Total CMS vs Craft CMS
Craft is a genuinely good CMS with a free tier we cannot match. It is also the closest thing to Total CMS on this site — same language, same templating, same kind of structured content modeling. Which leaves one real question: should your content live in a database?
- Choose Craft CMS if you want a free tier that is production-ready, or GraphQL.
- Choose Total CMS if you do not want to run a database.
The short answer: these two have more in common than most pairs on this site. Both are commercial, source-available PHP software. Both template in Twig. Both model content as structured fields you define rather than a free-form page builder. A developer moving between them would be productive quickly.
What actually separates them is the database. Craft requires MySQL, MariaDB or PostgreSQL — there is no flat-file mode, and content lives in database rows. Total CMS has no database layer at all. That single decision cascades: it sets what your backups look like, whether content can travel in a pull request, and what you need from a server. Craft also expects Composer and command-line access on that server, and recommends a cron entry or a daemon for its queue in production. Total CMS runs on ordinary PHP hosting.
Craft Solo is free forever and valid for public production sites — one user account, and it still includes multi-site and GraphQL. Total CMS has no equivalent, and for a single-editor site that is a real reason to look at Craft. Worth knowing, though: a free license does not change the server requirements. You still need a database, Composer and command-line access, so the hosting decision and the running cost are the same as any paid Craft site. Free removes the license, not the operational overhead.
If you want a free starting point, GraphQL, published end-of-life dates, or your content is genuinely relational, Craft is an excellent choice. If you would rather not run a database at all, need the site on ordinary hosting without Composer or command-line access, or want your content version-controlled alongside your code, Total CMS will fit better.
Which to choose
Where each one wins.
When to choose Craft CMS instead
Craft is an excellent CMS with a deservedly strong reputation. Choose Craft if:
- You want a free tier that is genuinely production-ready. Solo is free forever for public sites, and still includes multi-site, localization and GraphQL. Total CMS has no equivalent.
- You want GraphQL. It is included on every Craft edition, with GraphiQL built in. Total CMS does not offer GraphQL at all.
- Your content is genuinely relational or very large. This is what a database is for, and it is the honest limit of any flat-file system.
- You are planning years ahead. Craft publishes dated end-of-life commitments, and Craft 5 is supported into 2031. Total CMS does not publish equivalent dates.
- You want the larger plugin catalog and a first-party hosting option. Craft Cloud bundles the license and removes the server question entirely.
- You want schema in git without giving up a database. Project Config is a genuinely good answer to config-as-code deployment.
When Total CMS fits better
Total CMS is the better fit when:
- You do not want to run a database. Nothing to provision, secure, back up, or keep consistent with your files. A backup is a folder; a migration is a copy.
- The site has to run on ordinary hosting. No Composer on the server and no command-line step in your deploy.
- You want content in git, not just schema. Craft's Project Config version-controls the model; Total CMS version-controls the content too, so editorial changes review in a pull request.
- You want AI agents working on the site. Total CMS ships a first-party MCP server that exposes your collections and schemas over OAuth, plus an agent skill and Cursor rules installed with the package. Craft has neither, and no llms.txt.
- You want a REST API that writes. Total CMS reads and writes over REST — same-origin on every edition, and from external services with API keys on Pro. Craft's headless story is GraphQL.
- You would rather not plan a framework migration. Craft 6 replaces Yii with Laravel and raises the floor to PHP 8.5.
- Cost matters per site. Total CMS is $195 to $395 once per domain, against $279 or $399 per Craft project plus $99 a year for updates.
Feature by feature
Total CMS vs Craft CMS, row by row.
| Feature | Total CMS | Craft CMS |
|---|---|---|
| More | ||
| Database | None, ever | Required |
| Craft 5 needs MySQL 8.0.17+, MariaDB 10.4.6+ or PostgreSQL 13+. There is no flat-file mode — Project Config stores schema and settings as YAML, but content stays in the database. | ||
| Content storage | JSON or Markdown files on disk | Database rows |
| Content in version control | Yes — content is files | Schema yes, content no |
| Craft's Project Config is a real strength here: sections, fields and settings live as YAML you can commit and deploy without pushing a database. It deliberately excludes content, which is the half Total CMS also puts in git. | ||
| Backing up | Copy the folder | Files and a database dump |
| License | Commercial, one-time, per domain | Commercial, per project |
| Both are proprietary, source-available software. Neither is open source, so that argument does not apply to this pairing. | ||
| Price | $195 Standard / $395 Pro (one-time) | Free Solo / $279 Team / $399 Pro |
| Craft Enterprise is quote-only. Craft also sells first-party hosting, Craft Cloud, from $110 per project per month with the license bundled. | ||
| Free tier | 45-day trial | Free forever (Solo) |
| A real advantage for Craft. Solo is valid for public production use indefinitely, limited to one user account, and still includes multi-site, localization and GraphQL. | ||
| Updates included | 2 years | 1 year, then $99/year |
| Both keep working when the window lapses. Craft is explicit that you may use the licensed version indefinitely, and that you are never charged for gaps in renewals. | ||
| If the license has a problem | Admin warning | Control-panel warning only |
| Worth naming: Craft states that license issues appear only in the control panel and that the front end of your site is never affected. That is good practice and not universal. | ||
| PHP version | 8.2+ | 8.2+ |
| Craft 6, currently in alpha, raises this to PHP 8.5. | ||
| Hosting | Any PHP 8.2+ host | Composer and CLI on the server |
| Craft lists Composer 2.0+ as a requirement and its command-line tool is the documented path for updates and deployments. Several of its recommended PHP settings are commonly disabled on shared hosting. | ||
