Readers comparing headless CMS tools need a clear way to separate product focus from project health and shipping activity. This September 2026 snapshot uses the supplied ToolVitals scores, project descriptions, openness labels, license labels, and repository context.
The ranking covers open/source-visible tools only. Tools are ordered by ToolVitals score descending, then health and shipping for equal composite scores. GitHub stars provide context only and do not determine rank.
Rankings
| Rank | Tool | Openness | License | Health | Shipping | GitHub Stars | Score | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sanity | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 98 | 98 | 6309 | 98 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 2 | Strapi | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 98 | 97 | 73064 | 97 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 3 | dotCMS | OSI-approved OSS | GPL-2.0 | 98 | 97 | 950 | 97 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 4 | Payload | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 97 | 97 | 44552 | 97 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 5 | Sveltia CMS | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 97 | 97 | 2794 | 97 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 6 | TinaCMS | OSI-approved OSS | Apache-2.0 | 96 | 95 | 13771 | 96 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 7 | Sulu | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 96 | 94 | 1349 | 95 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 8 | Webiny | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 95 | 96 | 8033 | 95 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 9 | DNN Platform | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 95 | 94 | 1140 | 95 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 10 | Enonic XP | OSI-approved OSS | GPL-3.0 | 95 | 94 | 211 | 95 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 11 | Keystone | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 95 | 94 | 9968 | 95 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 12 | Atomic Server | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 93 | 96 | 1596 | 94 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 13 | Bolt CMS | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 93 | 91 | 590 | 92 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 14 | OpenDXP | OSI-approved OSS | GPL-3.0 | 93 | 91 | 99 | 92 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 15 | Concrete | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 93 | 90 | 850 | 92 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 16 | AWCMS | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 90 | 95 | 13 | 92 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 17 | b10cks CMS | OSI-approved OSS | AGPL-3.0 | 90 | 95 | 14 | 92 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 18 | pagible | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 90 | 94 | 585 | 92 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 19 | SonicJS | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 91 | 90 | 1692 | 91 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 20 | Contentful | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 91 | 87 | 1296 | 90 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 21 | CairnCMS | OSI-approved OSS | GPL-3.0 | 87 | 93 | 20 | 90 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 22 | Byline CMS | OSI-approved OSS | MPL-2.0 | 86 | 94 | 34 | 89 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 23 | Decap CMS | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 91 | 84 | 19340 | 88 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 24 | Daptin | OSI-approved OSS | LGPL-3.0 | 87 | 88 | 1892 | 87 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 25 | content | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 89 | 83 | 3663 | 86 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 26 | Backdrop CMS | OSI-approved OSS | GPL-2.0 | 88 | 80 | 1043 | 85 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 27 | Gentics Mesh | OSI-approved OSS | Apache-2.0 | 86 | 82 | 593 | 84 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 28 | Archival | OSI-approved OSS | AGPL-3.0 | 80 | 84 | 8 | 82 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 29 | Vrite | OSI-approved OSS | AGPL-3.0 | 76 | 73 | 1996 | 75 | 🟢 Good |
| 30 | Astropress | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 69 | 55 | 4 | 63 | 🟢 Good |
| 31 | Squidex | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 69 | 52 | 2507 | 62 | 🟢 Good |
| 32 | openblog | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 67 | 52 | 2 | 61 | 🟢 Good |
| 33 | MZinga | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 55 | 25 | 9 | 43 | 🟡 Fair |
| 34 | LeadCMS | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 52 | 26 | 36 | 41 | 🟡 Fair |
| 35 | Twill | OSI-approved OSS | Apache-2.0 | 46 | 28 | 3974 | 38 | 🔴 Needs Attention |
| 36 | mave-cms | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 48 | 20 | 7 | 37 | 🔴 Needs Attention |
| 37 | DoraCMS | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 38 | 14 | 3542 | 28 | 🔴 Needs Attention |
| 38 | Pages CMS | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 33 | 16 | 3961 | 26 | 🔴 Needs Attention |
| 39 | BCMS | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 30 | 10 | 464 | 22 | 🔴 Needs Attention |
| 40 | LinkBCMS | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 35 | 0 | 2 | 21 | 🔴 Needs Attention |
| 41 | FormCMS | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 19 | 5 | 268 | 13 | 🔴 Needs Attention |
| 42 | VaahCMS | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 12 | 0 | 573 | 7 | 🔴 Needs Attention |
| 43 | Blogifier | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 10 | 0 | 1296 | 6 | 🔴 Needs Attention |
| 44 | Content Flow | OSI-approved OSS | Apache-2.0 | 8 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 🔴 Needs Attention |
| 45 | cms | OSI-approved OSS | AGPL-3.0 | 8 | 0 | 3910 | 5 | 🔴 Needs Attention |
| 46 | Mixcore | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 7 | 0 | 887 | 4 | 🔴 Needs Attention |
| 47 | Contentport | OSI-approved OSS | AGPL-3.0 | 6 | 0 | 764 | 3 | 🔴 Needs Attention |
| 48 | bhd-cms | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 🔴 Needs Attention |
| 49 | Contentive | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 🔴 Needs Attention |
| 50 | HonoHub | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 1 | 0 | 464 | 1 | 🔴 Needs Attention |
Top 3 Highlights
Sanity ranks first with a ToolVitals score of 98, a health score of 98, and a shipping score of 98. Its supplied description focuses on Sanity Studio, rapidly configured content workspaces, and structured content. The dataset labels it OSI-approved OSS with license MIT. ToolVitals records 6,309 GitHub stars as context only; that count does not set the rank.
Strapi ranks second with a ToolVitals score of 97, a health score of 98, and a shipping score of 97. Its supplied description presents a 100% JavaScript/TypeScript headless CMS that is fully customizable and developer-first. The dataset labels it OSI-approved OSS with license MIT. ToolVitals records 73,064 GitHub stars as context only, not as a ranking input.
dotCMS ranks third with a ToolVitals score of 97, a health score of 98, and a shipping score of 97. Its supplied description identifies it as a visual headless content management system for enterprises. The dataset labels it OSI-approved OSS with license GPL-2.0. ToolVitals records 950 GitHub stars as context only, not as a ranking input.
Want to see the full health, license, shipping, and confidence details for every tool in Headless CMS? Browse all Headless CMS Tools →