best php-based cms/tech choice

This page summarizes the projects mentioned and recommended in the original post on /r/PHP

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  • statamic

    Statamic: The New Site/App Package

    Beside Symfony there is Laravel Framework , I will not go into deep difference between this frameworks as it really is just taste of what your team likes more (active record vs datamapper, facade/helpers vs dependency injection, blade vs twig, ...), as already mention above this kind of CMS make sense if Website is just one part of your application and you have to build more then just a simple digital business card / website. In Laravel world there are CMS like October CMS / Winter CMS, which target the same providing a CMS based on the Full Stack Larave framework and give you all features of that framework. Another already mention CMS in Laravel world is Statmatic.

  • CraftCMS

    Build bespoke content experiences with Craft. (by craftcms)

    For all CMSs I think you will find advantages and disadvantages (there is also a german website collecting CMS https://cmsstash.de/empfehlungen/php-cms https://cmsstash.de/empfehlungen/php-cms, or you will even find CMS projects on Symfony CMS page https://symfony.com/projects/category/cms but even unmaintained projects are listed there), I think it is good to be always open for all technologies and use the correct choice what is best matches how your team is working on the project. So you maybe want first decide if you want to go into a Framework based CMS or stay with a Traditional CMS or even want to use a Headless based CMS and there for self hosted or SaaS. There are Flat Filesystem based CMS which you maybe want to give a try. There are even a lot of small CMS systems around, sure there is always a risk of that such systems get abandoned if not backed by some company. Also none free systems like CraftCMS (Yii 2 Framework based) and Ibexa EzPlatform and co exists. You also will find Data management tools like PimCore, which are not focus on CMS but are listed as CMS alternative, or find Plugin Extension for shop systems like Magento or Sylius. They have its limits but can solve small content management problems.

  • WorkOS

    The modern identity platform for B2B SaaS. The APIs are flexible and easy-to-use, supporting authentication, user identity, and complex enterprise features like SSO and SCIM provisioning.

  • october

    Self-hosted CMS platform based on the Laravel PHP Framework.

    Beside Symfony there is Laravel Framework , I will not go into deep difference between this frameworks as it really is just taste of what your team likes more (active record vs datamapper, facade/helpers vs dependency injection, blade vs twig, ...), as already mention above this kind of CMS make sense if Website is just one part of your application and you have to build more then just a simple digital business card / website. In Laravel world there are CMS like October CMS / Winter CMS, which target the same providing a CMS based on the Full Stack Larave framework and give you all features of that framework. Another already mention CMS in Laravel world is Statmatic.

  • Yii2

    Yii 2: The Fast, Secure and Professional PHP Framework

    For all CMSs I think you will find advantages and disadvantages (there is also a german website collecting CMS https://cmsstash.de/empfehlungen/php-cms https://cmsstash.de/empfehlungen/php-cms, or you will even find CMS projects on Symfony CMS page https://symfony.com/projects/category/cms but even unmaintained projects are listed there), I think it is good to be always open for all technologies and use the correct choice what is best matches how your team is working on the project. So you maybe want first decide if you want to go into a Framework based CMS or stay with a Traditional CMS or even want to use a Headless based CMS and there for self hosted or SaaS. There are Flat Filesystem based CMS which you maybe want to give a try. There are even a lot of small CMS systems around, sure there is always a risk of that such systems get abandoned if not backed by some company. Also none free systems like CraftCMS (Yii 2 Framework based) and Ibexa EzPlatform and co exists. You also will find Data management tools like PimCore, which are not focus on CMS but are listed as CMS alternative, or find Plugin Extension for shop systems like Magento or Sylius. They have its limits but can solve small content management problems.

  • winter

    Free, open-source, self-hosted CMS platform based on the Laravel PHP Framework.

    Beside Symfony there is Laravel Framework , I will not go into deep difference between this frameworks as it really is just taste of what your team likes more (active record vs datamapper, facade/helpers vs dependency injection, blade vs twig, ...), as already mention above this kind of CMS make sense if Website is just one part of your application and you have to build more then just a simple digital business card / website. In Laravel world there are CMS like October CMS / Winter CMS, which target the same providing a CMS based on the Full Stack Larave framework and give you all features of that framework. Another already mention CMS in Laravel world is Statmatic.

  • TYPO3

    The TYPO3 Core - Enterprise Content Management System. Synchronized mirror of https://review.typo3.org/q/project:Packages/TYPO3.CMS

    In a more business feature based CMS but still more like traditional CMS are Typo3 and Drupal, both have there usecase and sure a big community around them with a lot of modules and co. And both allow customization and building, installable plugins and themes. But modern version allow give more control from the system to the dev. We also should not forget of Typo3 called Neos CMS, which has its own way and Framework around it.

