Best Self Hosted Alternatives to Brightspot

Halo is an open-source website builder and content management system for creating blogs, knowledge bases, and business websites. It focuses on an efficient editing experience, structured configuration, and a plugin/theme ecosystem for long-term maintainability and growth.

Key Features

• Rich text and Markdown editing with embeddable content elements
• Theme templates and plugin-based architecture with one-click enable/disable
• RESTful API for integrations and secondary development
• Site logs and basic status monitoring capabilities
• Built-in backup and restore for site data
• Data migration tooling from other platforms
• Multiple storage strategies, including local storage and S3-compatible object storage
• Authentication options designed for flexible access control
• Optional AI capabilities via plugins (assisted writing and knowledge-base Q&A)

Use Cases

• Personal or team blogs with a fast publishing workflow
• Knowledge base sites with search and interactive Q&A extensions
• Company websites that need modular content and easy customization

Halo is a solid choice for users who want a modern, extensible CMS with a strong ecosystem of themes and plugins, plus integration-friendly APIs. Its modular design supports everything from simple blogs to more complex content-driven sites.

Wagtail is an open-source content management system built on Django, designed to provide an excellent authoring experience while giving developers full control over site structure and front-end implementation. It supports traditional, template-driven websites as well as headless architectures via an API.

Key Features

• Editor-friendly admin interface for creating, scheduling, and publishing content
• StreamField for flexible, structured page building with reusable content blocks
• Full front-end freedom using Django’s templating and view patterns
• Built-in image handling and rich media embedding capabilities
• Headless content delivery via a content API for decoupled front ends
• Integrated search with support for PostgreSQL or Elasticsearch backends
• Multi-site and internationalization features suitable for large organizations

Use Cases

• Building custom marketing sites and editorial websites with bespoke design
• Running multi-site deployments for institutions, departments, or brands
• Delivering content to decoupled front ends (web or mobile) using a headless API

Wagtail fits teams that want a polished editorial workflow without sacrificing developer flexibility, and it scales from small deployments to large, high-traffic installations. Its Django foundation makes it well-suited for organizations standardizing on Python for web development.

Grav is a modern, open-source flat-file CMS written in PHP that delivers fast, flexible websites without a database. It uses Markdown for content, Twig for templating, YAML for configuration and provides a package manager and rich plugin ecosystem for extensibility. (getgrav.org)

Key Features

• Flat-file architecture: pages are simple Markdown files organized in folders for easy versioning and deployment. (getgrav.org)
• Twig templating and theme inheritance for flexible, performant presentation layers. (getgrav.org)
• YAML-based configuration with environment overrides and blueprint-driven admin forms. (getgrav.org)
• Built-in package manager (GPM) to install and update plugins, themes and Grav itself. (github.com)
• Optional Admin plugin offering a responsive GUI, page blueprints, forms and one-click installs/updates. (getgrav.org)
• Smart caching and image processing to optimize performance for production sites. (getgrav.org)

Use Cases

• Marketing or brochure websites that benefit from fast static-like performance and simple content workflows. (getgrav.org)
• Documentation and knowledge portals using skeletons and modular pages to structure content. (getgrav.org)
• Blogs, portfolios and small-to-medium sites that prefer file-based versioning and easy backups without a database. (getgrav.org)

Limitations and Considerations

• Requires a PHP environment (minimum supported version historically noted as PHP 7.3.6+); verify current PHP compatibility for recent releases before deployment. (getgrav.org)
• Ecosystem quality varies: many plugins and themes are community-contributed; some premium themes/plugins are commercial or maintained by third parties. (getgrav.org)

Grav provides a compact, extensible alternative to database-backed CMSes, focusing on developer-friendly tools and fast runtime behavior. It is suitable for projects where simple content workflows, file-based versioning and flexible theming are priorities.

