SHSelfHostIndex

Craft 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?
CR Craft CMS Flexible CMS for custom-designed websites VS SQ Squidex Headless CMS, based on MongoDB, CQRS and Event Sourcing
FeatureCraft CMSSquidex
CategoryContent Management SystemsContent Management Systems
LicenseMITMIT
LanguagePHPC#
Setup difficultyMediumMedium
Min. RAM512 MB512 MB
Deploymentdocker, bare-metal, sourcebare-metal
GitHub stars★ 3,600★ 2,509
First released20132026
ReplacesWordPress, Sitecore—

Why pick each one

Choose Craft CMS if…

  • Excellent for bespoke sites
  • Clean control panel
Craft 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 Craft CMS or Squidex better?

Neither is universally better. Craft CMS has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.

Are Craft CMS and Squidex free and open-source?

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

Can I run Craft CMS and Squidex with Docker?

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

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