Head to head

Kirby vs WordPress

Two very different ways to build a PHP site: a paid flat-file CMS that stores content in files, and the free, database-backed CMS that runs much of the web. What each is genuinely good at, where each will frustrate you, and a third option if neither fits. Written by the makers of that third option, which is why every entry lists real tradeoffs.

Which to choose
  • Choose WordPress if the build needs its plugin ecosystem, e-commerce, or a talent pool your client can hire from.
  • Choose WordPress if the budget is zero.
  • Choose Kirby if you want content in files, plain PHP templates, and an admin shaped to your content.
  • Choose Kirby if you need multi-language content without adding a plugin.
  • Choose Total CMS if neither fits: you want files and no database, but would rather write Twig than PHP.
Checked 9 primary sources The longer answer Spot an error? Tell us

A note on who wrote this. We make Total CMS, which is neither Kirby nor WordPress but is sold as an alternative to both. That is a conflict of interest, so rather than pretend otherwise we have marked our own entry, kept it third, and taken every Kirby and WordPress price and claim from their own pages. Most people searching this should end up with one of the two, and the "How to choose" section says which.

This is less a feature comparison than a choice between two ways of building a site. WordPress keeps content in a MySQL or MariaDB database and gets its reach from the largest plugin and theme ecosystem on the web. Kirby keeps content in text files on disk, needs no database, and builds its admin panel from YAML blueprints you write for each page type. WordPress is free and you assemble what you need from plugins. Kirby is paid per site and you build what you need in plain PHP.

The short version: WordPress if you need its ecosystem, a free start, e-commerce, or a client who can easily hire someone to replace you. Kirby if you are a PHP developer who wants content in files, plain PHP templates and an admin shaped to your content. If neither fits, there is a third option at the end, for anyone who wants files rather than a database but would rather write Twig than PHP.

At a glance

Three worth your time.

The products in this guide, with price and who each suits
ProductPriceBest for
1. Kirby €99 Basic (under €1M revenue) / €349 Enterprise, per site PHP developers who want content in files and a custom admin
2. WordPress Free (GPL); you pay for hosting and any commercial plugins Sites that need its ecosystem, e-commerce or a large talent pool
3. Total CMS Ours $195 Standard / $395 Pro, one-time per domain Readers who want files and no database, with Twig instead of PHP

The options

Each one, with its tradeoffs.

  1. Kirby (opens in a new tab)

    A paid flat-file CMS with plain PHP templates and an admin you shape to your content.

    Price
    €99 Basic (under €1M revenue) / €349 Enterprise, per site
    Best for
    PHP developers who want content in files and a custom admin

    Strengths

    • Content lives in text files on disk. In Kirby's own words, "you don't need a database," though an optional Db class can pull data from MySQL or SQLite when you want it
    • Templates are plain PHP: no template language to learn and no ceiling on what a template can do
    • Blueprints, written in YAML, define a custom admin Panel for each page type, so editors see exactly the fields that page needs
    • Multi-language content is built into core, with a separate content file per language
    • A REST API gives full access to pages, files and users (the Panel itself runs on it), so Kirby can also run headless
    • Runs on PHP 8.2 through 8.5, works out of the box on Apache, and Composer is optional
    • Development installs are free for as long as you need, including on a restricted test server; you buy the license at launch
    • Free licenses for students and educators, and free or discounted licenses for non-profits
    • Shipping since 2012, and the next major version, now in beta, is a free upgrade for every Kirby 4 and 5 license
    • A machine-readable security file that catalogs every past advisory, which few vendors publish

    How Kirby compares to Total CMS →

    Tradeoffs

    • You pay per site: €99 Basic or €349 Enterprise, and every domain, subdomain and root directory needs its own license. Ten client sites means ten licenses, less a volume discount of 5–15%
    • Basic is only for individuals and organizations with under €1 million in annual revenue or funding, and for client work it is the client's revenue that counts
    • Updates run for three years from activation. After that you keep the last version released in that window, and three more years cost €59 Basic or €249 Enterprise
    • Proprietary, not open source. The MIT fallback clause applies only if a year passes with no stable release
    • A plain PHP template can run any code, which suits a developer but is less safe to hand to a designer
    • A far smaller plugin directory and talent pool than WordPress, and a mix of free and paid plugins
    • nginx and Caddy need manual configuration
    • No first-party MCP server; a community plugin in the official directory provides one

  2. WordPress (opens in a new tab)

    Free, database-backed, and the largest plugin and theme ecosystem on the web.