Umbraco CMS is a free and open-source content management system built on .NET for creating and managing content-driven websites and digital experiences. It provides an editor-friendly backoffice and a flexible, developer-centric architecture for building customized solutions.

Key Features

• Content modeling with custom document types, templates, and structured content
• Editor-focused backoffice for creating, organizing, and publishing content
• Extensible architecture for adding custom dashboards, sections, and content apps
• Integration-friendly approach for connecting to external services and APIs
• Deployment options suitable for small sites through enterprise-scale implementations

Use Cases

• Building and managing marketing websites with custom editorial workflows
• Implementing scalable content platforms for organizations with multiple sites
• Developing tailored CMS solutions that require custom integrations and UI extensions

Umbraco CMS is well-suited for teams that want a mature .NET-based CMS with a strong editing experience and the flexibility to build highly customized implementations. Its extensibility and scalability make it a common choice for long-lived websites and evolving digital platforms.

Joomla! is a free, open-source content management system (CMS) for building websites and web applications. It provides an admin interface for creating and organizing content, managing users, and extending functionality via a large ecosystem of extensions and templates.

Key Features

• Content management with structured menus, categories, and modules
• Extension and template system for adding features and customizing design
• Built-in multilingual capabilities
• User, role, and permission management with multiple access levels
• SEO-friendly features and mobile-ready theming support
• Supports common database backends for deployments

Use Cases

• Public websites for organizations, communities, and small businesses
• Multilingual marketing sites with role-based editorial workflows
• Content-driven portals extended with third-party components

Limitations and Considerations

• The core repository is not an installable package by itself; typical deployments use the packaged release builds

Joomla! suits teams that need a mature CMS with strong extensibility and fine-grained access control. Its long-standing community and extension ecosystem make it a flexible choice for many website types.

ApostropheCMS is an open-source, full-stack content management system and framework built on Node.js and MongoDB. It combines a visual, in-context editing experience for content teams with a developer-focused architecture that can also run as a headless CMS.

Key Features

• In-context (on-page) editing so content changes are made directly on live pages
• Headless-ready architecture with APIs to power decoupled frontends and omnichannel delivery
• Modular, extensible system designed for customization via a full-stack JavaScript workflow
• Role-based permissions and access controls suitable for team and enterprise setups
• Flexible deployment options for running on your own infrastructure

Use Cases

• Build and manage marketing sites and content-heavy web properties with visual editing
• Run Apostrophe as a headless CMS for frontends built in React, Vue, Svelte, Astro, or other frameworks
• Create multi-team editorial workflows for organizations that need structured content management

ApostropheCMS is a strong fit when you want a modern JavaScript-based CMS that supports both editor-friendly visual editing and developer-driven headless implementations, without giving up a full-featured admin experience.

Winter CMS is a free, open-source content management system built on the Laravel PHP framework. It is designed for developers and agencies who want a clean, extensible CMS with a strong focus on simplicity, stability, and long-term maintainability.

Key Features

• Laravel-based architecture with a dedicated foundation layer to reduce breaking changes
• User-friendly backend for managing pages, content, and site structure
• Plugin and theme architecture to extend functionality and customize presentation
• Suitable for rapid prototyping as well as larger, more complex web applications
• Focus on backward-compatible iteration, performance, and security-minded development

Use Cases

• Marketing and brochure websites with a manageable admin interface
• Agency-built client sites that require extensibility via plugins and themes
• Custom web applications that benefit from CMS-driven content and Laravel foundations

Winter CMS combines an approachable content editing experience with a developer-centric stack. It is a strong fit when you want Laravel compatibility, a stable CMS core, and an ecosystem designed around plugins and themes.

MODX Revolution is an open source content management system (CMS) and application framework built for creating custom websites and digital experiences without forcing a fixed theme or markup structure. It emphasizes flexibility, performance through caching, and security-focused architecture.

