Statamic

Statamic is a content management system built on top of the Laravel PHP framework. Unlike most CMSes, it defaults to storing content in flat files (Markdown, YAML, JSON) on the filesystem rather than in a relational database like MySQL. It ships with a polished control panel for content editing, a templating engine called Antlers, and a flexible field system that makes it reasonably easy to model most types of content.

The CMS was created by Jack McDade and has been developed by Statamic, Inc. since around 2012. Version 3, released in 2020, was a ground-up rebuild on Laravel and introduced the flat-file-by-default architecture that most people associate with it today. Version 4 and beyond have refined that foundation. Statamic is commercial software — the core is free for solo developers, and paid licenses unlock additional features and team use.

When you’re coming from WordPress, a few things will feel immediately different. WordPress stores everything — posts, pages, settings, users, even plugin data — in a MySQL database. Statamic keeps content in files that you can open in a text editor, commit to Git, and deploy like code. That approach has real tradeoffs: simpler hosting, easier version control, and no database to back up or corrupt, but also less familiarity and a steeper setup curve if you’re used to managed WordPress hosting.

Statamic also optionally supports a database-backed mode, which makes sense for sites with large content volumes, user-generated content, or complex querying needs. You can run it in full flat-file mode, database mode, or a hybrid where some content lives in files and some in a database.

For an overview of how Statamic compares to WordPress across key dimensions, see the Statamic vs WordPress comparison. If you’re evaluating whether to migrate, the WordPress to Statamic migration guide walks through what the process actually looks like.