{"id":7499,"date":"2026-01-30T11:01:20","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T11:01:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jsmwebsolutions.com\/blog\/?p=7499"},"modified":"2026-01-30T11:08:41","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T11:08:41","slug":"why-upgrading-from-concrete5-v5-6-to-the-latest-concretecms-is-difficult","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jsmwebsolutions.com\/blog\/why-upgrading-from-concrete5-v5-6-to-the-latest-concretecms-is-difficult\/","title":{"rendered":"Why upgrading from Concrete5 v5.6 to the latest ConcreteCMS is difficult"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"7499\" class=\"elementor elementor-7499\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-a55ae05 e-flex e-con-boxed e-con e-parent\" data-id=\"a55ae05\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-e-type=\"container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"e-con-inner\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-313cd24 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"313cd24\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h3><strong>1 Concrete5 v5.6 is a legacy system \u2014 not just an old version<\/strong><\/h3><p>Concrete5 <strong>5.6 and below<\/strong> belong to a <em>completely different generation<\/em> of the CMS.<\/p><p>When Concrete5 moved to <strong>v5.7<\/strong> (later rebranded as <strong>ConcreteCMS<\/strong>), the core was <strong>rewritten from scratch<\/strong>:<\/p><ul><li>New architecture (MVC, Symfony components)<\/li><li>New file system<\/li><li>New database structure<\/li><li>New permission model<\/li><li>New block &amp; package system<\/li><\/ul><p><strong>There is no direct or automated upgrade path<\/strong> from 5.6 \u2192 latest ConcreteCMS.<br \/>This is the <em>single biggest blocker<\/em>.<\/p><p>Upgrading 5.6 is not an \u201cupgrade\u201d \u2014 it\u2019s effectively a <strong>rebuild + migration<\/strong>.<\/p><p>\u00a0<\/p><h3><strong>2 Themes, blocks, and add-ons from 5.6 are mostly incompatible<\/strong><\/h3><p>Most 5.6 sites rely on:<\/p><ul><li>Custom themes<\/li><li>Custom blocks<\/li><li>Old marketplace add-ons<\/li><\/ul><p>These were built using:<\/p><ul><li>Deprecated PHP practices<\/li><li>Legacy Concrete5 APIs<\/li><li>Hard-coded helpers and global variables<\/li><\/ul><p>In modern ConcreteCMS:<\/p><ul><li>Those APIs no longer exist<\/li><li>Blocks must be rewritten<\/li><li>Themes must be rebuilt using modern standards<\/li><\/ul><p>For many sites, <strong>80\u2013100% of custom code must be rewritten<\/strong>, not \u201cfixed\u201d.<\/p><p>This is where cost and effort increase sharply.<\/p><p>\u00a0<\/p><h3><strong>3 Content migration is manual and risky<\/strong><\/h3><p>Concrete5 5.6 content is stored very differently:<\/p><ul><li>Page types vs page templates<\/li><li>Attribute handling<\/li><li>Block storage<\/li><li>File manager structure<\/li><\/ul><p>Migration usually involves:<\/p><ul><li>Exporting content from 5.6<\/li><li>Mapping page structures manually<\/li><li>Rebuilding page types<\/li><li>Re-adding blocks or recreating layouts<\/li><li>Manually validating thousands of pages (on larger sites)<\/li><\/ul><p>For content-heavy sites, migration is <strong>time-consuming and error-prone<\/strong>.<\/p><p>\u00a0<\/p><h3><strong>4 Server &amp; PHP compatibility gap<\/strong><\/h3><p>Concrete5 5.6:<\/p><ul><li>Requires <strong>very old PHP versions<\/strong><\/li><li>Often runs on PHP 5.3\u20135.6<\/li><\/ul><p>Latest ConcreteCMS:<\/p><ul><li>Requires <strong>modern PHP (7.4\u20138.x)<\/strong><\/li><li>Modern MySQL\/MariaDB<\/li><li>Stronger security defaults<\/li><\/ul><p>Upgrading often forces:<\/p><ul><li>Hosting migration<\/li><li>PHP upgrades<\/li><li>Database charset changes<\/li><li>Fixing legacy hosting configurations<\/li><\/ul><p>\u00a0Some sites are literally <em>held together<\/em> by old servers that can\u2019t be touched.<\/p><p>\u00a0<\/p><h3><strong>5 Cost vs perceived benefit<\/strong><\/h3><p>For many business owners:<\/p><ul><li>\u201cThe site works\u201d<\/li><li>\u201cIt\u2019s ranking fine\u201d<\/li><li>\u201cNo one touches it daily\u201d<\/li><\/ul><p>From their point of view:<\/p><ul><li>Spending money on a rebuild feels unnecessary<\/li><li>They don\u2019t <em>see<\/em> the technical risk<\/li><li>ROI is unclear unless redesign or new features are planned<\/li><\/ul><p>So the upgrade keeps getting postponed.