Concrete5 www.concrete5.org

After programming websites in Wordpress and Joomla!, my research for a content management system uncovered Concrete5.

The outstanding features of C5 include:

A workflow that follows typical web design which it supports with structure and flexibility. I found that developing a website in Wordpress and Joomla! required adapting my work into a more rigid and unforgiving structure.

State of the Art user interface for updating content. Half of the sites I've developed in C5 are fully maintained by site users/owners -- from the president, to the entire staff. Training is needed, but the Word-like interface for in-context editing provides a very helpful bridge.

An MVC architecture which provides a solid API for extending the application through plug-ins -- purchased or self-developed. A rather straightforward mapping from HTML/CSS files to C5 themes.

Level of skill needed.

If you use an existing/purchased theme, you can do a lot without getting your hands dirty and may find it as straightforward as Wordpress. However, if you're looking for custom features

If you're comfortable with digging into code -- HTML, CSS & PHP -- you'll find C5 an amenable environment. There is a significant amount of learning -- but that involves learning a well-designed architecture, rather than a bunch of exceptions -- which seems the case with other environments.

Documentation is a bit sketchy, and you'll need to fill in the gaps with your own research. Remo Laubacher's "Beginner's Guide" is an excellent integrative book which brings together the various elements, with running commentary, into a wide variety of useful and workable code.

There are add-on's available -- not as broad as Wordpress or Joomla! But, they are tested for compatibility and sold through the store, so the overall quality tends to be higher.

Concrete5 blows older systems like drupal and joomla completely out of the water. From a developer's point of view, it's package based system is better thought out and more modular, so I can get a site completed in about half the time. And from an end user point of view, it's way more intuitive than anything else out there. Clients figure out how to use the thing with very little help. Take it for a spin.

Concrete5 is 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-phoebe can to easily and confidently update their web sites.

Built-in versioning even makes it quick and easy to undo changes someone has made, and thank to a good user and group setup you can even ensure only certain users and/or groups have access to particular pages or even blocks.

For designers and developers, creating themes has been the simplest implementation I have ever done for any CMS.

There is a marketplace of full of add-ons and themes. Many cost a little, but they are affordable and there are a lot of free ones too.

One thing to remember is that Concrete5 itself is also FREE.

The community is not as strong as it is for other CMSs, but it is growing and most importantly it is a friendly community, which is what many CMS communities are not these days.

Most documentation is around in the community forums and in the how-tos.

This 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, just post a discussion in the community forum and you usually get a quick response to your questions.

Overall, Concrete5 gives you everything you need from a content management system.

My advice is to forget about all the other Content Management System :)

Concrete5 is an open source content management system, in fact its probably as about perfect as you're going to find.

Its easy enough to use/set up for the beginner, yet delve behind the scenes, and the possibilites seem endless.

If you're a designer, Concrete5 integration is the easiest I have ever come accross, and if your a developer, this is the one cms that will put a smile on your face.

I'm sure if you've used a cms before, you do all the hard work and then spend a lot of time with the client explaining how to do things within the site, not the same with Concrete5, the last ecommerce site I built using it, I was with the client for 2 hours....2 hours!!!!! job done, client has only called me twice for a refresher that was completed in a 15 minute telephone conversation. In fact, you could teach clients how to edit an entire site built on Concrete5 over the phone.

In short, if you want to build a site using what is, in my opinion, THE most serious conctent management system availabel today, then check out http://www.concrete5.org/r/-/351 and take a test drive :)