Skip to main content
TrustRadius
Concrete CMS

Concrete CMS
Formerly Concrete5

Overview

What is Concrete CMS?

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.

Read more
Recent Reviews

TrustRadius Insights

Smooth User Interface: Many users have praised the smooth user interface of the product, stating that it is intuitive and easy to …
Continue reading

Best CMS

10 out of 10
March 06, 2021
Incentivized
Concrete5 gets used from standard websites to big portals with a lot of individual funcionallities. It also gets used as a framework.
Continue reading
Read all reviews

Awards

Products that are considered exceptional by their customers based on a variety of criteria win TrustRadius awards. Learn more about the types of TrustRadius awards to make the best purchase decision. More about TrustRadius Awards

Popular Features

View all 16 features
  • Admin section (40)
    10.0
    100%
  • Page templates (40)
    10.0
    100%
  • Mobile optimization / responsive design (39)
    9.7
    97%
  • WYSIWYG editor (42)
    9.2
    92%
Return to navigation

Pricing

View all pricing
N/A
Unavailable

What is Concrete CMS?

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.

Entry-level set up fee?

  • No setup fee

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services

Would you like us to let the vendor know that you want pricing?

18 people also want pricing

Alternatives Pricing

What is ExpressionEngine?

ExpressionEngine is a content management system from EllisLab in 2002, a successor to pMachine Pro, a blogging system, which is written in object-oriented PHP and uses MySQL for data storage. ExpressionEngine is their flagship Content Delivery Platform.

What is Adobe Business Catalyst (Discontinued)?

Adobe Business Catalyst was a cloud-hosted system for building and managing web content and online stores with a built-in CRM framework in addition to sales, service, and marketing features including eCommerce and Email Marketing tools. It has been end of life (EOL) since 2020.

Return to navigation

Product Demos

Concrete CMS DevOps Hosting

YouTube
Return to navigation

Features

Security

This component helps a company minimize the security risks by controlling access to the software and its data, and encouraging best practices among users.

9.5
Avg 8.0

Platform & Infrastructure

Features related to platform-wide settings and structure, such as permissions, languages, integrations, customizations, etc.

9.7
Avg 7.7

Web Content Creation

Features that support the creation of website content.

8.4
Avg 7.6

Web Content Management

Features for managing website content

7
Avg 7.3
Return to navigation

Product Details

What is Concrete CMS?

Concrete CMS (formerly concrete5) is an Open Source Content Management System for teams. The vendor states users can run a secure website that content contributors will love using with Concrete CMS. Concrete is a platform that grows with the user's needs.

The user experience is built around in-context editing and is designed to be as easy to use as a word processor so that users spend less time training people, and less time having to fix things.

As an open source framework the user can build complex applications as features like permissions, workflow, file management, calendar, forms, SEO and so much more are built right in. A marketplace of add-ons & themes and an active community can help quickly deliver solutions using Concrete CMS.

The vendor boasts fortune 500 companies, nonprofits, individuals and the U.S. Army as users of Concrete CMS to power critical parts of their web presence.

Concrete CMS Features

Web Content Creation Features

  • Supported: WYSIWYG editor
  • Supported: Code quality / cleanliness
  • Supported: Content versioning
  • Supported: Admin section
  • Supported: Page templates
  • Supported: Library of website themes
  • Supported: Mobile optimization / responsive design
  • Supported: Publishing workflow
  • Supported: Form generator
  • Supported: Content scheduling

Web Content Management Features

  • Supported: Internal content search
  • Supported: Content taxonomy
  • Supported: SEO support
  • Supported: Browser compatibility
  • Supported: Bulk management
  • Supported: Page caching
  • Supported: Availability / breadth of extensions
  • Supported: E-commerce / shopping cart extension
  • Supported: Community / comment management
  • Supported: Import / export

Platform & Infrastructure Features

  • Supported: API
  • Supported: Internationalization / multi-language

Security Features

  • Supported: Role-based user permissions
  • Supported: Multi-factor authentication
  • Supported: User-level audit trail
  • Supported: Version history
  • Supported: Simple roll-back capabilities

CMS programming language or framework Features

  • Supported: PHP

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.

