Multi-client use ... do you need just one install?
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Hi, I'm evaluating C5 and I'm new to CMS's. If we wanted to use C5 for all our client's websites, would we simply have just one install of C5 which is shared by all the clients, or would we need to install C5 for each client separately?
Thanks.
Thanks.
OK. I'm not sure if Concrete 5 will suit what we are hoping to achieve. Your feedback is welcome.
We will be offering low cost websites to our clients and have Concrete 5 as the CMS behind each site.
We will have hundreds of clients, so the key is to be able to quickly get the client up and running with minimal cost.
If we were to install Concrete 5 uniquely for each client, my concerns are that it may chew into their budget. Since we are offering low cost packages, we cannot have our time taken up by lengthly installs as it will render the service unfeasible for our clients.
How long would C5 take to install uniquely for each client? I'm not talking about setting up the content, just installing and setting up C5 so it's ready to start editing the site.
If this could be achieved in minimal time per client, then it wont be so bad. But if this is going to take up quite some time, then we cannot use C5 for this particular service we are going to be offering.
My other concern is updates - if we're going to have 100's of clients using unique installs of C5, then how much effort will it be to upgrade each of them to a new updated version? If we would have to do them all one by one, then this wont be feasible for this particular service.
I have seen other CMS's where you simply have one install per server, and each client is assigned their own account so they can edit their own site. So, even though we may have 100 different clients all editing their own sites, there's only one install of the CMS, which makes it so much easier to work with ... especially with the service we plan on offering.
Isn't this how your demo site works? Everyone has their own site that they administer with only one install of C5? This is the sort of thing I'm talking about - except they wont be demo sites, they will be paid sites.
Thanks.
We will be offering low cost websites to our clients and have Concrete 5 as the CMS behind each site.
We will have hundreds of clients, so the key is to be able to quickly get the client up and running with minimal cost.
If we were to install Concrete 5 uniquely for each client, my concerns are that it may chew into their budget. Since we are offering low cost packages, we cannot have our time taken up by lengthly installs as it will render the service unfeasible for our clients.
How long would C5 take to install uniquely for each client? I'm not talking about setting up the content, just installing and setting up C5 so it's ready to start editing the site.
If this could be achieved in minimal time per client, then it wont be so bad. But if this is going to take up quite some time, then we cannot use C5 for this particular service we are going to be offering.
My other concern is updates - if we're going to have 100's of clients using unique installs of C5, then how much effort will it be to upgrade each of them to a new updated version? If we would have to do them all one by one, then this wont be feasible for this particular service.
I have seen other CMS's where you simply have one install per server, and each client is assigned their own account so they can edit their own site. So, even though we may have 100 different clients all editing their own sites, there's only one install of the CMS, which makes it so much easier to work with ... especially with the service we plan on offering.
Isn't this how your demo site works? Everyone has their own site that they administer with only one install of C5? This is the sort of thing I'm talking about - except they wont be demo sites, they will be paid sites.
Thanks.
this is the best cms, either pay for the whitepaper for the relatively (to me) low price or make an exceptionally poor business/time decision by letting price get in the way and go me-too with drupal.
i'm planning on something like community sites where every members can get their own c5 site.
just like the getconcrete5 demo. but this one is permanent.
because this is personal project and everything came from my pocket, that price is very expensive for my purpose.
is it possible to access the codebase and the whitepaper with minimal cost?
cheaper membership?
tia
just like the getconcrete5 demo. but this one is permanent.
because this is personal project and everything came from my pocket, that price is very expensive for my purpose.
is it possible to access the codebase and the whitepaper with minimal cost?
cheaper membership?
tia
there's no extra codebase you need for a centralized install.
in fact there's no one perfect way to do it.. its more of a process than a product - thus the desire to attach the white paper on how we did it to our hosting partners area where further discussion can ensure amongst folks who get the basics already.
to be frank, there's some other explanations that folk have posted around here and on the web that might work for your solution, and I can /deeply/ sympathize with financing your project out of pocket.
in fact there's no one perfect way to do it.. its more of a process than a product - thus the desire to attach the white paper on how we did it to our hosting partners area where further discussion can ensure amongst folks who get the basics already.
to be frank, there's some other explanations that folk have posted around here and on the web that might work for your solution, and I can /deeply/ sympathize with financing your project out of pocket.
double post.
hivoltage:
This is exactly what the hosting partner program is for.
