Open-source content management systems

Content management systems you can host yourself for company websites, publications and portals, from developer frameworks to ready-made site builders.

3 open-source projects, checked against GitHub on 1 November 2026.

All 3 websites & CMS projects

Showing all 3, ordered by health score.

  1. 91 Active
    Umbraco

    Umbraco is a free and open source .NET content management system helping you deliver delightful digital experiences.

    MIT
    Setup
    2 of 5
    Stars
    5.3k
    Release
    29 October 2026
  2. 87 Active
    Wagtail

    A Django content management system focused on flexibility and user experience

    BSD-3-Clause
    Setup
    Docker
    Stars
    20.6k
    Release
    20 October 2026
  3. 86 Active
    Joomla

    Home of the Joomla! Content Management System

    GPL-2.0
    Setup
    Docker
    Stars
    5.2k
    Release
    13 October 2026

Our picks by use case

  • A CMS for Django developers

    Wagtail lets developers model pages in Python while editors work in a fast admin with flexible content blocks.

  • Ready-made sites on PHP hosting

    Joomla runs on ordinary PHP hosting and grows with community extensions and templates.

  • A CMS for .NET teams

    Umbraco installs from dotnet project templates and is extended in C#, with a backoffice for editors.

How to choose a CMS

The biggest difference between them is the programming language and skills they assume. Some are frameworks that developers shape in code; others are complete systems that site owners extend with add-ons. Choose one your team can maintain for years.

Your team's language

Wagtail needs Python, Umbraco needs .NET, and Joomla runs on PHP. Pick the stack your developers and your hosting already support, because a website usually lives on the same CMS for many years.

Who builds the site

Wagtail and Umbraco expect a developer to define content types and templates before editors start. Joomla can be set up by site owners with extensions, though complex sites still benefit from a developer.

Add-ons and their licenses

The core of all three is OSI open source with no paid parts. Extensions and themes from other vendors may be paid or carry their own licenses, so check them before you build on one.

Headless or traditional

Wagtail offers a content API for headless sites with a separate front end. If you mainly need content delivered to apps through an API, a dedicated headless CMS may suit you better.

Drafted with AI from the projects’ READMEs and our data, then checked against that data on 31 October 2026. Report a correction

Which of these are really open source?

Fully open source (3)OSI-approved license, no paid parts in the repository
Wagtail, Umbraco, Joomla
Open source with paid parts (0)OSI license, but some features are under commercial terms
None
Not OSI open source (0)Code is public, use is restricted
None

Read automatically from each repository’s license files every day. How we read licenses

Questions about open-source websites & CMS

What are the most popular open-source websites & CMS projects?

By GitHub stars: Wagtail (20.6k), Umbraco (5.3k), Joomla (5.2k). By our health score, the most actively maintained are Umbraco (91), Wagtail (87), Joomla (86).

Which websites & CMS projects are fully open source?

3 of the 3 use an OSI-approved license with no paid parts in the repository, including Wagtail, Umbraco, Joomla.

Which are the easiest to self-host?

Judged by the services in their compose files, Umbraco need the least setup.

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