head to head · open source
wagtail vs decap-cms
wagtail has 20,503 GitHub stars, 4,608 forks, 1,007 open issues and last shipped yesterday. decap-cms has 19,386 stars, 3,129 forks, 593 open issues and last shipped yesterday. wagtail leads on adoption by 6% (20,503 vs 19,386 stars). wagtail is written in Python under BSD-3-Clause; decap-cms is written in JavaScript under MIT. wagtail has attracted 22% as many forks as stars, decap-cms 16%. wagtail 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.
← all 8884 open source comparisons
Side by side
| wagtail | decap-cms | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 21K | ★ 19K |
| License | BSD-3-Clause | MIT |
| Written in | Python | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.6K | ⑂ 3.1K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick wagtail if
- You weight community size — 21K stars and counting
- You want the BSD-3-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick decap-cms if
- You want the decap-cms feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and decap-cms fits your workflow better
About wagtail
Wagtail is an open source content management system built on Django, for developers, designers and editors who need a fast authoring interface alongside precise control over front end design and content structure.
read the full wagtail overview →
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 →
More in Content & Publishing
Related comparisons
More Content Management Systems (CMS) projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Content Management Systems (CMS) field.
Frequently asked questions
Is wagtail or decap-cms more popular?
wagtail has 20,503 GitHub stars and decap-cms has 19,386. wagtail has the larger community by that measure.
Are wagtail and decap-cms free?
Both are open source. wagtail is licensed under BSD-3-Clause and decap-cms under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between wagtail and decap-cms?
wagtail is written in Python and decap-cms in JavaScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, wagtail or decap-cms?
Choose wagtail if you want the larger community (20,503 stars) or its BSD-3-Clause licence terms. Choose decap-cms if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.