head to head · open source
decap-cms vs revolution
decap-cms has 19,393 GitHub stars, 3,128 forks, 593 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. revolution has 1,410 stars, 527 forks, 687 open issues and last shipped 17 days ago. decap-cms leads on adoption by 1,275% (19,393 vs 1,410 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 37%. 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 | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.1K | ⑂ 527 |
| 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
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 revolution
MODX Revolution is an open source content management system and application framework written in PHP. It lives in the MODX open source PHP CMS ecosystem and is distributed under the GNU General Public License version 2 or later. The project provides a downloadable PHP application that can be installed on a server, configured through MODX documentation, and extended through its modular core.
read the full revolution overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is decap-cms or revolution more popular?
decap-cms has 19,393 GitHub stars and revolution has 1,410. 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 (19,393 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose revolution if its feature set, stack or GPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.