Latest Core Release: Concrete 9.3.5

We kicked off the meeting with a look at last week’s core release, version 9.3.5. This update was relatively light but still packed with useful quality-of-life improvements and bug fixes. If you’ve been facing issues with assigning user groups like "guest" and "registered users," this one’s for you.

Previously, people were confused by the fact that they could assign those groups to users, but nothing would happen. That’s because these groups aren’t meant to be assigned manually—they’re automatically applied based on user actions (like visiting a site without logging in). While 9.3.4 hid those groups, we realized they’re actually needed in some advanced permission setups, so 9.3.5 fixes this. If you’ve been scratching your head over permissions, upgrading to this version will likely smooth things out for you.

Why Open Source Matters

October is a great month to reflect on what open source means for us. For those keeping tabs on other CMS ecosystems, you might have seen some noise around WordPress and WP Engine’s 5% revenue model. Over here at Concrete CMS, we’ve always approached things a bit differently.

We gave Concrete away under the MIT license back in 2009 because we believed in its potential to make the web a better place. We’re thrilled when people use it, and even more so when they contribute back. But, if Concrete doesn’t suit your needs, that’s cool too! We built it with the hope that it would be useful, and the growing community proves that it is.

Shout Outs to Our Contributors

Of course, no Town Hall would be complete without acknowledging our incredible community. Every month, developers, testers, and users contribute code, open issues, and help us improve Concrete CMS. A huge thank you to the following folks for their contributions this month:

• Code: mlocati, RLHawk1, leal-k, dimger, alecbiela, Mesuva, hissy
• Issues: hissy, moriaiy, marcokuoni, yeizac, JohntheFish, m-kreis, JeRoNZ, michaelvalenti, alecbiela, bikerdave, QuentindevePro, Rainer-S-web

It’s your input that keeps Concrete moving forward, so thank you!

Marketplace News: New Themes

John the Fish delivered the latest from the marketplace, introducing two new themes:

• Basic Bedrock: A developer-friendly starting point for creating custom themes. If you want to build a theme from scratch, Basic Bedrock gives you a clean slate to work with.
• English Garden: A straightforward yet elegant theme perfect for websites that need a classic design. It comes with multiple page templates and six color styles. If you’re building a site that needs a little charm, check it out!

Site Showcase: Elk River Municipal Utilities

One of the coolest parts of the Town Hall was showing off a real-world site powered by Concrete CMS—Elk River Municipal Utilities by Prime Advertising

Built as part of a full rebrand, this site is fast, easy to manage. And Concrete is compliant with industry standards like ISO 27001 and SOC 2. Whether you’re in the public sector or managing utilities, Concrete CMS offers a secure and scalable platform for your needs.

That’s all for this month’s Town Hall! We hope you found the updates helpful and that you’re as excited as we are about the latest improvements in Concrete CMS. Don’t forget to keep contributing, share your thoughts, and check out the new themes in the marketplace.

Until next month, happy building! ??