| Scheduled tasks and webhooks | Built in (Automations, Pro) | Queue, cron recommended |
| Craft's queue runs off web traffic by default; the docs recommend a cron entry or a daemonized listener for anything time-sensitive in production. | ||
| Templating | Twig 3, with 130+ custom filters and functions | Twig 3, with 22 custom tags |
| The rare pairing where both sides use the same template language — templating skill transfers directly in either direction. Craft adds an element query API (craft.entries()) for fetching content. | ||
| Front-end integration | Any front end: Twig inside existing PHP pages, any web builder, or headless via REST API | Its own Twig templates and routing, or headless via GraphQL |
| Total CMS can live inside a site you have already built — hand-coded or exported from a web builder: initialize it at the top of any PHP page and Twig tags render inside your own HTML, without it taking over routing or templates. Stacks users also get dedicated stacks for every content type. Craft is designed to route requests and render its own Twig templates, or to run in headless mode with GraphQL. | ||
| Content modeling | JSON schemas | Sections, entry types and field layouts |
| Craft's model is deep and well regarded. Note that Craft 5 reworked Matrix substantially, converting blocks to entries and moving block-scoped fields into a global pool. | ||
| Admin interface | Included, server-rendered (HTMX) | Vue-based control panel |
| Craft 5's control panel is built on Vue 2 with jQuery; Craft 6 rebuilds it on Vue 3, Inertia and Tailwind. | ||
| REST API | Same-origin, every edition; external API keys (Pro) | Not offered |
| Craft's headless story is GraphQL rather than REST. | ||
| GraphQL | Not offered | All editions |
| Included even in free Solo, and closed by default until you authorize a schema. A genuine advantage for Craft if GraphQL is what your front end wants. | ||
| MCP server for AI agents | Built in — public read (Standard), full access (Pro) | Community plugin |
| Craft ships no first-party MCP server and no llms.txt. A capable community plugin exists. Be careful searching: the "official Craft MCP server" listed in several MCP directories belongs to craft.do, an unrelated note-taking app. | ||
| Underlying framework | Standalone (Slim) | Yii 2 today, Laravel in Craft 6 |
| Craft 6 is a framework change rather than an increment — Yii is replaced by Laravel and PHP 8.5 becomes the floor. Craft 5 is supported until 2031, so there is no urgency, but it is a migration to plan for. | ||
| Published end-of-life dates | Not published | Yes, Craft 5 to 2031 |
| Craft publishes a dated support matrix, and Craft 5's window is unusually long. Craft 4 reached end of life in April 2026. Total CMS does not publish equivalent dates — a fair point against us for anyone planning years ahead. | ||
| Extension ecosystem | Growing, with a simple extension API | A large, established plugin store |
| Craft's store is considerably larger and has had far longer to grow. Total CMS's extension API is small enough that an AI coding agent can scaffold one from the starter repo, and each extension's capabilities are individually permissioned. A marketplace is planned. | ||
Questions
Common questions.
If both use Twig, how different are they really?
Templating skill transfers almost directly — both are Twig 3, and a developer comfortable in one will read the other's templates immediately. The differences are underneath: how content is stored, how you fetch it, and what the server needs. Craft gives you an element query API against a database; Total CMS gives you collection queries against files.
Craft Solo is free. Why would I pay for Total CMS?
If Solo covers your project, use it — free and production-valid indefinitely is a real advantage and we would rather you had the right tool. Solo allows one user account, so a second editor moves you to Team at $279 per project plus $99 a year. At that point you are comparing against $195 to $395 once per domain, and the database and hosting requirements become the deciding factors rather than price.
Is needing a database actually a problem?
Not inherently — databases are excellent at what they do, and if your content is large or genuinely relational you want one. It changes your operational life rather than your capability: backups become files plus a consistent dump, migrations involve moving that database, and content cannot be reviewed in a pull request or rolled back with your code.
Should I worry about Craft 6 replacing Yii with Laravel?
Not urgently. Craft 6 is in alpha with no announced release date, and Craft 5 has published support into 2031, so an existing site has years of runway. It is worth knowing about because it is a framework change rather than a normal upgrade — templates move, the mail layer changes, and PHP 8.5 becomes the minimum — so budget for it rather than assuming a routine version bump.
Can I run either on cheap shared hosting?
Total CMS runs on any host with PHP 8.2 or later and no database. Craft needs a database plus Composer and command-line access, and several of its recommended PHP settings are commonly disabled on shared plans. Craft is happier on a VPS or on their own Craft Cloud.
Can I migrate from Craft to Total CMS?
There is no automated Craft importer. Total CMS ships importers for Total CMS 1, Alloy, WordPress, CSV, JSON, RSS and URLs. Because Craft exposes GraphQL on every edition, scripting an export of your entries into JSON or CSV is more straightforward than with most systems — but expect to write that export yourself, and to rebuild templates.
Sources
Where these facts come from.
Craft CMS facts checked . Software changes, so check Craft CMS’s own site for their current details.
Craft details verified from primary sources on 27 July 2026, against Craft 5.10.12:
- craftcms.com/pricing — editions, prices, renewals
- How Craft licenses and renewals work and how enforcement works
- Craft — requirements — database, PHP and Composer
- Craft — Project Config
- Craft — queue — the cron recommendation
- Craft — GraphQL
- Craft — headless mode and GraphQL — Craft routing versus headless mode
- Craft — supported versions — the end-of-life matrix
- Craft 6 upgrade guide and the 6.x composer.json — the Laravel and PHP 8.5 change
- Craft Cloud — first-party hosting
- plugins.craftcms.com — the plugin store
Craft CMS is a trademark of Pixel & Tonic. We have no affiliation with Craft, and we have tried hard to represent it accurately — including where it is the better choice. If anything here is wrong or out of date, tell us and we will correct it.
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