head to head · open source
Strapi vs alchemy_cms
Strapi has 73,425 GitHub stars, 10,050 forks, 558 open issues and last shipped yesterday. alchemy_cms has 905 stars, 325 forks, 8 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. Strapi leads on adoption by 8,013% (73,425 vs 905 stars). Strapi is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; alchemy_cms is written in Ruby under BSD-3-Clause. Strapi has attracted 14% as many forks as stars, alchemy_cms 36%. Strapi was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (cms, 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
| Strapi | alchemy_cms | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 73K | ★ 905 |
| License | Custom / other | BSD-3-Clause |
| Written in | TypeScript | Ruby |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-31 |
| Forks | ⑂ 10K | ⑂ 325 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Strapi if
- You weight community size — 73K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick alchemy_cms if
- You want the alchemy_cms feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the BSD-3-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches Ruby
- You evaluated both and alchemy_cms fits your workflow better
About Strapi
Open source headless CMS, self hosted or Cloud you're in control. The leading open source headless CMS, 100% JavaScript/TypeScript, flexible and fully customizable. Docs · Strapi Cloud · Roadmap · Discord · Discussions Strapi is an open source, self hosted headless CMS that lets developers build content APIs fast while giving content creators a friendly editing interface. Define your content models and Strapi generates a full API, ready to consume from any frontend, mobile app, or IoT device. Design content structures visually with the Content Type Builder , no code required Auto generated REST & GraphQL APIs…
read the full Strapi overview →
About alchemy_cms
AlchemyCMS Alchemy is an open source CMS engine written in Ruby on Rails. Read more about Alchemy on the website and in the guidelines. [!CAUTION] This main branch is a development branch that can contain bugs. For productive environments you should use the current Ruby gem version, or the latest stable branch (8.0 stable). 🏆 Main sponsor ✅ Features Flexible templating that separates content from markup A rich RESTful API Intuitive admin interface with live preview Multi language and multi domain Page versioning SEO friendly urls User Access Control Build in contact form mailer Attachments and downloads On the…
read the full alchemy_cms overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Strapi or alchemy_cms more popular?
Strapi has 73,425 GitHub stars and alchemy_cms has 905. Strapi has the larger community by that measure.
Are Strapi and alchemy_cms free?
Both are open source. Strapi has no licence declared in this registry, and alchemy_cms is licensed under BSD-3-Clause. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Strapi and alchemy_cms?
Strapi is written in TypeScript and alchemy_cms in Ruby. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Strapi or alchemy_cms?
Choose Strapi if you want the larger community (73,425 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose alchemy_cms if its feature set, stack or BSD-3-Clause licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.