As part of its remit to provide computational support to the cryo‐EM community, the Collaborative Computational Project for Electron cryo‐Microscopy (CCP‐EM) has produced a software framework which enables easy access to a range of programs and utilities. The resulting software suite incorporates contributions from different collaborators by encapsulating them in Python task wrappers, which are then made accessible via a user‐friendly graphical user interface as well as a command‐line interface suitable for scripting. The framework includes tools for project and data management. An overview of the design of the framework is given, together with a survey of the functionality at different levels. The current CCP‐EM suite has particular strength in the building and refinement of atomic models into cryo‐EM reconstructions, which is described in detail. An overview is given of the new CCP‐EM software suite, including the underpinning framework, the current functionality and the distribution procedure. This first version of the suite has a focus on building and refining atomic models.