head to head · open source
Strapi vs Craft CMS
Strapi has 73,184 GitHub stars, 9,875 forks, 558 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Craft CMS has 3,608 stars, 705 forks, 529 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Strapi leads on adoption by 1,928% (73,184 vs 3,608 stars). Strapi is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; Craft CMS is written in PHP under a custom or non-standard licence. Strapi has attracted 13% as many forks as stars, Craft CMS 20%. Strapi was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (cms, content-management, graphql), 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 | Craft CMS | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 73K | ★ 3.6K |
| License | Custom / other | Custom / other |
| Written in | TypeScript | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.9K | ⑂ 705 |
| 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 Craft CMS if
- You want the Craft CMS feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You evaluated both and Craft CMS fits your workflow better
About Strapi
Strapi is an open source headless content management system built entirely in JavaScript and TypeScript. It provides a customizable admin dashboard and automatically generates REST and GraphQL APIs for any content structure defined through its visual Content Type Builder. Strapi lives in the JavaScript ecosystem and targets developers who need to deliver content to diverse frontends—including web, mobile, and IoT applications—without being locked into a specific presentation layer.
read the full Strapi overview →
About Craft CMS
Craft CMS is a content management system written in PHP for building custom digital experiences on the web and beyond. It lives in the PHP ecosystem and is distributed as a self hosted application, with official documentation covering templates, GraphQL, installation, and extension development.
read the full Craft CMS overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Strapi or Craft CMS more popular?
Strapi has 73,184 GitHub stars and Craft CMS has 3,608. Strapi has the larger community by that measure.
Are Strapi and Craft CMS free?
Neither Strapi nor Craft CMS declares a licence in this registry, so check each project's own repository before relying on either for a commercial use. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Strapi and Craft CMS?
Strapi is written in TypeScript and Craft CMS 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, Strapi or Craft CMS?
Choose Strapi if you want the larger community (73,184 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose Craft CMS if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.