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Concrete5 or how to say "It's done" long before deadline
Updated April 08, 2015

Concrete5 or how to say "It's done" long before deadline

Francois Simard | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Software Version

5.6.2.1

Modules Used

  • themes
  • single pages
  • custom blocks

Overall Satisfaction with Concrete5

I used Concrete5 on many occasions. I first started developing a few websites with it for different small enterprises. At cirque, I used Concrete5 to build what we call the 'url builder'. It's a tool where promoters and people working in marketing use to set query string parameters to their url so we can later track it using Google Analytics or Adobe Analytics.
  • The user interface for page editing is very easy to use and very intuitive. Almost no training is required.
  • It's flexible enough so that you can override any part of the CMS to make it suit your needs.
  • It's the easiest CMS to install or move on different servers.
  • It has a good caching system making the CMS fast without any specific settings.
  • Concrete5 higly depends on Jquery. It makes it hard to upgrade the javascript library since the control panel depends on it.
  • When looking at the code, there are a few legacy objects that could ne renamed or changed. The Collection object for example. Its actually a Page.
  • The CMS is not multilingual by default. Even though i managed to 'hack' it so, it would be nice to have it included.
  • Building our internal tool with Concrete5 increased employee efficiency as they are more independant in their processes and they understand more what they are working with.
  • Quick development process definitely increases our ROI when using Concrete5 on small websites.
  • Training sessions are shorter and occur less often as the interface is easy to learn.
  • Umbraco,Sitecore Web Content Management,WordPress,Drupal,Joomla!
Concrete5 is my first choice if you compare it with smaller solutions like Wordpress,Joomla or Drupal because of its ease to use and flexibility. However, solutions for bigger projects like Sitecore or Umbraco are in their own league. They perform where Concrete5 is not very present which is the ability to handle a lot of data and a lot of users with different permissions.
Concrete5 is awesome for small websites or web applications. It's a perfect tool when you have a few users editing the site with a small to medium sitemap. However, Concrete5 might be too minimal when it comes to building web sites with a lot of data to manipulate or content that needs to be managed by multiple users.

Using Concrete5

Whenever I need to build what in our department we call a 'micro-site' or small web application, Concrete5 is the first and only choice. In one day, I can have the CMS installed and already start working on it to fit my needs. I know that anyone can later get in and improve and maintain the CMS if I'm not around without any specific training.

Concrete5 Implementation

Using Concrete5

The interface is intuitive. You don't need any training in order to use the product. The menus group the info logicaly. Since the interface is using jQuery, you need to be careful when building the site interface so that the editing interface still works properly but it takes a lot to break it.
ProsCons
Like to use
Relatively simple
Easy to use
Technical support not required
Well integrated
Consistent
Quick to learn
Convenient
Feel confident using
Familiar
None
  • Page Editing is clean and simple for anyone.
  • Custom blocks are easy to develop or install. it helps your users
  • You can override any part of the CMS simply by copy-pasting the file in your directory tree.
  • Building a multilingual site needs a bit of tweaking since its not handled by default.
  • Managing a lot of data can be a challenge.
  • Too many users working on the site can be another challenge
Yes - The default them included is responsive. It's a minimalist theme so it's easy to modify to fit your needs. There are also basic feature like the company logo and title that are manageable in the admin dashboard.