    Price
    Free (GPL); you pay for hosting and any commercial plugins
    Best for
    Sites that need its ecosystem, e-commerce or a large talent pool

    Strengths

    • Free, released under the GPL (version 2 or later)
    • Used by about 40% of all websites, and close to 60% of sites whose CMS is known (W3Techs, October 2026)
    • The largest directory of free and open source plugins anywhere, and more than 8,700 themes in the official directory. Whatever the build needs, someone has probably already made it
    • WooCommerce is free, has more than 7 million active installs, and adds paid extensions for subscriptions, bookings and memberships
    • The block editor lets editors compose their own page layouts
    • A REST API is built in, so WordPress can also run headless
    • Hosting is easy to find, and WordPress.com offers hosted plans, including a free one
    • Core security is excellent: of 11,334 vulnerabilities logged across the WordPress ecosystem in 2025, six were in core, and all were low priority
    • The deepest talent pool in the industry. If your client needs to replace you, they will find someone
    • An Abilities API in core since 6.9, and an MCP Adapter plugin in the official directory

    How WordPress compares to Total CMS →

    Tradeoffs

    • Needs a MySQL 8.0+ or MariaDB 10.11+ database, with PHP 8.3+ recommended. There is no flat-file mode
    • A backup is your files plus a database dump. Moving to a new domain means rewriting URLs inside the database, and WordPress's own migration guide warns that a plain search and replace can break serialized data
    • Content is stored in database rows, so it cannot be reviewed in a pull request or rolled back with your code
    • The risk is in what you install: 91% of 2025's ecosystem vulnerabilities were in plugins and 9% in themes
    • Plugin and theme auto-updates are opt-in, one plugin or theme at a time, so someone has to own updates
    • No multi-language support out of the box; it comes from plugins
    • Core is free, but commercial plugins often bring renewal fees of their own
    • Free-form layout means an editor can rearrange a page away from its design
    • The MCP Adapter is a separate plugin and still pre-1.0

  3. Total CMS

    Ours — we make this

    If neither fits: a standalone commercial CMS that runs on ordinary PHP hosting, with the MCP server built in (full access on Pro).

    Price
    $195 Standard / $395 Pro, one-time per domain
    Best for
    Readers who want files and no database, with Twig instead of PHP

    Strengths

    • No database: content is JSON or Markdown files on disk, so it lives in git and a backup is a copy of the folder
    • Runs on any PHP 8.2+ host, with no Composer on the server and no framework to maintain
    • Twig templating with 130+ custom filters and functions, a constrained surface you can hand to a designer without handing over code execution
    • The MCP server, automations, access groups, image processing, SEO and REST API are part of the CMS rather than plugins to assemble (Automations, external API access and full MCP access are Pro)
    • Editors fill in the fields you modeled, so a client cannot dismantle your layout
    • A WordPress importer reads a standard WordPress export, so posts, pages and their metadata come across
    • Support direct from the developer, and one vendor responsible for the whole product

    Everything Total CMS includes →

    Tradeoffs

    • Proprietary and paid. There is no free tier, only a 45-day trial and free use on local development domains. WordPress is free, and Kirby is free for development installs
    • The smallest ecosystem and the smallest talent pool of the three
    • Multi-language works through locale-keyed fields (Pro) rather than separate content per locale. Kirby's core approach is more complete, and WordPress's plugins are mature
    • No GraphQL, and no e-commerce. WooCommerce is the answer there
    • Two years of updates included, against Kirby's three
    • Tiers gate features, while Kirby sells one feature set at both prices

How to choose

The longer answer.

