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Crafter CMS

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Open-source, Java-based headless CMS for high-performance, scalable digital experiences.

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Tracked since2026
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The Bottom Line

Entry price

Free, no paid tier

Biggest pro

Fully open-source and community-supported

Biggest con

Community-supported, which might mean slower response times for issues compared to commercial versions

TL;DR - Crafter CMS

  • Open-source, Java-based headless CMS for enterprise digital experiences.
  • Supports DevContentOps with Git-based content repository and decoupled delivery.
  • Offers high performance, scalability, and flexibility for developers, authors, and ops.
Pricing: Free forever
Best for: Individuals & startups

What is Crafter CMS?

Editorial review
Crafter Community is the free, open-source, and community-supported edition of CrafterCMS, a Java-based headless CMS designed for enterprise-grade websites and other content-driven digital experiences. It is built for organizations that require a high degree of performance, security, availability, and scalability. This API-first, decoupled CMS supports unique DevContentOps processes, accelerating productivity for developers, content authors, and operations teams. It enables seamless collaboration to deliver modern sites and applications faster. The content authoring system offers a user-friendly experience built on Git, providing sophisticated versioning and advanced CMS features. The separate, decoupled content delivery system is a high-performance, stateless, and serverless Spring app that scales globally without external database complexities. Crafter Community empowers developers with a platform-agnostic interface supporting REST, GraphQL, Javascript, Spring, and Java for content retrieval. Content authors benefit from web-based tools with in-context editing, drag-and-drop experience building, multi-channel preview, personalization, and content targeting. Operations teams can manage a small footprint and scale effortlessly with serverless content delivery, continuous integration, and deployment capabilities across public clouds (AWS, GCP, Azure) or private infrastructure using Docker and Kubernetes.

Available on: Web

Pros & Cons

Pros

  • Fully open-source and community-supported
  • High performance, security, availability, and scalability
  • Facilitates DevContentOps for improved collaboration
  • Flexible API options for developers
  • User-friendly authoring experience with advanced CMS features

Cons

  • Community-supported, which might mean slower response times for issues compared to commercial versions
  • Requires Java knowledge for deeper customization or development
  • Focuses on enterprise-grade needs, potentially complex for very small projects

Key Features

API-first headless CMS (REST, GraphQL, Javascript, Spring, Java)Git-based content repository with sophisticated versioningDecoupled, stateless, serverless Spring app for content deliveryIn-context editing and drag-and-drop experience buildingMulti-channel preview and personalizationContinuous integration (CI) native to Git-based repositoryDeployment with Docker and Kubernetes on public or private cloudsOpenSearch for authoring and delivery systems

Pricing Plans

Community

Free

  • Open-source
  • Community-supported
  • Java-based headless CMS
  • API-first
  • Truly decoupled CMS
  • DevContentOps processes
  • User-friendly content authoring system
  • Git as content repository
  • Sophisticated versioning
  • High performance, stateless and serverless Spring app for content delivery
  • REST, GraphQL, Javascript, Spring, Java APIs
  • Freemarker templating built-in
  • OpenSearch for authoring and delivery
  • Git-based, distributed repository
  • In-context editing
  • Drag-and-drop experience building
  • Multi-channel preview
  • Personalization and content targeting
  • Auditing
  • Version history
  • Content dependencies
  • Workflow
  • Serverless and stateless dynamic content delivery support
  • Deploy with Docker and Kubernetes on any public cloud provider (AWS, GCP, Azure) or private infrastructure

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Crafter CMS FAQ

What is Crafter CMS?

Crafter CMS is an open-source, Java-based headless CMS designed for building enterprise-grade websites and other content-driven digital experiences. It provides an API-first approach, a Git-based content repository, and a decoupled, serverless content delivery system to ensure high performance, scalability, and flexibility.

How much does Crafter CMS cost?

Crafter Community, the edition described, is free as it is an open-source and community-supported version of CrafterCMS.

Is Crafter CMS free?

Yes, Crafter Community Edition is completely free, open-source, and distributed under the GPL v3 license.

Who is Crafter CMS for?

Crafter CMS is for developers, content authors, and operations teams in organizations that require a high-performance, secure, available, and scalable headless CMS for enterprise-grade websites and digital experiences. It's particularly suited for those who embrace DevContentOps methodologies.