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Smooth User Interface: Many users have praised the smooth user interface of the product, stating that it is intuitive and easy to …
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.
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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
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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.
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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
What problems does Concrete CMS solve?
Testimonial from a customer
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
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.
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).
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(84)
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!
- 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
(1-5 of 5)Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
February 24, 2021
Great value for a quick, easy website
We use Concrete5 internally to track and control internal processes. It was very quick to set up and use. We are able to host it on our own Apache server, and setup was similar to other CMS software like Drupal or WordPress--set up database, install code, provision users and permissions. Then we set up some pages for writing out procedures and then we ran it through Concrete5's publish workflow.
- Has a great community
- It's open source
- It's free
- Has an add-on market for features not built in
- Huge time saver
- Add-on market could be bigger
- Documentation can sometimes be lacking
81.25%
8.1
70%
7.0
65%
6.5
70%
7.0
N/A
N/A
- Positive impact on our workflow at very little cost to us in terms of time
- Negative impact in that it is one more thing to maintain on our server rack.
Concrete5 is much easier to use than Drupal and has more functionality set up out of the box with just enough add-ons to get the job done. I have used both WordPress and Drupal, and this sits between them. Concrete5 is not quite as easy as WordPress but much easier than Drupal and still has the ability to be configured as needed since it is open source.
Yes
It replaced WordPress; our WordPress install got hacked and our boss asked us to find something else easy to use, and this is what we went with. I know a few other developers that like to use it, so that made the decision easier to justify.
- Product Features
- Product Usability
We like the publishing workflow and ease of editing items on screen, which is something we did not feel we could easily do with products like Drupal.
I would like to have doubled the amount of time we spent evaluating the product and set a specific set of goals for each division to attempt to achieve to see where the exact sticking points would be for the development of add-ons.
November 11, 2015
Concrete5 - a CMS with a good past, and a better future
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.
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.
86.25%
8.6
94%
9.4
70%
7.0
100%
10.0
N/A
N/A
- 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.
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 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!
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!
3
Marketing, support and administration.
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.
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.
1
Really, all you need are basic computer skills, and the ability to write content. The beauty of the system is they don't need to be experts in Concrete5, html, or css. They just need to write.
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.
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.
Yes
Concrete5 replaced the CMS I was building myself, and also WordPress, PHP Nuke and Joomla.
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.
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
The community supporting it. Its so friendly - you dont always see that on open source projects.
If I could do it all over, I would have started using Concrete5 much sooner than I did.
- Implemented in-house
Yes
Installed the software on a subdomain, tested it.
built theme, tested it
added pages, tested and reviewed
moved to live domain.
built theme, tested it
added pages, tested and reviewed
moved to live domain.
Change management was minimal
When software is written this well, there is no need for extensive training.
- There really were none. Its simple, and well done. Sometimes simple gets really complicated, but not with concrete 5
No
I am a developer, so if issues arise (which is very rare) I can usually fix them faster than I could fill out a report ticket. However, in helping clients who have made changes themselves, I have passed the requests up to the developer, and have never had to wait long for a reply, which has always been complete.
Yes
It was,
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 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 confess to forgetting the details, but I asked the lead programmer a question, regarding optimizing the MySQL databases, and he sent me a full answer, and a Concrete5 tshirt!
I stall have the shirt, and I still have optimized tables :)
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.
Yes
The mobile interface is somewhat reliant on the theme being used. Assuming oyu are editing a mobile theme, then the interface is as good as can be expected.
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
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
July 17, 2015
Concrete5 is the most Rock Solid CMS
Concrete5 is used for a variety of purposes to address our website needs. From college calendars, news releases, and directories on into marketing and internal support items. It's OOP based architecture makes troubleshooting AND development easy to handle. Since it is database driven, its ability to scale is excellent. The best thing about Concrete5 however is its ease-of-use with In-Context Editing abilities. It's very intuitive to use. As such, it has allowed me to take a supervisory role of the website as a whole, while empowering many editors who are experts on a given area throughout our company to post compelling content to the site, freeing me up for larger development tasks and fine-tuning. Concrete5 is the best CMS I've ever used on a large scale, empowering myself and many colleagues to easily setup, manage, grow and maintain our web presence.
- 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.
100%
10.0
100%
10.0
95%
9.5
100%
10.0
N/A
N/A
- Higher ROI
- Better conversions
- Increased employee efficiency
- WordPress,Drupal,Joomla,Grav,October,Pico
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.
Everything from basic personal profile page management that powers the online directory to full-fledged "micro-sites" efficiently managed by experts in a given are, then fine tuned by the admin.
