Comments on: Concrete5

By: Jay van Santen

Jay van Santen — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 18:38:40 +0000

Strengths: Unparalleled end user editing experience.
The designer experience maps well to C5’s approach.
Easy to override any default behavior.
WIth a knowledge of HTML and CSS (and a touch of PHP) you’re up and running developing your own themes.
Well thought out architecture which means that as one digs deeper into the application, one easily can take advantage of more power.
The store has an approval process; add-ons tend to work and work well out of the box, and also integrate well into the environment.
There are a lot of “developer extensions” which probably solve problems in a more generic fashion.
The community is helpful and response.
Can create a website with the CMS right out of the box.
Remo’s Beginner’s Guid to Concrete5 is an excellent beginner/intermediate text.

Weaknesses: Not necessarily a weakness, but to take full advantage of C5, you do need a solid knowledge of HTML/CSS and an acquaintance with PHP. The more you know, the more powerful the environment becomes.
The marketplace isn’t as full or complete as The Big 3. But, the core product and free add-ons address all issues for typical business websites. Free or paid-for add-ons address a number of specialized needs.
There’s room for more documentation — a more basic text than Remo’s for the absolute beginning — and a more advanced text which goes into the architecture in greater detail for more sophisticated enhancements.
Better API documentation.
As with all CMS environments, nothing replaces your own research and practice.

By: David Jorgensen

David Jorgensen — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 20:11:56 +0000

Strengths: UI is very intuitive and interests all levels of expertise, ranging from the typical Secretary who only uses the typical Word Processor to the most advanced Web Developer.

Many add-ons, quite a few created by the Concrete Core team themselves.

The community is currently growing, and almost no flame-wars or trolls observed. Plus, it’s not often to be able to talk with the head honcho himself!

Weaknesses: Still buggy in areas. While the PHP is built to be versatile to hard problems thrown in its path, it can still get hung up over problems in SQL databases and other PHP errors. But then again, that’s to be expected in any CMS, right?

Add-ons are pricy.

Either your question in the community is answered quickly, or you watch your post sink lower and lower into the depths of the forums. Wish the community could be a little stronger in the responsiveness to the posts of newer customers getting used to the product.

By: Steve Roberts

Steve Roberts — Tue, 24 May 2011 00:47:18 +0000

Strengths: So easy to use, training clients on how to use it has never been so simple. The inline editing makes it possible for even the worst techno-phobes to easily update their web sites.

Creating themes for this CMS is probably been the simplest implementation I have ever had to do.

There is a good selection of add-ons available, many are free, and the ones that are not are affordable.

Weaknesses: The community is not as strong as it is for other CMSs, but it is growing.

Most documentation is around in the community forums and in the how-tos which sometimes means that you have to do some searching for the answers you need, but you can usually find what you are looking for in a few minutes. If not the community is usually quick to respond to questions.

By: Presta

Presta — Sat, 22 May 2010 16:27:38 +0000

Strengths: – Piece of cake to use – even my both proverbial and literal mother could use this!
– Easy templating
– Flexible (with limitations)

Weaknesses: – Community could be strongers
– While I have no problem with commercial modules, a few seem over priced.

By: Tony Pollard

Tony Pollard — Sat, 15 May 2010 22:14:36 +0000

Strengths: Easy enough for beginners to set up and use yet powerful enough for designers/developers to create someting unique. Community, addons and themes increasing rapidly. New, very detailed and dedicated documentation area but possibly most important, the clients love it!

Weaknesses: still a relatively small number of add ons, yet as I mentioned this is rapidly increasing. Errr, thats about it to be honest.

By: Chad Cantrell

Chad Cantrell — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 20:34:15 +0000

Strengths: – inline editing
- stupid easy to use
- easy to create templates
- open development
- growing community

Weaknesses: – addons can be pricey
- not very socially integrated with usable community functions out of the box.

By: Markus

Markus — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 14:59:04 +0000

Strengths: – very easy to set up
- inline-editing
- great starter package, packed with all the basic blocks you might need
- great implementation of the marketplace (where you can get extensions and templates)
- translations available
- friendly community
- very useful version saving (for every single page)

Weaknesses: – limited amount of extensions, due to
- still rather small community

By: NingboWeather

NingboWeather — Wed, 06 May 2009 09:18:51 +0000

Strengths: – Probably the most intuitive CMS on the market today for end users
- Modifying or adding a page, doesn’t even need to open the control panel (!)
- Designing a page doesn’t need any knowledge of programming
- Automatic system allows to immediately go backward if modifications done were wrong
- Although still small, community is very friendly

Weaknesses: – Need even more guys to develop add-ons

By: Dan

Dan — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 05:07:15 +0000

Strengths: Very simple interface for the end user. Managing content is very logical and well thought through.

On the programmer’s side, the codebase is structured well, and the code is easy to trace through. Writing a custom module isn’t a huge task.

Templating is a breeze. You set up various areas of each page to be editable by the user. The user can then add various blocks of content (ie, html, gallery, form, etc) to each area.

It seems to be in active development. The latest release (5.3 at the time of writing) just came out, and 5.3.1 is already in the works.

Weaknesses: There aren’t a tonne of modules available (yet), and it is still a small community.

By: Nathanael

Nathanael — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 14:41:14 +0000

Strengths: – Has a nice separation between page editing, and advanced features, such as settings.
- Good for editors that are not very technically minded.

Weaknesses: – Needs a blank database, can be frustrating if on a shared host.
- A little buggy in some browsers.
- Can be unfamiliar for those that are not used to in-page editing.