  • Symfony

    The Symfony PHP framework

    Another usecase are Framework based CMS System. Beside Drupal, Typo3 using example Symfony components, still are not Full Stack Symfony and don't use Symfony based folder structure and are so very different then using Symfony Full Stack based CMS. In this area other CMS like Sulu, Bolt, .. are placed which do not hide Symfony Full Stack and are more for the web applications which are not typical just a Website but has application based component in it which can be build with the Symfony components and ecosystem. This CMS are also mostly more version control friendly as most configurations are inside Code and not inside Database and the CMS admin concentrate on Content Management and configure the System itself. Another CMS which is more and more migrating Full Stack Symfony is Contao CMS, which definitly should not be forgotten.

  • InfluxDB

    Power Real-Time Data Analytics at Scale. Get real-time insights from all types of time series data with InfluxDB. Ingest, query, and analyze billions of data points in real-time with unbounded cardinality.

  • sulu

    Core framework that implements the functionality of the Sulu content management system

    Another usecase are Framework based CMS System. Beside Drupal, Typo3 using example Symfony components, still are not Full Stack Symfony and don't use Symfony based folder structure and are so very different then using Symfony Full Stack based CMS. In this area other CMS like Sulu, Bolt, .. are placed which do not hide Symfony Full Stack and are more for the web applications which are not typical just a Website but has application based component in it which can be build with the Symfony components and ecosystem. This CMS are also mostly more version control friendly as most configurations are inside Code and not inside Database and the CMS admin concentrate on Content Management and configure the System itself. Another CMS which is more and more migrating Full Stack Symfony is Contao CMS, which definitly should not be forgotten.

  • Laravel

    Laravel is a web application framework with expressive, elegant syntax. We’ve already laid the foundation for your next big idea — freeing you to create without sweating the small things.

    Beside Symfony there is Laravel Framework , I will not go into deep difference between this frameworks as it really is just taste of what your team likes more (active record vs datamapper, facade/helpers vs dependency injection, blade vs twig, ...), as already mention above this kind of CMS make sense if Website is just one part of your application and you have to build more then just a simple digital business card / website. In Laravel world there are CMS like October CMS / Winter CMS, which target the same providing a CMS based on the Full Stack Larave framework and give you all features of that framework. Another already mention CMS in Laravel world is Statmatic.

  • Kirby

    Kirby's core application folder

    Another area of CMS Systems are Flat File System based CMS which I did last time not hear a lot around but there was a lot of noice in the past from Kirby CMS and Grav CMS. Instead of a database they store all there data inside files and I mostly saw more for simpler website build with it where not specific security releated user context based content where used.

  • Grav

    Modern, Crazy Fast, Ridiculously Easy and Amazingly Powerful Flat-File CMS powered by PHP, Markdown, Twig, and Symfony

    Another area of CMS Systems are Flat File System based CMS which I did last time not hear a lot around but there was a lot of noice in the past from Kirby CMS and Grav CMS. Instead of a database they store all there data inside files and I mostly saw more for simpler website build with it where not specific security releated user context based content where used.

  • Directus

    The Modern Data Stack 🐰 — Directus is an instant REST+GraphQL API and intuitive no-code data collaboration app for any SQL database.

    On the other point there is the Headless CMS Hype, keep in mind that already mention CMS like Typo3, Sulu, .. can also be used headless. But there are such CMS which are headless only and focus on that area, widely used is today Contentful, Storyblock, Directus, ... some are only SaaS and store your data. What most people forget when going headless, specially when doing then a Node Frontend that you need to reimplement caching mechanism and other features for your server rendered content which most traditional CMS are already providing you.

  • Contao

    Contao Open Source CMS

    Another usecase are Framework based CMS System. Beside Drupal, Typo3 using example Symfony components, still are not Full Stack Symfony and don't use Symfony based folder structure and are so very different then using Symfony Full Stack based CMS. In this area other CMS like Sulu, Bolt, .. are placed which do not hide Symfony Full Stack and are more for the web applications which are not typical just a Website but has application based component in it which can be build with the Symfony components and ecosystem. This CMS are also mostly more version control friendly as most configurations are inside Code and not inside Database and the CMS admin concentrate on Content Management and configure the System itself. Another CMS which is more and more migrating Full Stack Symfony is Contao CMS, which definitly should not be forgotten.

NOTE: The number of mentions on this list indicates mentions on common posts plus user suggested alternatives. Hence, a higher number means a more popular project.

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