Open Source CMS: 12 Great Website Creation Tools

Brief: Looking for a free and open source website creation tool? We have created a list of 12 open source CMS that you can use for various kind of websites.

A CMS (Content Management System) is what lets us manage the content or information on a webpage. However, it is capable of a lot of other things than just “managing the content.” And, the root cause for the rapid evolution and extensibility of CMS’ would definitely be – “Open Source CMS initiatives”.

The more open source CMS’ surfaced, the more extensible they became. Well, some open source CMS’ focused on a particular thing while most of them tried to become an “all-in-one CMS” – with the help of which you can design and customize your website as you’d prefer. Some of them can also be extended as open source Ecommerce platforms.

With the advancements in CMS’, you do not need to hire a web developer to set up your website – even if you want to create an e-commerce platform. You can do it all by yourself – without requiring any coding skills. Yes, it’s that easy!

But, before getting to know about some of the best open-source CMS’ – let us check out some of the factors which you should consider while choosing the best CMS for your work.

Factors To Look For While Choosing A CMS

There are basically three factors to consider while choosing the best CMS for your work, they are:

• Plugins & Themes Support
• User Interface
• Customizability

The Number of Plugins & Themes Available

The plugins/extensions are meant to extend the functionality of the core features available in a CMS.

The more the merrier – right? The extensions will basically help you save a lot of time with adding extra functionalities to your website.

Not just that but the website design does matter as well. So, you need to make sure that the CMS you’re choosing offerings enough design template/theme choices so that you can customize the look and feel of your website.

You can utilize the official marketplaces for the respective CMS’ or simply take a look at Envato’s marketplace (Themeforest / Codecanyon) for premium 3rd party themes/plugins.

User Interface

If the user interface is good enough, the web application will be easy to use. You won’t need to spend a lot of time figuring out how to get things done.

Of course, the easier it gets for you to manage and create your site, the better it is.

Customizability

It all comes down to your personal preferences here. If you do not want to customize anything – just use the CMS as is – then you don’t have to worry about the customizability of a website creation tool.

However, if you want to customize a lot of elements as to your liking – you should be very cautious about what you can do with the various options available. There’s always a learning curve to this factor – no matter what CMS you prefer.

Once you’re used to a CMS, you can easily customize it.

Now, let us take a look at some of the best open source CMS’ (or if you’d prefer them as – website creation tools).

Note: Using a CMS does not require any coding skills at all. However, if you have the necessary knowledge of Markup languages (HTML), Stylesheet languages (CSS), and server-side programming languages (PHP) – you can do a lot of innovative stuff.

List Of Open Source CMS

Just to be clear, the following list is in no particular order of ranking. I am just listing some of the open source CMS that you can consider for your specific website needs. 

1. WordPress

Without a doubt, WordPress is one of the most popular CMS platforms. You can either make a blog or even build an e-commerce site with the help of it. WordPress is a very user-friendly website creation tool.

When considering the stats, WordPress occupies almost 60% or more of the total market share among all the other open-source CMS’.

Well, It’s FOSS also utilizes the WordPress CMS. You do not have the worry about the security patches on this platform because the dev community is super active to keep the platform up-to-date with new features and fixes. The majority of online publications rely on WordPress to manage their content, including us at It’s FOSS.

So, if you’re looking to create a blog/publication, the easiest option would be to utilize WordPress – but that’s just what I think.

Pros:

• A huge plugin/theme repository
• User-friendly
• Secure (Regular Updates & Patches)
• Highly Customizable
• Easy SEO-Integration
• Multi-purpose CMS

Cons:

• It’s tough to implement a custom website template.
• Plugin compatibility with new WordPress versions might be an issue (most of the time)

2. Ghost

Ghost is a simpler alternative to WordPress if you just want to focus on your content structure and SEO. You won’t really get the ability to add unique features to your website because Ghost is specifically tailored for a good user experience focused on the content instead of extra features.

If you want your content to stand out along with a modern website design (and no fancy features) – Ghost should be the perfect open source CMS in that case. It even offers a subscription-system for your visitors out of the box to monetize your blog.

You can host Ghost on your own Linux server or opt for their managed hosting platform that takes care of everything from installation to configuration. Managing the security and backups is also in hand of the Ghost team so that you can focus on creating content, not managing servers.

Pros:

• Simplicity
• Modern Website UI elements
• Secure (Regular Updates & Patches)

Cons:

• Not much extensible
• Lacks customizability
• Only tailored for certain blogs/FAQ pages

3. Drupal

Drupal is considered to be one of the best enterprise open source CMS. It isn’t as easy as WordPress though. So, you need to read some documentation before jumping right into the platform.

Similar to WordPress, Drupal offers modules (as plugins) to add more functionality to your website. Of course, you do not get a lot of modules (when compared to WordPress). But, it is perfectly customizable (almost close to what WordPress offers).

You can even try to utilize it for an e-commerce website- but that’s on your preference.

