head to head · open source
wagtail vs OrchardCore
wagtail has 20,599 GitHub stars, 4,676 forks, 1,007 open issues and last shipped yesterday. OrchardCore has 8,223 stars, 2,607 forks, 854 open issues and last shipped yesterday. wagtail leads on adoption by 151% (20,599 vs 8,223 stars). wagtail is written in Python under BSD-3-Clause; OrchardCore is written in C# under BSD-3-Clause. wagtail has attracted 23% as many forks as stars, OrchardCore 32%. wagtail 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
| wagtail | OrchardCore | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 21K | ★ 8.2K |
| License | BSD-3-Clause | BSD-3-Clause |
| Written in | Python | C# |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.7K | ⑂ 2.6K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick wagtail if
- You weight community size — 21K stars and counting
- You want the BSD-3-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick OrchardCore if
- You want the OrchardCore feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the BSD-3-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches C#
- You evaluated both and OrchardCore fits your workflow better
About wagtail
Wagtail is an open source content management system built on Django, with a strong community and commercial support. It's focused on user experience, and offers precise control for designers and developers. 🔥 Features A fast, attractive interface for authors Complete control over front end design and structure Scales to millions of pages and thousands of editors Fast out of the box, cache friendly when you need it Content API for 'headless' sites with decoupled front end Runs on a Raspberry Pi or a multi datacenter cloud platform StreamField encourages flexible content without compromising structure Powerful…
read the full wagtail overview →
About OrchardCore
Orchard Core Orchard Core is an open source, modular, multi tenant application framework and CMS for ASP.NET Core. Orchard Core consists of two distinct projects: Orchard Core Framework : An application framework for building modular, multi tenant applications on ASP.NET Core. Orchard Core CMS : A Web Content Management System (CMS) built on top of the Orchard Core Framework. Build Status Stable ( release/3.0 ): Nightly ( main ): Project Status: v3.0.1 The software is production ready and capable of serving large, mission critical applications. We are not aware of any fundamental bugs or missing features we deem…
read the full OrchardCore overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is wagtail or OrchardCore more popular?
wagtail has 20,599 GitHub stars and OrchardCore has 8,223. wagtail has the larger community by that measure.
Are wagtail and OrchardCore free?
Both are open source. wagtail is licensed under BSD-3-Clause and OrchardCore under BSD-3-Clause. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between wagtail and OrchardCore?
wagtail is written in Python and OrchardCore in C#. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, wagtail or OrchardCore?
Choose wagtail if you want the larger community (20,599 stars) or its BSD-3-Clause licence terms. Choose OrchardCore if its feature set, stack or BSD-3-Clause licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.