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.
Want a super easy and solid swiss army knife of a website, use Concrete CMS
Feature packed, intuitive to use
Concrete CMS has nicelly choosen it's name, Concrete is really concrete
Concrete CMS is your ultimate choice of CMS!
ConcreteCMS: the Best!
My go to CMS for years
Great CMS system for medium to large websites.
Best CMS
A awesome tool for a better and inclusive web
Amazing CMS, easy to use for both developers and admins
Great value for a quick, easy website
Powerful, easy-to-use website content management
Concrete5 Is The Way to Go for Non-Programmers
As a …
Powerful for developers, easy for site editors
Works as expected, a bit resource intensive
Awards
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Popular Features
- Admin section (40)10.0100%
- Page templates (40)10.0100%
- Mobile optimization / responsive design (39)9.797%
- WYSIWYG editor (42)9.292%
Pricing
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
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Product Demos
Concrete CMS DevOps Hosting
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.
- 9.5Role-based user permissions(38) Ratings
Permissions to perform actions or access or modify data are assigned to roles, which are then assigned to users, reducing complexity of administration.
Platform & Infrastructure
Features related to platform-wide settings and structure, such as permissions, languages, integrations, customizations, etc.
- 9.7API(31) Ratings
An API (application programming interface) provides a standard programming interface for connecting third-party systems to the software for data creation, access, updating and/or deletion.
- 9.7Internationalization / multi-language(30) Ratings
The software supports multiple languages, countries, currencies, etc.
Web Content Creation
Features that support the creation of website content.
- 9.2WYSIWYG editor(42) Ratings
What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get editing tool allows users to build pages without writing code.
- 10Code quality / cleanliness(37) Ratings
Code generated by WYSIWYG editor is clean and validates according to W3C standards.
- 10Admin section(40) Ratings
The admin page is easy to navigate and use.
- 10Page templates(40) Ratings
The CMS has standard webpage templates or types of web pages (e.g. homepage, article page, interior page, blog page, etc.); users can also build custom templates.
- 4.4Library of website themes(38) Ratings
A library of website frameworks or themes is available as a starting point for building a website.
- 9.7Mobile optimization / responsive design(39) Ratings
The CMS helps users build webpages that work well on mobile devices – whether m-dot pages or responsively designed pages.
- 7.8Publishing workflow(37) Ratings
The software allows users to set up a custom workflow for updating the website, including approval processes.
- 6.5Form generator(39) Ratings
Users can build website forms for visitors to fill out.
Web Content Management
Features for managing website content
- 8.8Content taxonomy(39) Ratings
Users can create multiple levels and types of content categories including tags.
- 9SEO support(39) Ratings
The CMS helps users create the right website infrastructure (pagination, page headers, titles, meta tags, url structure, etc.) to increase the site’s visibility in search engine results.
- 6.1Bulk management(39) Ratings
Users can change an attribute on a group of documents or sites all at once through features such as global search and replace, making bulk changes easier.
- 5.6Availability / breadth of extensions(39) Ratings
There is a broad library of extensions, plug-ins, modules or add-ons that allow users to easily customize their websites without building custom code.
- 5.6Community / comment management(39) Ratings
Users can put post/page comments through an approval process, auto-approve commenters based on their email addresses, block commenters by IP address, delete comments, etc.
Product Details
- About
- Competitors
- Tech Details
- FAQs
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
Concrete CMS Videos
Concrete CMS Technical Details
Deployment Types | On-premise, Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based |
---|---|
Operating Systems | Windows, Linux, Mac |
Mobile Application | No |
Supported Countries | anywhere |
Supported Languages | arabic, 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
Comparisons
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Reviews and Ratings
(84)Community Insights
- Pros
- Cons
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
(1-4 of 4)Concrete5 - a CMS with a good past, and a better future
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.
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!)
- WYSIWYG editor
- 100%10.0
- Code quality / cleanliness
- 70%7.0
- Admin section
- 100%10.0
- Page templates
- 90%9.0
- Library of website themes
- 40%4.0
- Mobile optimization / responsive design
- 100%10.0
- Publishing workflow
- 90%9.0
- Form generator
- 100%10.0
- Content taxonomy
- 100%10.0
- SEO support
- 100%10.0
- Bulk management
- 100%10.0
- Availability / breadth of extensions
- 70%7.0
- Community / comment management
- 100%10.0
- Internationalization / multi-language
- 70%7.0
- Role-based user permissions
- 100%10.0
- Concrete5 has made it much easier for us to stay on top of keeping our websites current.
- It also allows easy distribution of work load across departments.
- The "Stack" feature allows us to design something that can be incorporated on many pages. Then by updating the stack all those pages are instantly updated - saving lots of time, and preventing us from overlooking any element that needs an update.
- Amazing support. I have needed support once, and it was there - human and fast.
The Concrete5 user interface is much more friendly than the WordPress user interface. Ease of use, ease of install - both compelling reasons to make this your go to choice for a CMS solution. The server load is light too.
There is also an excellent ecommerce plugin for Concrete5 that neatly completes the package, making this a competitor for OpenCart as well!
