SHSelfHostIndex

Anchor CMS vs Squidex

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?
AN Anchor CMS Lightweight blogging-focused CMS VS SQ Squidex Headless CMS, based on MongoDB, CQRS and Event Sourcing
FeatureAnchor CMSSquidex
CategoryContent Management SystemsContent Management Systems
LicenseGPL-3.0MIT
LanguagePHPC#
Setup difficultyEasyMedium
Min. RAM128 MB512 MB
Deploymentbare-metal, docker, sourcebare-metal
GitHub stars★ 3,298★ 2,509
First released20122026
ReplacesWordPress—

Why pick each one

Choose Anchor CMS if…

  • Very lightweight
  • Easy installation
Anchor CMS details

Choose Squidex if…

  • Released under the MIT license
  • Active community (2.5k GitHub stars)
  • Written in C#
  • Lightweight — runs in 512 MB RAM
Squidex details

Frequently asked questions

Is Anchor CMS or Squidex better?

Anchor CMS is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider Squidex if its specific feature set fits your needs better.

Are Anchor CMS and Squidex free and open-source?

Yes. Anchor CMS is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Squidex under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Anchor CMS and Squidex with Docker?

Anchor CMS: yes. Squidex: check the project docs for container support.

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