10 Best Open Source CMS Platforms in 2026
Short answer: WordPress, the GPL software from WordPress.org, when you need pages, a blog, and plugins and you will pay for hosting yourself. Strapi Cloud Starter at $35 per project per month when the deliverable is a headless API on Strapi's host. Ghost(Pro) Starter at $15/mo billed yearly when the product is a member newsletter.
A GitHub repo is not a free production license, so Directus and October stay off this list. A closed website builder is a different purchase from the CMS underneath a site.
Dupple data: Toolradar, our software directory, tracks 76 CMS tools as of September 2026. Closed and hosted platforms sit in best CMS platforms, API products that are not open source sit in best headless CMS, and the directory's own ranking of this question is Toolradar's open source CMS guide. Plan names and prices below were checked on vendor sites on September 24, 2026.
Quick comparison
| Tool | Best for | Starting price | Standout |
|---|---|---|---|
| WordPress | A full site you host, or WordPress.com if you will not | Personal $4/mo, billed yearly | Plugins on every paid WordPress.com plan |
| Drupal | Structured content for institutions | No license fee | Stable core is 11.4.7, dated September 2, 2026 |
| Strapi | A headless API, self-hosted or on Cloud | $35/project/mo Starter | Community Edition is MIT only off Cloud |
| Ghost | Members, newsletters, paid subscriptions | $15/mo Starter, billed yearly | Self-host is MIT; Ghost adds no cut on Stripe |
| Payload | A Next.js app that owns the CMS | No license fee; new Cloud signups paused | MIT, Node.js 20.9.0 or newer |
| Joomla | A GPL site that is not WordPress | No license fee | 6.1.3, tagged August 18, 2026 |
| Umbraco | A .NET team that wants Azure hosting | $55/mo Cloud Starter | Core is MIT; the cloud price is the USD figure |
| Wagtail | A Django site with an editor | No license fee | Version 8.0, tagged August 25, 2026 |
| TinaCMS | Markdown in Git, with an optional cloud | $24/project/mo Team, or free for 2 users | TinaCloud prices are labeled USD |
| Grav | A flat-file site, no database | No license fee for the core | Stable 2.1.12; premium bundles are a separate license |
What an open source CMS is
An open source CMS is content software you can run under a license that allows use, modification, and redistribution, without a fee for the core. If production needs a paid key, it is a different purchase.
WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla are GPL, and WordPress plugins and themes inherit that GPL, so a distributed theme cannot close its PHP.
Ghost, Payload, Grav, and Strapi's Community Edition are MIT, with a cloud exception on Strapi. Wagtail is BSD, Umbraco is MIT, and TinaCMS is Apache 2.0. You still pay for a server, a database or a Git host, and someone who applies security releases, which is the web hosting bill after the license fee hits zero.
How we chose
Toolradar's CMS category lists 76 tools, updated September 2026, and I ranked 10 you can run under a free license without a sales call. USD prices come from vendor pricing pages, docs, or license files on September 24, 2026. No vendor paid for a slot, and I did not install all ten on one server.
Dupple data: Toolradar's headless CMS category lists 44 tools evaluated, as of September 2026, mixing open source projects with hosted products.
WordPress, the default you host yourself
WordPress is GPLv2 or later, release 7.1.2 on the wordpress.org version check, and plugins and themes inherit that GPL, which is why this is the CMS I would install first for a marketing site, a blog, or a store.
The software has no license fee, and WordPress.com hosts it in US dollars. Personal is $9/mo month to month, $4/mo billed yearly, and $2.75/mo billed every 3 years, with 6 GB storage, so quote a prepaid rate only if you will prepay.
Premium is $8/mo billed yearly, with 13 GB, and Business is $25/mo billed yearly or $40/mo month to month, with 50 GB, SFTP, WP-CLI, and GitHub deployments. Commerce is $45/mo billed yearly or $70/mo month to month, and adds WooCommerce, so a store that stops on Business has no cart. Business and Commerce list $200 in advertising credits, and plugins on WordPress.com start on every paid plan, including Personal. A self-hosted WordPress.org site can install plugins with no plan.
The catch: WordPress.com Enterprise does not print a self-serve price. A store's real cost is also the extensions around WooCommerce, so price ecommerce platforms before treating the CMS as the whole stack.
The first pick for a content site, and a bad quote if you cite the 3-year Personal rate and then pay monthly.
Drupal, when the content model is the product
Drupal splits into Drupal Core and Drupal CMS, the latter aimed at marketers. The release history lists 11.4.7 as a published, security-covered release dated September 2, 2026. Supported branches there include 10.6, 11.3, 11.4, and 12.0, and 12.0 is still an alpha, so production stays on that security release rather than the alpha.
