Best open-source alternatives to Squarespace

Ghost is an open source publishing platform built as a headless Node.js CMS. It is aimed at publishers, creators, and teams that want a professional, modern system for running a website or publication while connecting to other tools through its API. The project offers both a self-hosted route and a managed Ghost(Pro) service. For self-hosting, the README points users to a CLI-based quickstart for local or production installs, along with documentation for hosting, updates, themes, development, and contributing. The README also highlights automatic SSL setup for production installs and access to the Content API for custom integrations.

A powerful and easy-to-use website building tool (documentation in Chinese).

WordPress is a self-hosted publishing platform intended for creating websites, blogs, and other content-driven sites. The README presents it as the “Semantic Personal Publishing Platform” and frames it as a widely used project supported by a large contributor community. It is meant for users who want to install the software on their own web server and manage a site through a browser-based admin interface. The installation process described is the classic five-minute setup: upload the files, open the installer, configure database connection details, and complete the setup through the login page. The README also notes built-in upgrade procedures, import tools for migrating from other systems, and a plugin API for extending core functionality. It positions WordPress as free software released under the GPL, with requirements centered on PHP and MySQL-compatible databases.

Wagtail is an open source content management system built on Django. It is aimed at organizations and teams that need a flexible CMS with strong editorial user experience and detailed control for designers and developers. The README highlights that it is used by large organizations and can scale from small deployments to very large sites. The project is installed with Python and Django tooling, typically through pip and a virtual environment, then initialized as a new Django project. It supports a content API for headless use, multi-site and multi-language setups, and search backed by Elasticsearch or PostgreSQL. The README also points users to extensive documentation for getting started, integration into existing Django projects, and release notes.

October CMS is a content management system and web platform aimed at developers who want a simpler website-building workflow. The README presents it as an alternative to more complex systems, emphasizing getting back to basics and reducing friction in web development. It is installed from source using Composer, with an additional artisan install step if a database is being used. The project points users to official documentation, tutorials, videos, and example repositories for learning and building with the platform. The README also notes that October CMS is open source, but the platform itself is licensed software under an EULA and new accounts include a complimentary first-year license for updates and Marketplace access.

Webstudio is presented as an open-source visual development platform aimed at developers, designers, and cross-functional teams. It is positioned as a product that lets users build visually while retaining ownership of their data, components, and infrastructure. The README indicates that the project can be used as a hosted service or self-hosted by rolling out one’s own instance. It also points readers to documentation, design resources, contributing guides, community discussions, and project tracking links, suggesting an active ecosystem around both usage and contribution. The license section further shows that the core is open source under AGPL-3.0-or-later, while one optional package is proprietary.

Webiny is an open-source, serverless content management system aimed at enterprise use cases and designed to run on AWS. The README positions it as a CMS platform rather than a standalone application, with emphasis on a cloud-native architecture. It appears to be intended for organizations that want a customizable CMS with an ecosystem of community extensions. The repository also provides links to documentation, a Slack community for support and discussion, and contribution guidelines for people who want to help develop the project.

Umbraco CMS is a free and open source content management system built on .NET. It is aimed at developers and teams that want to create and customize websites and digital experiences while using a flexible, extensible platform. The README emphasizes that Umbraco is designed to be friendly, simpler, and social, and points users to official documentation for setup, tutorials, and production deployment. The project is distributed through .NET templates rather than as a standalone runtime package. Users install the Umbraco templates, create a new project, and run it locally after installing the required .NET Runtime and SDK. The README also highlights a live backoffice preview for the latest UI and directs users to Discord and the community forum for support and feedback.

Joomla! is an open source content management system aimed at people who want to build and manage websites or web-based applications. The README describes it as a simple and powerful server-side application and points to the official site, version history, and changelog for more information. It is intended to run on a PHP-based web server with a supported database such as MySQL, MariaDB, or PostgreSQL. This repository is the source tree for Joomla 5.x rather than a ready-to-install package, so contributors and developers are expected to set up a local environment with Composer, Node.js, and Git before working with it. The project also emphasizes community contribution, documentation, and branching guidance for pull requests.

Craft CMS is a self-hosted content management system designed for teams and developers who want to build custom digital experiences rather than adapt to a rigid content structure. It emphasizes a user-friendly control panel, flexible content modeling, and a templating workflow centered on Twig, making it suitable for websites, headless backends, and bespoke commerce experiences. The project also includes a built-in plugin marketplace and an extension framework for customization, along with an auto-generated GraphQL API for headless use cases. The README points users to official docs, tutorials, and installation guidance, and notes that the application runs as a PHP service that connects to MySQL or PostgreSQL for content storage.