I found Concrete5 through a list of upcoming new content management systems a few weeks ago and it looked worth trying out. After a short spell of testing it, I recommended it to a client as a replacement for a bespoke CMS on a site which they’d been struggling to complete for several months.

The upshot is that the site has been almost completely rebuilt in a little over a week and I’m finding more an more to like about this system. Take a look at this introductory video showing how simple the editing interface is.

I’m all for a system which makes life easier for end-users (fewer exasperated support calls, less training etc.) but Concrete5 does something which many other systems fail to do. There is very little back-end development experience needed in order to build themes for the system, though the solid MVC framework which underlies the software does give developers plenty of scope to play.

The following video demonstrates how quickly a static HTML page can be converted into a Concrete5 theme.

For me, the real value of this system is in the way it removes bottlenecks from the production process. The back-end developers can concentrate on adding bespoke functionality, rather than bespoking standard functionality. The front-end devs can build the front-end and the content suppliers can concentrate on populating content. With the help of unlimited hosting, the outcome can really make a big difference on the web.

This is the best tool that I’ve added to my web-building kit since WordPress.