This all works because of you.
Some words from fans...
"For the past few years I've had this vague dream in the back of my mind of what a CMS should be like. It really wasn't an extravagant dream...it was just about a CMS that actually worked right and didn't require reading through a 200 page pdf in order to learn how to use it. I think it's safe to say that my dream came true."
-Justin Garcia
"From phpnuke to xoops, from mambo to jooma, wordpress to typepad, and presently on drupal, I have seen it all. And I have now seen the light. I have the grail. I can shout from the mountain top! I at last have found the perfect web authoring tool that combines the best of php/mysql with, say, adobe/macromedia contribute, and a few DTP programs!
This is the closest thing to perfectness. (except for the next version of concrete of course.)"
-Jagan Mohan
"I've tested roughly 20 CMSs and ive found that they all use complicated menus... I've also used googlepages... C5/Googlepages, they're similar, but c5 crams better stuff into it all... and i can use it on any Web Browser."
- John Sacre
"Your product intrigues me because it's not very often you see an open source product hit the ground running like concrete5. It's feature rich out of the box. When it comes to real CMS, you guys make Drupal and Joomla look silly. Anyways... I could toot the C5 horn for hours."
- Jereme Claussen
"I've been a developer since dinosaurs walked the earth (for real, no cgi cheating here folks!) and out of the countless systems (web or otherwise) I've developed, worked on or worked with, the quality of concrete5 sits on the top tier.
Holy crap guys, it's free too! :)"
- Martin Campbell-Moore
"As a 30 year Mac programmer it takes something special to get me excited. concrete5 has done it, I'm excited!! It clearly address many of the problems that other CMS don't. For me it is a perfect Ajax platform. It is not full of fluff and the 'next great thing', but rather clearly conceived and executed.”
- Chris Dwyer
"Looked at this project some 15 days ago, today came here back, tried it out and everything just looks awesome. It's definitely going to be THE CMS of the future!”
- Jai Pandya
"Thanks for letting me play with C5 at OSCON. How many people did you meet that week? YIKES!!! I switched over from Drupal to C5 within a day. I am loving it! Thanks a bunch for the demo."
-Mark I Moore
Comments:


This evening I installed Concrete5 locally and started playing around with it. Love the templating system. I'm going to start digging in using Concrete on the next site I have in pipe. You'll be receiving part of my pay from that. Your work is appreciated!

I've avoided content management sytems until seeing Concrete. I have it installed and have been playing with it all night.
This a solid CMS I can build on and promote. It allows clients a friendly interface while allowing me to present an advanced website with lots of features.
You guys got it right.
Will Radford

Joomla was hype for no reasons. Concrete5 desserves the best attention from everyone!





We never like other CMS solution, but C5 is another concept ... C5 is at another level!






I don't see why everyone wouldn't use this.
Now let's go eat a steak.


Of all the systems I've worked with since 2002 (PHP-Nuke, PostNuke, Joomla, Xoops, Drupal, and a few others), this is the one I think is most likely to take web-based content management to the proverbial "next level", and we may finally have a one-size-fits-all platform for a huge variety of applications.



So not only is it powerful, easy to use, and fun to use, but it just looks so damn cool to :)

I confess I am not much of a graphic designer or web developer. The ideal for my site http://www.duane-media.com is simply to promote the services of other graphic designers and web developers by offering them free advertising space; my site has been a work in progress for a very long time.
D

I use the plain vanilla template, and love it because I believe in clean, simple, straight-forward sites (ie, google.com) and that is accomplished.
Fundamental design converges with optimization - how wonderful!
I look forwarded to testing its scalability and have already recommended it for future projects.
Way to go Franz!!!


We are pleased to see how all our staff has taken to Concrete5 and comment again and again over how easy it is to work within the pages of our web site.
In addition we have been pleasantly surprized that Concrete5 has proven to be a very robust CMS offering nearly all the features we were looking for with the promise of more to come in the near future.
I want to also praise Franz and the others in the core team as they have been great to work with and bent over backwards to help us launch our new site. It is well worth it to host with Concrete5 plus it is a great way to give back and show our appreciation for their putting together a top notch CMS.




I'm a rookie in the CMS world, but with C5 I have found a CMS that I'm able to use, got a decent job done in under a week from (not knowing concrete, to loving it!)

