Kirby
File-based PHP CMS with a customisable editing panel and a one-off per-site licence.
- Verified facts
- 4 of 4
- Alternatives ranked
- 5
- Approved reviews
- 0
- Visits sent from here
- 0
About Kirby
Kirby is a flat-file CMS written in PHP by a small company in Germany. Content lives in plain text files and folders instead of a database, which makes sites easy to back up, version in Git and move between servers. Developers define the editing panel with blueprints, so each site gets forms, layouts and blocks that match its content, and templates are written in plain PHP or used headlessly through Kirby's API. Designers and small agencies like it for portfolios, magazines and marketing sites where they want full control over markup. Kirby is free to try locally or on a test server; going live needs a licence, priced once per site with a discounted Basic tier for small organisations and a standard Enterprise tier, and three years of feature updates. The trade-offs are a smaller plugin ecosystem than the big CMSs and the need to write PHP for anything beyond the basics. It runs on any PHP host.
Best for: Designers and small agencies who want database-free sites with a tailored editing panel.
Pros and cons
What works
- No database: content is plain files you can version and copy
- Editing panel fully shaped by blueprints for each site
- One-off licence with no subscription
Why people leave
- Paid licence needed for every live site
- Smaller plugin ecosystem than larger CMSs
- Anything custom needs PHP development
Top Kirby alternatives
See all 5- 1
Statamic66.5Flat-file CMS on Laravel with a free Core edition.
- 2
Grav62.6Free, open-source flat-file PHP CMS for similar database-free sites.
- 3
Craft CMS59.6Database-backed PHP CMS with similar developer control and a bigger plugin store.
- 4
ProcessWire57.2Free open-source PHP CMS with a flexible field system.
- 5
Pages CMS55.3Free Git-based editor if your site is already a static site in GitHub.
Why people left Kirby
In reviewers' own words, from reviews of the apps they moved to. These are their opinions, not ours.
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Reviews
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Kirby: common questions
Is Kirby free?
No, Kirby is a paid product.
Is Kirby open source?
No, Kirby is not open source. Open-source alternatives include Grav, ProcessWire and Pages CMS.
What platforms does Kirby run on?
Kirby is available for Self-hosted and Web.
What are the best alternatives to Kirby?
The highest-ranked Kirby alternatives right now are Statamic, Grav and Craft CMS. See the full ranked list for pricing, platforms and verified facts.