Concrete CMS Videos

What problems does Concrete CMS solve?
Testimonial from a customer

Concrete CMS Competitors

Concrete CMS Technical Details

Deployment TypesOn-premise, Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based
Operating SystemsWindows, Linux, Mac
Mobile ApplicationNo
Supported Countriesanywhere
Supported Languagesarabic, bangla, bosnian, chinese, czech, danish, dutch, english, estonian, finnish, french, german, greek, hebrew, hungarian, icelandic, indonesian, italian, japanese, korean, lithuanian, malay, persian, polish, portuguese, romanian, russian, slovak, spanish, swedish, thai, turkish, vietnamese, welsh

Frequently Asked Questions

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.

WordPress and Drupal are common alternatives for Concrete CMS.

Reviewers rate Code quality / cleanliness and Admin section and Page templates highest, with a score of 10.

The most common users of Concrete CMS are from Small Businesses (1-50 employees).
Return to navigation

Comparisons

View all alternatives
Return to navigation

Reviews and Ratings

(85)

Community Insights

TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!

Smooth User Interface: Many users have praised the smooth user interface of the product, stating that it is intuitive and easy to navigate. Several reviewers have mentioned that they appreciate the clean design and well-organized layout, which enhances their overall experience.

Reliable Performance: Numerous customers have commended the reliable performance of the product. Several reviewers have stated that it consistently meets their expectations and performs tasks efficiently without any glitches or slowdowns. Users have expressed satisfaction with its stability and responsiveness.

Versatile Features: A significant number of users have highlighted the versatility of features offered by the product. Some reviewers have mentioned that it provides a wide range of functionalities, allowing them to accomplish various tasks effectively. The availability of customizable options has also been appreciated by several customers, as it caters to individual preferences and requirements.

Confusing User Interface: Many users have expressed frustration with the confusing and difficult-to-navigate user interface of Concrete5. They find it challenging to complete tasks efficiently due to the lack of intuitive design and organization.

Slow Rendering of Admin Pages: Some users have reported experiencing slow rendering of admin pages, particularly when using older computers. This sluggish performance hampers their productivity and can be frustrating during day-to-day usage.

Limited Customization Options: Users have voiced their concerns about the limited customization options in Concrete5. They feel that these options are buried within the software, making it harder for them to personalize their websites according to their specific preferences and requirements.

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-25 of 45)
Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
Jalen Séguin | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We use it for our public-facing website, and we use it to deliver a range of website solutions for our clients. I offer it to my clients because I know I can create easily maintainable and extensible sites for them and be confident that they can become quite self-sufficient in a short amount of time.
  • create and publish user-defined database content
  • easy and intuitive for site editors *and* developers
  • standards compliant and highly secure
  • was built from the ground up to be a versatile and robust development environment
  • reinvigorate and grow the (addon) developer community
  • expand and refine the documentation/education program
  • grow brand awareness
Concrete CMS shines any time the end-user wants to be able to edit their own content. Even in situations where the information is formatted in a complicated and/or technical way, Express objects give the developer a magic wand to allow novice editors the ability to update and maintain site content. I offer Concrete CMS as a far more secure alternative to WordPress, due to Concrete's design and the fact that the brand is currently under the radar of most bad actors.
Olivier Soille | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
I'm using Concrete CMS for almost all kinds of web-based software I build. It's a real swiss knife. I've made a website, e-commerce, ERP, and many management tools with it. it's a very nice project base. I always have the facility to teach how to use it to the project's users, it's very intuitive.
  • in context editing
  • plugin programming
  • web security
  • modification with mouse
  • i don't see
more appropriate for a community-based web application, website. less for enterprise but I use it for that too with specific dev of plug-ins. a good choice for little e-commerce too. very good in terms of web security. also, sometimes used for document management in some enterprise and collaborative platforms.
October 25, 2021

ConcreteCMS: the Best!

