Lightweight Open-Source CMS: Listing and Comparison

Jekyll is a simple, blog-aware, and lightweight open-source cms in the form of a static site generator. It’s designed to create personal projects or organization sites. It’s basically a static site generator that helps create static site files, which can be hosted as HTML files on any website.

Jekyll CMS Highlights:

• Blog-aware static site generator.
• No need for databases and CMS framework.
• No server maintenance and regular updates are needed.
• Sites tend to be extremely fast and can be hosted for free on GitHub Pages.
• Supports loading content from YAML, JSON, CSV, and TSV files.
• Few themes and plugins are available.
• Has a relatively small community.

Jekyll CMS Specs:

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Programming Language	Ruby
Database	Static Site Generator (Does not use databases)
License	MIT License
Type	Blogging CMS Platform (Weblogging)
First release	November 2008
Website	https://jekyllrb.com
GitHub Repository	https://github.com/jekyll/jekyll
GitHub Repository Stars	~ 45K
Size (Core System)	~ 3 MB
Showcases	https://jekyllrb.com/showcase/

Grav (shortened version of the word “gravity”) is a flat-file lightweight and open-source content management system. It’s designed to be easy to set up and learn. It focuses on speed and simplicity rather than providing complex built-in features.

Grav CMS Highlights:

• Free, open-source, and easy to install and maintain (no database CMS).
• Uses text or markdown files to store the content.
• Difficult to build complex websites.
• Markdown dependent (users need to learn Markdown).
• Voted “Best Open Source CMS” in 2016.
• Voted “Best Flat File CMS” in 2017, 2019 & 2020.
• Grav Administration Panel plugin: provides an interface to monitor and configure the content creation process.
• Grav Premium: provides access to premium plugins, themes, and skeletons.

Grav CMS Specs:

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Programming Language	PHP | Symfony
Database	Flat File (No Database CMS)
License	MIT License
Type	Web Content Management System Platform (WCMS)
First release	July 2014
Website	https://getgrav.org
GitHub Repository	https://github.com/getgrav/grav
GitHub Repository Stars	~ 13K
Size (Core System)	Grav Core (~ 22 MB) Grav Core + Admin Plugin (~ 40 MB)
Showcases	https://getgrav.org/#built

Pagekit CMS is a modern modular and lightweight CMS. It’s an open-source content management system built with PHP and modern technologies like Symfony Components and Vue.js.

PageKit CMS Highlights:

• New and modern CMS.
• Modular architecture built on top of Symfony Components and modern open-source libraries.
• Basic features: Responsive Design, Blog, Users & Permissions, Dashboard, Media Manager, Markdown Editor, Menus & Routing, Widgets, Built-in Marketplace.

PageKit CMS Specs:

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Programming Language	PHP | Symfony Components | Vue.js
Database	MySQL | SQLite
License	MIT License
Type	Web Content Management System Platform (WCMS)
First release	September 2015
Website	https://pagekit.com
GitHub Repository	https://github.com/pagekit/pagekit
GitHub Repository Stars	~ 5.5K
Size (Core System)	~ 5 MB
Showcases	N/A

Pico CMS is a simple lightweight open-source and flat-file content management system with no administration backend and database to deal with. It’s a PHP-based content management system that converts .txt files into pages.

Pico CMS Highlights:

• Stupidly simple, blazing fast, flat file CMS.
• Uses Markdown for formatting pages.
• Controls metadata with YAML.

Pico CMS Specs:

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Programming Language	PHP
Database	Flat File (No Database CMS)
License	MIT License
Type	Web Content Management System Platform (WCMS)
First release	April 2013
Website	https://picocms.org
GitHub Repository	https://github.com/picocms/Pico
GitHub Repository Stars	~ 3.6K
Size (Core System)	~ 300 KB
Showcases	N/A

Anchor CMS is a free and lightweight open-source blogging management system with light features. It’s written in PHP and focuses on writing blogs. It has a very simple and uncluttered admin interface that shows essential features, such as creating posts and pages and managing comments and categories.

This cms is no longer under development, we don’t recommend using it for real projects.

Anchor CMS Highlights:

• Extremely lightweight content management system.
• Faster page load time and database query optimization.
• Has a small theme repository and does not support plug-ins.
• Anchor CMS is no longer in active development.

Anchor CMS Specs:

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Programming Language	PHP
Database	MySQL
License	GNU General Public License Version 3 (GPLv3)
Type	Blogging CMS Platform (Weblogging)
First release	September 2014
Website	https://anchorcms.com
GitHub Repository	https://github.com/anchorcms/anchor-cms (archived / read-only)
GitHub Repository Stars	~ 3.3K
Size (Core System)	~ 1 MB
Showcases	N/A

Bolt CMS is a lightweight and open-source content management system. It’s a sophisticated and simple tool for content management. It’s a flexible tool that aims to be as simple and straightforward as possible.

Bolt CMS Highlights:

• Free, open-source, and easy to set up and use.
• Powerful content types.
• Limited community size.

Bolt CMS Specs:

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Programming Language	PHP
Database	SQLite | MySQL | MariaDB
License	MIT License
Type	Web Content Management System Platform (WCMS)
First release	November 2012
Website	https://boltcms.io
GitHub Repository	Bolt 3: https://github.com/bolt/bolt Bolt 4: https://github.com/bolt/core
GitHub Repository Stars	~ 4.1K (Bolt 3)
Size (Core System)	~ 17 MB
Showcases	https://boltcms.io/showcases

Fork CMS is a free and open-source cms that uses Symfony Components. It combines user-friendly interfaces to create, manage and monitor websites for beginners and professionals.

