Headless CMS

Ghost is an open-source publishing platform and headless content management system designed for professional publishers. It provides a decoupled architecture that separates the content management backend from the front-end delivery layer, allowing users to manage editorial workflows and site data through structured web services. The platform distinguishes itself by integrating a built-in membership and subscription engine, which enables creators to manage gated content, paid tiers, and secure member profiles directly within the system. It also features a dedicated infrastructure for professio

Cockpit is a headless content management system and API-driven content manager. It functions as a decoupled CMS that separates backend data storage from the frontend presentation layer. The system manages website content by providing structured data to applications through REST or GraphQL interfaces. This approach utilizes an API-first data distribution model to ensure platform independence for the client application. Content is organized using schema-driven modeling and delivered through a headless delivery architecture. This decouples the administrative content editor from the end-user dis

Strapi is an open-source headless content management system and JavaScript framework used for defining content schemas and managing structured data. It functions as a REST and GraphQL API gateway that decouples backend data storage from frontend delivery. The system includes a self-hosted administration interface for managing content entries and defining data models without manual database queries. The framework utilizes a plugin-based extension system to inject custom logic into the application lifecycle. It employs schema-driven content modeling to automatically generate database tables and

Alchemy CMS is a content management system built on the Ruby on Rails framework that provides a modular environment for constructing websites. It utilizes a component-based architecture to organize content into reusable blocks, allowing for consistent design and structure across pages while supporting both traditional server-side template rendering and headless content delivery. The platform distinguishes itself by offering a dual-delivery approach, exposing structured content through standardized application programming interfaces to support decoupled front-end architectures. It includes an

Apostrophe is an open-source Node.js headless content management system that delivers structured content through REST APIs while providing a visual in-context page editor for live editing. It is built on a module-based plugin architecture that extends CMS functionality through reusable modules, each encapsulating logic, configuration, and templates. The system uses schema-driven content modeling to define data structures and validation rules through configurable schemas and custom field types, with all content stored as flexible JSON-like documents in MongoDB. The platform distinguishes itsel

Keystone is a GraphQL headless content management system and Node.js backend framework. It functions as a schema-driven data manager that automatically generates a GraphQL API and a React administrative dashboard based on a central data model configuration. The system uses an adapter-based database abstraction to decouple core logic from storage layers and a storage-provider abstraction for managing media assets via local or cloud drivers. It distinguishes itself through a component-based field rendering system and a hook-based middleware pipeline for data validation and automation. The fram

Microfeed is a serverless content management system hosted on Cloudflare infrastructure for managing blogs, podcasts, and multimedia feeds. It functions as a self-hosted multimedia publisher and a headless content API, allowing users to organize text, audio, and video content under a custom domain. The system includes an RSS and JSON feed generator to distribute machine-readable content to external aggregators and podcast players. It provides a programmatic interface for managing and serving content as a data source for external client applications. The platform covers administrative dashboa

Webiny is an AI-programmable, cloud-native headless content management system designed for enterprise scale. It functions as a multi-tenant content platform and orchestrator that isolates data, users, and permissions to host thousands of independent tenants from a single deployment. The platform is distinguished by its AI-assisted engineering capabilities, providing protocol servers that give AI agents the structural context needed to generate typed code, content models, and API extensions. It further separates itself through a cloud-native architecture deployed on AWS infrastructure, using i

Directus is a headless content platform that functions as a backend service, automatically generating REST and GraphQL APIs by performing introspection on existing SQL database schemas. It serves as a unified data orchestration layer, decoupling content management from frontend delivery while providing a secure, stateless gateway for database transactions. The platform distinguishes itself through a granular role-based access control engine that enforces security policies at the field level across all API endpoints. It includes a visual, low-code administrative dashboard that allows non-techn

Payload is a headless content management system and application framework that uses a code-first approach to define data schemas and administrative interfaces. By utilizing a centralized, type-safe configuration object, it automatically generates database schemas, API endpoints, and a fully customizable admin panel. The system is built on a database-agnostic architecture, allowing it to interface with various storage engines while providing a unified, type-safe API for server-side operations, REST, and GraphQL. What distinguishes Payload is its deep extensibility and developer-centric design.

⭐️ BCMS is a Headless CMS for developers & their clients. Works nicely with Gatsby, Next.js & Nuxt. This is an open-source version for self-hosting.

