
WordPress
Kirby
Craft
Webflow
SquareSpace
CouchCMS
Automad
A flat-file PHP CMS with a built-in MCP server. No database, any PHP host, and clients edit only the parts you choose, so your design holds.

Craft CMS
TYPO3
WordPress
Sitecake
ExpressionEngine
ClassicPress
Anchor CMS
Build better, easier to manage websites. Enjoy radical efficiency. It's everything you never knew you always wanted in a CMS.

Which is more popular?
Based on our record, Statamic seems to be more popular. It has been mentioned 50 times since March 2021.
Website, pricing, platforms and company facts side by side.
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| Website | totalcms.co | statamic.com |
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| Company | Startup from the United States · 1 - 9 employees · 2015 | Startup from Canada · 2012 |
| Listed in |
In their own words, as submitted to SaaSHub.


Total CMS is a flat-file content management system for web professionals who build sites for other people. Content is stored as plain JSON or Markdown files on your own server, with no database to install, configure, or migrate. Drop it on any PHP 8.2+ host, or install with Composer, and it runs....
Statamic cuts out the database and creates a faster, more productive way for you to build, manage, and version control beautifully creative, bespoke websites. If you’re looking to just plop a generic theme on the internet and replace a few text blocks with your company info, then yes, maybe you...
What each product offers, as listed by its team.


Possible disadvantages
An editorial look at what each product does well and who it suits.


No analysis of Total CMS yet.
Overall verdict
Why this product is good
Recommended for
Walkthroughs and reviews on video.
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Quick demo of our new Statamic CMS website for transistor.fm
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How often each product is chosen within a category, 0–100% relative to the other.


As answered by people managing Total CMS and Statamic.
Total CMS's answer
It combines things that usually come separately: flat-file storage with no database, an admin built for handing sites to clients, and an MCP server built into every install. Because the MCP server runs inside the app, AI tools read the documentation for the exact version installed, not whatever was current when they were trained.
Total CMS's answer
If you build sites for clients, Total CMS is designed around the handoff: you decide exactly what clients can edit, and the design stays as built. It runs on any PHP host without a database, it's a one-time license rather than a subscription, and support comes directly from the developer who builds it. If you need something free and open source, other flat-file CMSs will suit you better.
Total CMS's answer
Web professionals who build sites for other people: freelancers, independent designers and small agencies. Also technical business owners who built their own site and need staff to update it safely, and developers who work with coding agents like Claude Code.
Total CMS's answer
Total CMS started in 2015 as a way for web designers to make their sites editable by clients without a database. It grew to more than 4,500 licenses. In December 2025 it was rebuilt from scratch as Total CMS 3, a standalone PHP CMS that works with any front end. Version 3.5 added a built-in MCP server, Site Builder and extensions; 3.6 added one-line SEO and content versioning. It's built by Joe Workman under Aspect Services, LLC, founded in 2008.
Total CMS's answer
PHP 8.2+, Slim 4, Twig 3, Symfony Console for the CLI, flat-file JSON and Markdown storage, Composer, HTMX, CodeMirror, and the Model Context Protocol with OAuth 2.1.
Share your experience with using Total CMS and Statamic. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
External articles and on-site reviews we used to compare the two products.


We have no reviews of Total CMS yet. Be the first one to post
Craft CMS is simple, minimalistic, agile and has every capability a modern CMS framework needs. Over the past ten years we have worked with every CMS you could think of (Wordpress, Drupal, Rails+ActiveAdmin, Ghost,...
Statamic wasn't free, but was only a small $29 fee for a site license. Recently, the guys behind Statamic updated to version 2. Unfortunately, there was a major price hike moving to version 2, of what appears to be...
Although I am a big fan of Jekyll, on this occasion I decided to go with Statamic. This was mainly driven by ease of publishing using Statamic control panel. Statamic control panel provides ability to manage content...
Recommendations tracked on public social media and blogs since March 2021.


Tracking Total CMS since Oct 2026.
Dev budget under $25k: Statamic[1] or Wordpress (with ACF[2] & Acorn[3] Professional work above that: Sanity[4] or Hygraph[5] [1] https://statamic.com [2] https://www.advancedcustomfields.com [3] https://roots.io/acorn/ [4]... - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago
There are CMSes that work with static site generators. Static site generators do not imply that the input is markdown, though this is often the usecase. https://decapcms.org/ https://getkirby.com/ https://tina.io/ https://statamic.com/... - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
Statamic is one of the best flat-file CMSs. It’s built with Laravel and can be used as a headless Git-based CMS as well. The paid professional version allows you to use REST APIs and GraphQL APIs for content management and offers a... - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
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