CMS Comparison
Sveltia CMS vs Decap CMS
Compare Sveltia CMS and Decap CMS side-by-side. Explore setup, editing experience, non-technical usability, collaboration, Git workflow, and pricing.
Sveltia CMS
Git-Based CMSSveltia CMS is a free, open-source, Git-based CMS built as a complete modern rewrite and successor to Netlify/Decap CMS. It runs as a single-page app served from a CDN, stores content directly in your GitHub, GitLab, or Gitea/Forgejo repository, and focuses on editor UX, digital asset management, and first-class internationalization. It is currently in beta, with version 1.0 (GA) scheduled for late 2026.
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Decap CMS
Git-Based CMSDecap CMS (formerly Netlify CMS) is a free, open-source, Git-based CMS independently maintained in the EU. It acts as a React-based wrapper around the Git workflow, storing content directly in your repository alongside your code. Originally created by Netlify and rebranded in February 2023, Decap CMS is designed for developers and content editors working with static site generators.
Visit Decap CMSOverview
| Feature | Sveltia CMS | Decap CMS |
|---|---|---|
| CMS type | Git-Based (open-source, MIT-licensed). Currently in beta; version 1.0 (GA) scheduled for late 2026. | Git-Based (open-source, MIT-licensed) |
| SSG support | Astro, Eleventy, Hugo, Jekyll, Next.js, Nuxt, SvelteKit, VitePress, Docusaurus, Middleman, Zola + framework-agnostic support for vanilla JavaScript sites | Hugo, Next.js, Gatsby, Jekyll, 11ty, Astro, Remix, SvelteKit + any SSG that stores content in Git |
| Pricing entry point | Free forever. MIT-licensed and free for personal and commercial use. No paid tier. | Free forever (core CMS). Decap Turbo paid extension starts at $37/mo (Starter) or $112/mo (Team). |
| Free plan | ✅ Yes — The entire CMS is free and open source. No user, project, or feature limits. | ✅ Yes — Core CMS is free forever and fully open source. No user or project limits. |
| Free trial (without credit card) | ✅ Not needed — the CMS is permanently free. | ✅ Not needed — the core CMS is permanently free. Decap Turbo early access includes a free trial on launch. |
| Content security | ✅ Yes — Highly secured. No database and no CMS server; the app runs client-side and content is stored as static files in your own Git repository. | ✅ Yes — Highly secured. No database; all content is stored as static files in your own Git repository. |
| Native language support | ✅ Yes — The admin UI is localized in Bulgarian, Catalan, Croatian, English (US/UK/CA), Greek, Japanese, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, and Ukrainian. It auto-detects the browser language and can be switched in settings. | ⚠️ Yes but — Admin UI defaults to English. Other locales must be manually registered by a developer using the decap-cms-locales package. No out-of-the-box switcher. |
| Mobile friendly | ✅ Yes — Fully responsive with dedicated mobile and tablet support, QR code login, and installable as a progressive web app (PWA). | ❌ No — Not natively optimized for mobile. A community CSS workaround exists, but there’s no official mobile support. |
Setup & Configuration
| Feature | Sveltia CMS | Decap CMS |
|---|---|---|
| Non-technical setup | ❌ No — A developer must add two files to the project (admin/index.html and config.yml) and register an OAuth application with the Git provider before the CMS is usable. | ❌ No — A developer must add index.html and config.yml to the project and configure authentication before the CMS is usable. |
| Starter templates | ⚠️ Yes but — The docs link to community templates for Astro, Eleventy, HonoX, Hugo, Jekyll, and Zola. These are third-party resources not reviewed by the Sveltia CMS team. | ⚠️ Yes but — Official starters exist for Hugo, Next.js, Gatsby, and Jekyll. No large curated template library. |
| Edit schema modifier | ❌ No — Collections and fields are defined in the config file (YAML, TOML, or JSON). No visual schema editor, though JSON Schema validation and IDE auto-completion are provided. | ❌ No — Schema is defined entirely in a YAML config.yml file. No visual schema editor inside the CMS. |
Editing Experience
| Feature | Sveltia CMS | Decap CMS |
|---|---|---|
| Editor | Rich text (Lexical-based WYSIWYG) + Markdown + Code. Content is written out as Markdown, YAML, JSON, or TOML. | Rich text (Plate-based, replaces deprecated markdown widget) + Markdown + Code. 16 built-in widgets and custom widgets. |