Fork CMS Highlights:

• Clear and user-friendly interfaces.
• Large collection of themes and templates.
• Ability to add apps and widgets.
• Marketing tools to optimize the website.
• SEO tools to plan an SEO strategy.

Fork CMS Specs:

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Programming Language	PHP | Symfony Components
Database	MySQL
License	MIT License
Type	Web Content Management System Platform (WCMS)
First release	October 2010
Website	https://www.fork-cms.com
GitHub Repository	https://github.com/forkcms/forkcms
GitHub Repository Stars	~ 1.1K
Size (Core System)	~ 62 MB
Showcases	https://www.fork-cms.com/showcase

Textpattern CMS is a lightweight, flexible, fast, and easy-to-use content management system. Although it’s an open-source CMS often seen as a weblogging tool, it aims to be a general-purpose content management system and is suitable for deployment in many contexts.

Textpattern CMS Highlights:

• Free and open-source solution.
• Often seen as a weblogging tool, but used as a general-purpose cms.
• Extensive documentation.
• Intuitive design and easy-to-use interface.
• No concept of portable design themes (each site is created uniquely and the theme can’t be changed).
• Few themes or templates.

Textpattern CMS Specs:

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Programming Language	PHP
Database	MySQL
License	GNU General Public License Version 2 (GPLv2)
Type	Web Content Management System Platform (WCMS)
First release	March 2003
Website	https://textpattern.com
GitHub Repository	https://github.com/textpattern/textpattern/
GitHub Repository Stars	~ 700
Size (Core System)	~ 8 MB
Showcases	https://textpattern.com/showcase/

WonderCMS is a small flat-file and open-source CMS with fast and easy editing capabilities. It uses a text file as a database and is installed without any configurations since no relational database is required.

WonderCMS Highlights:

• Simple and minimalistic user experience.
• Easy installation: unzip and upload files on the server.
• Uses text files to store content.
• No dependencies or external JavaScript/CSS libraries.

WonderCMS Specs:

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Programming Language	PHP
Database	Flat File (No Database CMS)
License	MIT License
Type	Web Content Management System Platform (WCMS)
First release	December 2016
Website	https://www.wondercms.com
GitHub Repository	https://github.com/robiso/wondercms
GitHub Repository Stars	~ 500
Size (Core System)	~ 150 KB
Showcases	N/A

CouchCMS is a free and lightweight open-source content management system to design websites without coding knowledge.

CouchCMS Highlights:

• Free and open-source.
• No coding knowledge is required.
• Powerful features like saving form submissions into the database and custom routes.
• Uses a database, so the installation requires some configurations.
• CouchCMS might be used under a commercial license.

CouchCMS Specs:

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Programming Language	PHP
Database	MySQL
License	Common Public Attribution License Version 1.0 (CPAL-1.0)
Type	Web Content Management System Platform (WCMS)
First release	February 2015
Website	https://www.couchcms.com
GitHub Repository	https://github.com/CouchCMS/CouchCMS
GitHub Repository Stars	~ 300
Size (Core System)	~ 7 MB
Showcases	https://www.couchcms.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=7

Automad CMS is a flat-file open-source content management system and template engine. It’s fast and lightweight cms that stores content in a human-readable form. The file structure of the page’s directory reflects the website data structure.

Automad CMS Highlights:

• No database is required: content is stored in human-readable text files.
• Searching and tagging are directly implemented in the core.
• Advanced multi-layer caching engine.
• Makes content accessible via a read-only JSON API.

Automad CMS Specs:

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Programming Language	PHP
Database	Flat File (No Database CMS)
License	MIT License
Type	Web Content Management System Platform (WCMS)
First release	October 2013
Website	https://automad.org
GitHub Repository	https://github.com/marcantondahmen/automad
GitHub Repository Stars	~ 350
Size (Core System)	~ 4 MB
Showcases	N/A

Batflat CMS is a bootstrap-ready lightweight CMS that uses flat files for saving data. It’s created as a lightweight alternative to heavy and complex CMS systems.

Batflat CMS Highlights:

• Light, fast, and easy bootstrap-ready CMS.
• Modular cms: you can download or create your own extensions.
• Creating and modifying a theme is simple.
• Mobile-ready and SEO-friendly.

Batflat CMS Specs:

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Programming Language	PHP
Database	Flat File (No Database CMS)
License	Freeware License
Type	Web Content Management System Platform (WCMS)
First release	May 2016
Website	https://batflat.org
GitHub Repository	https://github.com/sruupl/batflat
GitHub Repository Stars	~ 120
Size (Core System)	~ 3 MB
Showcases	N/A

CMS Made Simple is a free and lightweight open-source content management system. It provides web-based development and administration tools for developers, programmers, and site owners. It is suited for building and managing websites for small and medium businesses.

CMS Made Simple has no GitHub repository.

CMS Made Simple Highlights:

• Good documentation and a decent number of themes, modules, and plugins.
• API documentation and database abstraction.
• Requires intermediate development skills such as HTML, CSS, databases, …
• Not suitable for heavy websites.
• “Best Open Source CMS” Winner in the CMS Critic 2017 Awards.
• “Peoples Choice Award” in the CMS Critic 2014 Awards.
• “Best Budget CMS – Critics Choice” Nominee in the CMS Critic 2012 Awards.
• Oct, 2009 – Three Quarters of a Million Downloads Reached
• Aug, 2010 – CMS Made Simple Reaches One Million Downloads

CMS Made Simple Specs:

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Programming Language	PHP
Database	MySQL
License	GNU General Public License
Type	Web Content Management System Platform (WCMS)
First release	July 2004
Website	http://www.cmsmadesimple.org
SVN Repository	http://svn.cmsmadesimple.org/svn/cmsmadesimple/
Size (Core System)	~ 7 MB
Showcases	https://welovecmsms.com