Backdrop CMS

A PHP and MySQL content management system forked from Drupal, aimed at organizations that want a site builder usable without custom development.

1.1k stars, 403 forks PHP On GitHub since August 2013

Visit website View on GitHub How to run it

Backdrop CMS at a glance

Open sourceYes, GPL-2.0No paid parts in the repository
Health67 of 100Actively developed
Self-hostingFrom sourceOne-click in YunoHost
Interface67 languagesIncluding English, German and French
Release rhythmEvery ~5 daysLatest: 1.35.2, 14 October 2026

What is Backdrop CMS?

Backdrop CMS began as a fork of Drupal and keeps its focus on developers who value ease of use and fast learning over architectural flexibility. Non-technical staff manage content through the admin interface, and the same core can run blogs, image galleries, intranets or community sites. The project aims to work out of the box while offering extensible APIs for modules. It runs on PHP 7.1 or newer with MySQL 5.5 or newer, behind Apache or Nginx, and the interface is translated into 67 languages.

Good fit if

  • Your developers know Drupal and want a CMS that is quicker to learn.
  • Your host offers a classic PHP and MySQL stack and you want a browser installer rather than containers.
  • Editors need to publish content without writing code.

Look elsewhere if

  • You want the largest plugin and theme market in PHP: WordPress.
  • Your team builds in Python with Django: Wagtail.
  • A small site needs no database at all: Bludit.

Before you adopt it

Backdrop is licensed under GPL version 2 or later, and redistributions may move to a later GPL version. The repository has no paid parts. Development is shared: eleven people committed in the last 90 days, under the backdrop organization, and releases continue. There is no Docker setup in the repository; installation means creating a MySQL database and running the web installer. Security reports go to a dedicated security team rather than the public tracker.

Drafted with AI from the project's README and repository data, then checked against that data on 7 November 2026. Report a correction

How to run Backdrop CMS yourself

One-click install

Not listed in Umbrel, TrueNAS, Unraid, CasaOS, Runtipi, Proxmox VE Helper-Scripts and Coolify. Checked against each panel’s app catalog on 12 November 2026.

Ways to install

Docker files
None in the repository
Compose file
None in the repository
Setup effort
Not rated: no compose file to judge from
Kubernetes
No Helm chart in the repository
Desktop and mobile
No app builds in GitHub releases
Interface languages
67 languages, including English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Polish, Russian, Ukrainian and Turkish
Show all 67

Afrikaans, Albanian, Arabic, Armenian, Azerbaijani, Bangla, Basque, Bosnian, Breton, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chamorro, Chinese, Corsican, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Esperanto, Estonian, Faroese, Finnish, French, Galician, Georgian, German, Greek, Gujarati, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Japanese, Kazakh, Khmer, Korean, Kurdish, Kyrgyz, Latvian, Lithuanian, Luxembourgish, Macedonian, Malay, Malayalam, Mongolian, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, Occitan, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Romansh, Russian, Serbian, Sinhala, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Tamil, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Uyghur, Vietnamese, Welsh

Install instructions: backdropcms.org or the README on GitHub.

Backdrop CMS health: is it still maintained?

67 of 100, actively developed

Release rhythmEvery ~5 daysLatest: 1.35.2, 14 October 2026
Issue repliesNot measuredToo few recent issues from outside the team
Bus factorLow riskThe most active of 11 authors wrote 33% of recent commits
  • Activity
    40 commits in the last 90 days, the latest on 15 October 2026.
    20 / 30
  • Contributors
    11 people wrote the 40 commits of the last 90 days; the most active wrote 33% of them.
    14 / 20
  • Releases
    13+ releases in the last 12 months; the latest, 1.35.2, on 14 October 2026.
    19 / 20
  • Replies to issues
    Too few recent issues from outside the team to measure, so this part gets a neutral score.
    10 / 20
  • Security practices
    OpenSSF Scorecard 4.3 of 10.
    4 / 10

Read from GitHub on 12 November 2026. How the score works

Backdrop CMS security

Security advisories are the vulnerabilities the maintainers disclosed on GitHub, with the versions that fix them; many advisories can mean careful disclosure as much as weak code. OpenSSF Scorecard checks how a project is developed and released: reviews, protected branches, pinned dependencies, signed releases. It does not audit the code itself.

Security advisoriesNone publishedNo advisories in the repository’s Security tab
OpenSSF Scorecard4.3 of 10How the project is built and released
Security policyNoNo SECURITY.md or similar
Signed releasesNoDownloads cannot be checked against a signature

What each Scorecard check found

  • Binary files10 / 10No compiled binaries checked into the repository
  • Dangerous workflows10 / 10No risky patterns in GitHub Actions
  • License file10 / 10A license file is present
  • Maintained10 / 10Steady commits and issue activity in the last 90 days
  • Best-practices badge5 / 10Working towards the OpenSSF Best Practices badge
  • Code review5 / 10Some changes are merged without review
  • Branch protection3 / 10Rules on the main branch are partly enforced
  • Fuzzing0 / 10No fuzz testing found
  • Pinned dependencies0 / 10Dependencies are not pinned to fixed versions
  • Security policy0 / 10No security policy
  • Signed releases0 / 10Releases are not signed
  • Static analysis0 / 10No static analysis found
  • Token permissions0 / 10CI tokens have broad write rights

Advisories read from GitHub on 12 November 2026. From the OpenSSF Scorecard of 9 November 2026; checks that do not apply to Backdrop CMS are left out.

Backdrop CMS license: is it open source?

Backdrop CMS uses GPL-2.0, an open-source license approved by the OSI.

  1. August 2013First published on GitHub.
  2. TodayGPL-2.0.

Backdrop CMS for developers

Written in

  • PHP 93%
  • JavaScript 5%
  • CSS 2%
  • HTML <1%
  • Hack <1%

Getting involved

Contributing guideNot foundNo CONTRIBUTING file in the repository
Open issues0On GitHub
Authors, 90 days11Of 40 commits

Language shares are GitHub’s count of the code in the repository.

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Questions about Backdrop CMS

Is Backdrop CMS open source?

Yes. Backdrop CMS is published under GPL-2.0, an OSI-approved open-source license.

Is Backdrop CMS still maintained?

Its health score is 67 of 100 (actively developed). It had 40 commits in the last 90 days, the latest on 15 October 2026, and its latest release came out on 14 October 2026.

How do I run Backdrop CMS?

You can run it in one click from YunoHost. The README on GitHub has the exact steps.

What is Backdrop CMS written in?

Backdrop CMS is written mainly in PHP (93% of the code), by GitHub’s count of the repository.

What languages is Backdrop CMS available in?

The repository has interface translations for 67 languages, including English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Polish and Russian.

What are the alternatives to Backdrop CMS?

Close alternatives in the Websites & CMS category include Joomla, CraftCMS, october.