About Concrete CMS
Concrete CMS is an open-source content management system written in PHP and built by contributors from around the world. It was previously known as concrete5, which explains the older names that still appear in repositories and projects.
This repository covers Concrete CMS 9.0 and later; concrete5 8.x and 5.7.x live in separate branches and older 5.6 releases in a legacy repository. To work from source you clone the repository and install third-party dependencies with Composer. Documentation is maintained on a dedicated site that community members can edit after logging in with their community account.
The software is licensed under MIT and runs on your own PHP hosting, with forums and a contributor guide for those who want to get involved. Topics also describe it as a framework that developers can build on.
Key features
- PHP-based content management
- Composer-based installation
- Community-maintained documentation site
- Separate branches for earlier versions
- Framework for custom development
Good fit for
- →Content-managed websites on PHP
- →Upgrading legacy concrete5 sites
- Built with
- PHP
- Tags
- cms
- php
- concrete5
- composer
- content-management
- framework
Concrete CMS: questions and answers
- What is Concrete CMS used for?
- Concrete CMS is an open-source PHP content management system, formerly concrete5, developed by a worldwide community and installed with Composer. It is a good fit for content-managed websites on PHP and upgrading legacy concrete5 sites.
- Is Concrete CMS open source?
- Yes. Concrete CMS is open source under the MIT licence. Its source code is on GitHub at concretecms/concretecms and is written mainly in PHP.
- Is Concrete CMS free?
- Yes. Concrete CMS is open source, so the software itself is free to use.
- Can I self-host Concrete CMS?
- Yes. Concrete CMS can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure.
- What is Concrete CMS an alternative to?
- Concrete CMS is an open-source alternative to Sitefinity, Sitecore, Adobe Experience Manager and Squiz. Other open-source alternatives to Sitefinity include TYPO3 and Sulu.
- Is Concrete CMS actively maintained?
- Yes. The most recent commit to Concrete CMS was on 1 October 2026, and the latest release is 9.5.4, published on 8 September 2026. The project has 852 stars on GitHub.
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