Joomla vs SPIP

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?
FeatureJoomlaSPIP
CategoryContent Management SystemsContent Management Systems
LicenseGPL-2.0GPL-3.0-or-later
LanguagePHP
Setup difficultyMediumEasy
Min. RAM512 MB50 MB
Deploymentdocker, bare-metalbare-metal
GitHub stars★ 5,122
First released20052023
ReplacesWix, SquarespaceBlogger, Coldfusion, Wix

Why pick each one

Choose Joomla if…

  • Good middle ground in flexibility
  • Multilingual without extra plugins
Joomla details

Choose SPIP if…

  • Released under the GPL-3.0-or-later license
  • Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
  • Tiny footprint — runs in 50 MB RAM
SPIP details

Frequently asked questions

Is Joomla or SPIP better?

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

Are Joomla and SPIP free and open-source?

Yes. Joomla is licensed under GPL-2.0 and SPIP under GPL-3.0-or-later. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Joomla and SPIP with Docker?

Joomla: yes. SPIP: check the project docs for container support.

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