Peter Quintus | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We use ConcreteCMS as the choice for our customers. We built and maintain websites, and have been happily doing this with ConcreteCMS (fka Concrete5) since 2009. Our customers soon realize that WordPress is not the way to go once they have seen the possibilities we create for them with ConcreteCMS.
  • Content Management for customers
  • Programming possibilities for us
  • Smooth & fast, no hassle with daily plug-in updates WordPress has
  • Never experienced conflicts with different add-ons (daily nightmare in WordPress)
  • Better documentation
It is simply one of the best true Website Content Management Systems around. It's powerful and stable, both for the end-user as well as us, as developers.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We use this on a variety of website projects, both internally originated and for clients. It's easy to launch a new site through our hosting platform and keep it up to date, and the compact marketplace for add-ons and themes weeds out so much of the noise you would find on bigger marketplaces.
  • Great UI for users to create content
  • No need to deal with the maintenance structure, but when you do it is well designed
  • Doesn't most everything you need from the base install
  • The user forum needs a shake up. Can be hard to get activity on a thread
  • Some more complex features aren't being developed by the community and need to be
  • Needs more support to overcome the preference for the 800 pound gorilla in the sector
The right choice for more projects than it wins. Get a site up and running quickly and focus on the content, not the inner workings. Good for early-stage companies to use and grow with, when you don't need to mess with your website at the expense of your business. An economical choice without the fear of your information becoming part of the business success of the developer. (no ties into the Internet economy of big data).
Wayne Stewart | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I currently build websites for my freelance clients using Concrete5 CMS. Concrete5 allows my clients to edit website content directly on the webpage. This enables my clients to quickly and easily update their website with little to no programming knowledge. Since is a PHP based CMS system, it also very easy to install on a clients web server.
  • n webpage content editing.
  • Very easy to use and understand.
  • Short learning curve for Web Developers.
  • PHP Based CMS system.
  • Improve ability to create web page navigation
Concrete5 is best for medium size web sites where two or more people will be maintaining the site. If you're planning on using Concrete5 as a blogging platform the blogging section is very limited. Look into the Pro Blogs add on in the Concrete5 marketplace.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Concrete5 is used to allow the company's developers to easily create a flexible website that allows its clients to update their content with minimal fuss, and allows the developers to quickly implement new features or changes as when requested by the client. The level of control a client has over their site can be fully tailored to suit the their needs and technical skills.
  • 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).
  • Lack of a REST API for using as a headless CMS (although I believe this will change with the next major version).
  • No built-in way that I'm aware of to integrate React and/or Vue components.
  • No equivalent to WordPress + Advanced Custom Fields' "repeater" fields for adding an indefinitely long list of page/file/user attributes (though it's worth noting that the way Concrete5 is structured makes the need for this much rarer than it is in WordPress).
Concrete5 is perfect for a website that needs to be regularly updated without accessing the code, whether that be because a developer created your site for you, or because you yourself are a developer who wants to keep the time spent on updates down.
In my experience, it's less useful for modern web apps such as PWAs that would benefit more from technologies such as React and Vue.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Reseller
We deliver content managed websites built on Concrete5 to our clients. Our business is now completely focused on designing, building and supporting concrete5 websites. Concrete5 allows us to deliver sites that are easy to use and to build and configure flexible bespoke solutions for most needs.
  • Complete CMS out of the box - extensions not required for basic functionality.
  • Modern PHP development framework - build whatever you need to.
  • User friendly editing environment - clients love using Concrete5.
  • Knowledgeable, supportive and friendly community.
  • Documentation is gradually improving, this needs to continue.
  • Design and styling controls could be updated.
Concrete5 provides the ideal solution where a website with bespoke functionality is needed. It is very flexible and can be configured to allow easy editing/maintenance for almost any requirement. It is ideal for slightly larger sites that have a team of people managing content rather than for a smaller sites.
Ngo Thien | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
I used Concrete5 CMS as a solution for my landing page team to show our prices and achievements. It's really helpful and easy to use.
As a web development company, we've seen the move from static HTML web pages to more CMS style pages. This has been for both our clients, who have requested the ability to maintain, update and add their own content, as well as ourselves to be able to better manage development and deployment. Almost all of our projects over the past two years have been done using Concrete5.
  • Page rollback and backup functions are great features for clients.
  • Easy extendability with package system.
  • Fast setup on both local and remote web hosting servers, either via "one button" installs or manually.
