Self-hosted alternatives to Squarespace
Want websites and blogs without handing your data to Squarespace? These 30 open-source apps run on your own server. Cheapest estimated hosting starts at about $3.5/month.
| App | Health | Stars | License | Docker | RAM (est.) | From |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Strapi | Actively maintained | 73.4k | MIT | – | 1 GB | $5/mo |
| Ghost | Actively maintained | 55.7k | MIT | – | 1 GB | $5/mo |
| Payload CMS | Actively maintained | 45.6k | MIT | – | 1 GB | $5/mo |
| WordPress | Actively maintained | 21.5k | GPL-2.0 | – | 1 GB | $5/mo |
| Wagtail | Actively maintained | 20.6k | BSD-3-Clause | – | 1 GB | $5/mo |
| october | Actively maintained | 11.2k | ⊘ Proprietary | – | 1 GB | $5/mo |
| KeystoneJS | Actively maintained | 10k | MIT | – | 1 GB | $5/mo |
| WriteFreely | Actively maintained | 5.3k | AGPL-3.0 | – | 512 MB | $3.5/mo |
| Umbraco | Actively maintained | 5.3k | MIT | – | 1 GB | $5/mo |
| MediaCMS | Actively maintained | 5.2k | AGPL-3.0 | ✓ | 4 GB | $20/mo |
| Joomla! | Actively maintained | 5.2k | GPL-2.0 | – | 1 GB | $5/mo |
| Apostrophe | Actively maintained | 4.7k | MIT | – | 1 GB | $5/mo |
| Pimcore | Actively maintained | 3.9k | GPL-3.0 | ✓ | 1 GB | $5/mo |
| CraftCMS | Actively maintained | 3.6k | ⊘ Proprietary | – | 1 GB | $5/mo |
| Squidex | Actively maintained | 2.5k | MIT | – | 2 GB | $10/mo |
| Ech0 | Actively maintained | 2.1k | AGPL-3.0 | ✓ | 1 GB | $5/mo |
| Publify | Actively maintained | 1.9k | MIT | – | 1 GB | $5/mo |
| Kirby | Actively maintained | 1.5k | ⊘ Proprietary | – | 1 GB | $5/mo |
| WinterCMS | Actively maintained | 1.5k | MIT | – | 1 GB | $5/mo |
| eLabFTW | Actively maintained | 1.5k | AGPL-3.0 | – | 1 GB | $5/mo |
| Bludit | Actively maintained | 1.5k | MIT | – | 1 GB | $5/mo |
| MODX | Actively maintained | 1.4k | GPL-2.0 | – | 1 GB | $5/mo |
| TYPO3 | Actively maintained | 1.2k | GPL-2.0 | – | 1 GB | $5/mo |
| Vvveb CMS | Actively maintained | 1.2k | AGPL-3.0 | ✓ | 1 GB | $5/mo |
| Backdrop CMS | Actively maintained | 1.1k | GPL-2.0 | – | 1 GB | $5/mo |
| Automad | Actively maintained | 960 | MIT | ✓ | 1 GB | $5/mo |
| Textpattern | Actively maintained | 883 | GPL-2.0 | – | 1 GB | $5/mo |
| Concrete 5 CMS | Actively maintained | 854 | MIT | – | 1 GB | $5/mo |
| Haven | Actively maintained | 813 | MIT | – | 1 GB | $5/mo |
| Superdesk | Actively maintained | 759 | AGPL-3.0 | ✓ | 1 GB | $5/mo |
The options in detail
1. Strapi
Headless CMS that lets developers build content APIs fast while giving content creators a friendly editing interface.
Actively maintained Last activity 2026-11-03. Latest release v5.60.0 (2026-10-28). Needs roughly 1 GB RAM incl. mysql. How to run it →
2. Ghost
Just a blogging platform.
Actively maintained Last activity 2026-11-03. Latest release v6.73.0 (2026-10-27). Needs roughly 1 GB RAM. How to run it →
3. Payload CMS
Developer-first headless CMS and application framework.
Actively maintained Last activity 2026-11-04. Latest release v4.0.0-beta.6 (2026-10-29). Needs roughly 1 GB RAM incl. mongodb/postgres. How to run it →
4. WordPress
World's most-used blogging and CMS engine.
Actively maintained Last activity 2026-11-03. Needs roughly 1 GB RAM. How to run it →
5. Wagtail
Django content management system focused on flexibility and user experience.
Actively maintained Last activity 2026-11-02. Latest release v8.1 (2026-11-02). Needs roughly 1 GB RAM. How to run it →
6. october
CMS platform based on the Laravel PHP Framework.
Actively maintained Last activity 2026-11-01. Latest release v4.4.0 (2026-08-30). Needs roughly 1 GB RAM. How to run it →
7. KeystoneJS
CMS and web application platform.
Actively maintained Last activity 2026-11-03. Latest release 2026-11-03 (2026-11-03). Needs roughly 1 GB RAM. How to run it →
8. WriteFreely
Writing software for starting a minimalist, federated blog — or an entire community.
Actively maintained Last activity 2026-09-28. Latest release v0.17.2 (2026-08-10). Needs roughly 512 MB RAM. How to run it →
9. Umbraco
Friendly CMS with an amazing community.
