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CMS Made Simple vs CouchCMS: catalog facts
CMS Made Simple	CouchCMS
Free Free and open source under the GPL-2.0 licence, funded by donations.	Free Free and open source; paid support is available.
Web, Self-hosted	Self-hosted
Themes built from plain HTML and CSS with Smarty Modular with third-party modules and tags	Retrofits into existing static HTML sites No PHP knowledge required
Requires PHP hosting and some setup Smarty templating is a learning step for new designers	Development pace is slow Less suited to large editorial teams or headless setups
Self-hosted	Self-hosted
Open source	Open source
License: GPL-2.0	License: CPAL-1.0
Not stated if an account is needed	No account needed
Not stated if it works offline	Not stated if it works offline
Official website Full listing and sources Checked October 2, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Checked October 2, 2026

Catalog facts only. Anything “not stated” is unconfirmed. Check full listings for details.