Rajma McKenzie


Not only is Concrete5 an awesome os cms, but I feel that their technical support is second to none.
You're never just a number to these guys, its as though you're their only customer when you need them, even personal help from Franz, CEO, how often do you get that level of attention???
I also have to mention the other Concrete5 members, for anyone whos new to this, seriously, you couldnt find a friendlier forum, everyones so helpful, you can get an answer to almost any question :)
In a nutshell, if you are looking for a CMS that is powerful enough to develop professional sites, yet easy enough for a web novice to update, stop looking, you found it..... keep up the good work guys, looking forward to the next comings :)

All good structures need a solid foundation, and thats why from now on I will be building on concrete. ;-)


people with no experience on the web can run their own site with concrete.
good stuff!


Easy for authors, web site editors and administrators to manage a site with hundreds of pages and users.
High quality add-ons, checked by the core and review team, round the value.
Awesome application!

Although my site is intentionally very simple, C5 gives novice users like myself the tools to light up a site like the Vegas strip. Amazing. Powerful. I'll be a fan for a good, long time.
Kudos

Keep it up, guys.






Patrick Thibaudeau
IT Team Lead
Campus Saint-ean University of Alberta

C5 is revolutionary in simplicity. Our clients are impressed, less scared and a hole lot more independent which means we can concentrate on design and programming instead of wasting a ton of precious time training them to use dumdum systems. Awesomeness!
Thanks again to all the team of concrete5.
Carl Durocher
Co-Founder
Ola Interactive Agency
www.olainteractive.ca

I came across Concrete 5 when it was the "Project of the month" on sourceforge, but for a year I wasn't thinking of offering this to my clients, as I was mostly doing Flash websites, but then the same clients started to complain about the slow loading times, SEO etc, and I felt that this was the right time to offer them Concrete 5.
The first C5 site i did was a simple one for an artist friend www.brucegil.com. However, my second website was for a client whom I had already built a Flash website which can be seen here http://www.creamcentre.com/cc , just after a week that this website was hosted live, he was put-off by the slow-loading times, and also the SEO-unfriendliness of the flash website. He asked me to make a fast-loading and SEO friendly website, and besides this he insisted me to try and replicate the design of the Flash website version.
I knew this was possible with Concrete 5, this is the concrete 5 version http://www.creamcentre.com .
The client is satisfied with the loading times and the ease of use that this CMS offers.
I am really thankful to the Concrete 5 team for developing such a marvellous CMS and also the community support and documentation. Hope to do some more Concrete 5 websites for my clients.
Pritam Borkar
ITFS
www.intheframestudio.com


a long time ago I found a CMS that was similar in function to Concrete, but it went away really quick.
I just Found Concrete last week and WOW am I happy Happy happy!
It is intuitive for me(mostly) and got 1 site covered from Flash in just a few hours.
Thanks and I will be telling others.
It may be missing a few things, but for most Sites it has everything I want and need. I can add php blocks if all else fails.
THANKS!
Elbert Twoponies

So I researched various CMS systems till I found Concrete - it's outward simplicity and design appealed, after struggling with it for a while, I decided to turn to C5 community for help - and got a quick response - from NZ, (side note - another example of how internet has shrunk world - Jesse Archer(thanks again) is based in a scenic part of New Zealand - while I'm in Hong Kong)
The transfer was made after only a few days - easy when you know how.
Now I'd like to ask anyone who's interested for their opinions on how I can improve on the design and functionality of the site (work-in-progress). I'd like to add some kind of photo stock library function to it and make my photographs and video available as micro-stock and footage.
your comments welcome




I have been amazed with the clean easy too use design of the latest version of Concrete 5. In many ways I think it's what SharePoint tried to become but failed as the advanced tool for average user as well as the development platform for professional developer.
I like the MarketPlace for the Add-ins and Themes as it offers many features just like the SharePoint Web parts after market. After all who has time to re-invent the wheel!
I suggest that you give it a close look for your next project.

Here is the first client that I used C5 for.
http://www.gohannan.com
This is very exciting for me. My turn around using C5 has made me very happy. So happy in fact that I submitted an Email to http://www.cmsexpo.net/. I think that there is great potential here with C5.
Everyone be safe and be blessed.

