CMS Made SimplevsWagtail
Two self-hosted WordPress alternatives, compared on the numbers selfhost.directory tracks live: score, popularity, release cadence and setup effort.
| CMS Made Simple | Wagtail | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 64/100 | 79/100 |
| Rank in category | #12 of 42 in Content Management | #3 of 42 in Content Management |
| GitHub stars | — | 20 593 |
| Stars, last 30 days | — | +88 |
| Stable releases, 12 months | 0 | 19 |
| Latest release | — | v8.0.1 · 20 Oct 2026 |
| Setup | Moderate | Moderate |
| Official Docker image | No | No |
| License | GPL-2.0 | BSD-3-Clause |
| Main language | — | Python |
Which one should you pick?
Wagtail scores 79/100 against 64/100 for CMS Made Simple, so it is the safer default.
Wagtail ships more often: 19 stable releases in the past year, against 0 for CMS Made Simple.
Wagtail is growing faster right now (+88 stars in 30 days).
CMS Made Simple details →Wagtail details → All WordPress alternatives →
Swap a project
Keep CMS Made Simple, compare it with
Keep Wagtail, compare it with