At getConcrete5.com we use WHM & cpanel with a centralized install of concrete5 for our hosted sites. Clients end up with complete SFTP and cPanel access to their own webspace where they can overwrite any file they want. They get complete freedom with their c5 install, but we can update the concrete5 codebase in one place for a version update. Depending on the details of the version update, some database scripts might need to be run against each install, but we've got scripts to handle this as well..
What does this mean? When someone buys an account, it takes less than 5 minutes for it to be approved and setup. When we did a version update to 5.2 across all our sites earlier this week, it took an hour or two of tinkering & testing.
The demos there are automatically made, you're correct - but you'll also note you don't get access to the file system for them. These have no human involvement in their creation and they are more virtual in nature. Everyone's playing with the same codebase and no one but us can change it.
I frankly don't know what's your right for your situation. I know lots of folks your size are using and looking at concrete5. I've heard from phone book type companies that are looking at the mini-sites they offer clients. I've talked to SaaS companies that serve a particular vertical's operations needs and want to offer them a marketing solution as well. My team personally built SchoolPulse.com which has a set of pages including a photo gallery and discussion board for every public and private school in the USA. The scale of your problem is not un-manageable with concrete5.
Like any larger challenge, I'm sure it has its unique aspects. This is why we didn't decide to build some "multi-site manager" app and try to sell that. What works in our environment for our challenges might not work exactly right for you, but what we've learned about large scale solutions might still help. The same is true for other people with similar scaled solutions. In some ways, we may compete - but in the frontier of the interwebs we're all well served by having a private space to have an open conversation.
Check out the hosting partner program.
This is exactly what the hosting partner program is for.
At getConcrete5.com we use WHM & cpanel with a centralized install of concrete5 for our hosted sites. Clients end up with complete SFTP and cPanel access to their own webspace where they can overwrite any file they want. They get complete freedom with their c5 install, but we can update the concrete5 codebase in one place for a version update. Depending on the details of the version update, some database scripts might need to be run against each install, but we've got scripts to handle this as well..
What does this mean? When someone buys an account, it takes less than 5 minutes for it to be approved and setup. When we did a version update to 5.2 across all our sites earlier this week, it took an hour or two of tinkering & testing.
The demos there are automatically made, you're correct - but you'll also note you don't get access to the file system for them. These have no human involvement in their creation and they are more virtual in nature. Everyone's playing with the same codebase and no one but us can change it.
I frankly don't know what's your right for your situation. I know lots of folks your size are using and looking at concrete5. I've heard from phone book type companies that are looking at the mini-sites they offer clients. I've talked to SaaS companies that serve a particular vertical's operations needs and want to offer them a marketing solution as well. My team personally built SchoolPulse.com which has a set of pages including a photo gallery and discussion board for every public and private school in the USA. The scale of your problem is not un-manageable with concrete5.
Like any larger challenge, I'm sure it has its unique aspects. This is why we didn't decide to build some "multi-site manager" app and try to sell that. What works in our environment for our challenges might not work exactly right for you, but what we've learned about large scale solutions might still help. The same is true for other people with similar scaled solutions. In some ways, we may compete - but in the frontier of the interwebs we're all well served by having a private space to have an open conversation.
Check out the hosting partner program.
this thread is old. if you're interested in it you should be here:
http://www.concrete5.org/services/msm-information/...
http://www.concrete5.org/services/msm-information/...
You might also consider checking out the hosting partner program where you get access to a whitepaper on how we centralized "the brains" of concrete5 while giving clients their own database and webspace at getConcrete5.com
The hosting partner program is here:
http://www.concrete5.org/index.php?cID=3053...