Thanks,
Hoyt Whittington
Director of Technology
Westminster Christian Academy

With the simplistic use and perfect amount of room to add my little touch here and there, I have no plan on uninstalling this from my web server.
It's full steam ahead now and I can not get over how happy I am with it!


Thank you C5.


I've been building websites and web applications since 1995, and I can easily say that concrete5 is the best example of form and function when it comes to CMS.
Clients love it, it is a joy to build upon, and the theme system is head and shoulders above the other CMS options available.
Kudos!

If you are deciding on a CMS, send me an email with your contact information and I will personally tell you why c5 is the way to go.
A&M P.A.

With great community and powerful add-ons, I can make my website more freely!
Many thanks...
Gadoehman Cessa



I'm disappointed to hear you're having a frustrating time. You're right that concrete5 was designed to be a content /management/ tool, not really a website design tool.
That being said I know a lot of folks have built websites that suit their needs with some DIY spirit and support from our forums. I notice you haven't actually posted any messages asking for help, you might consider trying to post some details of what you're trying to do and can't pull off. Either that or post a listing in the jobs area for some design help.
Fundamentally concrete5 does a great job enabling the relationship between site developers and site owners, it wasn't designed to replace either.
-frz
ceo, concrete5

We just relaunched in Estonia
Crinte
or
Concrete5 in Estonia as Crinte ;)


Gary Lyttle
The New Zealand Fly Fishing Company
http://www.flyfishinginnewzealand.com/




-- Fionn Kelleher, Ireland
#1 Fan ;)

I installed on a WAMP Server. The back end was easy to understand and for front-end was a joke. I didn't have to think. Oh if I had only had this wonderful CMS a few years ago.
Creating templates for C5 is a breeze and dare I say FUN! What I love the most is that I don't have to sit with a client for hours teaching them how to use the system.
Also, where else can you get direct feedback from the CEO. I mean a simple personal email that you know was not automated. Never had that with Joomla! or WordPress.



I got this note today when a client updated content for the first time: "This is so easy! I don't even need phone guidance! Thanks! What a great system."
Thanks, C5, for making us all look good. You're the best!


Respect to all developers ;)
I was able to prepare 2 production sites in one month... I love it. really.

I dreaded the prospect of trailing the various apps currently available as I knew it would be painful. I also needed something that novices could use independently allowing me time to focus on other matters.
I stumbled onto concrete5 when reviewing a number of forums in search of a web cms for a corporate intranet site. I tried the demo version and was immediately impressed with what I saw.
I had some issues relating to installation on xampp but got it going eventually. I must say it is extremely easy to use. The javascript integration is awesome! The templating system makes it very easy to update the site theme.
Since then I have been able to train one of our users to be able to update her content on her section of the site. This took about half an hour. I haven't had any complaints to date.
If you haven't suffered with manual updates of web sites and haven't been exposed to the idiosyncrasies of other web cms', then you cannot appreciate the level of work and development that has gone into this app. Concrete5 lets it look so absurdly easy!
I don't think people realise how awesome this cms really is. I'd like to congratulate the development team on the superb work you have done here! I'm really impressed! In my book there really isn't any web cms that comes close!

Thanks guys!
Dan Letsche
Web Concentrate
http://webconcentrate.com

Neal Therrien
Last Frontier Designs
www.lastfrontierdesigns.com
www.bmkhosting.com


Well done the c5 team.
Stephen Hamill
www.sunraymedia.co.uk



Thank you for making a system that works like people expect it to. I am a fan!
Tim Cerami
MobileDataForce
Boise, ID


You're right, concrete5 was built for flexibility and ease of use before performance. That being said, with some tweaking around of your cache settings you should be able to get it to run just fine on a decently provisioned webhost.





this site he HELLA SLOW...even freezes ie while loading, (i have to use windows at work), and is still slow at home on my linux machines...
strangly, at work, we have 50MBPS, and at home, i have limited my connection to

every try to just scroll down and hit the "what users are saying" on after hitting f5 ? STUPID !
and its all TEXT...wtf ? why does this page (and all concrete5.org/ domain pages TAKE FOREVER TO LOAD ?
and for stupid windows,,,,why doesn't the "stop loading page" effing work ?
these pages PISS ME OFF !

Loads fast for me. Guess you can't please everyone.
best wishes!
-frz
ceo, concrete5.

