Open-source alternatives to WordPress.com
The most popular self-hosted, open-source alternatives to WordPress.com (hosted website and blog builder) are Strapi (73,339 GitHub stars), Ghost (55,563 GitHub stars) and Payload CMS (45,335 GitHub stars). SelfHostHub lists 12 options below, taken from its Content Management Systems and Blogging Platforms categories; 1 support Docker and all of them can run on your own server.
Comparison of self-hosted WordPress.com alternatives
| Project | GitHub stars | Licence | Language / platform | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Strapi | 73,339 | MIT | Nodejs | Headless CMS that lets developers build content APIs fast while giving content creators a friendly editing interface. |
| Ghost | 55,563 | MIT | Nodejs | Just a blogging platform. |
| Payload CMS | 45,335 | MIT | Nodejs | Developer-first headless CMS and application framework. |
| WordPress | 21,482 | GPL-2.0 | PHP | World's most-used blogging and CMS engine. |
| Wagtail | 20,575 | BSD-3-Clause | Python | Django content management system focused on flexibility and user experience. |
| october | 11,146 | ⊘ Proprietary | PHP | CMS platform based on the Laravel PHP Framework. |
| KeystoneJS | 9,981 | MIT | Nodejs | CMS and web application platform. |
| WriteFreely | 5,273 | AGPL-3.0 | Go | Writing software for starting a minimalist, federated blog — or an entire community. |
| Umbraco | 5,270 | MIT | .NET | The friendly CMS. Free and open source with an amazing community. |
| MediaCMS | 5,158 | AGPL-3.0 | Python, Docker | Modern, fully featured open source video and media CMS, written in Python/Django/React, featuring a REST API. |
| Joomla! | 5,148 | GPL-2.0 | PHP | Advanced Content Management System (CMS). |
| Apostrophe | 4,652 | MIT | Nodejs | CMS with a focus on extensible in-context editing tools. |
Star counts and licences come from the awesome-selfhosted dataset and may lag GitHub slightly.
Browse the full categories
All self-hosted Content Management Systems (CMS) · All self-hosted Blogging Platforms
Frequently asked questions
What is the best open-source alternative to WordPress.com?
By GitHub stars, Strapi is the most popular self-hosted alternative to WordPress.com listed here, followed by Ghost and Payload CMS. The best fit depends on the features and stack you need.
Is there a free self-hosted alternative to WordPress.com?
Yes. All 12 projects on this page are open source and can be self-hosted at no licence cost; you pay only for your own server.
Which licences do these WordPress.com alternatives use?
The most common licences among them are MIT (6), GPL-2.0 (2) and AGPL-3.0 (2).
Can I run a WordPress.com alternative with Docker?
1 of the 12 alternatives list Docker as a supported platform.