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Concrete5 - A Solid Foundation for Any Website
June 06, 2014

Concrete5 - A Solid Foundation for Any Website

Brad Fogelstrom | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Reseller

Software Version

5.6

Overall Satisfaction with Concrete5

As a freelance web designer, I have been using Concrete5 CMS almost exclusively since 2009. I use it to build nearly all of my clients' websites, and it is easy to teach to novice computer users.
Recently, a client switched from Wordpress to Concrete5, because they felt that Wordpress was too confusing to use, and found Concrete to be much more user-friendly and easy to understand.
  • User-friendly interface: both front-end and back-end
  • Easy search engine optimization tools
  • Lots of built-in features
  • Innovative workflow and page archiving system
  • Active and reliable community / support
  • Highly flexible in way of presentation of content
  • MIT-licensed - can be white labelled to match your own company
  • Lacks complex features for more complex websites (eg. social networking and ecommerce)
  • Customization options are a bit "buried" in the current version
  • Some of the paid add-ons or themes are a bit pricey
  • Optimized / improved lead conversion
  • Increase in site traffic
  • Increased efficiency in project development
Although Joomla, Drupal, and Wordpress are popular, I chose Concrete5 over these primarily because of how user-friendly Concrete5 is. As I began digging deeper in Concrete5, I also discovered that Concrete5 is much less "bloated" than its main competitors, and is much more flexible in way of theming and content management.
Concrete5 is highly active in its development, and there are even more exciting new improvements coming in Concrete 5.7! Also, the quality of its add-ons and themes surpasses that of other popular CMSs. I will continue to make Concrete5 my CMS of choice for a majority of my future projects.
Generally, I tell my clients that Concrete is a "build-anything" type of platform. It is ideal for websites that are more basic in nature, such as informational websites. However, there are plenty of addons - some paid - that can be used to make Concrete more functional.

If you are looking to build a large ecommerce website with thousands of products, you are likely better off with a platform that is dedicated to ecommerce. The same goes for social networking sites that require complex functionality.

However, Concrete can be used for medium-sized ecommerce projects (hundreds of products), or even as a private intranet portal or similar small- to medium-scale social platform.

If you browse Concrete's addon marketplace, you may find what you're looking for. If not, there are plenty of developers that can be hired for custom development.

In short, Concrete is most ideal for small- to medium-sized businesses. In some cases, even large-scale ones, depending on the site's complexity.

Using Concrete5

Although there is a slight learning curve (as with any software), it is very easy to use once you get a hold of it. It is easy to upload and manage files (and other digital assets), and the drag-n-drop interface on the front-end is easy for end-users to understand.
ProsCons
Like to use
Easy to use
Well integrated
Consistent
Quick to learn
Convenient
Feel confident using
Familiar
None
  • Adding and Moving Content on a Page
  • File Management
  • White Labelling