Craft CMS, Grav, and Statamic all target developers who want more control than WordPress offers, but they differ sharply on architecture and licensing. Grav…
Freemium / One-time license + subscription (Craft Cloud) · From Free (Solo); Team from $279, Pro from $399
Best for: Agencies and freelance developers building bespoke, design-driven sites who need fully custom content modeling and are open to a per-project license or Craft Cloud hosting.
Open Source (free core; paid premium themes and plugins) · From Free
Best for: Developers who want a permanently free, database-free CMS with Git-native content and no licensing fees at any scale.
freemium (free Core tier, paid Pro licenses) · From Free (Core); Pro from $349 per site first year, $99/year renewal
Best for: Laravel developers and agencies who want flat-file, Git-trackable content with a polished control panel, and are willing to pay a per-site Pro license for multi-user and headless needs.
| Craft CMS | Grav | Statamic | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Primary category | CMS | CMS | CMS |
| Rating | Not documented | Not documented | Not documented |
| Pricing model | Freemium / One-time license + subscription (Craft Cloud) | Open Source (free core; paid premium themes and plugins) | freemium (free Core tier, paid Pro licenses) |
| Starting price | Free (Solo); Team from $279, Pro from $399 | Free | Free (Core); Pro from $349 per site first year, $99/year renewal |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | Not documented | Not documented | Not documented |
| Platforms | Web | Web | Web |
| Team collaboration | Not documented | Not documented | Not documented |
| AI features | Not documented | Not documented | Not documented |
| Public API | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Only truly free-at-any-scale option
Grav's core CMS, admin panel, and package manager remain free for unlimited self-hosted sites with no license fee ever, while both Craft CMS's Team and Pro editions and Statamic's Pro tier require paid, per-site licenses beyond a single-user free tier.
Grav, Craft CMS, Statamic
Custom content modeling as the core differentiator
Craft CMS is built specifically so developers define custom sections, entry types, and fields per project instead of working within a fixed template system, a flexibility Statamic also offers through Blueprints with 40-plus field types, while Grav's flat-file model is comparatively more file-and-folder-driven.
Craft CMS, Statamic, Grav
License becomes free with official cloud hosting
Craft CMS is the only one of the three where paid Team and Pro licenses become free automatically when a site is hosted on the vendor's own managed platform, Craft Cloud, with hosting itself billed separately.
Craft CMS
Git-native content out of the box
Grav and Statamic both store content as Markdown and YAML files that can be version-controlled directly in Git without a database export step, while Craft CMS's content lives in a database by default.
Grav, Statamic
Headless API access differs by tier
Grav ships a free REST API on every install, while Craft CMS and Statamic both gate their GraphQL APIs behind paid tiers, Team or Pro for Craft and Pro for Statamic.
Grav, Craft CMS, Statamic
| Feature | Craft CMS | Grav | Statamic |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flat-file, no-database architecture | Unavailable | Available | Available |
| Git-native content workflow | Not documented | Available | Available |
| Custom or flexible content modeling | Available | Not documented | Available |
| Feature | Craft CMS | Grav | Statamic |
|---|---|---|---|
| Headless GraphQL or REST API | Limited | Available | Limited |
| Free tier usable in production | Limited | Available | Limited |
| Feature | Craft CMS | Grav | Statamic |
|---|---|---|---|
| Official managed hosting with bundled license | Available | Not documented | Not documented |
| Two-factor authentication or passkeys | Available | Not documented | Limited |
Starting price reflects the lowest paid tier, not the full cost for every team size or usage level.
Pros
Cons
Pros
Cons
Pros
Cons
All three have a free entry point, but with different limits. Grav's core CMS is free for unlimited sites forever. Craft CMS's Solo edition is free but restricted to one user. Statamic's Core tier is free but also limited to a single admin on a single site.
Grav never requires a database; it stores all content as flat Markdown and YAML files. Statamic is flat-file-first but also supports an optional database-driven mode. Craft CMS is a conventional database-backed CMS.
Yes, all three can serve content headlessly, but access varies. Grav includes a free REST API on every install, while Craft CMS's GraphQL API requires a Team or Pro license and Statamic's REST and GraphQL API requires the Pro tier.
Craft CMS is source-available under a BSD-3-Clause license, so the code is open to inspect, but production use beyond the free Solo edition requires a paid Team ($279 first year) or Pro ($399 first year) license per project, with $99/year renewals. Those license fees are waived if the site is hosted on Craft Cloud.
Craft CMS is purpose-built for bespoke, design-driven sites through its custom content-type system. Statamic also supports flexible content modeling via Blueprints. Grav leans toward developer-centric, Git-based sites like documentation, blogs, and portfolios.
Grav and Statamic both store content as files that can be committed directly to Git. Craft CMS stores content in a database, so it does not offer the same native Git-based content workflow.
Read the full Craft CMS review · Read the full Grav review · Read the full Statamic review