head to head · open source
Strapi vs vaahcms
Strapi has 73,425 GitHub stars, 10,050 forks, 558 open issues and last shipped yesterday. vaahcms has 571 stars, 25 forks, 8 open issues and last shipped 7 months ago. Strapi leads on adoption by 12,759% (73,425 vs 571 stars). Strapi is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; vaahcms is written in PHP under MIT. Strapi has attracted 14% as many forks as stars, vaahcms 4%. 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, content-management, 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.
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Side by side
| Strapi | vaahcms | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 73K | ★ 571 |
| License | Custom / other | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-04-09 |
| Forks | ⑂ 10K | ⑂ 25 |
| 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 vaahcms if
- You want the vaahcms feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You evaluated both and vaahcms 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 vaahcms
VaahCMS is an open source web application development platform shipped with headless content management system. VaahCMS is built with Laravel , Vue , Pinia , and PrimeVue which follows Hierarchical Model View Controller (HMVC) architectural pattern which supports multiple Modules and Themes . Each module and theme can be setup with just blade files support or can have its own frontend JavaScript library e.g. Vue or React . Introduction Features Documentation Quick Start Why VaahCMS? How many times have you used a CMS to build website and Laravel for application development? Everytime, isn't it? Well, not next…
read the full vaahcms overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Strapi or vaahcms more popular?
Strapi has 73,425 GitHub stars and vaahcms has 571. Strapi has the larger community by that measure.
Are Strapi and vaahcms free?
Both are open source. Strapi has no licence declared in this registry, and vaahcms is licensed under MIT. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Strapi and vaahcms?
Strapi is written in TypeScript and vaahcms 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 vaahcms?
Choose Strapi if you want the larger community (73,425 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose vaahcms if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.