One-time license
Buy it once. Own it forever.
No monthly fees. No subscription required. No pricing tier that makes your proposal awkward. One-time purchase, licensed per domain. Bake it into your project cost and move on.
- Design & build
- Your fee
- Total CMS Pro license one-time, per domain
- $395
- CMS subscription
- $0 / month
- Year three onward updates optional, $85 a year
- $0
Standard
$195
One-time · per domain
- 30+ field types
- Blog with categories & tags
- Access Groups & permissions
- Image watermarking
- MCP server — public content, read only
- REST API (same-origin)
- White-label admin
Pro
$395
One-time · per domain
- Everything in Standard
- Custom schemas
- API keys & webhooks (external API)
- Deck repeatable fields
- MCP server — full access
- OAuth 2.1 server
- Data Views & Automations, including PHP
- Full white-label
Enterprise
Let’s talk
Custom licensing & hosting
- Everything in Pro
- Managed hosting on a dedicated VPS
- Volume & multi-domain licensing
- Priority support
- Custom terms & invoicing
No credit card required · Full Pro features during trial · Free for local development
Which one to quote
Standard covers most client sites.
Quote Standard when
- The client edits blog posts, text, images, galleries and files: the built-in content types
- You need access groups, so the client edits content and never the layout
- The admin should carry your studio’s brand
- AI assistants only need to read what’s already public
Quote Pro when
- The content has its own shape: custom schemas, repeatable sections, nested fields
- An agent should write content or reach private collections
- Another service reads or writes over the API, or a form posts to a webhook
- You want automations, Data Views, or a fully white-labelled admin
Not sure? Pro up front costs $25 less than Standard plus the upgrade later. Or try every Pro feature free for 45 days and decide with the site in front of you, or build locally for free with no time limit.
Building this for a client? The freelancer kit has proposal language, a care plan model and a five-year cost calculator.
Ownership
Buy once. Use forever. Update when you want.
- Two years of updates, then it’s yours
- Every license includes 24 months of updates and feature releases. When the term ends, the license converts to a perpetual license for the latest version you received. Nothing stops working.
- Renew when it helps, not before
- Renew any time, including after a lapse. There is no back-payment for the gap; you simply pick up updates from the current version.
- Hand it to the client
- When the site passes to its owner, the license goes with it at no charge, as long as the domain stays the same.
- Move it once, free
- One rehome to a new domain is free within 12 months of purchase, for when a site launches on its final address. After that, a small fee.
| Edition | 1 year | 5 years | Rehome |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | $45 | $155 | $75 |
| Pro | $85 | $295 | $125 |
| Lite | $25 | $85 | $35 |
Compare
Every feature, edition by edition.
What Pro adds comes first: 15 features. Everything after that is in both.
| Feature | Standard | Pro |
|---|---|---|
| What Pro adds | ||
| Content | ||
| Custom schemas | Not included | Included |
| Deck fields (repeatable sections) | Not included | Included |
| Card fields (nested objects) | Not included | Included |
| Secret and Localized Text fields | Not included | Included |
| AI & APIs | ||
| AI access to private content | Not included | Included |
| AI agent content writes | Not included | Included |
| OAuth 2.1 server | Not included | Included |
| External access with API keys | Not included | Included |
| Webhook form actions | Not included | Included |
| WordPress publishing API (MarsEdit, Ulysses…) | Not included | Included |
| Automation & search | ||
| Data Views | Not included | Included |
| Automations (schedules, inbound webhooks, content events) | Not included | Included |
| Algolia search | Not included | Included |
| Admin | ||
| Full white-label | Not included | Included |
| Bulk Mailer | Not included | Included |
| In both editions | ||
| Content | ||
| Every built-in content type, including blog and Depot | Included | Included |
| 30+ field types | Included | Included |
| ImageWorks image processing | Included | Included |
| Image watermarking | Included | Included |
| Site Builder (pages, routes, templates) | Included | Included |
| JumpStart export and import | Included | Included |
| Import from WordPress, CSV, JSON and RSS | Included | Included |
| Admin | ||
| Access Groups and permissions | Included | Included |
| Permission matrix and view-as-user | Included | Included |
| Passkey sign-in | Included | Included |
| White-label admin | Included | Included |
| Email notifications (Mailer) | Included | Included |
| Playground template testing | Included | Included |
| Admin in six languages | Included | Included |
| Extensions (install and manage) | Included | Included |
| APIs | ||
| MCP server (public content, read-only) | Included | Included |
| PHP API | Included | Included |
| REST API (same-origin) | Included | Included |
| CLI (tcms) | Included | Included |
| QR codes and barcodes | Included | Included |
| RSS and sitemap builders | Included | Included |
FAQ
Licensing questions, answered.
Total CMS is licensed per domain — what counts as a domain?
A license covers a single production website, tied to the domain it runs on (for example, mysite.com). Each additional live site needs its own license.
Do I need separate licenses for dev or staging domains?
No. Local development is free: Total CMS runs with every Pro feature on localhost, .localhost, 127.0.0.1 and .test domains, with no license key, no trial and no time limit. (.local domains don’t count, because company networks use them for real sites.) For staging on a real domain, every license includes two subdomains (for example staging.mysite.com and dev.mysite.com) at no extra cost. Only additional production sites need their own license. How licensing works
Can I hand the license over to my client?
Yes. When you hand a finished site to its owner, the license can be transferred to them at no charge, as long as the site stays on the same domain. Let us know and we will move it. The freelancer kit has the handoff checklist.
Can I move my license to a different domain?
Yes. Once within 12 months of purchase it is free, for example when a site launches on its final domain. After that a small rehoming fee applies: $35 Lite, $75 Standard, $125 Pro. Either way it is handled from your Total CMS admin dashboard.
What happens when my updates period expires?
Nothing breaks. Every license includes two years of updates, and when that term ends the license converts to a perpetual license for the latest version you received. You can renew any time, including after a lapse, with no back-payment for the gap. This is not a subscription.
How do upgrades between editions work?
Upgrades are bought in the store built into your admin dashboard, which recognizes your domain and license and shows only the upgrade paths open to you, at the right price. The upgrade table on this page is a reference; your dashboard is the source of truth.
Where do I buy a license?
Head to the Store to purchase Standard or Pro.
What's your refund policy?
License sales are final. That is what the free 45-day trial and free local development are for: both include every Pro feature and needs no credit card, so you can be sure Total CMS fits before you spend anything. The Terms of Service and EULA have the details.
What are the terms of the free trial?
The trial gives you full Pro features for 45 days, no credit card required. Install it on the domain where the site will live and decide before you buy. (Building locally on a .test or .localhost domain doesn't need a trial at all; it's free.) When it ends, your content stays on your server and the site keeps serving; saving in the admin pauses until you add a license from the Store.
Upgrades
Already a customer? Upgrade from the admin.
Upgrades are bought in the store built into your admin dashboard, which knows your domain and license and shows only the paths open to you. These prices are for reference.
| Your current license | To Standard | To Pro |
|---|---|---|
| None (new purchase) | $195 | $395 |
| Total CMS 1 | $125 | $325 |
| Lite | $115 | $325 |
| Standard | Not applicable | $225 |
Lite is no longer sold. Existing Lite licenses stay supported: renew updates, rehome to a new domain, or upgrade at these prices.
Get Started
Ready to own your content?
Try Total CMS free for 45 days with full Pro features, or buy your license today and get started right away.
Still comparing? See how Total CMS compares