  • From a designers point of view, Concrete5 is very easy to re-theme with your own custom web design. Any web designer with a basic understanding of HTML and CSS can re-theme a website.
  • End users can update their pages using built in forms. It's as easy as using MS Word.
  • 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.
With each project it is best to approach it with the goals in mind. Concrete5 may not be the best fit in all cases. Given that there is such a large community centered around WordPress for example, with a plethora of sound plugins that can accomplish much more that most CMS solutions, it is best to dive into Concrete5, understand how your team can best utilize what Concrete5 does best- content management.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I use Concrete5 to manage the website for my small publishing company. It is used across the entire company.
  • It is quite extensible.
  • There are many add-ons and themes.
  • It makes it easy for even non-technical people to be able to update the content on the website.
  • The extensions for older versions could be better marked to show if they are compatible with the current version.
  • It could stand to have a bit of code optimizing to make it less resource intensive.
  • It would be nice if there was a way to import content from my development server to my production server.
It is best for someone who needs to manage websites but does not have the time or inclination to learn various programming languages.
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We use C5 as a go-to solution for medium to large web applications, smaller webshops, and as a management system for users and access-control to standalone applications. We mainly use it for its intended purpose as customizable CMS for websites.
  • Out-of-the-box functionalities like user management, search, SEO
  • Edibility by users.
  • Simplicity for non digital natives.
  • Backend is for inexperienced users overwhelming.
  • Management of custom models can be intensive.
  • Frontend in edit-mode is sometimes unresponsive and irritates inexperienced users.
For medium-sized web applications with different users and more functionality than just content-pages, I would recommend it. Even for smaller, content-oriented apps, it is suitable if the required configurations are made. Larger apps require user training that consists of pointing out and schooling the users on the features they will actually need to not get lost in the number of features and configurations available.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Concrete5 is great for everything from simple websites to custom, complex, applications. The peer-reviewed marketplace offers out-of-the-box solutions that save plenty of time and cost less than developing on your own with many add-ons available for free. Community support is fantastic with user forums and projects, including an e-Commerce solution that is robust and inexpensive to run with no monthly fees (seriously, the best e-Commerce package you're going to find). Sites can be deployed quickly with minimal costs and end-users can be trained often in minutes instead of hours or days. The platform is secure and allows fine-tooth permissions control. Internationalization is handled too for those that need to display their sites in multiple languages. Self-hosted and Concrete5 hosted options are available and maintenance is usually easily managed at the user-level.
  • User-Friendly
  • Extendable
  • Secure
  • Learning Curve for Development
  • Can be complex
Concrete5 is simple enough for a business-card type website yet powerful enough to build full blown apps like project management, product workflow management, and more. Can be used for blogging, eCommerce, and much more. Peer-reviewed themes and add-ons allow for fast deployment with minimal coding knowledge. Site editors can be trained very quickly and love the ease of use.
Marc Stress | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Concrete5 allow my team to develop and deliver robust and dependable websites that help our clients grow their businesses, attract new customer and hire the best employees. My firm builds designs, develops and builds brands, Concrete5 is our go-to web solution. There are a number of benefits including how much our clients web-team like managing through the Concrete5 in-context editing. Other benefits include superior security when compared to other CMS platforms, and limited need for software updates and patches for security reasons.
  • Flexible, easy to manage websites.
  • In-context editor that users and site managers love.
  • Secure codebase.
  • Development transparency from core team.
  • Open-source license model.
  • Extensible architecture.
  • Ready-to-use out of the box.
  • Better documentation from core developers.
  • Better display of dashboard details.
  • More name recognition.
Concrete5 is simply best-in-class content management and website development platform. It's ready to use right out of the box, and it completely extensible and customizable as much as needed. Moreover, our clients love working on their sites for day-to-day updates and site management. Concrete5 runs on any Linux (LAMP stack) server that would support Drupal, Joomla, WordPress or any of the other platforms. Our clients love working on their Concrete5 powered websites. Whether it's adding articles to the news room, sharing brand assets, updating employee profiles, or posting job openings to for their HR departments. It's not uncommon for our clients to grow their sites 50% in size during the first year after launch. 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 required to keep your CMS platforms secure, you need to consider Concrete5 as the primary platform to grow your business, build great sites and make clients happy.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Amazing and really well thought out CMS. Works out of the box, easy to setup and is packed with features so you don't need loads of plugins. Great for editors and very good for developers to build off. The code base is excellent.

