head to head · open source
decap-cms vs OrchardCore
decap-cms has 19,386 GitHub stars, 3,129 forks, 593 open issues and last shipped yesterday. OrchardCore has 8,184 stars, 2,598 forks, 854 open issues and last shipped yesterday. decap-cms leads on adoption by 137% (19,386 vs 8,184 stars). decap-cms is written in JavaScript under MIT; OrchardCore is written in C# under BSD-3-Clause. decap-cms has attracted 16% as many forks as stars, OrchardCore 32%. OrchardCore was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (cms), 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 | OrchardCore | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 19K | ★ 8.2K |
| License | MIT | BSD-3-Clause |
| Written in | JavaScript | C# |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.1K | ⑂ 2.6K |
| 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 OrchardCore if
- You want the OrchardCore feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the BSD-3-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches C#
- You evaluated both and OrchardCore 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 OrchardCore
Orchard Core is an open source, modular, multi tenant application framework and content management system built on ASP.NET Core, for .NET teams that want to build or self host modular web applications and content driven sites under the BSD 3 Clause licence.
read the full OrchardCore overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is decap-cms or OrchardCore more popular?
decap-cms has 19,386 GitHub stars and OrchardCore has 8,184. decap-cms has the larger community by that measure.
Are decap-cms and OrchardCore free?
Both are open source. decap-cms is licensed under MIT and OrchardCore under BSD-3-Clause. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between decap-cms and OrchardCore?
decap-cms is written in JavaScript and OrchardCore in C#. 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 OrchardCore?
Choose decap-cms if you want the larger community (19,386 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose OrchardCore if its feature set, stack or BSD-3-Clause licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.