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Plone agency for organisations with many editorial teams

Public authorities, research, universities, associations: wherever many people maintain content, approvals must be clearly defined and security is non-negotiable. We plan, design, develop and run websites and portals with Plone 6.

  • Plone 6 · Volto or Classic UI
  • Open source since 2001
  • Migration from Plone 4 and 5
  • Unterföhring near Munich
I'm interested Example: The buttons select the example application shown on the screen.
Example application city portal: search for services, citizen services and appointments Example application research portal: key figures, topic filters and publications Example application university portal: home page with a call for applications, events and news The university portal in Plone edit mode: a block is selected, on the right the block chooser and the status Pending review
The city portal on a smartphone

Fictitious example applications, built with Plone 6

Secure. Open. Built for many editorial teams.

Plone is a Python-based open-source CMS that has been developed since 2001 by a worldwide community and the non-profit Plone Foundation. It is regarded as one of the most secure CMSs on the market, which is why it is at home wherever many departments, strict approvals and high accessibility requirements come together. We plan, design, develop and support Plone websites, from the first concept to day-to-day operation.

Many write, few approve

Roles, groups and approval workflows are built into Plone, not bolted on. If you wish, users come directly from LDAP or Active Directory.

Plone edit view of a press release from the fictitious town of Musterhausen. On the left the Status menu is open: current status Pending review, with the options Publish, Send back to editors or Retract, below that a comment field and the version history with three versions.
This is what approval looks like for editors: change the status, add a comment, keep track of every version. Fictitious example application.
  1. Draft

    The department writes

    Editors, e.g. an institute

    Create a page, add blocks, insert images. Visible only to the editor's own group.

    Version 1, 2, 3 …
  2. Pending review

    The reviewer checks

    e.g. the press office

    Submitted pages appear in the review list. Approve them or send them back to the editors with a comment.

    submit → approve
  3. Published

    The public reads

    Website visitors

    Only now is the page public. Later changes go through review again.

    Version saved

Every version is kept and can be compared and restored. We adapt the workflow to you: one step for an institute website, two review stages for a public authority portal.

Who can do what

Plone assigns permissions per folder, and they are inherited downwards. This lets every faculty, department or working group maintain its own area without touching anyone else's.

  • Sample photo: an editor working on a laptop at her desk, with windows and plants in the background.

    Departmental editors

    only in their own folder

    can create and edit pages and submit them for review

    cannot publish on their own

  • Sample photo: a press office employee reviewing content on screen, photographed over his shoulder.

    Press office

    for the entire website

    can edit, review and approve

    cannot create new pages in other teams' folders

  • Sample photo: three people sitting at a long table in a meeting, photographed from behind, one of them holding a tablet.

    Committee

    protected area in the intranet

    can read, including confidential content

    cannot create, edit or approve

And the public? Without logging in, they only see what has been published. We define groups and roles together with you. The photos are sample images.

What Plone is used for

Plone is not a niche system for one industry. What all its areas of use have in common: many editorial teams, clear approvals, high security.

Public authorities and the public sector

Accessible websites with clear approval workflows and a complete version history.

  • Accessibility in line with BITV 2.0 and WCAG 2.2
  • Easy-to-read language and sign language as separate sections
  • Hosted in Germany, data protection in line with GDPR

Typical: state and local governments, public offices, chambers

Fictitious Musterhausen city portal: the page “The town hall in easy-to-read language” with large sentences and symbols, next to it a video in sign language and the link to the accessibility statement.

Research institutions

Projects, publications and people linked and searchable, often fed from research information systems.

  • Structured content types for projects and publications
  • Automatic import via interfaces
  • Faceted search across all content

Typical: research networks and scientific institutes

Fictitious Aquila research portal: the project page “Heavy rain early warning for municipalities” with linked people, publications, datasets and events.

Universities

Faculties, institutes and administration maintain their own areas, while the corporate design stays consistent.

  • Separate editorial groups for each department
  • Degree programme, staff and event pages as fixed content types
  • Integration with LDAP and campus systems

Typical: a central website with many sub-pages from institutes

Fictitious Isarau university portal: the page of the Faculty of Environmental Sciences with its own sub-navigation, a laboratory photo and teasers in the shared corporate design.

Social insurers and associations

Specialist information, regulations and services for members and policyholders, maintained by many specialist departments.

  • Protected member areas with their own login
  • Media and regulation databases with faceted search
  • Forms and applications forwarded to specialist back-office systems

Typical: statutory accident insurers, chambers, trade and professional associations

Fictitious trade association: regulations search with filters for document type, status and access, a results list of worksheets, some for members only.

Intranet and extranet

Protected areas for employees, members or partners, with permissions down to individual folders.

  • Login via Active Directory or single sign-on
  • Document storage with versions
  • Workspaces for committees and project groups

Typical: the members' area of an association

Fictitious intranet: the Committees folder with a “Visible to” column, e.g. board only, all members or partners with access, on the right the user's own permissions.

Multilingual portals

Every page knows its translations. Visitors switch language without ending up on the home page.