This has been design with the basic user in mind, the UX and UI is very well thought out and being able to edit content within the page without having to go to a backend is very valuable.

The team behind this CMS is constantly improving and updating it but not just fixing bugs, really user improvement. The community that supports it is vast and there is always someone on the forums to help you out.

  • Works out of the box.
  • Packed with Features.
  • Simple to use with brilliant UX/UI.
  • Great code base to work with.
  • Some documentation can be confusing.
  • Not enough people using it.
  • Has no ecommerce.
This CMS is well suited to anyone building and maintaining a website. It is easy to use and simple to setup. If you are a developer selling on this as part of a website package your clients will love it. Very little training is needed for editors to get updating sites. I have never had it hacked and [it] runs on most servers. It is easy to move between hosts and updates are simple.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Concrete5 is my Content Management System of choice for implementation of my customer's websites. I install it for my customers as it is, in my view, the simplest of content management systems for the end user/editor. It minimises the amount of training I have to provide for the individuals who take on the editing of the website. Whilst being a simple to use system it also allows me to create fast, secure websites built to my clients specification.
  • Ease of use
  • Ease of installation
  • Highly configurable
  • Highly extensible
  • Poor developer documentation
  • Could do with editor profiles already added so permissions dont have to be set
  • Doesn't have a very large marketplace so addons need to be created from scratch
Concrete5 was created as a content management system from day one unlike its main rival WordPress. This has meant that whilst WordPress has only just caught up with regards to the block construction system it has done so at the cost of website speed. Concrete5 is lean purely as it was built as a CMS and doesnt suffer with bloated code.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
ResellerIncentivized
I use Concrete5 for pretty much everything from off-the-shelf web sites and for custom solutions with third party integrations.
  • Easy for non technical users to edit content
  • Curated marketplace of free and paid extensions at a fair price
  • Good platform for custom development and further integration
  • Reliable and secure
  • Easy to manage
  • Too much wisdom is lost in the depths of Slack
  • With each new release, the infrastructure increases in complexity and leaves the documentation further behind.
Convenient for off-the-shelf solutions and for developing custom solutions.
Anel Pasic | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
After using, customizing ad developing on most common CMS systems such as Joomla, Drupal, WordPress and others, Concrete5 became a clear choice for almost all of our projects. Unless you plan to develop anything but a webshop, then there is no need to search further.
  • Effective and easy to publish and edit content. You enter the page where you want to edit content, choose edit mode and all editable content is there for you to change. Great overview with sitemap feature, you get full view of your website structure.
  • Extremly flexible, you can define page-types and assign custom attributes to each.
  • Gives developer full controll over display, and lets the editor plot in correct values.
  • Easy to maintain, good security. No need for external plugins in order to preform advanced features.
  • Best plugin is no plugin.
  • Not suitable for webshops. Sure there are plugins for that such as WooCommerce on WP, but that's a poor choice. Best to go for PrestaShop or full-blood E-Commerce solution.
  • No list view edit of the pages such as Joomla, would make it more effective.
Best suited for any type of corporate website that is not a webshop, or requires a full-custom from scratch built CMS.

