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CMS Made Simple vs WordPress: catalog facts
CMS Made Simple	WordPress
Free Free and open source under the GPL-2.0 licence, funded by donations.	Free Free and open source under the GPL; you pay only for your own hosting.
Web, Self-hosted	Self-hosted
Themes built from plain HTML and CSS with Smarty Modular with third-party modules and tags	Very large library of themes and plugins Visual block editor with live preview
Requires PHP hosting and some setup Smarty templating is a learning step for new designers	Needs a PHP and database server to self-host Plugins and themes vary widely in quality and need updating
Self-hosted	Self-hosted
Open source	Open source
License: GPL-2.0	License: GPL-2.0
Not stated if an account is needed	Not stated if an account is 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.