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Total CMS icon

Total CMS

Total CMS is a flat-file content management system for web professionals who build sites for other people. Content is stored as plain JSON or Markdown files on your own server — no database to install, configure, or migrate. Drop it on any PHP 8.

The Total CMS admin dashboard: collections, schemas, templates, and system status on a live production site.

Cost / License

  • Pay once
  • Source Available

Application type

Platforms

  • Self-Hosted
Editing content in Total CMS: forms are generated from each collection's schema, with rich text, meta fields, and read-only fields where the schema sets them.
The Image Builder: on-the-fly resizing, cropping, format conversion, and watermarking, with copy-paste Twig macros for every variant.
+4
Claude reading a live Total CMS install through the built-in MCP server: real collections, real schemas, real routing — no guesswork.
Total CMS alternatives  
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Features

Properties

  1.  Lightweight
  2.  Support for Themes
  3.  Privacy focused

Features

  1.  Support for MarkDown
  2.  Extensible by Plugins/Extensions
  3.  WYSIWYG Support
  4.  Dark Mode
  5.  Two-factor Authentication
  6.  Live Preview
  7.  Ad-free
  8.  No Tracking
  9.  Model Context Protocol (MCP) Support
  10.  Headless CMS
  11.  Flat File CMS

 Tags

Total CMS News & Activities

Highlights All activities

Recent activities

  • Joshua Omilian reviewed Total CMS  

    At Eight-Seven Inc., we've built client websites for years. Total CMS has changed what we can offer. It started as an easy way to give clients editable content. It is now the foundation we use to build complete websites and full web applications.

    What makes it powerful is its flexibility. Collections, custom schemas, and templating let us model almost any kind of data and show it however we need. Blogs, galleries, directories, booking systems, member areas, and custom admin dashboards are all...

  • frinaudo reviewed Total CMS  

    Reliable and with a great support from the developer and his community

  • Guest A comment was removed from Total CMS
  • frinaudo liked Total CMS
  • Joe Workman thinks Model Context Protocol (MCP) Support is a important feature of Total CMS
  • Joe Workman thinks Extensible by Plugins/Extensions is a important feature of Total CMS
  • Joe Workman thinks Support for MarkDown is a important feature of Total CMS
  • Joshua Omilian liked Total CMS
  • Joe Workman liked Total CMS
  • Joe Workman added Total CMS

Total CMS information

  • Developed by

    US flagJoe Workman

  • Licensing

    Source Available and Commercial product.

  • Pricing

    One time purchase (perpetual license) ranging between $195 and $395.

  • Written in

  • Alternatives

    19 alternatives listed

  • Badge

    Get an embeddable badge for Total CMS

  • Supported Languages

    • English

AlternativeTo Categories

Development, AI Tools & Services, Security & Privacy, Business & Commerce

GitHub repository

  •  10 Stars
  •  0 Forks
  •  29 Open Issues
  •   Updated  
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Our users have written 2 comments and reviews about Total CMS, and it has gotten 3 likes

Total CMS was added to AlternativeTo by Joe Workman on and this page was last updated .

Comments and Reviews

   
Top Positive Comment
frinaudo
0

Reliable and with a great support from the developer and his community

Joshua Omilian
0
Web Developer & App Maker at Eight-Seven Inc.

At Eight-Seven Inc., we've built client websites for years. Total CMS has changed what we can offer. It started as an easy way to give clients editable content. It is now the foundation we use to build complete websites and full web applications.

What makes it powerful is its flexibility. Collections, custom schemas, and templating let us model almost any kind of data and show it however we need. Blogs, galleries, directories, booking systems, member areas, and custom admin dashboards are all possible without bolting on a heavy framework or fighting a rigid platform. It's fast, flat-file, and easy to deploy, so we spend our time building features instead of maintaining databases and plugins.

Total CMS 3 took this even further. The API, extensions, and modern admin made it practical to build real web apps for clients. That same foundation gave us the confidence to start our own SaaS business. We now build and ship our own products on the platform we trust for client work, and that has opened a new revenue stream for our company.

Support and development have been excellent. The platform keeps improving, the documentation keeps growing, and you can tell it's built by people who use it every day.

If you are a designer or developer who wants to move beyond brochure sites and build real products, Total CMS is worth a serious look. It has grown our business from web design into software.

Joshua, Eight-Seven Inc. https://eight-seven.com

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AppStores & Other Links

What is Total CMS?

Total CMS is a flat-file content management system for web professionals who build sites for other people. Content is stored as plain JSON or Markdown files on your own server — no database to install, configure, or migrate. Drop it on any PHP 8.2+ host, or install with Composer, and it runs.

It's designed for the handoff. Clients get a clean admin where they can edit only the fields you choose, so the design you built stays intact. Access groups control who can see and change what, configured in the admin rather than in config files.

Build sites however you prefer: hand-written Twig templates, the built-in Site Builder for pages and routes, a visual builder like Stacks, or a coding agent. Every install includes an MCP server, so AI tools such as Claude, ChatGPT, and Cursor can read the site's real schemas and documentation for that exact version, and on Pro, write content through the same validation and permissions a human editor uses.

Features include custom content schemas, one-line SEO with structured data, automatic content versioning, on-the-fly image processing, a REST API, automations, an extension system, multilingual fields, and 130+ custom Twig filters and functions.

Total CMS is commercial software sold as a one-time license per domain — Standard at $195 or Pro at $395 — including two years of updates. The site keeps working if you never renew. A free 45-day trial includes every Pro feature. Shipping since 2015.

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