WinterCMS

A free, community-maintained CMS on Laravel for developers and agencies who want quick prototyping and a simple, secure codebase.

1.5k stars, 250 forks PHP On GitHub since March 2021

Visit website View on GitHub How to run it

WinterCMS at a glance

Open sourceYes, MITNo paid parts in the repository
Health74 of 100Actively developed
Self-hostingFrom sourceSteps in the README
Interface31 languagesIncluding English, German and French
Issue repliesWithin ~20 hoursMedian first reply; 58% of recent issues answered

What is WinterCMS?

Winter is a content management system built on the Laravel PHP framework and run by a community maintenance team. Developers install it with Composer, generate an environment file, and run migrations that create an admin account with a generated password. Themes and plugins follow Laravel conventions, which makes prototyping quick for teams already using the framework. The back end is translated into 31 languages.

Good fit if

  • Your team works in Laravel and wants an MIT-licensed CMS on the same stack.
  • You build custom sites for clients and value a small, understandable codebase.

Look elsewhere if

  • You want a Laravel CMS with commercial backing and a paid license: October.
  • You need a site non-developers can set up from a plugin market: WordPress.

Before you adopt it

WinterCMS is MIT-licensed and has no paid parts. One maintainer writes most commits, joined by a handful of others. There is no Docker setup; you need PHP, Composer and a database.

Drafted with AI from the project's README and repository data, then checked against that data on 31 October 2026. Report a correction

How to run WinterCMS yourself

Docker
No Docker files 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
31 languages, including English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Polish, Russian, Ukrainian and Turkish
Show all 31

Arabic, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Japanese, Kanuri, Latvian, Lithuanian, Norwegian Bokmål, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian

Install instructions: wintercms.com or the README on GitHub.

WinterCMS health: is it still maintained?

74 of 100, actively developed

Release rhythmEvery ~30 days8 releases in 12 months; latest v1.2.15
Issue repliesWithin ~20 hoursMedian first reply; 58% of recent issues answered
Bus factorMedium riskThe most active of 9 authors wrote 72% of recent commits
  • Activity
    60 commits in the last 90 days, the latest on 4 November 2026.
    22 / 30
  • Contributors
    9 people wrote the 60 commits of the last 90 days; the most active wrote 72% of them.
    13 / 20
  • Releases
    8 releases in the last 12 months; the latest, v1.2.15, on 4 November 2026.
    17 / 20
  • Replies to issues
    Maintainers answered 58% of recent issues, with a median first reply after 20 hours.
    17 / 20
  • Security practices
    No OpenSSF Scorecard for this repository yet, so this part gets a neutral score.
    5 / 10

Read from GitHub on 7 November 2026. How the score works

WinterCMS license: is it open source?

WinterCMS uses MIT, an open-source license approved by the OSI.

  1. March 2021First published on GitHub.
  2. TodayMIT.

WinterCMS for developers

Written in

  • PHP 71%
  • JavaScript 18%
  • Less 8%
  • CSS 2%
  • HTML <1%
  • Other <1%

Getting involved

Contributing guideNot foundNo CONTRIBUTING file in the repository
Open issues67On GitHub
Authors, 90 days9Of 60 commits
Donations2 waysGitHub Sponsors, Open Collective

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

Alternatives to WinterCMS

  • octoberSelf-hosted CMS platform based on the Laravel PHP Framework. 75 health · Unidentified license · 11.2k stars
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All 13 projects in Websites & CMS

Questions about WinterCMS

Is WinterCMS open source?

Yes. WinterCMS is published under MIT, an OSI-approved open-source license.

Is WinterCMS still maintained?

Its health score is 74 of 100 (actively developed). It had 60 commits in the last 90 days, the latest on 4 November 2026, and its latest release came out on 4 November 2026.

How do I run WinterCMS?

The repository has no Docker files or app builds, so you build it from source. The README on GitHub has the steps.

What is WinterCMS written in?

WinterCMS is written mainly in PHP (71% of the code), with JavaScript (18%) and Less (8%), by GitHub’s count of the repository.

What languages is WinterCMS available in?

The repository has interface translations for 31 languages, including English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Polish and Russian.

What are the alternatives to WinterCMS?

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