SHSelfHostIndex

Content Management Systems

Build and manage websites with self-hosted CMS platforms, alternatives to Wix and Squarespace.

88 self-hosted apps · 336 comparisons

All content management systems apps

Last reviewed Aug 26, 2026 · 468 words

Choose a CMS by who will be editing the site in a year, not by the feature grid. A platform your actual editors avoid is a static site with extra attack surface, and the four sensible picks here map cleanly onto four kinds of editor: a non-technical team, a publisher selling subscriptions, a tinkerer who wants files, and a developer building an app.

How to choose a CMS

The first axis is the editor's technical comfort. WordPress (powering sites since 2003) remains the only option here a non-technical person can run largely alone — themes, plugins, and twenty years of answered questions cover almost any problem. Payload sits at the other pole: a TypeScript-native headless CMS where the schema lives in code and the admin UI is generated from it, excellent for developers and useless without one. The second axis is storage. Grav is flat-file — content is Markdown on disk, no database, so backup is rsync and migration is copying a folder; the trade-off is that it suits small and medium sites, not sprawling ones. Everything else here wants a database, and Ghost specifically recommends MySQL in production. The third axis is whether you need a CMS at all in the headless sense: Payload's API-first model only pays off if you are already building the front end. If you just want a website, pick something that renders one.

Where to start

Ghost (55,061 stars) is the standout for independent publishing: memberships, paid subscriptions, and email newsletters are native, not bolted on, which makes it the self-hosted answer to Substack as much as to WordPress. WordPress is the pragmatic pick when other people edit the site. Grav rewards anyone who prefers files over admin panels and runs comfortably in 256 MB. If your writing is plain blogging with no need for a server-rendered CMS at all, the static generators in blogging platforms are lighter still.

The maintenance tax is the real price

WordPress's catalogue entry lists the two costs candidly: it is a frequent target for attacks, and plugin bloat slows sites down. Both trace to the same root — the ecosystem that makes it powerful. The mitigation is boring discipline: automatic core updates on, plugins in single digits, and a login page that is not /wp-admin on the open internet without rate limiting. Ghost and Grav carry a much smaller surface, which is itself a selection criterion if you will not commit to patching.

Default for a first-timer: WordPress if anyone non-technical will edit; Ghost the moment the site is your own publication. When in doubt between the two, take Ghost — its maintenance load is lighter and its editor is the one you will actually enjoy opening.

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Content Management Systems comparisons

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