Pick on constraints, not on feature counts. One of these usually decides it:

  • If the budget is zero, choose WordPress. Core is free, hosting is cheap and easy to find, and WordPress.com has a free plan.
  • If you are selling online, choose WordPress. WooCommerce is free and mature. Kirby has paid shop plugins, but nothing with that reach.
  • If the build needs a specific capability now, choose WordPress. Memberships, courses, directories, event ticketing: a plugin for it almost certainly exists and has been tested on thousands of sites.
  • If your client must be able to replace you, choose WordPress. This is the honest one. A smaller CMS makes the client depend on a much smaller pool of developers.
  • If editors want to build their own layouts, choose WordPress. That is what the block editor is for.
  • If you are a PHP developer who wants no database and no template language, choose Kirby. Content in files, plain PHP templates, and an admin you shape with blueprints to match the content.
  • If you need multi-language content, choose Kirby, where it is built into core. WordPress does it well too, but through plugins.
  • If you want content in git, choose Kirby over WordPress. A file-based site is a folder you can commit, copy and roll back.
  • If neither fits, look at Total CMS. It is for the reader who wants files and no database like Kirby, but would rather write Twig than PHP and wants the MCP server, automations and SEO in the box instead of from plugins.

Want the wider field? Our guide to the best flat-file CMSs covers Grav, Statamic and Publii too. Our guide to running a PHP CMS without a database covers what leaving MySQL behind involves. If you build client sites for a living, WordPress alternatives for freelancers covers handover and maintenance.

Questions

Common questions.

Is Kirby better than WordPress?

For some projects, yes, and for many, no. Kirby is the better tool when a developer wants content in files, plain PHP templates and a custom admin, and the site does not need much from a plugin ecosystem. WordPress is the better tool when the site needs e-commerce, a specific plugin, editors who build their own layouts, or a large pool of developers to hire from. They solve different problems more than they compete on the same one.

Does Kirby need a database?

No. Kirby stores content in text files on disk and runs without a database server. It ships an optional `Db` class for connecting to MySQL or SQLite when you want to pull in outside data. WordPress is the opposite: it requires MySQL 8.0+ or MariaDB 10.11+, and there is no flat-file mode.

Which is cheaper, Kirby or WordPress?

WordPress, at the start. Core is free under the GPL, so your only required cost is hosting, plus any commercial plugins the build needs, which often renew yearly. Kirby is €99 per site on Basic (revenue or funding under €1 million) or €349 on Enterprise, with three years of updates and an optional paid renewal after that. Compare over the life of the site, and count the plugins a WordPress build would actually need.

Can Kirby run an online store?

It can, through paid plugins in Kirby's plugin directory, but this is where WordPress is far stronger. WooCommerce is free, has more than 7 million active installs, and has extensions for subscriptions, bookings and memberships. If the store is the point of the site, choose WordPress.

Which handles multi-language sites better?

Kirby builds multi-language support into core and stores a separate content file for each language. WordPress's own documentation says it does not support a multilingual site out of the box, and plugins fill that gap. Both work; Kirby needs no extra product to do it.

Can either one run headless?

Yes. WordPress has a REST API built in. Kirby's REST API gives full access to pages, files and users, requires authentication on every request, and is the same API its own admin Panel runs on.

You make Total CMS. Why should I trust this page?

Trust it exactly as far as you can check it. Every Kirby and WordPress price and claim here comes from their own pages or from the sources listed below, our entry is marked as ours and listed third, and our own tradeoffs include what both of them do better: WordPress's ecosystem, e-commerce and talent pool, and Kirby's longer update window and fuller multi-language support. For most people choosing between these two, the answer is one of them, not us. If you find something wrong, tell us and we will fix it.

Sources

Where these facts come from.

Checked . Software and pricing change, so check each product’s own site for their current details.

Kirby and WordPress details verified from each vendor's own pages on 24 October 2026:

All product names and trademarks belong to their respective owners. WordPress is a registered trademark of the WordPress Foundation. We have no affiliation with Kirby or WordPress. If anything here is wrong or out of date, tell us and we will correct it.

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