head to head · open source
Strapi vs revolution
Strapi has 73,184 GitHub stars, 9,875 forks, 558 open issues and last shipped yesterday. revolution has 1,409 stars, 527 forks, 687 open issues and last shipped 15 days ago. Strapi leads on adoption by 5,094% (73,184 vs 1,409 stars). Strapi is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; revolution is written in PHP under GPL-2.0. Strapi has attracted 13% as many forks as stars, revolution 37%. Strapi was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (content-management, 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 | revolution | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 73K | ★ 1.4K |
| License | Custom / other | GPL-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.9K | ⑂ 527 |
| 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 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 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 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 Strapi or revolution more popular?
Strapi has 73,184 GitHub stars and revolution has 1,409. Strapi has the larger community by that measure.
Are Strapi and revolution free?
Both are open source. Strapi has no licence declared in this registry, and revolution is licensed under GPL-2.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Strapi and revolution?
Strapi is written in TypeScript 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, Strapi or revolution?
Choose Strapi if you want the larger community (73,184 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose revolution if its feature set, stack or GPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.