Section
CMS profiles
CMS for publishers: 24 publishing platforms profiled. Fact-checked profiles of the content management systems publishers use, with licences, requirements, editorial features and costs.
Our CMS profiles cover the content management systems that news, magazine and article publishers actually use, from open-source PHP platforms to headless and hosted services. Each profile sets out the licence, what it runs on, its editorial and SEO features, what it costs, and where it falls short, with a dated source for every fact.
Every profile follows the same structure so platforms can be compared directly: what the CMS is and who makes it, the licence and price, what it runs on, how it handles editorial work, search and feeds, and the trade-offs a publisher should weigh. Each one states its evidence level, from the vendor’s documentation to our own installation, as explained in how we test.
Scores will be added once every platform in a category has been installed and run through the same editorial tasks.
In this section
25 pages- Data
CMS comparison table: licences, versions and prices (free CSV)
A free CSV of the publishing CMSs we profile, with licence, latest version checked, platform, price and maker, each traceable to a source.
- CMS profile
Ghost for publishers: memberships and newsletters built in
Ghost is an MIT-licensed Node.js publishing platform with built-in memberships and newsletters. Fit for news sites, costs and limits.
- CMS profile
WordPress for news websites: the default choice and its trade-offs
A publisher's profile of the open-source WordPress software: licence, requirements, editorial workflow, SEO features, extensions, costs and limits.
- CMS profile
Craft CMS for publishers: flexible content modelling at a licence fee
Craft CMS is a PHP and Twig system with free Solo and paid Team and Pro editions. What it offers publishers for workflow and multi-site, and the cost.
- CMS profile
Drupal for publishers: structured content and a heavier build
Drupal profiled for publishers: GPL licence, core content moderation, JSON:API, multilingual modules, SEO add-ons, requirements, costs and limits.
- CMS profile
Joomla for publishers: built-in access control and multilingual tools
Joomla profiled for publishers: GPL licence, version 6 requirements, workflow, multilingual and schema.org components, API, costs and limits.
- CMS profile
Statamic for publishers: a flat-file Laravel CMS with a Pro tier
Statamic is a Laravel flat-file CMS with a free Core and a paid Pro edition. What it offers publishers for workflow, APIs and speed, and its limits.
- CMS profile
Kirby for publishers: a flat-file CMS with a one-off licence
Kirby is a flat-file PHP CMS with no database and a paid per-site licence. What it offers publishers for content, roles and languages, and its limits.
- CMS profile
TYPO3 for publishers: workspaces and enterprise-grade structure
TYPO3 profiled for publishers: GPL licence, LTS versions and support dates, Workspaces, SEO extension, multilingual model, requirements and limits.
- CMS profile
Backdrop CMS for publishers: a lighter descendant of Drupal 7
Backdrop CMS profiled for publishers: GPL licence, version 1.35.1, config management, core Views and layouts, requirements, costs and limits.
- CMS profile
Grav for publishers: a free flat-file CMS built on Markdown
Grav is an MIT-licensed flat-file PHP CMS using Markdown and Twig, with no database. What it offers publishers for content, languages and SEO.
- CMS profile
Concrete CMS for publishers: in-context editing under an MIT licence
Concrete CMS profiled for publishers: MIT licence, in-context editing, version 9.5.5, blocks, workflow and multilingual code, requirements, costs and limits.
- CMS profile
ProcessWire for publishers: a flexible PHP CMS with a strong API
ProcessWire is a free, MPL-licensed PHP CMS with role-based access and built-in multi-language support. Fit, cost and limits for publishers.
- CMS profile
Strapi for publishers: open-source headless, paid editorial tiers
Strapi is a self-hosted, MIT-licensed headless CMS on Node.js. Review workflows and audit logs sit behind paid plans, and the front end is yours to build.
- CMS profile
Sanity for publishers: hosted content store, open-source Studio
Sanity pairs a hosted content API with an MIT-licensed editing Studio. Per-seat pricing, GROQ queries, visual editing and a front end you build yourself.
- CMS profile
Contentful for publishers: hosted API-first content platform
Contentful is a hosted, API-first content platform with separate delivery and preview APIs. What its front end must handle, and what we could not verify.
- CMS profile
Storyblok for publishers: visual editing on a hosted headless CMS
Storyblok is a hosted headless CMS built around a Visual Editor. Plans start free, with workflows, scheduling and roles that depend on your tier.
- CMS profile
Payload for publishers: MIT-licensed headless CMS inside Next.js
Payload is a free MIT-licensed headless CMS that installs inside a Next.js app. Roles and workflow are written in code, so it favours developer-led teams.
- CMS profile
Directus for publishers: SQL-first headless CMS, source-available
Directus wraps your SQL database in APIs and an admin studio. Its licence is source-available, not open source, with a free tier and an eligibility grant.
- CMS profile
Umbraco for publishers: an MIT-licensed .NET CMS
Umbraco is a free, MIT-licensed .NET CMS with scheduled publishing and a headless API. What it offers publishers, what it costs and where it falls short.
- CMS profile
Wagtail for publishers: a Django CMS built around editors
Wagtail is a BSD-licensed Python and Django CMS with StreamField, workflows and an API. What it offers publishers, what it costs and where it falls short.
- CMS profile
django CMS for publishers: placeholders, plugins and versioning
django CMS is a BSD-licensed Python CMS with front-end editing and multilingual support. What it offers publishers, what it costs and where it falls short.
- CMS profile
Hugo for publishers: a fast static site generator, not a CMS
Hugo is an Apache-licensed static site generator in Go. How editors work with it through Markdown, Git or a Git-based CMS, and where it falls short.
- CMS profile
Decap CMS for publishers: a Git-based editor for static sites
Decap CMS (formerly Netlify CMS) is an MIT-licensed, Git-based editor for static sites. What it gives editors, how workflow works and where it falls short.
- CMS profile
Arc XP for publishers: The Washington Post's enterprise platform
Arc XP is a proprietary media platform developed by The Washington Post, with the Composer editor and an API. What public sources say and what they leave out.