Concrete5 is a Solid Choice for Web Sites
June 03, 2014
Concrete5 is a Solid Choice for Web Sites
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Software Version
5.6.3.1
Overall Satisfaction with Concrete5
Concrete5 is the primary content management system used by our company. Unless a client requires very specific needs and requests a different CMS, we implement Concrete5 for their project. Concrete5 is easy to use by nearly everyone that can be involved with the project, including the web designer, web developer, and, most importantly, it gives just enough access to the client to make their own basic updates to their content and web site.
- Community and Support : Concrete5 has a large community base with many users responding to questions within 24 hours. C5 has forums, newsletters, and other means of communication including chat. There is a lot of useful documentation available on the site.
- Customization : Concrete5 is easily customizable by the web developer and web designer. You are able to tinker with almost any setting and decide what the client should or shouldn't be able to alter. It's very flexible, and can be used for almost any type of site. It's better for general web sites than for web sites with one or two very specific features like blogs and videos and photography, but it can still be useful for people who want to use C5 solely for one of these purposes. Depending on what you want to accomplish and how flexible you are.
- Usability : Like some other CMS, Concrete5 is easy to set up and implement for the client. There is plenty of documentation available to assist you. Clients find that C5 is one of the easiest CMS to use from their point of view. They can easily make basic changes and move pieces / modules of the web site around as they wish (if you enable this for them). There is a lot of dragging and dropping. The Dashboard is relatively easy to use once you find the page or area you're looking for. There are many extra features available in the back, including analytics and a file manager. Editing the web site in the "Live" editor is very simple and intuitive.
- Because Concrete5 is a CMS, it's still not at the level of flexibility that building a CMS or site from scratch will allow you to have. But it's one of the simplest, free ones available right now.
- The Dashboard is easy to use once you find what you're looking for, but could be better. It's not always easy to find the section or feature you're looking for to view or modify. Items are in different categories, and once you figure out where something is, it's obviously easier the next time you want to visit the Dashboard. A better search to find items could be very useful. As of right now, the documentation will help with this.
- Concrete5 is not as large as Wordpress yet, which means it has less support and plugins / add-ons. Still, there is enough for most people. The CMS is gaining more users each day.
- Concrete5 is not really appropriate for niche sites. If you solely want a blog, for example, Wordpress may be a better choice.
- Can be slow when you have very complex sites with many pages.
- Clients are much more efficient when using Concrete5. Developers and designers are more efficient as well. It takes less time to build web sites once you create one and get the hang of it (depending on the complexity of each project, of course).
- Clients are more independent and are able to make minor updates themselves without issue, allowing developers and designers to focus on more pressing work. Time and money saver.
- Wordpress,Drupal,Joomla,Sharepoint
Concrete5 is very simple and easy to use. It's not made to handle very complex sites with many, many pages. Or niche sites like blogs and wikis. For this, I would recommend something like Wordpress (while taking security precautions). Drupal is a good alternative for anyone who wants very large sites in a CMS. C5 is my choice for most sites because clients love it, and it's very easy to set up and implement. It's customizable and flexible and doesn't have as many complexities and bugs as Wordpress (which can be bloated with plug-ins) and Joomla do. The learning curve for C5 is not very steep. There is a eCommerce feature available as well, and only requires a one-time fee (not a monthly fee like other services).