W (WCMS)

W is a lightweight, wiki-style CMS written in PHP designed to help authors create spontaneous, heterogeneous web spaces. It targets artists and experimental projects and combines note-taking and website editing workflows for quick page creation and linking. (w.club1.fr)

Key Features

• Lightweight, fast-loading editor and UI optimized for mobile
• Written in PHP (requires PHP >= 7.4) and built with Composer/npm build tooling
• Flat-file JSON database (Flywheel) — no external DB required
• Edit using Markdown, HTML, CSS and JavaScript; built-in CodeMirror editor
• Media manager with folders, upload-from-URL, and optional image optimization (gd/imagick)
• Multi-user accounts; LDAP authentication available (beta)
• Atom/RSS feed support and fully functional without JavaScript
• Graph visualization of links via Cytoscape.js and optional geolocation maps via Leaflet (beta)
• URL-based command interface and a CLI sync client (W sync)
• Multiple themes and easy theming/templating

(github.com)

Use Cases

• Personal knowledge base, note-taking site, or Zettelkasten-style public notebook
• Small artist/experimental websites or multi-aspect micro-sites where design freedom matters
• Lightweight intranet or private team wiki with simple multi-user workflows and optional LDAP

(github.com)

Limitations and Considerations

• Not recommended for very large sites (has not been tested beyond ~1000 pages)
• Not ideal for multi-language sites; limited internationalization support
• Not version-control friendly (flat-file storage and file layout can make git workflows awkward)
• Some features flagged beta (LDAP, geolocation) and may be incomplete
• Requires PHP extensions (curl, mbstring, xml, intl) and optionally gd or imagick for image optimization; building from source uses Composer and npm

(w.club1.fr)

W is a compact option for creators who want fast, flexible page creation with a wiki-like editing experience and a flat-file backend. It favors spontaneity and design freedom over enterprise features and large-scale scalability.