# wintercms/winter

Free, open-source, self-hosted CMS platform based on the Laravel PHP Framework.

Repository: https://github.com/wintercms/winter
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/winter
Homepage: https://wintercms.com
Language: PHP
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Topics: cms, winter, cms-platform, laravel, php, wintercms, hacktoberfest
Last push: 2026-08-26T15:31:23+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 99/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 99, release rhythm 98, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 2008, "days_push": 7, "days_rel": 14, "gap_med": 12, "n_releases_24m": 12}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1513, forks 245 (observed 2026-08-28T04:04:56.168571+00:00)

## What it is
Winter CMS is a free, open-source, self-hosted content management system built on the Laravel PHP framework, forked from October CMS in 2021. It offers a plugin and theme architecture, Twig-based templating, an admin backend, and media management for building websites and web applications.

## Use cases
- build a self-hosted website with a cms
- manage client websites with an easy admin panel
- rapidly prototype laravel-based web apps
- run a blog or e-commerce site
- create custom cms themes with tailwind or vue
- extend a cms with plugins and rest or graphql apis

## When to choose
- you want a laravel-based cms with a strong plugin architecture
- you need a client-friendly admin backend with visual page editing
- you want full source access and a transparent, secure codebase
- you are an agency or freelancer building sites of any size

## When to avoid
- you need a headless-only cms with no admin panel
- your stack is not PHP or you prefer node/ruby/python ecosystems
- you want a fully managed hosted solution rather than self-hosting
- you prefer a CMS with a larger plugin marketplace than October's ecosystem

## Facets
- artifact type: application
- maturity: active
- function: web-framework, templating, plugin-system, auth, authorization, self-hosted
- domain: web-development, cms, backend, developer-tools
- platform: php, self-hosted, windows
- tags: cms, laravel, october-cms-fork, twig-templating, themes, plugins, media-manager, website-builder, web-server, linux, macos

## Member repositories
- wintercms/winter (main) score 99

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:56.168571+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T04:32:17.710569+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/wintercms/winter (fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:56.168571+00:00, sha 798ac7fc7801)
  - homepage: https://wintercms.com (fetched 2026-08-29T11:36:15.881436+00:00, sha 2ca0ef226a66)
  - site_page: https://wintercms.com/docs (fetched 2026-08-29T11:36:15.894956+00:00, sha 5668f8fcaf4c)
  - site_page: https://wintercms.com/features/for-designers (fetched 2026-08-29T11:36:15.896736+00:00, sha 66ee7b9f05cd)
  - site_page: https://wintercms.com/features (fetched 2026-08-29T11:36:15.890645+00:00, sha 71b2ac37612c)
  - site_page: https://wintercms.com/features/for-developers (fetched 2026-08-29T11:36:15.898402+00:00, sha 0f9b1dfd6259)
  - site_page: https://wintercms.com/features/for-clients (fetched 2026-08-29T11:36:15.900046+00:00, sha 2e3483e83464)
  - site_page: https://wintercms.com/install (fetched 2026-08-29T11:36:15.901563+00:00, sha e8fe6e38189a)
  - site_page: https://wintercms.com/docs/v1.2/docs/architecture/introduction (fetched 2026-08-29T11:36:15.903220+00:00, sha c7d28040b8fa)
  - site_page: https://wintercms.com/releases (fetched 2026-08-29T11:36:15.892800+00:00, sha 185df4ca531c)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.