head to head · open source
decap-cms vs Publii
decap-cms has 19,386 GitHub stars, 3,129 forks, 593 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Publii has 7,312 stars, 468 forks, 300 open issues and last shipped yesterday. decap-cms leads on adoption by 165% (19,386 vs 7,312 stars). decap-cms is written in JavaScript under MIT; Publii is written in HTML under GPL-3.0. decap-cms has attracted 16% as many forks as stars, Publii 6%. Publii was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (cms, static-site), 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 | Publii | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 19K | ★ 7.3K |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | HTML |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.1K | ⑂ 468 |
| 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 Publii if
- You want the Publii feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches HTML
- You evaluated both and Publii 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 Publii
Publii is a desktop based content management system for Windows, Mac and Linux, built with Electron, that produces static websites from a graphical interface. It is licensed under GPL 3.0, carries over 7,300 stars and 469 forks on GitHub, and sits in the static site generator ecosystem alongside HTML and Handlebars based tooling. Themes and templating use Handlebars, and the shipped application targets Linux distributions including Fedora, macOS and Windows.
read the full Publii overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is decap-cms or Publii more popular?
decap-cms has 19,386 GitHub stars and Publii has 7,312. decap-cms has the larger community by that measure.
Are decap-cms and Publii free?
Both are open source. decap-cms is licensed under MIT and Publii under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between decap-cms and Publii?
decap-cms is written in JavaScript and Publii in HTML. 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 Publii?
Choose decap-cms if you want the larger community (19,386 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Publii if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.