WordPress Alternatives for PHP
There are many alternatives to WordPress for PHP if you are looking for a replacement. The best PHP alternative is Drupal, which is both free and Open Source. If that doesn't suit you, our users have ranked more than 100 alternatives to WordPress and many of them are available for PHP so hopefully you can find a suitable replacement. Other interesting PHP alternatives to WordPress are Joomla, Grav, ProcessWire and October.
WordPress alternatives are mainly CMS Tools but may also be Blog Publishing Tools or Website Builders. Filter by these if you want a narrower list of alternatives or looking for a specific functionality of WordPress.
- Freemium • Open Source
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
- Online
- Android
- iPhone
- Android Tablet
- iPad
- Self-Hosted
- PHP
- Cloudron
Drupal is a free and open source CMS that has been created “by developers for developers”, and is therefore slightly more complicated to learn than a solution like Wix or WordPress. It's intended for an audience with technical skills, which is why it is perhaps less popular. This drawback can also be an advantage: thanks to the great flexibility of Drupal, it is possible to obtain much more advanced results thanks to more in-depth functionality. And like WordPress, it can also be extended with thousands of themes and modules.
Drupal vs WordPress opinions
nsdopkAgreed with GU that Drupal is really nice <a href="https://www.hostingrb.com/hosting/web-hosting/">CMS</a>.
Wordpress is a good framework for absolute beginners, Drupal for more advanced users, imo
franKEYextremely easy to get used to and pretty advanced features that can be used in a variety of options,
Drupal is really nice CMS
vladsmarrrchoice of mine! recommend to all
yellowvestFine tuning and tweaking features available to pros.
rishabhistwalIn Drupal you get more plugins than any other CMS provide in this list to customise site .Virgin like many big companies use drupal . Easy to install and customise. Have a big community support.
Joomla is another free and open source popular CMS. It's a powerful, versatile, and flexible platform with a large community of users and developers. It is known to be more accessible than Drupal, but more complex than WordPress. Like the other two, it can be extended with themes and extensions. Joomla still requires some technical skills and is primarily intended for developers.
Joomla vs WordPress opinions
Joomla is the only CMS that allows you to make a simple website to a complex website with an optimal learning curve.
Joomla is a CMS, Wordpress was more concepted for blogging - even if it's a CMS similar Sw today...
All in one installation with extensions I need improve the security. No problem of compatibility of extensions when I update.
- Free • Open Source
- Online
- Self-Hosted
- PHP
- Markdown
- Cloudron
Grav is a powerful and easy to use open source CMS written in PHP and based on the Symfony web application framework. Compared to other content management systems, it is a fast, simple and flexible file-based platform. This means that Grav doesn't use a database like MySQL or MongoDB, but stores all the information in YAML files. This also means that the learning curve is pretty straightforward, there are less security risks, and the websites are usually pretty fast. There's also a marketplace with themes and plugins, but don't expect to see as many as for WordPress, Joomla or Drupal.
Grav vs WordPress opinions
It's not a messy pile of spaghetti code. It uses modern tools like Composer and Twig.
therojamGrav is easy to deploy by just extracting the downloaded archive. It got an terminal client where to install plugins/extensions like an administrative backend or other themes. It has spotless file structure.
The features you want, without the bloat you don't
AlanLeikenThe interface is cleaner and more modern, making for a much more pleasant experience than WordPress. Easier to set up as well.
It is more developer friendly. The project structure is very clean, easy to configure and deploy. Using flat files instead of a SQL database might be limiting for some, but it's perfect for most standard sites like blogs, agency websites and even E-commerce. Twig for templates leads to cleaner code and a better separation of concern (Almost impossible to mix business logic in your templates). I guess the only downside is lack of plugins and templates for now.
Grav does not save things to a database, and does not ship with the same functionality such as having posts with categories.
ProcessWire is a free and open source content management framework (CMF) and content management system (CMS). The backend is clean and structured for easy handling. This tool gives you all the freedom you need to design your website. It is not as well known as the giant WordPress or its competitors Joomla and Drupal, but this lightweight software stands out from the competition with certain advantages (ease of use, security, stable API, page templates…).
- Paid • Open Source
- Self-Hosted
- Laravel
- PHP
October is a self-hosted CMS platform based on the Laravel PHP Framework. Thousands of digital studios and freelancers all over the world love October for its simplicity, flexibility and modern design. Their clients are happy, because October saves them both time and money.
October vs WordPress opinions
Both friendly for developer and user
bradybartenLaravel based. Its essentially a CMF on top of Laravel
Highly customizable, admin panel can be extended really easy, very well documented. Fast. Secure!
jesseboyerBalance between Client and Developer, beautiful and built on Laravel. Easy to extend, it destroys wordpress.
Tiki Wiki CMS Groupware is a full-featured, web-based, multilingual (40+ languages), tightly integrated, all-in-one Wiki+CMS+Groupware, Free Source Software (GNU/LGPL), using PHP + Smarty, MySQL, Zend Framework, jQuery and Bootstrap.
- Freemium • Open Source
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
- Self-Hosted
- PHP
Bludit is a web application to build your own website or blog in seconds, it's completely free and open source. A PRO version is available for those who want to support the software developer. The software seems almost the same between the versions.
No screenshots yet
The MODX Digital Experience Platform gives you everything you need to build, host, and maintain amazing websites your way. Gain complete control over your creative vision without restriction or compromise.
MODX vs WordPress opinions
Creative, Design and Developer freedom. Without the wordpress straightjacket.
- Free • Open Source
- Self-Hosted
- PHP
Automad is a file-based flat CMS and template engine. It is designed to be fully portable without any dependencies on databases or fixed locations and doesn't require any complicated setup process. All data gets stored in a human readable form.
ImpressPages is a PHP framework with admin panel. A new MVC engine is under the hood so you can customize ImpressPages in no time. Write your own plugins and themes to suit your and customers’ needs best.
Discontinued
Its main repository https://github.com/impresspages/ImpressPages did not update since 2018. Website is unaccessable due to the certificate expired.