-Stiny




What I love most about Concrete5 is what isincluded right out of the box. Embedding YouTube videos, adding contact forms, advanced user permissions and a robust file management system are all standard. Even the rich text editor is clean and produces pretty decent code. No hunting through a dozen addons only to find out half are no longer supported or simply break your site. I'm willing to spend $15 (and usually NOTHING) on something that would have taken me a day to write, and has support plus is guaranteed to actually work!
There is no doubt that Concrete5 has increased my productivity and profits. Simply put - out of the box you have pretty much every component you need for a website. Addons are just a few clicks away, no uploading or setting cryptic settings in PHP files.
Creating a theme is almost too easy. If you already have an HTML template, it really takes under an hour to go from HTML to Concrete5 theme. Try doing that with Drupal.
Upgrading to the new version requires you to click update, NO FTP access required (Thank you!). It has a built in backup system for the database, and you can roll-back an update by changing a single line of code. That's clean and simple.
Moving the site from development to production takes minutes without any editing of the database. No more spending a half day tweaking settings and running database queries just to move it to a live server.
Concrete5 is also quick to learn. Each page is called a page (Thank you!). Inside the page you have blocks of content. It's clean and straightforward. You can define global blocks and modify them to update sitewide even. It's one of those systems where you wonder how people put up with the other guys.
The system is also very much an onion, you keep peeling away layers to reveal more capabilities. Attributes are so strong and useful, and allow you to really give control to the content editor while automating tasks.
Obviously I can go on and on. What's really kept me with Concrete5 is my clients. They use it, and it works for them. Their sites rank well without any additional plugins. Their sites continue to do what they want them to do, and I can focus on their business goals instead of worrying about if the site will work or not. In the end, my clients get a great looking site, that functions well and they can continue to update it without having to spend a half day "figuring it out". A win for everyone.
Thanks Concrete5!
-Phil

Concrete5 is also a designers paradise with the easy templating system and custom templates that allow designers/beginning php developers to get their hands dirty and blocks customized to their desires. Blocks like designer content make their jobs even easier.
As for development, concrete5 sticks to a fairly strict mvc system, and uses frameworks like zend and jquery to make the switch easy. Attributes are amazingly powerful and can be used to make very complex apps. The method of overriding core files makes upgrading safe, easy and fast. The event system provides more methods of safely modifying content, and with more events being added will be more useful in the future. Adodb provides simple methods to get to the database, and the api is relatively well built, albeit sparsely documented.
The marketplace offers a good opportunity to give back to the community and/or make a bit of money on the side, while helping future devs in numerable ways. The submission process guarantees you're getting addons that work, with the promise of support behind it.
Above all this though, c5s strongest point would have to be the incontext editing. Its easy for clients to use, and can be figured out in seconds. Even though this is becoming a more standard feature of cms, concrete5 was one of the first to adopt it, and does it better than any other cms I've seen.

From the designer side of things, creating a functional theme from a standard HTML layout can be done in less than a day.
From the developer side of things, creating add-ons that fit into your custom theme is simple. This allows you to create sites that don't follow the standard portal or blog layout.
Ultimately, the end user loves the interface and the ease of use. You'll love that it saves you money and time!

Thank you c5 developers!
Mason Dixon Cerna
http://www.masondixoncerna.com.nu

After spending countless hours hip-deep in c5's guts it was very refreshing to learn about all the improvements and fixes coming up next month - looking forward to the new UI if nothing else :)
Cheers,
-Brad

With Concrete5 I have none of that... it is just a fantastic system to work with and my customers love the way they can edit in Concrete5, and if they make a mistake, they just use the built-in version control to put everything back.
Keep up the good work Concrete5.





I would strongly advise anyone, regardless of experience level, to scrap Wordpress, Drupal, Joomla, and all the rest. C5 is now clearly the best player in the field.


Now with help from wonderful folk like C5mix and Matt I am getting into the php coding side and customizing the site to my heart's content.
C5 handles all the tech stuff so well and intuitively. I built and published my first two pages within a couple of days and was amazed to see both pages hit results page 1 from the appropriate keyword search in Google - they were both above halfway too - amazing, who needs expensive SEO suppliers when you have everything you need in C5, for free?!
Keep up the good work guys - you have made such a huge difference to the independence and capabilities of folk like me.

