head to head · open source
Strapi vs Publii
Strapi has 73,184 GitHub stars, 9,875 forks, 558 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Publii has 7,312 stars, 468 forks, 300 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Strapi leads on adoption by 901% (73,184 vs 7,312 stars). Strapi is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; Publii is written in HTML under GPL-3.0. Strapi has attracted 13% as many forks as stars, Publii 6%. Strapi 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.
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Side by side
| Strapi | Publii | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 73K | ★ 7.3K |
| License | Custom / other | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | HTML |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.9K | ⑂ 468 |
| 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 Publii if
- You want the Publii feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches HTML
- You evaluated both and Publii 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 Publii
Publii is a desktop based content management system for Windows, Mac and Linux, built with Electron, that produces static websites from a graphical interface. It is licensed under GPL 3.0, carries over 7,300 stars and 469 forks on GitHub, and sits in the static site generator ecosystem alongside HTML and Handlebars based tooling. Themes and templating use Handlebars, and the shipped application targets Linux distributions including Fedora, macOS and Windows.
read the full Publii overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Strapi or Publii more popular?
Strapi has 73,184 GitHub stars and Publii has 7,312. Strapi has the larger community by that measure.
Are Strapi and Publii free?
Both are open source. Strapi has no licence declared in this registry, and Publii is licensed under GPL-3.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Strapi and Publii?
Strapi is written in TypeScript and Publii in HTML. 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 Publii?
Choose Strapi if you want the larger community (73,184 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose Publii if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.