1
Solid fundamental knowledge of HTML and CSS goes a loooooonnnng way. After that, any knowledge on PHP and Javascript only make it better and allows those with that knowledge to easily create their own functionality packages and themes as needed.
- 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.
Yes
Basic HTML webpages that required manual editing of the HTML to update. Replaced Drupal as the CMS for our site.
- 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
Ease of editing is key. After setup, if I—as the developer—have to hand site editors a book on how to edit (I'm looking at your Joomla) then little editing is going to get done. Concrete5 is dead simple to understand for the common man or woman, and that empowers everyone to add a stone to make a mountain easily.
No change.
- Implemented in-house
Yes
- 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
Change management was a major issue with the implementation
Needed to develop several customizations during the migration. A better route would have been to re-work them totally rather than trying to emulate what was in Drupal. Once done though, everything worked like a charm.
- 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.
Yes
On rare occasions where time or expertise prevents us from doing the work ourselves, which has only happened once due to hard deadline constraints.
No
Bought an add-on that supported Google calendar imports. Noticed some quirks. Filed a support ticket with the add-on developer, who thanked me for pointing it out and quickly fixed it, then issued an add-on update for all users of said add-on to reap the benefits of—all at no cost.
- 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
Yes
I've made basic updates on the fly on mobile very quickly. Otherwise, I don't use mobile for editing due to the small, inefficient mobile keyboard—not Concrete5 itself.
December 16, 2014
Concrete5 should be in your top 3 CMS search
Concrete5 is being used by the marketing team. They were using a closed source .NET CMS that they were unable to get a true grasp of. Concrete5 was a godsend. It is very easy to edit and set up was easy as well. Front end editing was the biggest selling point of this CMS.
- In-context editing
- Able to create your own theme
- Clean user interface
- The community is quite helpful
- Some modules/Addons should be baked in IMO. Events, Designer Content as well as few others.
- Speed sometimes is an issue but I am exploring optimization on my end which could be the problem.
- Increased employee efficiency
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.
I used Joomla 2.6 but found that it was not as user friendly for the editors - More rigid in setting upI would like to see how things have changes with.
Looked into PyroCMS and want to explore deeper in the future - It looks like a really nice system.
Tried MODx and liked it a lot but for a non-technical user it would not be as easy to work with - but I like it and have experimented with it (with my lack of PHP knowledge).
Explored SilverStripe because of its clean UI but was not able to overcome some of its perceived limitations.
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.
I used Joomla 2.6 but found that it was not as user friendly for the editors - More rigid in setting upI would like to see how things have changes with.
Looked into PyroCMS and want to explore deeper in the future - It looks like a really nice system.
Tried MODx and liked it a lot but for a non-technical user it would not be as easy to work with - but I like it and have experimented with it (with my lack of PHP knowledge).
Explored SilverStripe because of its clean UI but was not able to overcome some of its perceived limitations.
Yes
SiteCore
SiteCore was overly complex for administrators making it unusable.
SiteCore was overly complex for administrators making it unusable.
- Price
- Product Features
- Product Usability
- Prior Experience with the Product
- Third-party Reviews
In-context editing
Clean UI
Easy to design in
Clean UI
Easy to design in
No
June 22, 2014
Concrete5: a powerful and user-friendly CMS
As an independent subcontractor Concrete5 is one of my primary solutions to provide content management capabilities to my clients and their clients. Concrete5 blends a polished, friendly user interface with extremely powerful behind-the-scenes technology that is on a par with better known systems such as Drupal. Perhaps its best known feature is its "in-context" editing.
- 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
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 common hacker target. I avoid it entirely now because it is unusual that I build blogs.
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.
1
It's just me, so everything.
1
These are really not Concrete5 specific, but more to do with any CMS:
- 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.
No
- Product Features
- Product Usability
Ease of use. It absolutely had to be easy for my clients to use, but also easy for me to implement. For client use it had to look good and function smoothly without techy, confusing jargon. In my research during 2009 - 10 Concrete5 was definitely the best available CMS that was easy to use yet still very powerful and flexible.
The CMS landscape is constantly changing with new products appearing and established products evolving. The most important thing is that a CMS makes it easy for the site editor to update their site and Concrete5 provides all the tools to enable that. What I've learned about evaluating CMSes is that once a developer starts to "know" a CMS they will claim it's "the best CMS out there" so it's probably more valuable to get opinions of people that actually use the system. Beware though: the same system can be implemented well or poorly for each specific use case. In general people don't seem to love their CMS. They either use it and don't really notice it (a great outcome) or they actively dislike it because it gets in their way.
- Implemented in-house
No
- 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
No