Pros:

• Highly extensible
• Secure (Regular Updates & Patches)
• Multi-purpose CMS

Cons:

• Not recommended for a full-fledged blog/publication

4. Joomla

Joomla is yet another impressive open-source CMS. I haven’t used it – so I wouldn’t be too sure about how reliable/easy to manage it is in the long run.

However, you get all the essential features and the extension support as well.

Pros:

• Impressive User Interface
• Highly Customizable (Front-End)
• Secure (Regular Updates & Patches)
• Multi-purpose CMS

Cons:

• Maybe not be as user-friendly as WordPress

5. Jekyll

Jekyll isn’t a full-fledged CMS but a static website generator. You can utilize Jekyll coupled with GitHub pages to host your web pages for free. If you want to create a basic portfolio site (or a site that contains basic information) – Jekyll with GitHub pages should do the trick.

Hugo is a similar open source static website generator that you can consider.

Pros:

• Free web page hosting with GitHub pages
• Optimized static website generator
• Secure (Regular Updates & Patches)

Cons:

• Lack of customizability and extensibility
• Not Easy-to-Use

6. TYPO3

If you do not want modern UI elements on your website – TYPO3 – is a great open source CMS. It offers a very easy-to-use interface and is perfectly optimized to create and manage enterprise landing pages.

I wouldn’t recommend this for bloggers. However, if you are putting a webpage about your business and you do not need to maintain it often, TYPO3 is an ideal choice.

Pros:

• Simple & Easy-to-use
• Secure (Regular Updates & Patches)

Cons:

• Lacks a lot of features

7. Magento

Magento is a popular open-source CMS tailored for e-commerce businesses. You can choose to opt for the hosted solution or download the open-source edition to host it yourself.

The community edition (or the open source edition) – is free to use and also houses a lot of necessary functionalities needed for a web blog or an e-commerce site.

This may not be easy-to-use, to begin with – but it is a good option to explore.

Pros:

• Tailored for e-commerce businesses
• Secure (Regular Updates & Patches)

Cons:

• Not so user-friendly

8. Microweber

If you are on the lookout for something very easy and that lets you manage your content in no time – Microweber definitely is the choice to go with.

It also supports e-commerce integration but with a limited set of features. The marketplace for this CMS isn’t huge but features a lot of modern website designs. It is a no-nonsense open source CMS to showcase your content by utilizing modern website templates and while being able to manage it very easily.

It is worth noting that it isn’t super actively maintained – but you can take a look.

Pros:

• Multi-purpose CMS
• Easy-to-use

Cons:

• Not regularly updated/patched – which might pose a threat to your site’s security.

9. PyroCMS

PyroCMS is a fairly new CMS that has been evolving since 2015. It aims to make the website creation process a lot faster and simpler. With a variety of modules, you can add more functionalities to your website.

PyroCMS isn’t a recommendation if you want a full-fledged blog. So, if you want a very simple yet elegant blog – with no plans to add advanced functionalities to the site – PyroCMS is the way to go.

Pros:

• Focuses on simplicity
• Good user interface
• Moderately maintained (not super active development)

Cons:

• Not much customizable/extensible

10. SilverStripe

If you mostly utilize your desktop to manage the content of your site – SilverStripe can be an old-school CMS with basic website design templates. Unless you have some coding skills or hire a web developer, SilverStripe won’t be easy to customize as per your liking.

Pros:

• Old-school website generator

Cons:

• Lacks customizability/extensibility
• Fairly Secure

11. Fork

The fork is yet another basic CMS with a couple of handy extensions available. It has been around since 2010 and is still being actively maintained. So, if you want an easy CMS coupled with few useful extensions/themes – Fork should be the right one to set up.

Pros:

• Easy-to-use Interface
• Secure (Regular Updates & Patches)

Cons:

• Less number of extensions/theme available in the marketplace

12. Zenario

Zenario is an interesting open-source CMS that you probably never heard of. It is a very simple yet innovative platform to manage content on. It is being utilized to make online portals for applications and portfolio sites.

It does offer a couple of advanced features but isn’t an all-in-one CMS (at least in my opinion). This may not be the best thing for blogs – but you can explore it for yourself.

Pros:

• Tailored for specific use
• Advanced framework for a specific usage

Cons:

• Lacks customizability/extensibility

13. ProcessWire

ProcessWire is also a quite popular open-source CMS that web developers seem to like. Personally, I’m not a fan of its UI while being so used to WordPress – but if I give an unbiased opinion on it – it’s a really interesting CMS worth trying out if you need to make something that’s not just a blog.

Also, I’ve noticed a lot of web developers recommend it as a better option to WordPress from a technical point of view – so that makes it even more interesting as an open-source CMS available.

Pros:

• Technical benefits like being easy to work with the API

Cons:

• Probably not be the most user-friendly CMS there is

Wrapping Up

Now that you’ve known about some good open-source CMS’ available – there’s a lot of factors you need to think of when deciding one to create/manage a website with.

If you’ve decided the purpose of your site, you may choose the CMS specifically fit for that category. Else, simply install a multi-purpose CMS like WordPress, Joomla, & Drupal.

If you are looking for static website generators, you can find more options here but I am not sure if all of them are open source.

Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.