Drupal.org does not sell a license, and hosting is a partner or your own server. The download page says 70% of the world's leading universities chose Drupal, which is the project's claim and fits buyers who need structured content and security advisories more than a theme shop.
The catch: Editors who wanted a page builder will wait on a developer for content types and views. A five-page brochure is the wrong assignment, and a visual site with no custom types belongs with website builders.
The institutional CMS, and the slow one if the team expected WordPress plugins.
Strapi, a headless API with a cloud meter
Strapi is the headless CMS you self-host or put on Strapi Cloud. The LICENSE file grants MIT for the Community Edition only when you are not using the Enterprise ee/ code and you do not have a Strapi Cloud account, so a Cloud login leaves the grant.
Cloud has no free plan, so a prototype is already paid. Starter is $35 per project per month, Pro is $90, and Business is $450. Yearly amounts on the page are $348, $900, and $4,500.
Starter includes 100,000 API requests, 50 GB of asset storage, and 50 GB of bandwidth, and it sleeps when idle. Pro is always on, at 1 million requests, 250 GB storage, 500 GB bandwidth, and weekly backups. Business adds daily backups, 10 million requests, 1,000 GB on storage and bandwidth, and a 99.9% SLA.
Extra Pro environments are $60 per month, or $600 for the year. The billing docs charge $1.50 per 25,000 API requests, $0.60 per GB of storage, and $30 per 100 GB of bandwidth. A project still suspended after 30 days is deleted, so a lapsed card wipes the project.
The catch: The July 21, 2026 post says new free Cloud signups stopped on July 1, 2026, and old free projects were scheduled for deletion on September 1, 2026. Self-hosting the Community Edition is the path that stays on the MIT grant.
The headless pick when you will pay for Cloud or run it yourself, and the wrong quote if the budget assumed a free cloud project.
Ghost, members first and pages second
Ghost is a publishing CMS, a poor fit for a brochure that will never charge a reader. The Ghost Foundation license is MIT, so your own server is not a Ghost(Pro) bill. Ghost(Pro) is the hosted product, and the pricing page labels the rates USD.
Starter is $15/mo billed yearly or $18/mo billed monthly, for 1 staff user and a 5 MB upload limit. Publisher is $29/mo, for 3 staff users, custom themes, and a 100 MB upload limit, and paid subscriptions start here, so a paid membership cannot stay on Starter.
Business is $199/mo, for 15 staff users and a 250 MB upload limit. The comparison lists 1,000 registered members on Starter and Publisher, and 10,000 on Business. Ghost does not add a fee on top of the payment processor, and contributors do not count as staff.
The catch: The pricing page sizes plans from an audience slider, so a newsletter that outgrows the row changes plan. A campaign landing page is landing page builders, not a Ghost theme.
The publisher's CMS, and a bad fit for a brochure site that will never charge a member.
Payload, MIT inside the Next.js app
Payload is an MIT CMS that runs where a Next.js app runs, so it fits a team already on that framework. It needs Node.js 20.9.0 or newer, and MongoDB, Postgres, or SQLite. After Payload joined Figma, the Cloud update says new Cloud deployments are paused, existing projects keep running, and no price change is currently planned for those customers.
There is no published price for a new Payload Cloud project, so leave it out of the quote. Self-hosting has no license fee, and the get-started page does not print a number for enterprise SSO.
The catch: You bring the database, file storage, and the deploy. A team that wanted a signup form and a live URL will not get one from Payload Cloud today, which is why a new hosted project this week is Strapi, not this paused cloud.
The Next.js default, and a stalled launch if the plan depended on a new Cloud project.
Joomla, the other GPL site
Joomla 6 is the current line. The joomla-cms repository tagged 6.1.3 on August 18, 2026, and the about page says most extensions in the directory are GPL. Pick it when you want a full site and multilingual pages outside the WordPress plugin market.
Joomla.org does not charge a license fee, and "Get a free site" is a trial path, not a published hosting tariff, so the ongoing cost is your host plus any paid extension, and the trial is not a price.
The catch: A feature that exists only as a WordPress plugin becomes a custom build here, and most cities have more WordPress contractors than Joomla contractors. The hire, not the license, is what gets expensive.
The GPL alternative to WordPress, and the expensive one if the feature you need is a plugin that only WordPress has.
Umbraco, MIT for .NET and a USD cloud
Umbraco CMS is MIT on the project's GitHub license. The pricing page includes the core, on current .NET, at no charge: content, media, users, multilingual setup, and headless APIs. If nobody ships C#, that free core is still a hiring decision.
