speed. All of the others required extensive understanding of the framework in order to …
    Chose Concrete CMS
    Comparatively Concrete5 is sleek and sophisticated to most other CMS's. It's ease of use is similar to Joomla! however far exceeds the admin interface where as I find Joomla! to be complex for the average developer and mostly average content provider. The add-on's and modules …
    Incentivized
    Chose Concrete CMS
    Years ago when I personally was early on in my web development learning path, I tried to learn and use Drupal. Its complexity and difficulty proved to be too much, at least for me personally at that point in time. Finding and using Concrete5 was a real nice experience after …
    Incentivized
    The Joomla Project
    Chose Joomla
    Joomla is a very stable and secure CMS platform that ranks about in the middle of the pack with the other 'modern day' CMS systems out there. It's not as complex and frustrating as Magento, but it's also not as easy or robust to work on as WordPress. Thankfully when we do …
    Incentivized
    Chose Joomla
    Joomla and Concrete5 have about the same capability and similar issues. Purchasing a SAAS like Squarespace, Weebly or Wix would be worth the price to remove the hassle of Joomla. A more robust free CMS like WordPress or Drupal would be a better solution if you wanted to remain …
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    100%
    Would buy again
    22 Answers
    93%
    Would buy again
    14 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    22 Answers
    93%
    Delivers good value for the price
    13 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    22 Answers
    87%
    Happy with the feature set
    13 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    22 Answers
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    10 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    22 Answers
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    14 Answers
    Features
    Concrete CMSJoomla
    Security
    Comparison of Security features of Concrete CMS and Joomla!
    Feature
    Concrete CMS
    9.5
    38 Ratings
    14% above category average
    Joomla!
    8.3
    51 Ratings
    1% above category average
    Role-based user permissions9.538 Ratings8.351 Ratings
    Platform & Infrastructure
    Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of Concrete CMS and Joomla!
    Feature
    Concrete CMS
    9.7
    33 Ratings
    22% above category average
    Joomla!
    6.6
    48 Ratings
    17% below category average
    API9.731 Ratings7.246 Ratings
    Internationalization / multi-language9.730 Ratings6.047 Ratings
    Web Content Creation
    Comparison of Web Content Creation features of Concrete CMS and Joomla!
    Feature
    Concrete CMS
    8.4
    42 Ratings
    7% above category average
    Joomla!
    7.7
    54 Ratings
    2% below category average
    WYSIWYG editor9.342 Ratings8.353 Ratings
    Code quality / cleanliness10.037 Ratings8.551 Ratings
    Admin section10.040 Ratings8.249 Ratings
    Page templates10.040 Ratings7.052 Ratings
    Library of website themes4.238 Ratings6.350 Ratings
    Mobile optimization / responsive design9.739 Ratings7.550 Ratings
    Publishing workflow7.737 Ratings8.450 Ratings
    Form generator6.639 Ratings7.546 Ratings
    Web Content Management
    Comparison of Web Content Management features of Concrete CMS and Joomla!
    Feature
    Concrete CMS
    6.9
    40 Ratings
    8% below category average
    Joomla!
    7.6
    52 Ratings
    1% above category average
    Content taxonomy8.939 Ratings7.951 Ratings
    SEO support9.039 Ratings7.650 Ratings
    Bulk management6.039 Ratings8.049 Ratings
    Availability / breadth of extensions5.439 Ratings7.052 Ratings
    Community / comment management5.439 Ratings7.150 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Concrete CMSJoomla
    Small Businesses
    Umbraco CMS
    Score7 out of 10
    Umbraco CMS
    Score7 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Square Online
    Score7.7 out of 10
    Square Online
    Score7.7 out of 10
    Enterprises
    RWS Tridion Sites
    Score9 out of 10
    RWS Tridion Sites
    Score9 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Concrete CMSJoomla
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.2
    (59 ratings)
    8.2
    (75 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    8.0
    (22 ratings)
    10.0
    (28 ratings)
    Usability
    9.1
    (13 ratings)
    8.0
    (14 ratings)
    Availability
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    9.9
    (2 ratings)
    Performance
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    7.8
    (2 ratings)
    Support Rating
    10.0
    (3 ratings)
    10.0
    (4 ratings)
    Online Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.0
    (2 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    9.8
    (6 ratings)
    8.7
    (3 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.9
    (3 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Concrete CMSJoomla
    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.
    Read full review
    The Joomla Project
    If your developers want to have some fun, Joomla offers the stability and friendliness to do custom coding. Certain marketing initiatives require us to get "cute" with the interface, and Joomla allows for that a bit easier than WordPress (and definitely easier than sites like Squarespace). The security of Joomla is also always a plus.
    Incentivized
    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).
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    The Joomla Project
    • Security. Its got many new features in the new Joomla! 4 which make the already good security even better. I like the ability to use my Yubi keys to log in with the new webauth standard, I don't think any other CMS has that built in
    • W3C Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 (with AA compliance)
    • Really good SEO that gets our sites to the top of the search engines again without the need for any extra things
    • Speed, it gets a really good score (100%) in the google lighthouse on our server, can't beat that
    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.
    Read full review
    The Joomla Project
    • Because Joomla's user community is smaller than WP, it lacks as many choices from 3rd party developers, meaning it can be a little more difficult to find the right extension for what you need to accomplish
    • Along the same vein, most of the best 3rd-party software for Joomla! is paid
    • Simple features such as Add to Menu and Cache cleaners should be adopted as part of the Joomla! core, though they are available as extensions
    • Joomla! could use a simpler and easier URL rewriting process
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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.
    Read full review
    The Joomla Project
    I gave it a rating of 10 because I just love how Joomla! works, how it is set up and how it handles many users. Also it is very fast, and there is no overload on the MySQL database or servers ever.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    The Joomla Project
    Joomla! 3.x is easily installed either manually or via a script provided by your host. It contains most of the tools needed to begin creating websites right from the start. Those features that it doesn't have are easily installed via links and buttons from the thousands of extensions available in the community
    Read full review
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    The Joomla Project
    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!
    Read full review
    The Joomla Project
    Today's Modern Joomla performs very well and is robust and durable. The pages load faster than they ever did in the past and Modern Joomla's integration into other software or systems has become seamless. Modern Joomla sites will last long and will stay running forever.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    The Joomla Project
    Between the core Joomla developers who are excellent at answering questions and providing support, you have a whole community of developers who work with Joomla and are happy to help fellow developers out answering questions and supporting the Joomla project. Out of the many communities I am involved in for open-source software, Joomla's community is by far the best.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Online Training
    Portland Labs
    No answers on this topic
    The Joomla Project
    It is good if you know Joomla! if not it can get a bit confusing
    Read full review
    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.
    Read full review
    The Joomla Project
    Joomla has gone through tremendous growing pains. It is now better than ever. But before, when it was going from 1.5-2.5, the templates and plugins would break over and over again. If you don't understand what Joomla was trying to do back then, you might have a bad attitude toward it. Today, those pains are over and things don't break like they used to during that time period.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    The Joomla Project
    We tested other platforms like WordPress, Magento and some local CMS. 
    But Joomla offered us better resources for generating content.
    Joomla is a CMS suitable for many types of projects, especially if you have several people editing content at the same time.
    It allows you to maintain visual standardization and offers many options for working with images.
    With its ability to control access to different articles, categories or even different components, it is a great tool, even if they are managed by different people.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    The Joomla Project
    • Joomla has reduced our costs of rolling out a new website because it uses less developer time and can be rolled out by individual users as needed.
    • Joomla has a lot of extensions and add-ons that make it easy to create and implement advanced solutions quickly.
    Incentivized
    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.