Concrete CMS and ProcessWire both have free, self-hostable open-source cores, but Concrete CMS additionally sells paid hosted plans from $4.99/month (Starter)…
| Concrete CMS | ProcessWire | |
|---|---|---|
| Primary category | CMS | CMS |
| Rating | Not documented | Not documented |
| Pricing model | Freemium (free open-source core, paid managed hosting) | Free and open source (MPL 2.0 license); optional paid Pro modules and hosting-related add-ons |
| Starting price | Free (self-hosted); managed hosting from $4.99/month | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | Not documented | Not documented |
| Platforms | Web | Not documented |
| Team collaboration | Not documented | Not documented |
| AI features | Not documented | Not documented |
| Public API | Yes | Yes |
First-Party Hosted Plans
Concrete CMS: Concrete CMS sells paid hosted plans starting at $4.99/month (Starter: 1 editor, 10,000 monthly page views, 2GB storage), up to $19/month (Business) and a custom-quoted Custom SLA tier.
ProcessWire: ProcessWire's facts document no pricing plans at all — no first-party hosted product, meaning self-hosting is the primary deployment path.
Teams without in-house hosting expertise may prefer a vendor offering managed plans over configuring self-hosted infrastructure from scratch.
Editing Philosophy
Concrete CMS: Concrete CMS's flagship feature is in-context WYSIWYG editing directly on the live page.
ProcessWire: ProcessWire is explicitly API-driven, giving developers a simple, minimal-code API for accessing and manipulating content as its headline design principle rather than a live-page editing UI.
In-context editing suits non-technical content editors, while an API-first core suits developers building custom front ends.
Compliance-Oriented Hosting
Concrete CMS: Concrete CMS states its hosting can offer SOC 2 and HIPAA-compliant options and describes its security as ISO 27001 certified.
ProcessWire: ProcessWire's facts don't document any compliance certifications or hosted-plan compliance options.
Regulated industries (healthcare, finance) often require documented compliance certifications from their hosting vendor.
Permission Granularity
Concrete CMS: Concrete CMS offers role-based permissions down to individual content blocks.
ProcessWire: ProcessWire documents a granular role-based access control system controlling what editors and users can do.
Block-level permission granularity can matter for large sites with many contributors editing shared pages.
Project Maturity & Lineage
Concrete CMS: Concrete CMS traces back to 2003 (originally released as concrete5), giving it a longer track record.
ProcessWire: ProcessWire launched in 2010, with a smaller GitHub footprint (about 1.1k stars) than mainstream CMS competitors.
Project age can correlate with ecosystem maturity, though smaller projects can still be well-maintained and stable.
| Feature | Concrete CMS | ProcessWire |
|---|---|---|
| In-context/live-page WYSIWYG editing | Available | Not documented |
| API-driven content access as core design | Not documented | Available |
| Hierarchical, unlimited-depth page tree | Not documented | Available |
| Version history & change logs | Available | Not documented |
| Built-in multi-language support | Not documented | Available |
| Feature | Concrete CMS | ProcessWire |
|---|---|---|
| Role-based permissions | Available | Available |
| Built-in approval workflows | Available | Not documented |
| SOC 2 / HIPAA-compliant hosting options | Available | Not documented |
| ISO 27001 security certification claim | Available | Not documented |
| Feature | Concrete CMS | ProcessWire |
|---|---|---|
| Free self-hosted core | Available | Available |
| First-party paid hosted plans | Available | Not documented |
| Optional paid add-on modules | Available | Available |
| Custom self-managed enterprise deployment (CI/CD) | Available | Not documented |
Starting price reflects the lowest paid tier, not the full cost for every team size or usage level.
Pros
Cons
Pros
Cons
Yes. Concrete CMS's MIT-licensed core and ProcessWire's mainly MPL 2.0-licensed core can both be self-hosted for free.
Concrete CMS sells hosted plans starting at $4.99/month (Starter). ProcessWire's facts document no first-party hosted plans, only self-hosting.
Concrete CMS states SOC 2 and HIPAA-compliant hosting options and ISO 27001-certified security. ProcessWire's facts don't document comparable compliance certifications.
Concrete CMS emphasizes in-context editing directly on the live page for non-technical editors. ProcessWire is built around a developer-facing API for minimal-code content access.
Concrete CMS traces to 2003 (originally released as concrete5). ProcessWire was founded in 2010.
Yes for both. Concrete CMS layers compliance and scale into paid hosted plans, while ProcessWire sells specific Pro Shop modules like ProCache, Form Builder, and PAGEGRID Page Builder.
Read the full Concrete CMS review · Read the full ProcessWire review