head to head · open source
decap-cms vs frappe
decap-cms has 19,461 GitHub stars, 3,139 forks, 593 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. frappe has 11,046 stars, 5,503 forks, 2,003 open issues and last shipped yesterday. decap-cms leads on adoption by 76% (19,461 vs 11,046 stars). decap-cms is written in JavaScript under MIT; frappe is written in Python under MIT. decap-cms has attracted 16% as many forks as stars, frappe 50%. frappe was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (cms, javascript), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| decap-cms | frappe | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 19K | ★ 11K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | JavaScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-01 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.1K | ⑂ 5.5K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick decap-cms if
- You weight community size — 19K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick frappe if
- You want the frappe feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and frappe fits your workflow better
About decap-cms
Documentation: decapcms.org A CMS for static site generators. Give teams a simple way to edit and add content to any site built with a static site generator. Decap CMS is the new name of Netlify CMS since February 2023. Join us on Discord for community chat. How It Works Decap CMS is a single page app that you pull into the /admin part of your site. It presents a clean UI for editing content stored in a Git repository. You setup a YAML config to describe the content model of your site, and typically tweak the main layout of the CMS a bit to fit your own site. When a user navigates to /admin/ they'll be prompted…
read the full decap-cms overview →
About frappe
Frappe Framework Low Code Web Framework For Real World Applications, In Python And JavaScript Website Documentation Frappe Framework Full stack web application framework that uses Python and MariaDB on the server side and a tightly integrated client side library. Built for ERPNext. Philosophy The best code is the one that is not written Started in 2005, Frappe Framework was inspired by the Semantic Web. The "big idea" behind semantic web was of a framework that not only described how information is shown (like headings, body etc), but also what it means, like name, address etc. By creating a web framework that…
read the full frappe overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is decap-cms or frappe more popular?
decap-cms has 19,461 GitHub stars and frappe has 11,046. decap-cms has the larger community by that measure.
Are decap-cms and frappe free?
Both are open source. decap-cms is licensed under MIT and frappe under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between decap-cms and frappe?
decap-cms is written in JavaScript and frappe in Python. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, decap-cms or frappe?
Choose decap-cms if you want the larger community (19,461 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose frappe if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.