head to head · open source
Strapi vs Twill CMS
Strapi has 73,184 GitHub stars, 9,875 forks, 558 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Twill CMS has 3,975 stars, 589 forks, 136 open issues and last shipped 9 days ago. Strapi leads on adoption by 1,741% (73,184 vs 3,975 stars). Strapi is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; Twill CMS is written in PHP under Apache-2.0. Strapi has attracted 13% as many forks as stars, Twill CMS 15%. Strapi was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 4 topic tags (cms, cms-framework, content-management-system, headless-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
| Strapi | Twill CMS | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 73K | ★ 4.0K |
| License | Custom / other | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-09 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.9K | ⑂ 589 |
| 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 Twill CMS if
- You want the Twill CMS feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You evaluated both and Twill 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 Twill CMS
Twill is an open source CMS toolkit and Laravel package. It helps developers create a custom admin console for content management. The project lives in the Laravel ecosystem and uses Vue.js for the interface. It is intended for modern publishing needs, where developers need an intuitive and flexible admin console without building every standard feature from scratch.
read the full Twill 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 Strapi or Twill CMS more popular?
Strapi has 73,184 GitHub stars and Twill CMS has 3,975. Strapi has the larger community by that measure.
Are Strapi and Twill CMS free?
Both are open source. Strapi has no licence declared in this registry, and Twill CMS is licensed under Apache-2.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Strapi and Twill CMS?
Strapi is written in TypeScript and Twill 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 Twill CMS?
Choose Strapi if you want the larger community (73,184 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose Twill CMS if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.