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Keystone vs Statamic

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?
KE Keystone Headless CMS framework with a powerful GraphQL API VS Statamic Laravel-powered flat-file CMS for custom sites
FeatureKeystoneStatamic
Deploy effortUnder-an-hour setupUnder-an-hour setup
Health score93 · Excellent89 · Excellent
CategoryContent Management SystemsContent Management Systems
LicenseMITMIT
LanguageTypeScriptPHP
Setup difficultyMediumMedium
Min. RAM512 MB512 MB
Deploymentdocker, bare-metal, sourcedocker, bare-metal, source
GitHub stars★ 9,977★ 4,897
First released20132012
ReplacesContentful, StrapiWordPress, Contentful

What are Keystone and Statamic?

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

Read the full Keystone guide →

Statamic

Statamic is a content management system built on Laravel that can run flat-file or database-backed. It offers a friendly control panel and a developer-focused workflow for building custom websites.

  • Flat-file or database storage
  • Built on Laravel
  • Git-friendly content
  • Polished control panel

Read the full Statamic guide →

Keystone vs Statamic: key differences

Keystone is written in TypeScript, while Statamic is built with PHP. Keystone has the considerably larger community, at 9,977 GitHub stars versus 4,897.

Why pick each one

Choose Keystone if…

  • Strong TypeScript support
  • Flexible and extensible

Watch out for

  • Headless only
  • Smaller community than Strapi
Keystone details

Choose Statamic if…

  • Great for Laravel developers
  • Easy version control of content

Watch out for

  • Solo and Pro licenses can be paid
  • Best suited to developers
Statamic details

Frequently asked questions

Is Keystone or Statamic 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 Keystone and Statamic free and open-source?

Yes. Keystone is licensed under MIT and Statamic under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Keystone and Statamic with Docker?

Keystone: yes. Statamic: yes.

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