Very disappointed that something similar hasn't been integrated into contrete5, and it is this factor and this factor only that is driving me away from this system and onto others, or is encouraging to 'rip' themes from other sites due to such.

Citytech

I've used may CMS's over the years. In 2010 I was looking for something that was easy to use by "NON WEB PRO's". I deeded to set up a front page for a club that could be updated in the future, by other members without programming skills.
Concrete5 provided that solution.
It's even real simple to change the layouts of the pages in Dreamweaver.
Thanks !!


I tried WordPress and Joomla for my CMS and neither was appropriate for what I was trying to accomplish. I'm not building a blog or a news website.
Concrete5 has been dream. It is easy to use, the WYSIWYG is awesome. My company actually changed hosting providers twice so I could install it more easily.

Add a page? agh.--have to make a phone call and wait. Wrap text around an image...who knows what all the different options mean. Design a Page? Ok.. what are all those parameters? Want to add a graphic....how/who/where do I find out what the specifications are to fit in a certain spot? Reorganize where info is on the home page....don't even think about it. Try to insert a little divider line----I don't know, how wide should it be?
And god forbid, I want to change the color on a theme. Not possible. Have to buy a whole new theme (which I'm ok with), but then pay to have everything rebuilt!
It's unbelievably cumbersome.
In contrast, I've gotten great, professional looking little websites up and running in less than an hour using something as simple as Wix or wordpress. I've also created great sites with the very basic, now outdated, iWeb from apple.
This is the deal....if one is designing a site for USERS to edit, then it has to be USER-friendly.
Please set up a column/forum only for users.

It sounds like you've had a rough project. Websites are complicated beasts and designing them is a creative process, so I hope you can find some energy to continue to figure things out.
Happily there's a lot of content on this site that might help you. Check out the videos on this page:
http://www.concrete5.org/documentation/getting-started/
Once you've watched them, if you're still having trouble - post in the forum designed for concrete5 editors (we try to avoid the word "users" as we're not drug dealers)
http://www.concrete5.org/community/forums/usage/
Some of your comments strike me as odd, like why you'd have to make a phone call to add a page. I have to wonder if someone hasn't given you a hacked up version of concrete5. You might consider quickly trying an "instant setup" (link at the top of any page on this site) to see if the default concrete5 site makes more sense than what you're dealing with.
Good luck!
-frz, ceo


Time to buy some SWAG!

Regrettably therefore, it's back to Joomla! Maybe I'll come back after a few more releases. I look forward to it.

Love the look & feel, but... Have blown a lot of time learning how to develop Themes. 2 of my latest designs have fallen foul of the "No such file or directory in C:\Users\...c5\public_html\concrete\core\libraries\view.php on line 447" error. No amount of loading & unloading the Themes will fix this, and I simply don't have the time...
Regrettably therefore, it's back to Joomla! Maybe I'll come back after a few more releases. I look forward to it.


As a plugin developer, I love Concrete5! Its fantastic to work with.
My clients that have been migrated to C5 love it also - not had a single complaint, and not had anyone struggling to use it as a site admin.
I keep finding new features that I have not used before, that are all so well thought out and placed. Just awesome!




But, I found, that for a typical business website, I spent more time learning workarounds for each, rather than gaining knowledge about how to use each environment in more sophisticated ways.
Enter Concrete5. I was immediately attracted to the industry standard approach to in-context editing. Half of my clients make extensive use of the ability to update their own site and are very pleased with that.
Learning a CMS/foundation is not a trivial task. But, so many of the decisions of the C5 team seem reasonable. The foundation is accessible and it's pretty straightforward to develop custom blocks for your application.
C5 allows making a flexible website easier than Wordpress, IMHO. On the other hand, the more you know about PHP, CSS and HTML, the more you'll be able to take advantage of the solid underlying framework to provide truly sophisticated sites.

A GUI based CMS can make the user as much happy as they can as they can see that they are doing. Previously they have to edit it through admin panel and save it and go to front end again and refresh that page and all.. A lots of redo stuff. Also there was no chance of revert back. But in Concrete5, everything is there.
I just love this platform and will use this as long as I do development work. :)

Best of all the clients were able to adapt to the workflow painlessly.
Concrete5 will always be my first choice for CMS based projects




I'd consider hosting at a different environment. Http://concrete5.org/hosting
