Free CMS Platforms Comparison
BeginnerQuick Answer
TL;DR
The best free CMS depends on your use case. WordPress.org is free software but requires paid hosting. Sanity offers a genuinely free hosted tier with 20 users and 100K API requests/month. Ghost is free self-hosted but $9+/month managed. Strapi is free self-hosted. Directus has a free self-hosted version. For most teams wanting a free hosted CMS with no server management, Sanity's free tier is the most generous option available.
Key Takeaways
- "Free CMS" means different things: free software (you host it) vs. free hosted tier (vendor manages infrastructure).
- WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, Ghost, Strapi, and Directus are free to download — but you pay for hosting.
- Sanity, Hygraph, and Prismic offer free hosted tiers with real usage limits.
- Free tiers often have user limits, API call limits, or feature restrictions that matter for production use.
- The "freest" option for a team that wants zero infrastructure management is a hosted CMS with a generous free tier.