head to head · open source
decap-cms vs revolution
decap-cms has 19,460 GitHub stars, 3,140 forks, 593 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. revolution has 1,415 stars, 532 forks, 687 open issues and last shipped 8 days ago. decap-cms leads on adoption by 1,275% (19,460 vs 1,415 stars). decap-cms is written in JavaScript under MIT; revolution is written in PHP under GPL-2.0. decap-cms has attracted 16% as many forks as stars, revolution 38%. decap-cms was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (content-management-system), 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 | revolution | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 19K | ★ 1.4K |
| License | MIT | GPL-2.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-11-01 | 2026-10-28 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.1K | ⑂ 532 |
| 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 revolution if
- You want the revolution feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You evaluated both and revolution 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 revolution
MODX Revolution MODX Revolution is the world’s fastest, most secure, flexible and scalable Open Source CMS Content Management System and Application Framework MODX lets you power anything from multi language, multi domain corporate sites to personal blogs to mobile APIs. Delivering true creative freedom and removing all restrictions, it lets you control the markup and design without having to code. You can also tailor its modular and extensible core to accommodate virtually any custom requirement or amount of traffic. MODX is the free open source software that meets your needs today—and tomorrow. MODX Revolution…
read the full revolution overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is decap-cms or revolution more popular?
decap-cms has 19,460 GitHub stars and revolution has 1,415. decap-cms has the larger community by that measure.
Are decap-cms and revolution free?
Both are open source. decap-cms is licensed under MIT and revolution under GPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between decap-cms and revolution?
decap-cms is written in JavaScript and revolution in PHP. 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 revolution?
Choose decap-cms if you want the larger community (19,460 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose revolution if its feature set, stack or GPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.