Craft CMS Review, Pricing & Features

Craft CMS is a flexible, source-available PHP CMS by Pixel & Tonic for custom websites. Compare Solo, Team, and Pro pricing, features, and hosting options.

Category
CMS
Pricing
Freemium / One-time license + subscription (Craft Cloud), from Free (Solo); Team from $279, Pro from $399
Verified
Not yet
Last updated
July 18, 2026
Founded
2013
Headquarters
Bend, Oregon, United States
Free PlanWeb AppAPIOpen SourceFreemiumTemplatesSelf-Hosted

Overview

Craft CMS is a flexible, PHP-based content management system built by Pixel & Tonic, an independent company founded in 2013 and headquartered in Bend, Oregon. Unlike CMS platforms built around fixed themes or content structures, Craft lets developers define custom content types and fields for each project, making it a popular choice for bespoke, design-led websites.

The full codebase is open and available on GitHub under a BSD-3-Clause license, but running Craft in production beyond the free Solo tier requires a commercial license, placing it in an open-core, source-available licensing category.

Key Features

Craft CMS includes a Twig-based templating engine, a GraphQL API, an extensive official plugin store, multi-site and multi-locale support, live preview, an integrated image editor, two-factor authentication and passkey support, and GDPR-oriented compliance tools across all editions.

User management capabilities scale with the license tier: Solo supports a single admin account, Team supports up to five user accounts and one user group, and Pro supports unlimited user accounts and groups along with a brandable control panel.

Pricing

Craft CMS Solo is free for self-hosted projects with a single user account. Team is $279 for the first year ($99 annual renewal), and Pro is $399 for the first year ($99 annual renewal). Team and Pro licenses are free when a site is hosted on Craft Cloud, the company's managed hosting platform, and a custom-priced Enterprise tier adds SAML SSO and premium support.

Key Features

Pros & Cons

Pros

  • Highly flexible content modeling suited to custom, design-driven websites
  • Free Solo edition available for personal projects and evaluation
  • Source-available codebase allows full inspection and extension
  • Team and Pro licenses become free when hosted on Craft Cloud
  • Strong plugin ecosystem and GraphQL API for headless use cases

Cons

  • Not free for production use beyond the single-user Solo edition
  • Requires PHP development expertise, unlike no-code website builders
  • License renewal fees apply annually for continued updates
  • Smaller plugin and developer ecosystem than more widely used CMS platforms like WordPress

Pricing

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Craft CMS free?

The Solo edition is free but limited to one admin user account; Team and Pro editions require a paid license for multi-user production use.

Is Craft CMS open source?

Its source code is publicly available on GitHub under a BSD-3-Clause license, but a commercial license is required to run Team or Pro editions in production, making it source-available rather than fully free/open source in production use.

How much does Craft CMS cost?

Team costs $279 for the first year ($99 annual renewal) and Pro costs $399 for the first year ($99 annual renewal); both are free when hosted on Craft Cloud.

Who makes Craft CMS?

Craft CMS is made by Pixel & Tonic, an independent software company founded in 2013 and headquartered in Bend, Oregon.

Does Craft CMS support headless use?

Yes, Team and Pro editions include a GraphQL API for headless, decoupled front-end architectures.

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