Contao
Powerful CMS that allows you to create professional websites and scalable web applications.
Maintained, but at a slower pace than the leaders in its category.
Commit activity more than 82% of tracked projects; popularity more than 21%. How this is calculated.
Commits, last 11 months
| Stars | 439 |
|---|---|
| Latest release | — |
| Repo updated | 25 Sept 2026 |
| Licence | LGPL-3.0 |
| Built with | PHP |
Is Contao actively maintained?
Development is ongoing. The repository recorded 1192 commits over the same window, and the last three months alone account for 328 of them.
No tagged releases are published, so there is no stable version to pin to — you would deploy from the default branch or a container image built from it.
Contao ranks #19 of 48 in Content Management Systems (CMS), placing it mid-table for maintenance activity.
What Contao actually does
Contao is a PHP-based content management system designed for building websites and structured web applications. It provides the foundational tools required to manage digital content and publish pages from a central administration interface. Administrators can organise site architecture and template data within a standard web hosting environment.
Best fit: It suits developers and system administrators looking for a traditional PHP content management system to host client websites or internal publishing portals.
Worth knowing: The project has a modest community footprint compared to dominant alternatives, which may limit the availability of third-party modules and community-driven documentation.
Deployment notes
As a PHP application, it typically requires a compatible web server like Apache or Nginx, alongside a relational database such as MySQL or MariaDB for persistent data storage.
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