<\/p><p>\u00a0<\/p><h2><strong>Why people still run websites on Concrete5 v5.6<\/strong><\/h2><h3><strong>1 \u201cIf it ain\u2019t broke, don\u2019t fix it\u201d mentality<\/strong><\/h3><p>Many 5.6 sites:<\/p><ul><li>Are brochure websites<\/li><li>Rarely updated<\/li><li>Still generate leads or traffic<\/li><\/ul><p>Owners prefer stability over change \u2014 even if it\u2019s risky long-term.<\/p><h3><strong>2 Fear of breaking SEO or content<\/strong><\/h3><p>Older sites often have:<\/p><ul><li>Years of SEO authority<\/li><li>Thousands of indexed URLs<\/li><li>Custom URL structures<\/li><\/ul><p>Owners fear:<\/p><ul><li>Ranking drops<\/li><li>URL mismatches<\/li><li>Lost content<\/li><li>Broken forms<\/li><\/ul><p>Without an experienced migration strategy, that fear is valid.<\/p><p><strong>3 Lack of experienced Concrete5 migration developers<\/strong><\/p><p>This is huge.<\/p><p>Most modern developers:<\/p><ul><li>Never worked with 5.6<\/li><li>Don\u2019t understand its internals<\/li><li>Underestimate migration complexity<\/li><\/ul><p>Result:<\/p><ul><li>Bad upgrade attempts<\/li><li>Broken admin areas<\/li><li>Lost data<\/li><li>Abandoned projects<\/li><\/ul><p>So site owners stick with what they know.<\/p><p><strong>4 Security risk is underestimated<\/strong><\/p><p>Concrete5 5.6:<\/p><ul><li>No longer receives security patches<\/li><li>Runs on unsupported PHP<\/li><li>Has known vulnerabilities<\/li><\/ul><p>But unless the site is hacked, owners don\u2019t feel urgency.<\/p><p>Security problems are invisible\u2026 until they\u2019re not.<\/p><p>\u00a0<\/p><h2><strong>The reality (important takeaway)<\/strong><\/h2><p>Upgrading from <strong>Concrete5 5.6 \u2192 latest ConcreteCMS<\/strong> is:<\/p><p>\u274c Not an upgrade<br \/>\u274c Not automatic<br \/>\u274c Not cheap<\/p><p>\u2705 It is a <strong>controlled rebuild with content migration<\/strong><br \/>\u2705 Best done by someone who has worked with <strong>both 5.6 and modern ConcreteCMS<\/strong><\/p><p><strong>When upgrading <em>does<\/em> make sense<\/strong><\/p><ul><li>PHP version must be upgraded<\/li><li>Hosting provider drops old PHP<\/li><li>Site needs redesign or new features<\/li><li>SEO performance is declining<\/li><li>Security\/compliance becomes critical<\/li><\/ul><p>In those cases, migration becomes unavoidable \u2014 and smart.<\/p><p>\u00a0<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>1 Concrete5 v5.6 is a legacy system \u2014 not just an old version Concrete5 5.6 and below belong to a completely different generation of the CMS. When Concrete5 moved to&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-responsive-websites"],"rttpg_featured_image_url":null,"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"Aj","author_link":"https:\/\/jsmwebsolutions.com\/blog\/author\/admin\/"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"<a href=\"https:\/\/jsmwebsolutions.com\/blog\/category\/responsive-websites\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Responsive Websites<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"1 Concrete5 v5.6 is a legacy system \u2014 not just an old version Concrete5 5.6 and below belong to a completely different generation of the CMS. When Concrete5 moved to&hellip;","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jsmwebsolutions.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jsmwebsolutions.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jsmwebsolutions.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jsmwebsolutions.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jsmwebsolutions.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7499"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/jsmwebsolutions.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7499\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7512,"href":"https:\/\/jsmwebsolutions.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7499\/revisions\/7512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jsmwebsolutions.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jsmwebsolutions.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jsmwebsolutions.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}