| Live preview system | ⚠️ Yes but — A preview pane is included, and custom preview templates and styles can be registered through the JavaScript API. Matching the preview to your site’s frontend requires developer setup. | ⚠️ Yes but — Customizable React-based preview templates. Requires developer setup to match the site’s frontend. |
| AI assistant integration | ⚠️ Yes but — One-click AI translation via Anthropic, OpenAI, and Google Cloud Translation using your own API key. There is no general-purpose AI writing or rewriting assistant. | ❌ No — No built-in AI assistant or content generation tool in either the free CMS or Decap Turbo. |
| Collaborative editing | ❌ No — No simultaneous multi-user editing. Collaboration happens through Git commits, and multi-user support with edge-function-based user management is planned for v2.0. | ❌ No — No simultaneous multi-user editing. Decap Turbo Team adds a presence indicator (who’s active), not concurrent editing. |
| iFrame embed preview | ❌ No — Not documented or available out of the box. | ❌ No — Not documented or available out of the box. |
| Shortcode support | ✅ Yes — Custom editor components can be registered through the JavaScript API to create reusable block-level components, alongside the built-in code-block and image components. | ✅ Yes — Custom editor components and widgets serve as shortcodes, configured by developers in the CMS setup. |
| SEO tools | ❌ No — No built-in SEO analysis, SERP preview, or content scoring. SEO fields must be modeled manually in the configuration. | ⚠️ Yes but — Slug and file path config only. No built-in SEO analysis, SERP preview, or content scoring. |
| Dark mode | ✅ Yes — Built-in light and dark themes. Follows the system preference by default and can be switched in app settings. | ❌ No — No native dark mode. A community-contributed CSS override exists but isn’t an official feature. |
Non-Technical User Experience
| Feature | Sveltia CMS | Decap CMS |
|---|---|---|
| Designed for non-technicals | ⚠️ Yes but — The UI is modern, accessible, and editor-friendly once configured, but setup, schema changes, and authentication require a developer, and every editor needs a Git account. | ⚠️ Yes but — Editors can use it once set up, but setup, schema changes, and auth configuration always require a developer. |
| Version rollback | ⚠️ Yes but — Entries are automatically backed up to browser storage while editing and can be restored as drafts. Full version history lives in Git, with no in-CMS Git rollback UI. | ⚠️ Yes but — Full history via Git. No dedicated version rollback UI inside the CMS. |
| Initial setup by non-dev | ❌ No — A developer must create the admin files, write the config, and register an OAuth app first. | ❌ No — A developer must configure config.yml and the authentication backend before the CMS is usable. |
Media Management
| Feature | Sveltia CMS | Decap CMS |
|---|---|---|
| Media management | ✅ Yes — Built-in digital asset management with drag-and-drop uploads, folder structures, search and filtering, configurable file size limits, and automatic image optimization (WebP conversion, resizing, SVG minification). | ⚠️ Yes but — Built-in library supports upload, view, and delete via drag-and-drop. External providers (Cloudinary, Uploadcare) via plugins. No file renaming. |
| External image URL support | ✅ Yes — Multiple external storage providers can be used at the same time: Cloudinary, Uploadcare, Amazon S3 and S3-compatible services (Cloudflare R2, Backblaze B2, DigitalOcean Spaces, Scaleway, Supabase Storage), plus stock photos from Pexels, Pixabay, and Unsplash. | ⚠️ Yes but — Handled via Cloudinary and Uploadcare plugins. No direct inline external URL support. |
Collaboration & Teams
| Feature | Sveltia CMS | Decap CMS |
|---|---|---|
| User access | ❌ No — Every editor needs their own Git account with write access to the repository, signing in via OAuth or a personal access token. Git Gateway and Netlify Identity are not supported. | ⚠️ Yes but — Git Gateway (via Netlify Identity) allows non-Git login. On non-Netlify hosts, a developer must configure an external OAuth client. |
| Custom roles | ❌ No — No role management inside the CMS. Permissions are inherited from the Git provider’s repository access. Roles are planned for v2.0. | ⚠️ Yes but — A Decap Turbo feature, available on the Team plan ($37/mo) and above. The free core CMS has no centralized role management. |
| Organization management | ❌ No — Each site gets its own admin instance. There is no centralized multi-project or multi-team dashboard. | ⚠️ Yes but — A Decap Turbo feature. The free CMS is per-site with no centralized multi-project dashboard. |