Key Features

• Template-driven rendering that gives developers full control over HTML, CSS, and JavaScript
• Extensible core with packages and modular components for custom requirements
• Built-in caching to improve performance for dynamic sites
• Granular user permissions and access controls for tailored editorial workflows
• Multi-site and multilingual capabilities suitable for multi-domain deployments

Use Cases

• Corporate and marketing websites requiring custom design and structured content editing
• Agency-built client sites that need a tailored admin experience and fine-grained permissions
• Content-driven applications and integrations (for example, headless-style delivery via custom endpoints)

Limitations and Considerations

• Best suited for teams comfortable with configuring templates and content models; it is less “theme-first” than some CMS platforms
• The ecosystem and extensions differ from more mainstream CMS options, so feature parity may require custom development

MODX Revolution is a strong fit when you need a customizable PHP CMS with clean separation of presentation and content, robust access control, and an extensible framework for building beyond standard page publishing.

TYPO3 is an open-source, PHP-based enterprise content management system (CMS) designed for large, multilingual and multisite web projects. It combines a structured content model, fine-grained access controls and an extension-driven architecture to support both classic and headless delivery modes. (github.com)

Key Features

• Enterprise-grade multisite and multilingual support with fine-grained user and permission management. (t3gov.com)
• Structured content management, editor workflows, versioning and visual diffs for content auditing and rollback. (t3gov.com)
• Extension ecosystem and package management via Composer and the TYPO3 Extension Repository (TER) for functional extensibility. (github.com)
• Modern developer stack that uses PHP, Composer and selected Symfony components (DependencyInjection, EventDispatcher, Mailer, etc.), with Doctrine DBAL for database abstraction and PHPUnit-based testing. (docs.typo3.org)
• Support for major relational databases and web servers, image-processing tooling, CLI utilities and a Long-Term Support (LTS) release cadence for enterprise maintenance. (docs.typo3.org)

Use Cases

• Powering large corporate, educational or government multisite portals with centralized governance and local editorial teams. (typo3.com)
• Acting as a headless content provider for SPAs, mobile apps or decoupled frontends while keeping editorial workflows and versioning in the CMS. (typo3.com)
• Implementing regulated publishing workflows, audit trails and staged deployments for organisations that require strict content governance. (t3gov.com)

Limitations and Considerations

• TYPO3 has a steeper learning curve and a larger operational footprint compared with lightweight CMSs; it requires familiarity with PHP, Composer and server configuration, and benefits from experienced integrators for complex projects. (github.com)

TYPO3 is a mature, extensible CMS aimed at organisations that need scalable multisite and multilingual capabilities along with enterprise-grade workflows and long-term maintenance. It suits projects where stability, structured content and editorial governance are priorities.

Backdrop CMS is a full-featured content management system (CMS) that helps non-technical users create, publish, and manage website content. It is a fork of Drupal that emphasizes a simpler architecture, fast learning curve, and solid out-of-the-box functionality.

Key Features

• Admin UI for creating and organizing content without programming
• Extensible functionality via add-ons (modules/themes) installable from the site
• Built-in upgrade path from Drupal 7 for easier migrations
• Performance-oriented design suitable for shared hosting environments
• Developer-friendly APIs and a codebase designed to be learned quickly

Use Cases

• Company or organization websites and intranets
• Blogs and content-driven marketing sites
• Community sites such as simple social networks or image galleries

Limitations and Considerations

• Primarily targets MySQL/MariaDB deployments; other databases are not a typical focus
• Ecosystem is smaller than Drupal’s, so specific niche modules may require custom development

Backdrop CMS is a practical option for teams that want a traditional PHP CMS with a straightforward development model and strong usability for content editors. It is especially relevant for Drupal 7 users seeking a familiar, lower-complexity path forward while retaining extensibility.

Textpattern CMS is a lightweight, fast content management system written in PHP, designed for building websites and blogs with clean, controllable markup. It uses a tag-based templating language and keeps the core lean while remaining extensible through plugins.

