Abstract. This article studies the free vibration of composite ring-stiffened cylindrical shells by the continuous element method (CEM). The dynamic stiffness matrix (DSM) of the studied structure has been constructed based on the analytical solutions of the governing equations of motion for composite cylindrical shells and annular plates. By applying the assembly procedure of the continuous elements method, natural frequencies and harmonic responses of composite ring-stiffened cylindrical shells are determined. In addition, the proposed model allows to exactly extract ring-stiffener vibration modes. Numerical examples confirm advantages of the proposed model: high precision solution even in medium and high frequencies, saving in calculating time and volume of data storage.