Concrete CMS is a free, open-source CMS with in-context editing and version history. Self-host under MIT license or use managed hosting from $4.99/month.
Concrete CMS traces its roots to 2003, when its core toolkit was built for LewisAndClark200.org, the Ad Council's official Lewis & Clark Bicentennial site. That toolkit grew into the open-source CMS long known as concrete5, maintained by PortlandLabs Inc. of Portland, Oregon, and formally rebranded to Concrete CMS in July 2021 alongside the version 9 release.
The software is free and open source under the MIT license, with more than 62,000 reported live sites as of 2021. Its hallmark is in-context editing — content is edited directly on the live page rather than in a separate admin panel — paired with page-level version history and a fine-grained, role-based permissions system.
Concrete CMS is built on an MVC architecture with a documented developer API, integrated server-side caching, and a built-in image editor. Version 9 (October 2021) added multisite management, a boards feature, and a gallery block, all running on a Bootstrap 5-based UI; the current stable release is 9.4.2 (July 2025).
A marketplace of themes and add-ons extends the core platform, and native SEO tooling is built in rather than bolted on through third-party plugins, which is one reason the CMS has historically found traction with government and institutional sites that need granular editorial permissions out of the box.
The Concrete CMS software itself is free under the MIT license with no cost to download, install, or modify. Organizations that self-host only pay for their own server infrastructure.
For teams that don't want to manage hosting themselves, PortlandLabs offers managed hosting plans through concretecms.com, with published starting prices around $4.99/month for an entry-level Starter tier and roughly $19/month for a Business tier that includes more resources and support.
Yes, the core software is free and open source under the MIT license. Optional managed hosting from PortlandLabs is a paid service starting around $4.99/month.
Yes. concrete5 was officially rebranded to Concrete CMS in July 2021, alongside the version 9 release.
PortlandLabs Inc., a company based in Portland, Oregon, that has maintained the project since its early concrete5 days.
Multisite support, a boards feature, a gallery block, and a UI rebuilt on Bootstrap 5, released in October 2021.
Yes, it can be downloaded and self-hosted for free under the MIT license, or run on PortlandLabs' managed hosting plans.