  • Linked translations, including for images and files
  • Separate approvals for each language
  • Clean language tagging for search engines

Typical: international institutions and networks

Fictitious university portal in English with a DE and EN language switcher and a note that the page is also available in German.

Headless and interfaces

Plone also delivers content to apps, screens or other websites via a documented REST API.

  • REST API for reading and writing
  • Maintain content once, publish it everywhere
  • Integration of calendars, databases and specialist systems

Typical: event data for an app and a website at the same time

Plone REST API response as JSON for a press release, next to it the same news item on an information screen and in a city app.
An editorial team discusses page drafts in a bright meeting room, two people standing at the wall screen, three sitting at the table with laptops.

since 2001

Open source, developed by a worldwide community and the non-profit Plone Foundation. No single vendor decides its future.

Two interfaces, one system

Plone 6 offers two approaches. We advise you on which one suits your editorial team, your design and your operations.

Volto block editor: the news item is edited directly on the page. The image block is highlighted in blue, below it the block chooser is open with Text, Image, Teaser, Grid and other blocks, on the right the sidebar with alt text, alignment and image size.

Volto: the block editor

Plone 6 · React
Working as an editor
Directly on the page: select a block, write, move it.
Design
We define the permitted blocks and layouts centrally. This keeps the corporate design intact, even when many people maintain content.
Suitable for
new websites with a modern interface
Classic UI: edit form with a dark toolbar on the left, tabs for Default, Categorization, Dates, Ownership and Settings, fields for title and summary, a text editor with toolbar and a preview on the right.

Classic UI: proven and server-side

Plone 6 · Python templates
Working as an editor
In the familiar form with a text editor; the page is built on the server.
Operations
Pages are rendered on the server, without an additional Node.js layer. Leaner to run.
Suitable for
many migrations from Plone 4 or 5

An architecture that grows with you

From a small institute website to a load-balanced portal. We set up Plone in containers, monitor it and keep it up to date, at mittwald or in your own data centre.

Visitors Reverse ProxyCache · TLS Volto or ClassicInterface Plone 6REST API · Python ZODB database Files SearchOpenSearch / Solr LDAP · Active Directory Monitoring, backups and updates cover every component.

From Plone 4 or 5 to Plone 6

Python 2 has not received any security updates since 1 January 2020. Plone 4 and 5.0/5.1 only run on Python 2.

We move your content across safely, step by step and without bringing your editorial work to a halt.

  1. Step 1

    Review what you have

    Content types, add-ons, custom code, interfaces and access rights.

  2. Step 2

    Choose the approach

    Volto or Classic UI, what is carried over and what can be dropped.

  3. Step 3

    Trial run

    Export and import of the content to a test system, comparison with the old system.

  4. Step 4

    Acceptance

    Editors test, accessibility is checked, redirects are set up for old URLs.

  5. Step 5

    Switchover

    Final content transfer, go-live, followed by support and updates.

A hand sketching the layout of a web page on paper with a pen: header, navigation, content blocks.

Our Plone services

  • Concept and information architecture for large websites
  • Design in your corporate design, accessible in line with BITV 2.0
  • Development of Volto blocks, themes and content types
  • Migration from Plone 4 and 5 to Plone 6
  • Integration of LDAP, search and third-party systems via the REST API
  • Multilingual set-ups and permission concepts for many editorial teams
  • Hosting, monitoring, backups and security updates
  • Editor training and support during ongoing operation

Frequently asked questions about Plone

How does Plone differ from TYPO3 or WordPress?

Plone comes with permissions, approval workflows and versioning out of the box and has a very good security track record. It is particularly strong when many editorial teams work on one website. For smaller websites we often recommend a different system, and we tell you so.

Volto or Classic UI: which is right for us?

Volto is the modern choice for new websites with a block editor. Classic UI is leaner to run and the simpler path for many migrations. We decide together, based on your editorial team, your design and your IT.

Is Plone accessible?

Plone is designed for accessibility. What matters is how the design and content are implemented. We check all page types and templates automatically and the most important pages manually against WCAG 2.2 and BITV 2.0.

Can we keep our old Plone site until the new one is ready?

Yes. The old site keeps running until the new one has been accepted. Any content created in the meantime is carried over at switchover.

Where is Plone hosted?

In containers with our hosting partner mittwald in Germany or in your own data centre. If you wish, we take care of monitoring, backups and updates.

Your contact for Plone development

Bastian Kretzschmar
Dipl.-Math. oec., Managing Director

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Phone: 089 700742-660 Phone:089 700742-660

Discuss your project

Plone or another system? CMS agency: which content management system suits your editorial team

★
Our Excellence

A web portal we developed has won two awards: the international Sport Positive Award 2026 (Inspired Innovation) and the Humboldt Prize for Sustainability.

PROJECT

Sustainable sports events – web portal for DOSB, German Sport University Cologne and Öko-Institut

AWARDS

Sport Positive Award 2026, category Inspired Innovation (international)

Humboldt Prize for Sustainability (academic award, in cooperation with the German Sport University Cologne)

Visit the portal

Project Webportal Mockup