With different users updating different sections of the site we are able to keep the site fresh. And with the users not writing html code, the look and feel of the site remains constant. Any user can view the image library, and add to it as needed.
Users can also access key page areas that impact the whole site, allowing greater ease for larger updates.
Concrete5 will let you add any code you want - you are free to do that! But, the fact is for 99% of use, there is no need to do that, and just generating the content is all that is needed. The only caveat here, as mentioned previously in the review, there is no option to add headline tags - so if you want <h1>, <h2>, or any other <h> you have to hand code that. I am confident there will soon be a fix for this.
- Ease of updating multiple pages. When changing a block that is used in multiple pages, the work load can escalate rapidly. With Concrete5, you just change the stack in one location, and all the pages using that are instantly updated. This is a huge time saver
- Team members can change a page without the changes going live. Then management can review, and publish or correct, then publish as needed. This removes any need for urgent fixes.
- Statistics help us to see directly which pages are doing well and which need a little help, allowing us to keep our site polished.
- We use it as an intranet - we never bothered with an intranet before, but this makes it easy - and it is ever so useful.
- That was not something we intended to do - I installed a Concrete5 locally for testing, then as others tested it too, we started leaving notes, then sharing files through it, and without planning on it, we had our first intranet!
- We use concrete 5 to manage internal documents, CRM, even password management! (for a very carefully selected group of passwords, on a system that is not accessible from outside of our office) It is a most effective tool.
- We are looking to do more with the ecommerce side of it, and rather than just developing plugins for our clients, we are planning on launching plugins for the general public to use.
Each solution always left you wanting. It was too complex to develop for, too complex for the end user to manage, too many security issues, too large a foot print, needed too many resources.
Issues that have never slowed Concrete5. It isnt perfect, nothing is perfect! It may be perfect for one site, but far from it on another! It is, overall, by far, the best CMS I have used or developed for.
- Product Features
- Product Usability
- Prior Experience with the Product
- Implemented in-house
built theme, tested it
added pages, tested and reviewed
moved to live domain.
- There really were none. Its simple, and well done. Sometimes simple gets really complicated, but not with concrete 5
I was able to help with the resolution,In fairness, the issue was more with a configuration issue on my server. Even so, the help I got was monumental! Fast, accurate, not accusing, not condescending. As I recall, the issue was well described in a pre--existing document on the site. My search was not up to par!
I stall have the shirt, and I still have optimized tables :)
- editing a page. You log in, you navigate to the page (looking at the site as you would normally see it, with a new menu at the very top) then click "edit". now you can click on any content, and change it in-situ - not on an admin pop up, but right there on the page. Same font, same size, same color. So easy!
- Stacks. you can make some content (say your social media links) and put it on one, some or all pages. Then, if you want to add another social link to it, you add it in one place, and it instantly updates all the occurrences of it
- Form building. It has never been easier to build a simple, or complex form. beautifully written form builder makes it so easy!
- SEO - a bis issue with many CMS's is the page titles are often DOMAIN.com :: page name
- Ugly, not great for SEO. Now, I often have to go back and do SEO later, as I am focused on other things - with concrete5, I can go to one page, and fix meta title, content and (now depreciated) keywords for every page, from one screen
- As I mentioned before, when upgrading from pre 5.7. to post 5.7 adding pages is very awkward. Once you learn that, there is no stopping you! And once you learn that, you see how much easier it is in the new version.
- Sadly, upgrading from pre 5.7 to post 5.7 is not automated. All plugins need to be rewritten, all content needs to be copied by hand. Its frustrating, but given the scope of the upgrade, well worth it.
I do not find it as pleasant experience to edit pages on a mobile device. Not because of the interface, more because of the small screen! If you are used to working on complex issues on a small device, then you should finds this a breeze
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!
Concrete5 is the most Rock Solid CMS
- Dead simple editing. Basic training can be performed over the phone in under 30 minutes if needed.
- OOP architecture makes development and troubleshooting a logical and easy to handle.
- Ability to override the system with customizations, and ensure those customizations do not break when the system is updated. Brilliant setup to allow this.
- Speed. As with any system, it's easy for a developer or designer to bloat the system. Attention must be paid to speed costs associated with any new functionalities.
- WYSIWYG editor
- 100%10.0
- Code quality / cleanliness
- 100%10.0
- Admin section
- 100%10.0
- Page templates
- 100%10.0
- Library of website themes
- 100%10.0
- Mobile optimization / responsive design
- 100%10.0
- Publishing workflow
- 100%10.0
- Form generator
- 100%10.0
- Content taxonomy
- 100%10.0
- SEO support
- 100%10.0
- Bulk management
- 100%10.0
- Availability / breadth of extensions
- 100%10.0
- Community / comment management
- 100%10.0
- API
- 90%9.0
- Internationalization / multi-language
- 100%10.0
- Role-based user permissions
- 100%10.0
- Higher ROI
- Better conversions
- Increased employee efficiency
- WordPress,Drupal,Joomla,Grav,October,Pico
- Online Directory
- SEO and Marketing
- Calendars and Events
- News Posts
- Program information
- Sub-Sites
- Mobile Apps
- Online Directory
- Discussion Forums
- Anything we can dream up for the web, Concrete5 can do for us.
