Self-Hosted WordPress Alternatives

There are many alternatives to WordPress as a self-hosted solution if you are looking for a replacement. The best Self-Hosted 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 loads of them are available as a self-hosted solution so hopefully you can find a suitable replacement. Other interesting Self-Hosted alternatives to WordPress are Joomla, Ghost, Grav and Jekyll.

filter to find the best alternatives

WordPress alternatives are mainly CMS Tools, but if you're looking for Blog Publishing Tools or Website Builders you can filter on that. Other popular filters include Open Source, .NET Framework, Website Builder, Linux, Self-Hosted + Open Source, Free and Self-Hosted. You can also filter by region, for example EU-based alternatives if you prefer software developed in the European Union. These are just examples - use the filter bar below to find more specific alternatives to WordPress.
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Alternatives list

  1. Drupal icon

    Drupal

     496 likes

    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.

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Self-Hosted
    • PHP
    Drupal screenshot 1
     
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    8
    Drupal vs WordPress Comments
    Top Positive Comment
    Guest
    1

    Wordpress is a good framework for absolute beginners, Drupal for more advanced users, imo

    Top Negative Comment
    xu3e
    -1

    Some times ago Drupal started using Symphony Framework which is a great for some. Not for many. I am not sure why but anytime i tried Drupal on localhost or my VPS, it was very slow comparing to wordpress. Slower than WORDPRES?! No hell! I really do not see any advantages. But in a past, i had a big feelings for Drupal. Not anymore.

    Rakshit Panchal
    Positive
    0

    Drupal and WordPress are both popular content management systems (CMS), but they serve different needs.

    WordPress is known for its ease of use and is ideal for beginners and small to medium-sized sites. It has a large library of themes and plugins, making customization straightforward.

    Drupal, on the other hand, is more complex but offers greater flexibility and scalability. It’s well-suited for large, complex websites with extensive data and custom functionality.

    3 of 8 comments
    • Drupal is Free and Open SourceWordPress is Freemium and Open Source
  2. Joomla icon

    Joomla

     354 likes

    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.

    Cost / License

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Self-Hosted
    • PHP
    Home Dashboard
     
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    3
    Joomla vs WordPress Comments
    Guest
    Positive
    0

    All in one installation with extensions I need improve the security. No problem of compatibility of extensions when I update.

    Guest
    Positive
    0

    Joomla is the only CMS that allows you to make a simple website to a complex website with an optimal learning curve.

    Guest
    Negative
    -12

    Joomla is a CMS, Wordpress was more concepted for blogging - even if it's a CMS similar Sw today...

    • Joomla is Free and Open SourceWordPress is Freemium and Open Source
  4. Ghost icon

    Ghost

     263 likes

    Launched in 2013, Ghost is a modern blogging platform that you can self-host or pay for a hosted version (a bit like WordPress). But unlike the three CMS mentioned above, it's not based on PHP but on NodeJS, which can be a good thing for JavaScript developers. Ghost has a very sleek interface and offers useful tools like subscriptions, memberships, analytics, and integrations to easily grow your audience. You can also download beautiful themes from their marketplace to speed up the process of launching your website.

    286 Ghost alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Freemium
    • Open Source (MIT)

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Online
    • Self-Hosted
    • Cloudron
    • Node.JS
    Ghost screenshot 1
     
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    1
    Ghost vs WordPress Comments
    xu3e
    Negative
    -1

    Needs NodeJS, which means more powerful hosting or VPS that cost more than ordinary hosting. There is also less plugins and support. It is just a basic blog platform. Faster? Yeah. More secure? Yeah. Membership included? Yeah. But you have to pay more than on wordpress. And good luck with looking for an enthusiastic developers working for a smile. Wordpress is still the best platform. For a blogging i would choose anything but ghost.

    • Ghost is Freemium and Open SourceWordPress is also Freemium and Open Source
    • Ghost is Privacy focusedWordPress is not according to our users
  5. Grav icon

    Grav

     139 likes

    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.

