WordPress Alternatives – David Darnes

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Editor’s note: Due to the unexpected attention of this article, I’ve added a few more alternatives that people have suggested. I’ve also added some contextual notes you should know before diving into these options.

Because of gestures vaguely, everything going on with WordPress right now, I thought I could put together a list of alternative CMSs that better fit the criteria someone might have for their website. The modern CMS landscape is super broad, stretching the definition of “Content Management System”. Some see it as a full website platform, and some see it as just a user interface for their content stored elsewhere.

The criteria for this list are: “Can it be downloaded, put on a server, and do you have a website?” This eliminates API and git based CMSs, which I like to use; However, connecting a series of tools is not feasible for many.

People will already know that I have a soft spot for Ghost. But what you may not know is what I would recommend for hosting.

Magic Pages is what I use for Design Systems WTF, and it’s been great! The uptime is good, the price is very reasonable and Jannis provides a personal touch with support. Additionally, this bypasses Ghost’s native hosting option (Ghost Pro), which I would be wary of due to previous experiences with other customers.

I haven’t used Kirby in client work, but I hear only good things. It’s file-based, which seems super appealing to someone like me who gets cold sweats when opening a database.

Indiekit seems like an interesting option; it is also file-based, but needs a database to manage existing content.

It’s a bit more of a commercial option with Craft CMS, but it does offer a free option for solo creators. But be warned, because you will have to spend time designing your content structure based on its appearance.

ClassicPress appears to be a direct fork of WordPress, but with version 6.2.3. It seems perfect for anyone looking for ‘the good old days’. However, it uses the official WordPress plugin API, so it’s not a 100% clean break if that’s what you’re going for. Thanks to Pelle Wessman for this suggestion.

I’ve had several people suggest Statamic. It looks pretty good, and they have a free solo plan (similar to Craft CMS). I think if the co-founder hadn’t blatantly supported a terribly harmful politician, I would have tried it.

I wanted to suggest Perch and Buckets on this list, but public activity seems low for both. The Perch website even has issues with the SSL certificate, which is not a good sign. Check them out if you’re interested, but you’ve been warned.

Honorable mention

Many years ago I contributed to Anchor, a modest PHP-based CMS that has grown a small community around it. Sadly, the creator, Charlotte, passed away in 2020, and the remaining core team was unable to keep the project going while juggling other responsibilities. I think back on it fondly and wish we could give it the time it deserves.

The aspects of the theme and custom types were wonderfully simple; Heck, I even created an entire site dedicated to themes and sites built with them:

I’ll try to keep this list updated as I remember others I’ve used in the past. Hopefully you find this useful if you are looking for alternative CMSs.