head to head · open source
decap-cms vs frappe
decap-cms has 19,386 GitHub stars, 3,129 forks, 593 open issues and last shipped yesterday. frappe has 10,791 stars, 5,327 forks, 2,003 open issues and last shipped yesterday. decap-cms leads on adoption by 80% (19,386 vs 10,791 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 49%. 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 | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.1K | ⑂ 5.3K |
| 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
Decap CMS is a Git based content management system for static site generators, distributed as an npm package and released under the MIT License. It is a single page application that a site owner pulls into the /admin part of an existing site, where it presents a clean interface for editing content stored in a Git repository. The project lives in the JavaScript ecosystem and is built with React, and it is the software formerly known as Netlify CMS, renamed in February 2023. It carries the jamstack , headless cms , git based cms , and static site generator topics, and its documentation lives at decapcms.org.…
read the full decap-cms overview →
About frappe
Frappe Framework is a full stack, low code web framework written in Python and JavaScript, licensed under MIT. It runs on the server side on Python and MariaDB, and it ships with a tightly integrated client side library that handles the browser layer of an application. The project sits in the Python and JavaScript web development ecosystem, and it has been developed for roughly fifteen years, with its first work beginning in 2005 and its repository now holding over ten thousand stars and more than five thousand forks.
read the full frappe overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is decap-cms or frappe more popular?
decap-cms has 19,386 GitHub stars and frappe has 10,791. 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 (19,386 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose frappe if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.