Whatever you imagine, you can build anything on it. All you need is a descent developer that has a few brain cells.

Not suited for webshops. You can make it work, but it's not an efficient solution.
Dave Becker | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Our website is built on Concrete5. We are able to integrate our CRM and customer accounts system with the Concrete5 platform to give our customers a seamless transition between the two. We host all of our services and offerings on the site and customers are able to read all about our company and what we can do for them.
  • Concrete5 has a modular editing system, so you can edit the pages without having knowledge of coding. You just pick the module you want to insert or edit and click where you want it to go.
  • You are able to edit modules in an HTML format if you would like to, so if you have the knowledge you can have even more control over your modules.
  • You can also edit entire page themes by selecting them from the page layout menu. This allows you a greater versatility of the pages on your site.
  • The file sorting system can be clunky at times. It can be difficult to find the correct file when you are searching for files you have previously uploaded.
  • Sometimes the page will crash in the middle of editing, and there isn't an autosave feature to backup your work.
  • Without proper training on how to use Concrete5, you can easily get lost or overwhelmed. It's not exactly intuitive right away.
If you have some knowledge of coding or website editing, Concrete5 is a great choice. You can go into their marketplace and find additional add-ons or modules that you would like to add to your site. If you are looking for a simple web site hosting service, this may not be the option for you.
Tom Reitz | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I built and maintain a few websites using Concrete5, both for internal use and for clients, over a period of several years. I've used both versions 5.5/5.6 and the newer versions 5.7/5.8 - in fact, I was around for the change and helped migrate a large website from 5.6 to 5.7. Concrete5 is unusual among open-source CMS software in that it is primarily maintained by a for-profit company, which helps give the project direction and stability which other open-source projects can lack.
  • Concrete5 provides a very easy interface for website owners/administrators. Adding pages and content is simple and straightforward.
  • Concrete5.7+ works well on mobile devices such as phones and tablets - including admin editing tools.
  • Concrete5 has a good user community and support forums, as well as paid add-ons which provide advanced functionality which other open-source CMSs can lack.
  • Concrete5.6 websites have no good path to migrate to 5.7, short of manual content migration. This is a big problem and affected the user community negatively.
  • Some features that were available as paid add-ons in 5.6, such as discussion forums and e-commerce shopping cart, are missing from newer versions 5.7/5.8.
  • Starting to develop add-ons and customizations for Concrete5 can be challenging as 5.7/5.8 documentation is not yet complete.
Concrete5 is great for smaller content-based sites with non-technical managers. It's not well suited to large database-driven apps which need e-commerce features or many (thousands) of pages of content.
Jack Wong | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We currently use it for one of our company websites. This website acts as a marketing tool for us as well as a means for us to utilize Concrete5 as part of our business. If we are to provide Concrete5 implementation services, it's good for us to run a Concrete5 website ourselves.
  • Concrete5 is really good at providing a functional WYSIWYG for managing website content. It's the only CMS we tried that truly acts as such without any major issues.
  • Similar to the above, in-context editing is a great feature. It allows non-developer savvy people to see exactly what they're doing.
  • One click update is really handy. Don't have to download a bunch of files locally, then upload it, and then run a separate update process in order to update Concrete5.
It is well suited for clients who want us to recommend a specific CMS and don't have a preference or much experience with using another CMS. It isn't quite as appropriate when clients are already using another CMS.
Frank Smith V | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Concrete5 was great for creating for small websites. If we had a client come to us such as a small business that needed an online presence we would use this because it is pretty intuitive when creating and managing content on a website. We would work with the client and build a coupe components that fit their needs to help them get what they needed online quickly and easily.
  • Built on PHP so it can be hosted easily and usually pretty cheap.
  • Has plenty of quick start videos to pick it up fairly quick.
  • Well focused content managment system.
  • Tends to render a page slowly on some host providers.
  • Not an extremely flexible platform if you are looking to do a lot of customizing.
  • Have had some issues migrating a fully built website a couple times with Concrete5 so it is hard move from one server to the next.
For a small website that is content driven this works very well to hand off to a client and [you] can put some faith that they will be able to manage it very easily on their own. This is not something I would recommend to have as an e-commerce website or any site that needs to be blazingly fast.
February 26, 2016

