Cockpit Next vs Keystone
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted content management systems options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Cockpit Next | Keystone |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 81 · Excellent | 93 · Excellent |
| Category | Content Management Systems | Content Management Systems |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | PHP | TypeScript |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal, source, docker | docker, bare-metal, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 747 | ★ 9,977 |
| First released | 2021 | 2013 |
| Replaces | Contentful, Strapi | Contentful, Strapi |
What are Cockpit Next and Keystone?
Cockpit Next
Cockpit Next is the rewritten generation of the Cockpit headless CMS, providing a content API, structured content management, and asset handling without dictating a presentation layer. It is designed to serve content to websites, apps, and other services.
- Headless content API
- Structured content models
- Asset manager
- Lightweight footprint
Keystone
Keystone is an open-source headless CMS and Node.js framework that lets developers define schemas in code and automatically get a GraphQL API and admin UI. It is well suited to content-driven applications.
- Schema-as-code data modeling
- Auto-generated GraphQL API
- Customizable admin UI
- Flexible field types
Cockpit Next vs Keystone: key differences
Cockpit Next is written in PHP, while Keystone is built with TypeScript. Cockpit Next is the lighter option, starting around 256 MB of RAM against 512 MB for Keystone. Keystone is the more established project (first released 2013), while Cockpit Next arrived in 2021. Keystone has the considerably larger community, at 9,977 GitHub stars versus 747.
Why pick each one
Choose Cockpit Next if…
- Released under the MIT license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Written in PHP
- Tiny footprint — runs in 256 MB RAM
Choose Keystone if…
- Strong TypeScript support
- Flexible and extensible
Watch out for
- Headless only
- Smaller community than Strapi
Frequently asked questions
Is Cockpit Next or Keystone better?
Neither is universally better. Keystone has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Cockpit Next and Keystone free and open-source?
Yes. Cockpit Next is licensed under MIT and Keystone under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Cockpit Next and Keystone with Docker?
Cockpit Next: yes. Keystone: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Cockpit Next or Keystone?
Cockpit Next has the smaller minimum footprint at 256 MB of RAM, compared to about 512 MB for Keystone. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.