A currency map lists Cloud Starter at $55/mo, Standard at $330/mo, and Professional at $900/mo for the US, Canada, and New Zealand. EU countries see euros, so quote the USD column. Starter adds Azure hosting in 5 regions, security updates, Cloudflare CDN, and a forms builder. Standard adds a Delivery API SLA and multiple environments, and Professional adds business-hours support.
The catch: A PHP or Node team does not get a simpler life by adopting a .NET CMS. Cloud Starter is hosting and updates, not a design tool, and a visual marketing site is still a website builder problem.
The .NET CMS with a printed cloud price, and the wrong stack if nobody on the team ships C#.
Wagtail, BSD on Django
Wagtail is the CMS you add to Django, not a signup that hands you a public URL. The repository license is BSD, copyright Torchbox and contributors, and the latest GitHub release is v8.0, tagged August 25, 2026.
Wagtail.org publishes no license fee and no first-party cloud plan. You pay for the Django host, the database, and whoever upgrades both.
The catch: There is no plan that removes the need for a Python developer. If the content is a help center, compare knowledge base software before you build it.
The Django team's CMS, and a contractor invoice if you do not already run Django.
TinaCMS, Git content with a USD cloud
TinaCMS edits Markdown and MDX in Git, which fits a pull-request review and not a database newsroom. The repository is Apache 2.0, so self-hosting is not a TinaCloud subscription. TinaCloud is the hosted layer, and the pricing page says all prices are in USD.
Free is $0, for 2 users and 2 roles, a pair of editors rather than a company. Team is $24 per project per month, or $290 billed annually, for 3 users and a cap of 10. Team Plus is $41 per project per month, or $490 billed annually, for 5 users, a cap of 20, and editorial workflow. Business is $249 per project per month, or $2,990 billed annually, for 20 users and no user cap. Documents are unlimited, and the asset cap is 100 MB.
The catch: The bill is per project, so a second site is a second project. Decap CMS is the free, self-hosted Git editor, with draft, review, and publish, and no paid plan.
The Markdown CMS when the repo is the source of truth, and a second invoice for every extra project.
Grav, flat files and a separate premium catalog
Grav stores pages as Markdown and YAML, with no database, which suits one editor and collides when several save the same page. The license is MIT, and the homepage lists stable 2.1.12, a first-party API, a SvelteKit admin, and an MCP server on the same permissions.
The core has no license fee, and premium plugins use a separate Grav Premium License, so the MIT core does not include that catalog. The premium page lists the Typhoon Publisher Bundle at $140, reduced from $175, and does not label that price USD, so confirm the currency at checkout.
The catch: Several editors saving one page will collide, and a web of related product records will fight flat files. Premium AI plugins are paid, which surprises anyone who read MIT and assumed the whole catalog was free.
The flat-file CMS, and the wrong database if the content is a web of related records.
Pricing: what you'll really pay
The license line is the small number, and hosting, seats, members, and overages are the invoice.
| Cost the license hides | Figure | Who feels it |
|---|---|---|
| WordPress.com Personal, month to month | $9/mo, against $4/mo yearly | Anyone who skips annual billing |
| WordPress.com Business, billed yearly | $25/mo, with 50 GB and developer tools | A site that needs plugins plus SFTP |
| Strapi Cloud Pro, extra environment | $60/mo, or $600 for the year | A staging project on Pro |
| Strapi API overage | $1.50 per 25,000 requests | A Cloud project past its request cap |
| Strapi storage overage | $0.60 per GB per month | Asset libraries past the plan |
| Ghost(Pro) Publisher | $29/mo, where paid members turn on | A newsletter that charges readers |
| Umbraco Cloud Standard | $330/mo in the USD column | A .NET site that needs the SLA |
| TinaCloud Team, billed annually | $290 for the year, one project | A second site, which is another project |
| Directus Cloud add-on | $99/mo on Core or Team | A team that thought self-host was the cloud |
| October CMS after the free year | $39 per license per year | A production site past the first year |
How to choose
Start from the language the team already ships, because a free license will not retrain them. A PHP content site is WordPress, or Joomla if you are avoiding that plugin market. A structured university or public-sector site is Drupal on the security release in its section, not the alpha. A .NET shop is Umbraco at the USD cloud rate in the table, and a Django shop is Wagtail.
A headless API is Strapi when you want a printed cloud price, and Payload when the CMS lives in Next.js and new Cloud projects stay paused. Memberships are Ghost(Pro), or Ghost's MIT code on your server. Markdown in Git is TinaCloud, or Decap if you will not pay per project, and a site with no database is Grav.