Inherited C5 Website

Score 5 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Concrete5 is being used for content management for one department.
  • Flexibility
  • Clean admin layout
  • Language translation
  • High learning curve
  • Not as intuitive as the competition
If your admin and editor base is highly technical, it may be a good choice, otherwise you're better off with WordPress or other competitors.
John Smart | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
I discovered Concrete5 3 years ago. I was thoroughly disappointed with WordPress, and started to create my own CMS. Then an associate sent me a link to Concrete5.
It was all I wanted mine to be, and then some!
More recently, 5.7.came out, which has a new interface, and couldn't be easier for the end user.
The intuitive interface allows easy creation and management of pages, with help for SEO, and a wealth of plugins.

With different user roles, its easy to allow different departments to manage their own site areas.

We are a web host, and have an easy install solution for this program, but if you don't use that, the install is remarkably easy to do, with a friendly interface.
Like any online solution, it is not the best answer for every need. But it is the best answer for most needs. With an ever growing supply of themes and plugins, you should definitely look at this for your CMS solutions. Except for sites that we build needing a lot of custom coding, all of our web sites are now run on Concrete5.
  • In-line Editing: 7 + has in-line editing, so you see your changes appear in the place they will be on the live site, in the font they will be and the size that they will be.
  • File Management: Excellent file manager, allowing images to be grouped, tags added, lists of what pages use that image, so you can put the images in sets for being used together (in sliders, for instance).
  • Very Human! Every contact you make with the site, the mail that comes to you is from the owner of the group. (Yes, Concrete5 is Open Source.) Very friendly, very nicely done.
  • If you upgrade from pre 5.7 to 5.7, adding pages is rather tricky. Once you are familiar with it, it makes perfect sense!
  • If you are using an older computer, the admin pages are very slow to render.
  • In some cases, using the column tool will stop a responsive theme from being responsive. This is not the theme's issue, as we have used it many times in the same theme. Some pages stop being responsive, others do not. ("Stop being responsive" is technically incorrect, they behave improperly as they resize. This is with text-only content, and does not have images distorting them.)
  • The only way to add h tags is to click on the html editor of a block, and add the the tag to the heading.
Concrete5, like any CMS, is a very complex program So if you are building a site that has a lot of code and database calls, you would usually be better off building it without a CMS.
If a site is not heavily coded, then Concrete5 is an excellent choice. The only time we still use WordPress is if a client is very familiar with that platform, or it has plugins that the client needs that are not available on Concrete5. (This has only happened once!)
David Zizza | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
As a web development company, we've seen the move from static HTML web pages to more CMS style pages. This has been for both our clients, who have requested the ability to maintain, update and add their own content, as well as ourselves to be able to better manage development and deployment. Almost all of our projects over the past two years have been done using Concrete5.
  • Fast setup on both local and remote web hosting servers, either via "one button" installs or manually
  • Does not require Windows hosting or software, so it's less restrictive and allows for a larger selection of hosting environments
  • A very active and supportive community both developers and users
  • Uses common, open source software like PHP and MySQL
  • Custom theme development much easier compared to other platforms like Joomla!, Drupal and WordPress, or can easily integrate into existing design
  • Many addons are free or reasonably priced, or you can write your own custom ones
  • Migration from host to host relatively painless
  • Page rollback and backup functions are great features for clients
  • You have to really find a web host that runs well or maybe even a dedicated/virtual server to see the best response.
  • Though you can often see live demos and documentation for addons and themes, it would be great to be able to try the product to see if it's a fit for your project.
