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Decap CMS vs other Git-based CMSs
An honest comparison of Decap CMS with Sveltia CMS, TinaCMS, Pages CMS, Keystatic, CloudCannon, Sitepins, Nuxt Studio, Front Matter CMS and Outstatic, with facts and sources.
We make Decap CMS, so read this with that in mind. We’ve tried to make it a page you could trust anyway: every fact is sourced, the numbers come from public data you can check, and we say where other tools are the better choice. If something here is wrong or out of date, tell us and we’ll fix it.
Prices are in each vendor’s own currency.
At a glance
| How it runs | Git hosts | License | Cost | Maintained by | Latest release | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Decap CMS | Admin page in your site, any static site generator | GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, Gitea, Forgejo, Azure DevOps, Git Gateway | MIT | Free. Optional hosted Decap Turbo: free plan, Pro from €19/month | A company (PM d.o.o.) and contributors | 3.17.3, 26 October 2026 |
| Sveltia CMS | Admin page in your site, any static site generator | GitHub, GitLab, Gitea, Forgejo | MIT | Free | One maintainer | 0.259.0, 5 November 2026 (beta) |
| TinaCMS | React admin with a GraphQL API; TypeScript config | GitHub (TinaCloud); self-hosted needs a Node backend and a database | Apache-2.0 | TinaCloud free for 2 users; Team from $29/month per project | SSW (a company) | 3.15.1 |
| Pages CMS | Hosted app, or self-hosted with PostgreSQL | GitHub | MIT | Free | One maintainer | 2.1.8, 8 June 2026 |
| Keystatic | Integration for Astro, Next.js or Remix; TypeScript config | GitHub (needs a Node host), or local | MIT | Free; Keystatic Cloud free for 3 users, Pro from $10/month | Thinkmill (a company) | core 0.6.9 |
| CloudCannon | Hosted service | GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket | Proprietary | From $55/month ($49 billed yearly), 21-day trial | CloudCannon (a company) | Continuous (SaaS) |
| Sitepins | Hosted app (Sitepins Cloud), or self-hosted | GitHub; GitLab from the Team plan | AGPL-3.0 | Self-hosted free; Cloud from $12/month ($10 billed yearly), 7-day trial | The team behind Themefisher (a company) | Continuous; no tagged releases |
| Nuxt Studio | Nuxt module, for Nuxt Content sites | GitHub, GitLab | MIT | Free | The Nuxt team | 1.8.0, 16 October 2026 |
| Front Matter CMS | VS Code extension | Your local repository | MIT | Free | One maintainer | 10.13.0, 12 October 2026 |
| Outstatic | Inside your Next.js app, or hosted PRO | GitHub | FSL-1.1 (source-available, not OSI open source) | Free self-hosted; PRO $9.99 per user/month | One maintainer | 2.2.4, 20 August 2026 |
Static CMS, a fork of Netlify CMS, was archived in September 2024. Its README recommends Decap CMS and TinaCMS instead.
Activity, measured the same way for everyone
Activity in Q4 2025–Q3 2026 (1 October 2025 to 30 September 2026), from the GitHub API and the npm downloads API, fetched every time this site is built. Releases, commits and downloads cover that period; stars and open issues are current. Commits are to each repository’s default branch, and downloads are a weekly average over the period.
| GitHub stars | Releases | Commits | Open issues | npm downloads a week | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Decap CMS | 19,459 | 15 | 307 | 372 | 15,301 (decap-cms-app) |
| Sveltia CMS | 3,042 | 296 | 2,216 | 27 | 5,430 (@sveltia/cms) |
| TinaCMS | 13,868 | 50 on npm | 526 | 467 | 53,010 (tinacms) |
| Pages CMS | 4,183 | 11 | 176 | 56 | — |
| Keystatic | 2,500 | 13 on npm | 72 | 169 | 65,765 (@keystatic/core) |
| Sitepins | 196 (public since July 2026) | 0 | 133 | 3 | — |
| Nuxt Studio | 744 | 15 on npm | 539 | 94 | 4,920 (nuxt-studio) |
| Front Matter CMS | 2,550 | 4 | 107 | 77 | — (87,498 VS Code installs in total) |
| Outstatic | 3,168 | 19 | 481 | 0 | 833 (outstatic) |
“—” means there is no source for that number: Pages CMS, Sitepins and Front Matter CMS don’t publish an npm package. Sitepins doesn’t tag releases. Front Matter CMS’s install count is the VS Code Marketplace total, which isn’t fetched automatically. Releases marked “on npm” are stable versions published on npm: TinaCMS and Keystatic publish many packages from one repository, and Nuxt Studio’s GitHub releases include its alpha and beta versions.
