5 Node.js Alternatives To WordPress

Originally released in 2003, WordPress is still the king of CMS. But with the rise of Node.js, there are many modern challengers that have large communities, support themes, plugins and are easy to install on your own server. Here are 5 you might want to checkout.


keystone.png

KeystoneJS

KeystoneJS is a powerful CMS framework, build on Express and MongoDB. It gives you an easy way to create dynamic projects with well-structured routes, templates and models.

The project comes packed with awesome features like a good-looking admin UI, helpful API utilities, session management, email sending, extensions, and much more. It also offers a command line tool for creating a new project and setting up all of its assets.


enduro.jpg

EnduroJS

Enduro.js offers a fast and easy way to build your project, beautiful and simple admin UI and integrated tools to build everything on the server. It works without a database, instead relying on a system of flat files that can be opened directly in a text editor. It is easy to install and can be deployed via Git.

The project offers a number of themes that you can use and customize the way you like. It supports multi-language sites, simplified routes, and a ton of other features. There is even live reload via the built in browsersync, allowing you to instantly see every change you make directly in your browser.


apostrphe.png

Apostrophe

Apostrophe offers powerful front and back-end search features, rich text editor, fast performance, and drag-and-drop editting right on the page. It is very user-friendly with detailed documentation and an active community.

Apostrophe supports multiple extensions that you can use to add new features to your project. The built-in image and file libraries make it easy to include and reuse files and other resources in your site.


ghost.jpg

Ghost

Ghost is a modern and powerful blogging platform that you can already see on some popular websites. It is easy to set up and has simple and optimized design, focused on providing the best possible writing experience.

It uses the Ember framework for the front-end, Handlebars for templating, and a standard MySQL database layer. The project's GitHub page has more then 20 awesome repositories, offering various utilities like a Vagrant setup, themes, and a CLI.


hexo.png

Hexo

Hexo is a simple and powerful blogging framework where each post is written in markdown format and rendered into a static page with proper layout and styles.

The project offers a powerful plugin system with multiple plugins that you can install in order to expand its functionality. It also offers a fast and easy way to deploy your project to GitHub pages or Heroku with a single command. What is more, Hexo supports a large variety of beautiful themes and templates that you can use to build interesting and exciting designs.

Bootstrap Studio

The revolutionary web design tool for creating responsive websites and apps.

Learn more

Related Articles

Comments 7

  • It would be awesome if you could provide more information, differentiating them based on the number of plugins available, no of themes available. Also, it would be awesome if you could provide the resources each one consumes in a low-medium traffic website.

  • I think it is worth mentioning Total.js CMS and Total.js eShop from Total.js a node.js framework. https://www.totaljs.com

  • Hexo is not like wordpress. Hexo is static website generator. Hexo don't need database.

  • Strapi should also be included as a great alternative to WordPress + WordPress REST API. It includes a great admin panel and a fully extensible plugin system. I personally think it could be considered as the WordPress of the APIs for Node.js: https://strapi.io/.

  • Another solution is to use an API based CMS. API based CMSes are good because they take care of managing content without forcing developers into specific technology choices for the front end.

    The other good thing with a hosted API based CMS is that you can start working quickly since you don't have to worry about the configuration and the hosting.

    I'm the founder of Prismic and we have a special focus on Node.js and JavaScript generally.

    You can find the docs here https://prismic.io/docs/nodejs/getting-started/prismic-from-scratch-with-nodejs

    There is a quick tutorial here https://prismic.io/quickstart#?lang=javascript

    I'd greatly appreciate your feedback on how how we can improve Prismic for Node.js.

  • Keystone was quite good, but has not been updated for almost 2 years now (https://github.com/keystonejs/keystone/blob/master/HISTORY.md).

    Ghost had a promising start, but adding new features has slowed down. Integration with other services is their main issue. But you can find very nice themes for it on Themeforest.