Actively maintained Last activity 2026-11-02. Latest release release-18.3.0 (2026-10-29). Needs roughly 1 GB RAM. How to run it →
10. MediaCMS
Modern, fully featured video and media CMS, written in Python/Django/React, featuring a REST API.
Actively maintained Last activity 2026-10-26. Latest release v9.4.0 (2026-10-26). Needs roughly 4 GB RAM. How to run it →
11. Joomla!
Advanced Content Management System (CMS).
Actively maintained Last activity 2026-11-02. Latest release 6.2.0 (2026-10-13). Needs roughly 1 GB RAM. How to run it →
12. Apostrophe
CMS with a focus on extensible in-context editing tools.
Actively maintained Last activity 2026-11-02. Needs roughly 1 GB RAM. How to run it →
13. Pimcore
Multi-channel experience and engagement management platform.
Actively maintained Last activity 2026-11-02. Latest release v2026.3.3.1 (2026-10-22). Needs roughly 1 GB RAM. How to run it →
14. CraftCMS
Content-first CMS that aims to make life enjoyable for developers and content managers alike.
Actively maintained Last activity 2026-11-02. Latest release 5.11.5.1 (2026-10-08). Needs roughly 1 GB RAM. How to run it →
15. Squidex
Headless CMS, based on MongoDB, CQRS and Event Sourcing.
Actively maintained Last activity 2026-10-30. Latest release 7.24.0 (2026-09-28). Needs roughly 2 GB RAM incl. mongodb. How to run it →
16. Ech0
Lightweight federated publishing platform focused on personal idea sharing (documentation in Chinese).
Actively maintained Last activity 2026-11-02. Latest release v5.9.1 (2026-11-02). Needs roughly 1 GB RAM. How to run it →
17. Publify
Simple but full featured web publishing software.
Actively maintained Last activity 2026-10-23. Latest release v11.0.1 (2026-10-23). Needs roughly 1 GB RAM. How to run it →
18. Kirby
File-based CMS. Easy to setup. Easy to use. Flexible as hell.
Actively maintained Last activity 2026-10-26. Latest release 6.0.0-beta.2 (2026-10-26). Needs roughly 1 GB RAM. How to run it →
19. WinterCMS
Speedy and secure content management system built on the Laravel PHP framework.
Actively maintained Last activity 2026-11-02. Latest release v1.2.14 (2026-08-19). Needs roughly 1 GB RAM. How to run it →
20. eLabFTW
Online lab notebook for research labs. Store experiments, use a database to find reagents or protocols, use trusted timestamping to legally timestamp an experiment, export as pdf or zip archive, share with collaborators….
Actively maintained Last activity 2026-11-02. Latest release 6.1.0-alpha2 (2026-10-21). Needs roughly 1 GB RAM. How to run it →
21. Bludit
Build a site or blog in seconds. Bludit uses flat-files (text files in JSON format) to store posts and pages.
Actively maintained Last activity 2026-11-02. Latest release 3.22.0 (2026-05-11). Needs roughly 1 GB RAM. How to run it →
22. MODX
Advanced content management and publishing platform. The current version is called 'Revolution'.
Actively maintained Last activity 2026-10-28. Needs roughly 1 GB RAM. How to run it →
23. TYPO3
Powerful and advanced CMS with a large community.
Actively maintained Last activity 2026-11-02. Needs roughly 1 GB RAM. How to run it →
24. Vvveb CMS
Powerful and easy to use CMS to build websites, blogs or e-commerce stores.
Actively maintained Last activity 2026-10-29. Latest release 1.0.9.0 (2026-10-29). Needs roughly 1 GB RAM. How to run it →
25. Backdrop CMS
Comprehensive CMS for small to medium sized businesses and non-profits.
Actively maintained Last activity 2026-10-15. Latest release 1.35.2 (2026-10-14). Needs roughly 1 GB RAM. How to run it →
26. Automad
Flat-file content management system and template engine.
Actively maintained Last activity 2026-11-01. Latest release 2.0.0-beta.69 (2026-10-31). Needs roughly 1 GB RAM. How to run it →
27. Textpattern
Flexible, elegant and easy-to-use CMS.
Actively maintained Last activity 2026-11-02. Latest release 4.9.2 (2026-11-01). Needs roughly 1 GB RAM. How to run it →
28. Concrete 5 CMS
Open source content management system.
Actively maintained Last activity 2026-10-28. Latest release 9.5.7 (2026-10-20). Needs roughly 1 GB RAM. How to run it →
29. Haven
Private blogging system with markdown editing and built in RSS reader.
Actively maintained Last activity 2026-10-03. Needs roughly 1 GB RAM. How to run it →
30. Superdesk
End-to-end news creation, production, curation, distribution, and publishing platform.
Actively maintained Last activity 2026-11-02. Latest release v3.5 (2026-07-14). Needs roughly 1 GB RAM. How to run it →
Why self-host instead of Squarespace?
- Own your data — it lives on a server you control, with backups you decide on.
- Predictable cost — a small VPS often replaces per-seat pricing for a whole team or family.
- No lock-in — open-source licenses let you keep running the software even if a vendor disappears.
The trade-off: you are responsible for updates, backups and security. Pick an app marked Actively maintained and with Docker support for the easiest ride.
Browse related categories
Other alternatives guides
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