    193 Grav alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Self-Hosted
    • Cloudron
    The dashboard
     
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    6
    Grav vs WordPress Comments
    Top Positive Comment
    Guest
    6

    It's not a messy pile of spaghetti code. It uses modern tools like Composer and Twig.

    therojam
    Positive
    0

    Grav 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.

    Guest
    Positive
    2

    The features you want, without the bloat you don't

    3 of 6 comments
    • Grav is Free and Open SourceWordPress is Freemium and Open Source
  7. Jekyll icon

    Jekyll

     129 likes

    Jekyll is a static site generator (SSG) created in 2008 by Tom Preston-Werner, the founder of GitHub. It's coded in Ruby and requires NodeJS. It's very different from WordPress on many points. For starters, it's a static site generator, which means it takes your text and generates static HTML pages for your site (with no database).

    Like Grav, it's pretty fast and simple to use, but it requires a bit more technical knowledge as you don't have access to an admin dashboard to manage your website. One advantage, though, is that you can use the free hosting provided by GitHub Pages with Jekyll.

    140 Jekyll alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source (MIT)

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Self-Hosted
    Jekyll screenshot 1
     
  8. Hugo icon

    Hugo

     95 likes

    Hugo is a general-purpose website framework for generating static web pages. Hugo flexibly works with many formats and is ideal for blogs, docs, portfolios and much more.

    116 Hugo alternatives

    Cost / License

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Self-Hosted
    Hugo screenshot 1
     
  9. ProcessWire icon

    ProcessWire

     166 likes

    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…).

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Online
    • Self-Hosted
    • PHP
    ProcessWire screenshot 1
     
  10. Frappe Builder icon

    Frappe Builder

     15 likes

    Frappe Builder is an open-source low-code website builder built on the Frappe Framework, designed for simplicity, speed, and flexibility. Craft beautiful websites effortlessly with an intuitive visual builder.

    38 Frappe Builder alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source (MIT)

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Online
    • Self-Hosted
    • Linux
    • Docker
    Frappe Builder screenshot 1
     
  11. October icon

    October

     19 likes

    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.

    Cost / License

    • Paid
    • Proprietary

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Self-Hosted
    • Laravel
    • PHP
    October screenshot 1
     
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    4
    October vs WordPress Comments
    Guest
    Positive
    0

    Both friendly for developer and user

    bradybarten
    Positive
    1

    Laravel based. Its essentially a CMF on top of Laravel

    Jesse Boyer
    Positive
    1

    Balance between Client and Developer, beautiful and built on Laravel. Easy to extend, it destroys wordpress.

    3 of 4 comments
    • October is Paid and ProprietaryWordPress is Freemium and Open Source
  12. EmDash CMS icon

    EmDash CMS

     14 likes

    Full-stack TypeScript CMS built on Astro and Cloudflare featuring extensible architecture, sandboxed plugins in Worker isolates, WordPress migration, visual schema builder, role-based access, rich text editing, AI integration, media management, and open source deployment.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source (MIT)

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Self-Hosted
    • Typescript
    EmDash CMS screenshot 1
     
  13. WriteFreely icon

    WriteFreely

     48 likes

    WriteFreely is an open-source, minimalist, federated, self-hosted blogging platform. It was built for and by Write.as and can be used to power a similar community or just a single blog.

    Cost / License

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Self-Hosted
    • Online
    WriteFreely screenshot 1
     
  14. Strapi icon

    Strapi

     39 likes

    Strapi enables developers to build projects faster by providing a customizable API out of the box and giving them the freedom to use their favorite tools. Content teams use Strapi to autonomously manage all types of content and distribute it from one CMS to any channel be it...

    85 Strapi alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Freemium
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Self-Hosted
    Content types builder
     
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    1
    Strapi vs WordPress Comments
    Guest
    Positive
    1

    It has a great UI and allows to manage content easily and quickly and deliver it anywhere

    • Strapi is Freemium and Open SourceWordPress is also Freemium and Open Source
    • Strapi is LightweightWordPress is not according to our users
12 of 61 WordPress alternatives