A designed marketing site with no custom content model belongs on a website builder. If nobody will patch the CMS, buy a hosted plan instead of the download. Forms that are the whole product belong with form builders.
Directus and October are not free production licenses
Directus is the name buyers expect here, and the current license is not open source, so it fails this page's test. It is the Monospace Sustainable Core License 1.0: competing with Directus's paid product is excluded, and each version converts to GPL-3.0 on the fourth anniversary of its release.
Core is listed at no charge for 3 seats, 25 collections, and 5 flows, with no SSO. Team is listed at $499/mo on an annual commitment, or $599/mo month to month, for 10 SSO seats, with extra seats at $50/seat/mo and cloud hosting at $99/mo. The page does not print the letters USD, and an Open Innovation Grant covers organizations under $5 million in revenue and fewer than 50 employees.
October CMS publishes source and still requires a license in production. The first year is included, then a single license is listed at $39 per year. Unlimited licenses are listed at $26 per month billed annually, $312 for the year, or $30 per month, $360 for the year. Those figures are not labeled USD, so this is a paid CMS with visible source, not a WordPress-style license.
FAQ
What is the best open source CMS in 2026?
WordPress, for a site you host yourself, with no license fee on WordPress.org and WordPress.com Personal at the yearly rate in the table if Automattic hosts it. Strapi is the headless API, Drupal is the complex content model, and Ghost is for members who pay. Toolradar tracks 76 CMS tools in that category as of September 2026.
How much does an open source CMS cost?
The ranked cores have no license fee, and hosting is the bill: Strapi Cloud Starter at $35 per project per month, Umbraco Cloud Starter at $55/mo in USD, and TinaCloud Team at $24 per project per month. WordPress.com Personal and Ghost(Pro) Starter are the yearly rates in the table. Strapi Cloud Business is $450 per project per month, Ghost(Pro) Business is $199/mo, and Umbraco Cloud Professional is $900/mo.
Is there a free open source CMS?
Yes. WordPress.org, Drupal, Joomla, Payload, Wagtail, Grav, Decap CMS, and Strapi's Community Edition, with no Cloud account and no Enterprise code, have no license fee. WordPress.com, Strapi Cloud, Ghost(Pro), Umbraco Cloud, and TinaCloud charge for hosting or seats, and Strapi Cloud does not offer a free project.
Should I use WordPress or Drupal?
Use WordPress when editors live in pages, posts, and plugins, on the free core or on WordPress.com from Personal upward. Use Drupal when content types, permissions, and security advisories are the product, on 11.4.7 rather than the 12.0 alpha, which has no license price on Drupal.org. A brochure with no custom model is a website builder, not either CMS.
Is Strapi or Payload the better headless CMS?
Strapi, when Strapi will host the API and you will pay from Starter up. Payload, when the CMS must ship inside a Next.js app under MIT and you will host it, because new Payload Cloud projects are paused and have no published signup price. Strapi's MIT grant does not cover a Cloud account or the Enterprise code.
Is Directus open source?
Not under the current license, because Directus uses the Monospace Sustainable Core License, which blocks competing use and turns into GPL-3.0 four years after a version is released. Core allows 3 seats and 25 collections, Team is listed at $499/mo on an annual commitment, and SSO is not on Core. To self-host an MIT headless CMS today, use Strapi's Community Edition or Payload.
Is Ghost free if I self-host?
The software is MIT, so your own server is not a Ghost(Pro) subscription. Ghost(Pro) is the hosted path, at the Starter yearly rate in the table or $18/mo billed monthly, and it includes hosting, a custom domain, and email. Paid member billing starts on Publisher, not on Starter.
What is the difference between WordPress.org and WordPress.com?
WordPress.org is the GPL download, currently 7.1.2, with plugins available and hosting left to you. WordPress.com is hosted WordPress, with a free plan and paid plans from Personal at the yearly rate in the table. Plugins on WordPress.com start on Personal, not only on Business, and Enterprise does not show a self-serve price.
Bottom line
Install WordPress when the site is content you can patch, Drupal when the model is the hard part, and Strapi or Payload when the front end is an app. Use Ghost for members, Umbraco for .NET, Wagtail for Django, TinaCMS or Decap for Git, and Grav when you refuse a database. Leave Directus and October off this shortlist until you have read the license.
Dupple X is the weekly briefing on these price and license changes, or start the trial. No vendor paid for a slot, and the about page names the editorial team.
Cite this: Dupple, "10 Best Open Source CMS Platforms in 2026", September 2026.
