explaingit

octobercms/october

★ 11,136PHPAudience · developerComplexity · 3/5LicenseSetup · moderate

TLDR

A self-hosted CMS built on PHP and Laravel that keeps website development simple, with a plugin marketplace and a commercial license required after the first free year.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((repo))
    What it does
      Self-hosted CMS
      Website management
      Plugin marketplace
    Tech stack
      PHP
      Laravel
      Composer
    Features
      Admin dashboard
      Plugin system
      Theme support
    Resources
      Documentation
      Video tutorials
      Discord community
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Things people build with this

USE CASE 1

Build and manage a self-hosted website or web application using a PHP-based CMS with an admin panel.

USE CASE 2

Extend a website with additional features by installing plugins from the October CMS Marketplace without writing custom code.

USE CASE 3

Develop custom October CMS plugins using the RainLab Plugin Suite as a reference for conventions and structure.

Tech stack

PHPLaravelComposer

Getting it running

Difficulty · moderate Time to first run · 30min

Requires a PHP server and Composer, a paid license is needed after the first free year to receive updates and Marketplace access.

Commercial EULA, free with full access for the first year, then a paid license is required to receive updates and use the plugin Marketplace.

In plain English

October CMS is a self-hosted content management system built on top of Laravel, a PHP web framework. Its stated goal is to simplify website development by stepping back from the complexity that has accumulated in many modern web tools. The project was started in 2014 and is developed by a team backed by a network of partners and contributors. Installation is done through Composer, which is a standard package manager for PHP. Running two commands in a terminal creates the project files and sets up the database connection. After that, the system runs on any server capable of hosting a PHP application. October CMS is open source, and new accounts receive a complimentary license for the first year. After that, a paid license is required to keep receiving updates and to access the Marketplace, where plugins and themes are distributed. The Marketplace ecosystem lets site owners extend the CMS with additional features without writing custom code. The project provides official documentation, video tutorials on YouTube, and a series of practical guides produced by third-party educators. For developers who want to see real code examples, the RainLab Plugin Suite on GitHub shows how plugins are built using October's conventions. The software follows standard PHP coding guidelines (PSR-1, PSR-2, and PSR-4) and has a community on Discord for discussion. Security issues are handled through a published security policy. The license is a commercial End User License Agreement rather than an open-source license like MIT or GPL.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1
I want to build a simple marketing website using October CMS. Walk me through installing it with Composer and setting up my first page and navigation menu.
Prompt 2
How do I create a custom plugin for October CMS? Show me the required file structure and how to register a new front-end component.
Prompt 3
Explain how October CMS database migrations work and how they differ from standard Laravel migrations.
Prompt 4
I want to install a plugin from the October CMS Marketplace. Walk me through the process and explain what the license requirement means for updates.
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