Free October CMS Alternatives

CMS Made Simple is a free and open-source content management system that offers an easy to use interface for end users, while maintaining a powerful backend for developers. CMS Made Simple is written in PHP and got an extensive API and custom modules. The CMS also utilize the Smarty templating engine that can be used to customize sites with HTML, CSS and PHP.

WordPress powers roughly 30% of all web pages online. It's a free and open source CMS designed and developed for self-hosted publishing by Automattic, Inc. The software is written in PHP and utilize either MySQL or MariaDB as a database, and is compatible with most web hosts. Wordpress includes a plugin architecture and a templating system that can be used to extend and customize your website. These are commonly known as WordPress plugins and WordPress themes and make up a whole open source and commercial eco-system where anyone is free to create products for the platform. 

A hybrid content management system that includes classic CMS and Headless CMS features. With dotCMS content managers can create content that fuels the brand experience. The API-first approach provided by the headless part of dotCMS allows developers to build extremely fast front-ends with popular third-party front-end framework and deliver content optimally. The content management system allows content creators to build engaging and memorable content that can be reused across sites.

ExpressionEngine is a flexible, feature-rich content management platform that empowers hundreds of thousands of individuals and organizations around the world to easily manage their web site. ExpressionEngine has a large community of developers that make add-ons that extend the system capability. With ExpressionEngine add-ons, no matter the task, you'll have a solution.

Drupal is a free and open-source CMS written in PHP. Drupal is used for creating website for businesses, political parties and governments. The CMS currently powers 2% of all websites on the internet.

Joomla is a free and open-source content management system written in PHP. The CMS is built entirely by volunteers from all over the world and has a strong community that provide educational resources, and extensions. 

Django CMS is a free and open-source content management system build on the Python web framework Django. With Django CMS, you can create your own website or blog in a matter of minutes which is easy to maintain far into the future. If you are a developer utilizing the Django framework you can integrate Django CMS into an exiting Django application and take advantage of it's publishing and editing features.

An open-source tool for managing content across all your omni-channel digital experiences. Directus is free and open-source headless CMS written in PHP, that takes a data first approach. Developers and content creators use Directus to manage content and generate a powerful API that can be used by any frontend technology. Directus can be self-hosted and is absolutely free.

Tina is an open-source site editing toolkit and headless CMS for React-based sites like Gatsby & Next.js

MODX is a free, open source content management system and digital experience platform. The CMS gives you full control over your creative, editorial vision and the experience you deliver. MODX is written in the programming language PHP and supports both MySQL and Microsoft SQL Server databases. The CMS is openly developed and released under the GPL license, and allows contribution.

A headless & API-based CMS with an opt-in head and a visual editor. With Storyblok you can manage your content through an intuitive dashboard and access that data though the content delivery API, as nested JSON. Storyblok is an open-source software and can be used as such, but is also provided as a commercially hosted, cloud rendering service. As a front-end developer you can choose to work with any template engine, framework or system of your choice.

Backdrop is a full-featured content management system written in PHP. The Backdrop CMS allows non-technical users to manage a wide variety of content. It can be used to create all kinds of websites including blogs, image galleries, social networks, intranets, and more.