List of Top Free Open Source & Self Hosted Application for Content Management Systems (CMS)

Content Management Systems offer a practical way to setup a website with many features, using third party plugins, themes and functionality that are easy to add and customize.

• Alfresco Community Edition – The open source Enterprise Content Management software that handles any type of content, allowing users to easily share and collaborate on content. LGPL-3.0 Java
• Apostrophe – CMS with a focus on extensible in-context editing tools. MIT Nodejs
• b2evolution CMS – The most integrated CMS ever: b2evolution includes everything you need to build websites for publishing, sharing and interacting with your community. GPL-2.0 PHP
• Backdrop CMS – Comprehensive CMS for small to medium sized businesses and non-profits. GPL-2.0 PHP
• BigTree CMS – Straightforward, well documented, and capable written with PHP and MySQL. LGPL-2.1 PHP
• Bludit ⚠ – Simple application to build a site or blog in seconds. Bludit uses flat-files (text files in JSON format) to store posts and pages. MIT PHP
• Bolt CMS – Open source Content Management Tool, which strives to be as simple and straightforward as possible. MIT PHP
• CMS Made Simple – Open source content management system, faster and easier management of website contents, scalable for small businesses to large corporations. GPL-2.0 PHP
• Cockpit – Simple Content Platform to manage any structured content. MIT PHP
• Concrete 5 CMS – Open source content management system. MIT PHP
• Contao – Contao is a powerful open source CMS that allows you to create professional websites and scalable web applications. LGPL-3.0 PHP
• CouchCMS – Simple Open-Source CMS for designers. CPAL-1.0 PHP
• Drupal – Advanced open source content management platform. GPL-2.0 PHP
• eLabFTW – Online lab notebook for research labs. Store experiments, use a database to find reagents or protocols, use trusted timestamping to legally timestamp an experiment, export as pdf or zip archive, share with collaborators…. AGPL-3.0 PHP
• Expressa – Content Management System for powering database driven websites using JSON schemas. Provides permission management and automatic REST APIs. MIT Nodejs
• Flextype – Flextype is an open-source Hybrid Content Management System with the freedom of a headless CMS and with the full functionality of a traditional CMS. MIT PHP
• GetSimple CMS – The Simplest Content Management System. Ever. GPL-3.0 PHP
• Joomla! – Advanced Content Management System (CMS). GPL-2.0 PHP
• KeystoneJS – CMS and Web Application Platform. MIT Nodejs
• MODX – MODX is an advanced content management and publishing platform. The current version is called ‘Revolution’. (Source Code) GPL-2.0 PHP
• Neos – Neos or TYPO3 Neos (for version 1) is a modern, open source CMS. GPL-3.0 PHP
• Noosfero – Noosfero is a web platform for social and solidarity economy networks with blog, e-Portfolios, CMS, RSS, thematic discussion, events agenda and collective intelligence for solidarity economy in the same system. AGPL-3.0 Ruby
• Omeka – Create complex narratives and share rich collections, adhering to Dublin Core standards with Omeka on your server, designed for scholars, museums, libraries, archives, and enthusiasts. (Demo, Source Code) GPL-3.0 PHP
• Payload CMS – Developer-first headless CMS and application framework. MIT Nodejs
• Pico – Stupidly simple, blazing fast, flat file CMS. MIT PHP
• Pimcore – Multi-Channel Experience and Engagement Management Platform. GPL-3.0-or-later PHP
• Plone – Powerful open-source CMS system. ZPL-2.0 Python
• PropertyWebBuilder – Ultimate Ruby on Rails engine for creating real estate websites. MIT Ruby
• Publify – Simple but full featured web publishing software. MIT Ruby
• Rapido – Create your website with Rapido. Edit, publish and share collaborative content. AGPL-3.0 Go
• REDAXO – Simple, flexible and useful content management system (documentation only available in German). MIT PHP
• Roadiz – Modern CMS based on a node system which can handle many types of services. MIT PHP
• SilverStripe – Easy to use CMS with powerful MVC framework underlying. BSD-3-Clause PHP
• SPIP – Publication system for the Internet aimed at collaborative work, multilingual environments, and simplicity of use for web authors. GPL-3.0 PHP
• Squidex – Headless CMS, based on MongoDB, CQRS and Event Sourcing. MIT .NET
• Strapi – The most advanced open-source Content Management Framework (headless-CMS) to build powerful API with no effort.  MIT Nodejs
• Textpattern – Flexible, elegant and easy-to-use CMS. GPL-2.0 PHP
• Typemill – Author-friendly flat-file-cms with a visual markdown editor based on vue.js. MIT PHP
• TYPO3 – Powerful and advanced CMS with a large community. GPL-2.0 PHP
• Umbraco – The friendly CMS. Free and open source with an amazing community.  MIT .NET
• Wagtail – Django content management system focused on flexibility and user experience. BSD-3-Clause Python
• WinterCMS – Speedy and secure content management system built on the Laravel PHP framework. (Source Code) MIT PHP
• WonderCMS – WonderCMS is the smallest flat file CMS since 2008. MIT PHP
• WordPress – World’s most-used blogging and CMS engine. GPL-2.0 PHP

Ashwani K

 

👤 About the Author

Ashwani is passionate about DevOps, DevSecOps, SRE, MLOps, and AiOps, with a strong drive to simplify and scale modern IT operations. Through continuous learning and sharing, Ashwani helps organizations and engineers adopt best practices for automation, security, reliability, and AI-driven operations.

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