- Price
- Product Features
- Product Usability
- Product Reputation
- Prior Experience with the Product
- Vendor Reputation
- Existing Relationship with the Vendor
- Positive Sales Experience with the Vendor
- Analyst Reports
- Third-party Reviews
- Implemented in-house
- Migrate current site content from Drupal to Concrete5
- Update content and workflows where it made sense during the migration
- Train new editors
- Add more content
- Various little details that needed to be addressed
- Ability to pick and choose feature posts and events for the homepage
- Ability to work with Google Calendars.
- In-Context editing interface. See a typo? Click edit on the page and edit it right there where you see it. You're not placed into a editing "backend" that looks nothing like the page the typo was found on. See it, edit it, publish it—all on the same page.
- Installing additional (and nice!) themes and functionality add-ons directly from the vetted/curated Concrete5 marketplace
- Adding new content, pages, or posts.
- None
Concrete5: a powerful and user-friendly CMS
- A very friendly user interface based on Twitter's Bootstrap. The importance and value of having a polished, well-designed interface cannot be underestimated as it directly affects the "usability" of the system.
- A marketplace of free and paid add-ons and themes that are vetted by a Peer Review Board. Add-ons (a.k.a. plugins) are checked for compatibility before being made available in the marketplace and authors who sell add-ons have an incentive to keep their code up to date. Compared with some other systems there seems to be less chance that an add-on is going to conflict with others, or that the add-on will be abandoned.
- Security seems to be quite good. I have not even heard of a Concrete5 site getting hacked. As such, system updates are not mandatory just for security patches. This means there is potentially less upkeep to the system.
- The system was designed from the ground up to run a page-based site (as opposed to a system that was originally designed for blogging but can also now handle pages).
- Depending on the needs of the site and how the system is set up there can be multiple ways to edit content, which can be confusing if not handled well by the developer and training.
- No built-in way to migrate content from WordPress.
- As a developer Concrete5 has been a differentiator as a valuable product that was relatively unknown when I first started using it (in 2010). Many people were already looking for alternatives to "the big three" (Wordpress, Drupal, and Joomla).
- Concrete5's stable marketplace has allowed the addition of some requested site features that I wasn't ready or willing to create myself at various points over the last four years. This enabled me to deliver on some projects that otherwise I wouldn't have been able to do.
- Perch,Wordpress
WordPress was designed for blogs, and its ubiquity has made it a common hacker target. I avoid it entirely now because it is unusual that I build blogs.
- Content editors, who don't need any technical knowledge, but must not be afraid to click buttons (e.g. not techno-phobes).
- Technical person who can assist if errors come up in updating the system (these are rare).
- The original developer or another Concrete5-savvy developer to assist if site editors encounter an unforeseen use case that needs addressing. This may also require a visual designer to help maintain design consistency on the site.
- Marketing websites that are somewhat large.
- Marketing websites that may require reshuffling pages and sections of the site.
- Marketing websites that may scale up significantly in the near future.
- As an application framework.
- Product Features
- Product Usability
- Implemented in-house
- Migrating data
- In-context editing: navigate to the page you want to edit and start editing
- The core system is built on pages so accessing data is pretty simple
- User management is powerful
- Advanced permissions can be cumbersome, but not difficult
Concrete5 - A strong foundation for your website.
- Super simple interface that even non-web developers can use and get the most out of. This made the training curve extremely fast and very easy to on-board new contributors.
- Built-in version control system so if someone screws up it can be rolled back without hassle.
- Very active marketplace with very cheap plugins that meet particular business needs. We have purchased and used several modules with successful results however we do try out our new purchases on a test bed platform before deploying live to ensure compatibility and verify functionality.
- Built-in permissions for every page that is easy to manage. This ensures that prospects only see what they have access to and clients can see what they have access to, even if they are passed a direct URL.
- It can be difficult to set up on a Windows server. Not impossible mind you, just a little more difficult than your typical Unix server where most even will do automatic installs for you.
- The plugins could be vetted by the company a little better to ensure that plugins that are on the marketplace are always compatible and fulfill the promises they make.
- It has given us financial freedom from relying on third party vendors to update our website.
- It was extremely cheap to implement.
- It gave us the freedom to control our own branding rather than going through a third party vendor to create a site for us.
- It has been able to achieve all of the business needs we had starting out and also going forward.
- Joomla!,Drupal,mambo,WordPress
- Implemented in-house
- Needed to set up the MySQL database manually. It was very easy though with the control panel and PHPMyAdmin.
- We needed to create our own custom template. I'm the designer though and I've done it before so that sped things up. We purchased the Twitter Bootstrap theme which is very extensive and very thorough to build ours off of. That way we inherited all of their button styles and other components for free that we are familiar using with our product line already.
- Editing page content is as easy as loading up modules into active areas of the page and then customizing them.
- Editing user permissions was extremely easy and intuitive.
- Editing the sitemap is very easy.
- Adding animations perhaps.