Likelihood to Recommend 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 Pegboard CMS is ideal for a sophisticated website that needs to be unique in design and that offers the highest level of functionality and a superior user experience. It is suitable for websites ranging from simple blogs, through to corporate and fully-featured eCommerce websites that have the ability to utilise intelligent eMarketing to subscribers
Read full review Pros 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 The Pegboard platform does not limit the design and feel of a website. As web designers and developers we have the ability to design a unique looking website through the construction of HTML template pages which are then integrated with the Pegboard CMS. The Pegboard platform provides a large range of modules for integration by designers into a website. The modules that are used depend on the requirements of the website - there is no limit to the number of modules that can be used. The online CMS management console is easy to use. A client can manage their website content with as little as a half day training session. The Pegboard CMS is a high-end web platform that provides the opportunity to integrate a company’s back-end systems like CRM, accounting and inventory software with their website - providing a business administration efficiencies. The Pegboard CMS provides all of the modules that other CMS provide and include: News, RSS feeds, advanced forms, SEO, blog, banner ads, document management, SMS enablement, image galleries, jobs, membership, broadcasting, polls, event management, forums, product catalogue, eCommerce, e-Marketing, social media The CMS provides the ability to tailor content for certain users - ie. specific information for members, limited information for the general public. There is no limit to the number of types of users. Pegboard's partner program provides access to a network of other developers and programmers that can be called upon to provide their expertise in their area of specialty. Read full review Cons 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 Pegboard platform is a high-end CMS solution and so requires a high level of knowledge of HTML and CSS. It is not suitable for graphic designers with a limited knowledge of these web languages. As a partner I have access to the Pegboard developers helpline - phone or online ticket system. At times I have found that their assistance has been a little on the slow side. This could be improved. I also feel that they expect a higher level of programming ability than we as a partner may necessarily have. We have used the Pegboard Build department to assist us with the development of some aspects of our client’s websites. This build service could improve their communication with partners so that outcomes could be achieved more easily. Read full review Likelihood to Renew 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 Pegboard platform offers our company the ability to offer a greater level of design than any other platform. And this, combined with the superior functionality that the platform offers, enables us to provide a web solution to companies requiring a high-end website for their business. Without the Pegboard platform we would not be able to provide a top-end solution to those clients that require it.
Read full review Usability 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.
Read full review Reliability and Availability 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.
Read full review Performance 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 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.
Kevin Call ★ Assistant Director of Electronic Communications
Read full review Implementation Rating 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 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.
Read full review Pegboard provides a superior ability to customise the design of a website and offers a greater level of functionality. The other web platforms reviewed all use their own design templates that can then be customised. We have recommended these other 2 platforms to some clients that are happy with an existing template design and therefore benefit from some potential lower cost. These other platforms do provide a lesser level of functionality.
Read full review Return on Investment 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. Read full review Mosaic Studios is a relatively new partner of the Pegboard platform. The platform has enabled us to provide a sophisticated web solution to a number of our clients - helping us to provide a more complete service. Without the ability to offer this high-end web solution we could have potentially lost a number of clients. Pegboard has broadening the web solutions that we can recommend to clients - and therefore the platform helps us to attract new clients and to retain existing clients. Read full review ScreenShots —