Qor is a Go admin framework and backend toolkit used for building administrative interfaces, headless content management systems, and REST API generators. It provides a structured environment for implementing business application backends, specializing in the management of structured content and media assets. The project distinguishes itself through comprehensive multi-language content management, featuring locale-based data versioning and a dedicated system for internationalization and translation administration. It further differentiates its offering with a built-in state machine implementa

Twill is a Laravel CMS toolkit and admin panel generator designed for building custom administrative consoles and content management systems. It serves as a headless CMS framework and a toolkit for defining content models and managing structured data through a dedicated administrative interface. The project features a visual block editor that allows publishers to arrange and configure reusable content sections via a drag-and-drop interface. It includes a dedicated digital asset manager for storing, cropping, and optimizing images and files across local or cloud storage, as well as a multiling

The WordPress REST API is a web interface and JSON-based content API that allows for the retrieval and modification of site content, users, and metadata using standard HTTP methods. It functions as a headless CMS interface, decoupling content management from the frontend by exposing site data through a programmable RESTful controller. The system is distinguished by its hypermedia-driven discovery and JSON-schema-based validation, which allow clients to programmatically locate resources and ensure predictable data exchange. It utilizes namespace-based endpoint registration to organize routes a

Sanity is a headless content management platform and structured content API that stores data and delivers it via an API to any frontend or device. It functions as a real-time content studio, providing a customizable editing environment for managing digital assets and documents through a type-safe, decoupled data layer. The platform is distinguished by a graph-oriented query engine using the GROQ language to filter, transform, and retrieve structured content. It enables real-time collaborative editing with live presence indicators and a schema-driven approach to document management. The syste

Wagtail is an open-source content management system built on the Django web framework. It provides a structured, tree-based approach to content modeling, allowing developers to define custom page types and reusable content components that are managed through a highly customizable administrative interface. The platform distinguishes itself through its flexible, block-based content composition system, which enables editors to assemble complex page layouts dynamically. It also offers robust support for multi-site and multi-lingual environments, allowing organizations to manage distinct websites

EmDash is an open-source content management system built on Astro that combines a visual admin panel with a plugin-driven architecture and server-side rendering. It provides a complete content management system with structured content modeling, a rich text editor using Portable Text format, and a TypeScript API for type-safe content queries. The system supports authentication through passkeys, OAuth 2.1, and external providers, with role-based access control and fine-grained permission scopes. What distinguishes EmDash is its plugin development framework, which supports both native plugins ru

Grav is a flat-file content management system that eliminates the need for a traditional database by storing site content and configuration in human-readable Markdown and YAML files. Built as a modular PHP web framework, it uses a hierarchical page routing system where the physical directory structure directly determines the site's URL paths. The platform is distinguished by its event-driven plugin architecture and a command-line interface that prioritizes system administration, deployment, and maintenance tasks. It utilizes a blueprint-driven system to generate administrative forms from stru

Netlify CMS is a Git-based headless content management system designed for static sites. It provides a decoupled administration interface that allows users to edit markdown and JSON files stored in a version control repository without interacting directly with the code. The system functions as a version-controlled editor that leverages Git commits and branches to track changes and manage site deployments. It separates the backend data management from the frontend presentation layer, enabling content creation and modification through a user interface. The project covers content model definiti

Decap CMS is a headless, Git-based content management system designed to provide a visual editing interface for static site workflows. By decoupling the administrative dashboard from the frontend, it allows users to manage content stored directly in version control repositories as structured data. The system maps visual form inputs to repository files, enabling non-technical contributors to update content without requiring direct code changes. The platform distinguishes itself through its Git-centric automation, which handles content lifecycles by creating commits, branches, and pull requests

TinaCMS is a headless content management framework that bridges local Git-based file storage with a visual, in-context editing interface. By treating your repository as the single source of truth, it enables developers to manage content as structured data files while providing editors with a browser-based dashboard to modify website content directly within a live preview. The framework distinguishes itself by transforming local files into a unified GraphQL API, which powers both the administrative interface and the application's data retrieval layer. This architecture allows for compile-time

Badaso is a headless content management system and administrative framework built on Laravel. It functions by inspecting existing database schemas to automatically generate REST and GraphQL API endpoints, effectively eliminating the need for manual backend boilerplate code. The framework distinguishes itself by providing a dynamic, Vue-based administrative dashboard that maps directly to database structures. This interface allows users to manage database records, configure navigation, and organize media assets through a visual environment, decoupling backend data management from the frontend

AI Agent: Open-source headless CMS built with ASP.NET Core (C#) and React, featuring REST APIs, GraphQL, and a GrapesJS page designer.

The CMS based on Phalcon v4 and UIKit v3

Cofoundry is an extensible and flexible .NET Core CMS & application framework focusing on code first development

Yona CMS - open source content management system (CMS). Written in Phalcon PHP Framework (version 3.x supported)