| Branch workflows | ⚠️ Yes but — A simple workflow (commit straight to a branch) and Open Authoring (external contributors submit pull requests) are supported. The Editorial Workflow is documented as “not yet supported in Sveltia CMS” and is planned before the 1.0 release. | ⚠️ Yes but — Editorial Workflow (draft/review/publish via Git branches) is in the free CMS. PRs are created and merged in the Git provider itself, not inside Decap. |
Git & Deployment
| Feature | Sveltia CMS | Decap CMS |
|---|---|---|
| Git providers | GitHub, GitLab, and Gitea/Forgejo, plus a test backend and a local repository workflow. Bitbucket, Azure DevOps, and Git Gateway are explicitly not supported. | GitHub, GitLab, Gitea, Bitbucket, Azure DevOps, and Git Gateway (Netlify) — the broadest provider support of the two. |
| Vendor lock-in | ✅ No — No vendor lock-in. Content lives in your own Git repository. Self-hosted and fully open source under the MIT license. | ✅ No — No vendor lock-in. Content lives in your own Git repository. Self-hosted and fully open source. |
| Deployment | Content commits trigger builds on any connected CI/CD platform — Vercel, Netlify, Cloudflare Pages, GitHub Pages, and more. No built-in one-click deployment. | Content commits trigger builds on any connected CI/CD platform — Netlify, Vercel, GitHub Pages, Cloudflare Pages, and more. |
Accessibilities
| Feature | Sveltia CMS | Decap CMS |
|---|---|---|
| Global search | ✅ Yes — Instant full-text search across all collections, entries, and assets with Cmd/Ctrl+F, plus keyboard shortcuts for the content library (Alt+1), asset library (Alt+2), and new entries (Cmd/Ctrl+E). | ⚠️ Yes but — Search by title, slug, and configured summary fields. Can exhaust API rate limits on large repositories; can be disabled. |
| Edit configs as code | ✅ Yes — Configuration is written as code in YAML, TOML, or JSON, with JSON Schema validation, IDE auto-completion, TypeScript types, and a JavaScript API for customization. | ✅ Yes — Configuration is done entirely via config.yml. Editing config as code is the primary and only method. |
| Mermaid diagram preview | ❌ No — Not a built-in or documented feature in Sveltia CMS. | ❌ No — Not a built-in or documented feature in Decap CMS. |
Worth Knowing
There's a third option: Sitepins
Sveltia CMS and Decap CMS both need a developer to create admin files, write a config, and register an OAuth app before an editor can log in — and both leave your editors dependent on a Git account. Sitepins skips all of that: connect your repository and start editing in minutes, with a visual editor, an AI writing assistant, real-time multi-user collaboration, custom roles, and email invites for editors, on a free forever plan. Sitepins is open source too (AGPL-3.0, on GitHub), so you can self-host it or contribute.
Note: If you found any wrong information here, please contact us and we will fix it.
Which one is right for you?
A quick summary to help you choose the right Git-based CMS.
Choose Sveltia CMS if:
- You want a modern, much faster rewrite of Netlify/Decap CMS with a far better editing UI
- Your editors need dark mode, real mobile support, and a localized admin interface out of the box
- You publish multilingual content and want first-class i18n with one-click AI translation
- You manage a large media library and want built-in image optimization plus S3, Cloudinary, or Uploadcare storage
- You want instant full-text search across every collection, entry, and asset
Choose Decap CMS if:
- You need Bitbucket, Azure DevOps, or Git Gateway support, none of which Sveltia offers
- You need the Editorial Workflow with draft, review, and publish statuses available today
- You want a CMS that has already reached a stable release rather than one still in beta
- You want a paid tier that adds roles and multi-project management (Decap Turbo)
- You rely on the larger existing ecosystem of Decap widgets, plugins, and community answers
Migration Support
Already using another CMS?
Whether you are coming from WordPress, Contentful, Sanity, or any other platform, our team is ready to help you migrate your content, structure, and workflows with zero downtime. Migration support is available for all users on the Team plan or the Lifetime deal. We handle the boring, tedious tasks so you can focus on launching as soon as possible.
Get Started with Sitepins
Get started for free today and discover easy, flexible, and full control over your content.