Key Features

• Browser-based administration interface with a deliberately uncluttered, accessible UI
• Tag-based template language for layouts, pages, and reusable components
• Plugin ecosystem to extend core functionality
• Multi-language admin interface with extensive localization
• Supports authoring content with Textile; Markdown support is available via plugins
• Designed to keep generated HTML clean and under your control

Use Cases

• Personal or editorial blogs with structured content and custom templates
• Lightweight CMS for small-to-medium business or brochure websites
• Custom-designed sites where precise control over markup and presentation matters

Limitations and Considerations

• Some functionality (for example Markdown authoring) may require installing plugins

Textpattern CMS is a mature, long-running project focused on simplicity, performance, and clean site building. It suits teams and individuals who want a traditional CMS with strong template control and an extensible plugin ecosystem.

Concrete CMS is an open-source content management system designed for teams to create, edit, and publish websites. It emphasizes in-context editing, collaboration, and flexible site management.

Key Features

• In-context editing with a WYSIWYG content editor on the page
• Granular permissions and robust collaboration, including change logs and version control
• Workflow-based content approvals and built-in versioning
• Multisite management and multilingual support
• Built-in SEO tools and responsive design, with support for digital asset management

Use Cases

• Intranet/Portals and multi-site collaborative sites built from a single installation
• Public-facing marketing sites with multilingual content and strong SEO
• Teams needing asset management and content workflows for campaigns

Conclusion Concrete CMS provides an open-source, developer-friendly platform that enables editors and developers to build, manage, and scale websites with integrated collaboration and governance.

Superdesk is an open-source, web-based digital newsroom system for creating, editing, curating, packaging, and distributing news content. It combines headless CMS capabilities with editorial workflow and planning features, designed to scale from small publishers to large news agencies.

Key Features

• End-to-end editorial workflow for news creation, production, curation, and distribution
• API-centric, modular architecture for integrating third-party and legacy newsroom systems
• Headless content management with structured content, templates, and metadata
• Content search and retrieval powered by a dedicated search engine
• Role-based access control with configurable permissions for teams and freelancers
• Multi-channel distribution workflows to reuse content across platforms

Use Cases

• Operating a digital newsroom for agencies, publishers, and corporate newsrooms
• Centralizing editorial production with consistent templates, metadata, and packaging
• Integrating newsroom content with external publishing pipelines and downstream systems

Limitations and Considerations

• Requires multiple supporting services (notably a search engine, database, and cache) and separate server/client components, which increases deployment complexity

Superdesk is a strong fit for organizations that need a professional newsroom workflow layered on top of a headless CMS. Its API-first approach and modular design make it well-suited to complex publishing environments and integration-heavy setups.

Contao is an open-source content management system written in PHP that provides a full-featured CMS and web-application framework built on top of the Symfony full-stack framework. It targets professional websites and portals with a focus on accessibility, SEO, performance and predictable long-term support.

Key Features

• Symfony-based architecture with modular bundles and events/hooks for extensibility
• Contao Manager: a graphical Composer frontend for installing, updating and recovering installations
• Built-in SEO capabilities: editable meta tags, schema.org support and automatic XML sitemap generation
• Accessibility focus with compliance guidance for common European accessibility standards
• Performance features including deferred image resizing, support for HTTP/2, ESI and compatibility with HTTP caches (e.g., Varnish)
• Security features: modern password hashing, optional 2FA/passkeys, automatic account lockout and a public security advisory process
• Multi-site and multilingual support plus granular user permissions out of the box
• Managed Edition and Composer/Symfony bundle installation options to support varied deployment workflows

Use Cases

• Building accessible, SEO-optimized corporate websites, microsites and marketing portals
• Multi-language or multi-site deployments where centralized management and fine-grained permissions are required
• Integrating CMS features into existing Symfony applications via Contao’s bundle architecture

Limitations and Considerations

• Official database support is limited to MySQL/MariaDB (Contao uses Doctrine DBAL); other database engines are not officially supported
• Server requirements expect modern PHP versions and extensions; upgrading PHP or dependencies typically requires a Composer update and may require attention to installed third-party extensions

Contao is aimed at teams and agencies that need a stable, extensible CMS with a strong emphasis on accessibility, security and predictable LTS cycles. Its Symfony foundation and Composer-based workflow make it suitable both as a standalone CMS and as an embeddable bundle for Symfony applications.

