Choosing a headless CMS requires separating product fit from signals about project health, shipping activity, and licensing. This October 2026 list uses the supplied ToolVitals records for each tool, including its description, ToolVitals score, health score, shipping score, openness label, license label, and GitHub star count.
The ranking covers open/source-visible tools and sorts them by ToolVitals score in descending order, then by health and shipping for equal composite scores. GitHub stars provide context only and do not determine placement.
Rankings
| Rank | Tool | Openness | License | Health | Shipping | GitHub Stars | Score | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | dotCMS | OSI-approved OSS | GPL-2.0 | 98 | 98 | 971 | 98 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 2 | Sanity | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 97 | 97 | 6349 | 97 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 3 | Strapi | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 97 | 96 | 73281 | 97 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 4 | Payload | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 97 | 95 | 45097 | 96 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 5 | TinaCMS | OSI-approved OSS | Apache-2.0 | 96 | 95 | 13822 | 96 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 6 | Sulu | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 95 | 94 | 1352 | 95 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 7 | Atomic Server | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 94 | 95 | 1613 | 94 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 8 | Enonic XP | OSI-approved OSS | GPL-3.0 | 94 | 94 | 211 | 94 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 9 | OpenDXP | OSI-approved OSS | GPL-3.0 | 94 | 92 | 102 | 94 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 10 | Webiny | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 93 | 94 | 8046 | 94 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 11 | DNN Platform | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 94 | 92 | 1140 | 93 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 12 | Gentics Mesh | OSI-approved OSS | Apache-2.0 | 93 | 93 | 593 | 93 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 13 | b10cks CMS | OSI-approved OSS | AGPL-3.0 | 92 | 95 | 16 | 93 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 14 | Concrete | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 93 | 91 | 852 | 92 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 15 | Decap CMS | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 92 | 88 | 19416 | 91 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 16 | AWCMS | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 90 | 94 | 13 | 91 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 17 | pagible | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 89 | 92 | 594 | 90 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 18 | Sveltia CMS | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 87 | 94 | 2911 | 90 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 19 | Byline CMS | OSI-approved OSS | MPL-2.0 | 86 | 93 | 34 | 89 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 20 | SonicJS | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 87 | 91 | 1746 | 88 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 21 | CairnCMS | OSI-approved OSS | GPL-3.0 | 86 | 92 | 24 | 88 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 22 | Daptin | OSI-approved OSS | LGPL-3.0 | 86 | 91 | 1899 | 88 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 23 | Backdrop CMS | OSI-approved OSS | GPL-2.0 | 88 | 84 | 1047 | 87 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 24 | Archival | OSI-approved OSS | AGPL-3.0 | 85 | 90 | 8 | 87 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 25 | Bolt CMS | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 87 | 81 | 592 | 85 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 26 | content | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 88 | 79 | 3671 | 84 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 27 | Contentful | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 84 | 79 | 1295 | 82 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 28 | Vrite | OSI-approved OSS | AGPL-3.0 | 80 | 79 | 2003 | 80 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 29 | Keystone | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 82 | 71 | 9979 | 77 | 🟢 Good |
| 30 | Squidex | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 78 | 67 | 2508 | 74 | 🟢 Good |
| 31 | openblog | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 67 | 52 | 2 | 61 | 🟢 Good |
| 32 | Astropress | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 64 | 46 | 8 | 57 | 🟡 Fair |
| 33 | MZinga | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 52 | 21 | 9 | 40 | 🟡 Fair |
| 34 | Twill | OSI-approved OSS | Apache-2.0 | 46 | 24 | 3977 | 37 | 🔴 Needs Attention |
| 35 | LeadCMS | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 40 | 15 | 35 | 30 | 🔴 Needs Attention |
| 36 | mave-cms | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 39 | 14 | 7 | 29 | 🔴 Needs Attention |
| 37 | DoraCMS | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 32 | 14 | 3545 | 25 | 🔴 Needs Attention |
| 38 | Pages CMS | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 36 | 5 | 4061 | 24 | 🔴 Needs Attention |
| 39 | LinkBCMS | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 35 | 0 | 3 | 21 | 🔴 Needs Attention |
| 40 | FormCMS | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 15 | 4 | 269 | 11 | 🔴 Needs Attention |
| 41 | BCMS | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 16 | 0 | 464 | 10 | 🔴 Needs Attention |
| 42 | VaahCMS | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 9 | 0 | 574 | 5 | 🔴 Needs Attention |
| 43 | Blogifier | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 8 | 0 | 1294 | 5 | 🔴 Needs Attention |
| 44 | Content Flow | OSI-approved OSS | Apache-2.0 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 🔴 Needs Attention |
| 45 | Mixcore | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 6 | 0 | 887 | 4 | 🔴 Needs Attention |
| 46 | cms | OSI-approved OSS | AGPL-3.0 | 6 | 0 | 3915 | 4 | 🔴 Needs Attention |
| 47 | Contentport | OSI-approved OSS | AGPL-3.0 | 4 | 0 | 766 | 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 | 466 | 0 | 🔴 Needs Attention |
Top 3 Highlights
dotCMS ranks first with a ToolVitals score of 98, alongside health and shipping scores of 98. The supplied description positions it as a visual headless content management system for enterprises. ToolVitals labels it OSI-approved OSS and lists GPL-2.0 as its license, giving it a strong combination of score and stated enterprise focus.
Sanity ranks second with a ToolVitals score of 97 and matching health and shipping scores of 97. Its supplied description centers on Sanity Studio and rapidly configuring content workspaces powered by structured content. ToolVitals labels it OSI-approved OSS and lists MIT as its license.
Strapi ranks third with a ToolVitals score of 97, a health score of 97, and a shipping score of 96. The supplied description presents it as a 100% JavaScript/TypeScript headless CMS that is fully customizable and developer-first. ToolVitals labels it OSI-approved OSS and lists MIT as its license.
Want to see the full health, license, shipping, and confidence details for every tool in Headless CMS? Browse all Headless CMS Tools →