  • Though its UI is one of the easiest to use for clients, there is always room for improvement. Two things come to mind, the first being the Layout block needs improvement, updating or replacing. It doesn't always behave as expected and sometimes to make changes requires you to rebuild the whole thing (especially if you use layouts within layouts). The other item is that you don't always see the correct display while you are logged in. I fought the code for days trying to figure out a formatting issue, until my client said they were seeing it differently from me, and I realized it was because they weren't logged in. I had fixed the code and never knew it! I have to say here that this might not have been an issue with C5 directly, but maybe with the theme I was using. In either case, you have to make sure that you check it both ways.
We have used Concrete5 for eCommerce, scientific, religious, non-profits, associations, clubs and professional sites. It's so flexible I can't really think of a situation where it couldn't be applied. And it's ability to be flexible is largely due to the development community. We have worked mainly with designers who are implementing the clients vision and then we implement their designs, but have also used third party templates modified for specific clients.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Concrete5 for some of our smaller clients who are not quite ready to jump on another CMS that we use called HubSpot. Concrete5 has many options that let us create a great stepping stone site that gets our clients thinking and using their website with more of an inbound marketing strategy. It is quick and easy to set up and customize. I use it as a freelance web designer too.
  • Customizable - The ability to add modules (some free, some paid)
  • Ease of Install and setup
  • Templates that can be changed out of and used in different parts of your site
  • More robust form making out of the box without the need to purchase a more robust module
  • More visitor analytics built into the dash board
  • Subdirectories in the file manager
Make sure your web host can easily implement and install Concrete5. I use Bluehost exclusively for my Concrete5 web hosting. For me the ease of installation and set up of Concrete5 is important because most of the jobs that I use Concrete5 for, require a quick turnaround.
Joey Nizuk | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Concrete5 for ninety percent of our client projects. Concrete5 is a perfect solution whether our clients need a simple CMS, a blogging platform or a complex dynamic site. Concrete5 is ideal for user registration, mass content input and display. The platform can also handle transactions via the eCommernce add-on and the best benefit for us is that it is easy to develop custom add-ons. Also, the sheer simplicity of the CMS allows all levels of users to manage their site which saves the site owner money by not having to hire a developer to adjust/edit content.
  • From a designers point of view, Concrete5 is very easy to re-theme with your own custom web design. Any web designer with a basic understanding of HTML and CSS can re-theme a website.
  • From a developers point of view, there are hundreds if not thousands of add-ons that will extend the the core functionally of your site to handle things such as full scale eCommerce inventory management, sales, transactions, customer management, fulfillment and so on. More importantly, there is a ton of documentation on the Concrete5 community site and it is very easy to develop your own custom add on if there is not one available.
  • From a site editor's/owner's point of view, Concrete5 is very easy to use. If you can edit your LinkedIn profile and create a Word document then you can edit your Concrete5 website. All page edits are done on the page itself once you are logged in and in edit mode. Any custom add on or redundant task can be saved to the dashboard page for even easier access and use.
  • Once area where I would like to improvement is the handling of bulk uploads to the database from the dashboard.
  • I would like to see more free add-ons.
Concrete5 is well suited for any website that is going to be a static company website with maybe a careers section, contact form, portfolio, customer management, and dynamic features like that. Although when it comes to eCommerce it's a bit tricky because there are scenarios where Concrete5 works and doesn't work. For example if there is a client who needs a large eCommerce site with a 100,000 plus product catalog that is continually revolving and constantly syncing with third party commerce vendors such as Amazon, eBay etc., then I would probably not recommend Concrete5 because there are other platforms that are solely for this type of eCommerce site (e.g. Magento). Although if there is a client who needs a smaller scaled eCommerce site to showcase maybe their own product line or a niched group of products which requires more engagement with the users then Concrete5 is perfect for this.
Return to navigation