CouchCMS is a PHP-based content management system designed for web designers and front-end developers. It lets you turn any static HTML/CSS template into a CMS-managed site by adding simple Couch tags, without requiring PHP coding skills.

Key Features

• Editable regions added directly in HTML/CSS templates using lightweight Couch tags
• Cloned pages to generate listings (blogs, portfolios, galleries) from templates
• CMS-managed forms with validation and ability to save submissions to the database
• Comments system with moderation controls
• SEO-friendly, nested virtual folders for readable URLs
• Listings, search inclusion control, and customizable RSS feeds
• Events calendar, custom 404/site-offline pages, and simple PayPal integration
• URL cloaking for protected downloads and basic site utilities for designers

Use Cases

• Convert static HTML/CSS templates into editable client-managed websites quickly
• Build small business sites, portfolios, or simple blogs where clients edit content via a minimal admin panel
• Create templated sections like event listings, galleries, or product pages using cloned pages

Limitations and Considerations

• Primarily a monolithic PHP CMS tailored to designers; not a headless CMS or API-first platform
• Open-source license (CPAL) requires attribution in source files unless a commercial white-label license is purchased
• Lacks a large plugin ecosystem and advanced modern features found in larger CMSs; hosting requires a PHP/MySQL-capable environment

CouchCMS is best suited for designers and small teams who want to keep full control over markup while adding CMS features without diving into backend code. It is a lightweight, pragmatic solution for templated sites where simplicity and fidelity to the original design are priorities.

REDAXO is a PHP-based content management system focused on simplicity and flexibility. It uses a modular approach where templates, modules and content blocks define site output, and it provides a media pool and AddOn system to extend functionality.

Key Features

• Modular content model with reusable modules and block-based content editing for flexible page composition
• Media pool for centralized file handling with metadata and extensible media fields
• Multilingual support and article/category-based structure for navigation and content organization
• AddOn ecosystem to extend capabilities (forms, user management, search, URL rewriting, etc.)
• Developer-friendly: Composer and Docker support, editable templates that give full control over output code
• Lightweight admin interface geared toward efficient editorial workflows and custom themes

Use Cases

• Corporate or brochure websites that require tight control over markup and performance
• Multilingual sites and local portals where content structure and custom fields are important
• Bespoke information management solutions built with custom AddOns and modular templates

Limitations and Considerations

• Community and ecosystem are strongest in German-speaking regions, which can affect availability of third-party themes and plugins in other languages
• Not primarily headless-first; integrations and headless capabilities require additional custom work or AddOns
• Smaller marketplace than larger CMS platforms, so some advanced features may require custom development

REDAXO is suited for projects where developers need direct control over frontend output and editors need a straightforward, extensible backend. It is particularly attractive for teams that want a lightweight, modular CMS that can be extended via AddOns and custom modules.

BigTree CMS is an open-source content management system built on PHP and MySQL that emphasizes developer control and an intuitive admin experience. It uses standard HTML/CSS/JavaScript and allows embedding PHP in templates for flexible site development.

Key Features

• Core built with PHP and MySQL; designed to let developers write standard HTML, CSS, JS and PHP (no proprietary templating).
• Template-driven output with editable frontend/admin UI and a visual editing workflow for pages and modules.
• Modular content types (modules, callouts, matrices) and a media manager with thumbnailing and cloud-storage integrations.
• Site integrity checking, pending changes workflow, role-based permissions, and search-optimized views.
• Bundled demo site and developer guides, plus changelog-driven maintenance and releases.

