Anchor CMS vs Mezzanine

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted content management systems options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

Not the right match-up?
FeatureAnchor CMSMezzanine
CategoryContent Management SystemsContent Management Systems
LicenseGPL-3.0BSD-2-Clause
LanguagePHPPython
Setup difficultyEasyMedium
Min. RAM128 MB512 MB
Deploymentbare-metal, docker, sourcedocker, bare-metal, source
GitHub stars★ 3,298★ 4,822
First released20122010
ReplacesWordPressWordPress

Why pick each one

Choose Anchor CMS if…

  • Very lightweight
  • Easy installation
Anchor CMS details

Choose Mezzanine if…

  • Quick to get a Django site running
  • Includes blogging out of the box
Mezzanine details

Frequently asked questions

Is Anchor CMS or Mezzanine better?

Neither is universally better. Mezzanine has the larger community, while Anchor CMS is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.

Are Anchor CMS and Mezzanine free and open-source?

Yes. Anchor CMS is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Mezzanine under BSD-2-Clause. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Anchor CMS and Mezzanine with Docker?

Anchor CMS: yes. Mezzanine: yes.

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