npm counts include automated installs and miss sites that load the CMS from a CDN with a script tag, which is common for both Decap and Sveltia. Treat them as a rough signal, not a count of sites. For Decap’s own numbers in more detail, see State of Decap.
Each alternative in short
- Sveltia CMS is the closest alternative to Decap: a rewrite of Netlify CMS in Svelte that reads the same
config.yml, so most sites can switch with small changes. It has a lighter script, a very fast release pace, more free built-in media storage and local editing without a proxy in Chromium browsers; Decap has more Git hosts (Bitbucket, Azure DevOps, Git Gateway), a stable 3.x line where Sveltia is still in 0.x beta, more extension points, and hosted login and roles with Decap Turbo. Sveltia is maintained by one developer; Decap by a company and contributors. - TinaCMS is the strongest choice for visual, in-context editing on React sites: editors click on the page and edit it. Content still lives in Git, but production needs TinaCloud (GitHub only) or a self-hosted backend with a database. The free plan has 2 users and no editorial workflow, which starts on the Team plan.
- Pages CMS is a simple, free hosted editor for GitHub repositories, configured with
.pages.yml, and collaborators don’t need a GitHub account. GitHub only. - Keystatic suits Astro, Next.js and Remix projects that want a TypeScript content schema with typed content in the app. GitHub mode needs a GitHub App and a host that runs Node.js; it has no pull-request review workflow.
- CloudCannon is a commercial hosted CMS with visual editing, support and SSO on its top plan, for agencies and companies that would rather pay than run anything. It has no free plan.
- Sitepins is a hosted visual editor that detects your content structure without a config file, with SEO and AI helpers and many templates. Its code has been public under AGPL-3.0 since July 2026; the hosted plans start at $12 a month with no free plan, and GitLab needs the Team plan.
- Nuxt Studio is the natural choice for Nuxt Content sites, and only for them: a free, MIT-licensed Nuxt module with visual editing on GitHub and GitLab.
- Front Matter CMS is for developers who write in VS Code. It runs in the editor, not in a browser, so it doesn’t serve non-technical editors.
- Outstatic is a CMS inside your Next.js app, for GitHub. Its license (FSL-1.1) restricts competing commercial use, so it isn’t open source in the OSI sense.
How to choose
- You use a static site generator and want editors to have a web UI, on any of several Git hosts, at no cost: Decap CMS or Sveltia CMS.
- Your team needs logins, invitations and roles without running an OAuth server: Decap CMS with Decap Turbo, Pages CMS (GitHub only), Sitepins, or CloudCannon.
- You want editors to edit on the page itself on a React site: TinaCMS, or CloudCannon.
- Your content schema should live in TypeScript in an Astro, Next.js or Remix app: Keystatic.
- Your site is built with Nuxt Content: Nuxt Studio.
- Only developers edit the content: Front Matter CMS, or simply your code editor.
If you aren’t sure a Git-based CMS is right at all, see Git-based vs API-first vs traditional CMS.
Sources
Each vendor’s own documentation and pricing page: Sveltia CMS docs (including its roadmap, migration guide and Additions), TinaCMS pricing and self-hosting, Pages CMS, Keystatic GitHub mode and Cloud, CloudCannon pricing, Sitepins pricing and repository, Front Matter CMS, Outstatic, Nuxt Studio. Repository numbers from the GitHub API, downloads from the npm downloads API, bundle sizes from the published files on jsDelivr.