Kirby CMS

Kirby CMS requires a one-time license purchase for production use; as of 2024, a single-site license costs 149 euros. The CMS can be downloaded and tried for free on a local development environment, but deploying it to a live server requires purchasing a license.

No, Kirby CMS stores all content as flat files rather than in a traditional database like MySQL. This file-based approach means content is stored as text files (Markdown, YAML, or HTML) in a folder structure, making sites easy to back up and version-control with Git.

Kirby CMS is built entirely on PHP and does not require Composer or other dependency managers for basic installation. This makes it lightweight and easy to deploy on most standard web hosting environments that support PHP.

Kirby CMS is much lighter and more developer-oriented than WordPress, which is a full-featured CMS with a large plugin ecosystem and visual page builder options. Kirby stores content in files rather than a database and gives developers fine-grained control over output, but it lacks WordPress's massive plugin library and large community of non-developer users.

Yes, since version 3, Kirby can function as a headless CMS by exposing content through its built-in API, which can deliver JSON to frontend frameworks like Vue, React, or Next.js. The headless capabilities have been improved in subsequent versions, including Kirby 3 and later.

The Kirby Panel is the browser-based administrative interface that allows content editors to manage pages, files, and site settings without touching code. It is built with Vue.js on the frontend and reads its configuration from the Blueprint files defined by the developer.

Yes, Kirby CMS has built-in multi-language support that allows you to define multiple languages for your site. Content for each language is stored in separate language files, and the Panel provides a translation interface for editors.

Kirby 3, released in early 2019, was a major rewrite that introduced the Vue.js-based Panel and improved API capabilities. The developers at the Kirby Company in Germany maintain the software with regular updates and patches.