(bigtreecms.org)

Use Cases

• University, institutional, and corporate brochure sites that need hierarchical pages and fine-grained permissions.
• Custom brochure, marketing, or campaign sites where developers require full control over HTML/CSS/JS and PHP templates.

(bigtreecms.org)

Limitations and Considerations

• Smaller ecosystem and third-party plugin marketplace compared with major CMS platforms; community and ecosystem are modest in size (repository activity and star count indicate a smaller community footprint).
• Historically oriented toward traditional templated sites rather than headless or Jamstack-first workflows; integration work may be required for modern decoupled architectures.

(github.com)

BigTree is suited for teams that want developer control with an approachable admin UI and modular content modelling. It is maintained with a changelog and release notes that document compatibility and fixes for PHP/MySQL versions.

Plone is a mature, security-focused content management system (CMS) for building websites, intranets, and content-rich applications. It emphasizes structured content, fine-grained permissions, editorial workflows, and long-term maintainability, and can be used as a traditional CMS or as a headless backend.

Key Features

• Granular role-based access control and per-object permissions
• Editorial workflows (review/publish), versioning, and audit-friendly content governance
• Structured content types with schema-driven fields and validation
• Rich text editing, media handling, and reusable content components
• Search and navigation features for large content collections
• Headless delivery options (REST/JSON APIs) alongside classic server-rendered UI
• Extensible add-on ecosystem and theming for custom sites
• Security track record with coordinated security releases and hardening guidance

Use Cases

• Public-facing websites for organizations needing strong governance and permissions
• Intranets/extranets with departmental content ownership and review processes
• Headless CMS backend for custom frontends while retaining editorial tooling

Plone is well-suited for teams that need robust permissions and workflows, predictable upgrades, and an extensible Python-based platform for managing structured content at scale.

SPIP is a free and open source content management system (CMS) created for publishing websites with a strong focus on ease of use, multilingual content, and collective editorial work. It is widely used for institutional, community, personal, and small commercial sites.

Key Features

• Collaborative editorial workflow with roles/permissions for contributors and editors
• Built-in multilingual publishing tools for pages and site structure
• Flexible templating system for designing themes without changing stored content
• Article-based publishing suited to news sites, magazines, and documentation-style sites
• Extensible architecture with plugins for added features (e.g., consent management, payments)

Use Cases

• Association or NGO websites with multiple editors and contributors
• Institutional portals requiring structured publishing and multilingual pages
• Online magazines and news sites with regular editorial updates

SPIP provides a mature, community-driven publishing platform that balances editorial simplicity with the ability to build customized site designs. Its strengths make it especially suitable for collaborative teams and multilingual publishing needs.

Drupal is an open source content management system and web application framework used to build and manage websites, intranets, and digital experience platforms. It emphasizes structured content, extensibility, and fine-grained access control for complex publishing needs.

Key Features

• Modular architecture with a large ecosystem of extensions (modules) and themes
• Structured content modeling with custom content types, fields, and taxonomies
• Granular roles and permissions suitable for multi-role editorial workflows
• Built-in content authoring, revisions, moderation, and publishing workflows
• Multi-site and multi-language capabilities for managing multiple properties
• Extensible APIs for integrating with external systems and headless use cases

Use Cases

• Content-heavy corporate and government websites with complex governance
• Community portals and editorial platforms with workflow and moderation needs
• Headless or decoupled architectures where Drupal provides content APIs

Limitations and Considerations

• Operational complexity can be higher than simpler CMS options, especially with many modules
• Major version upgrades may require planning and compatibility checks for custom code and modules

Drupal is a strong choice when you need structured content, robust permissions, and a highly extensible platform. It scales from single sites to large multi-site and multi-language deployments when properly designed and maintained.