Looking For a Reliable .Net CMS Solution?, Here are The Best Free Open-source 15 Options in 2024
.NET framework is a Microsoft-based proprietary software development framework. It is prefered by many enterprise to create web apps, SPAs, internal tools, content management systems (CMS)s and eCommerce solutions.
In this post, we offer you the best open-source free .NET CMS solution.
1- Orchard Core
Orchard is a free and open-source modular CMS solution and framework, it is multi-tenant by design and supports large projects. It is written in ASP.NET.
Parts
It has two parts:
- Orchard Core framework: An application framework for building modular, multi-tenant applications on ASP.NET Core. It can be used to build and deploy large scalable enterprise apps.
- Orchard Core CMS: a feature-rich CMS built with Orchard Framework.
CMS Features
- Developer-friendly API
- Super rich documentation
- Supports multiple languages
- Built-in media management
- Supports multiple languages
- Supports multiple sites, domains and apps
- Role-based user management
- Custom events workflow
- Easy to install using Docker
License
BSD-3-Clause license
OrchardCMS2- Piranha CMS
Piranha CMS stands as a premier decoupled, cross-platform .Net CMS, ingeniously built for .NET8 and Entity Framework Core. Boasting a modular and extensible architecture, it confidently caters to a myriad of hosting and deployment scenarios.
Developers can easily create new projects using Templates.
Features
- Developer-friendly
- Responsive and highly customizable admin panel
- Lightweight and fast
- Built-in WYSIWYG
- Live preview
- Image and media handling
- License: MIT License.
PiranhaCMS3- SIOC
Swastika I/O Core is an all-in-one ASP.NET Core / Dotnet Core System platform, incorporating features of CMS, eCommerce, Forum, Q&A, CRM, and more, based on the SIOH Framework.
Swastika-IO4- CarrotCake CMS
CarrotCakeCMS (MVC Core) is a free, open-source, template-based .Net Core 6 MVC CMS developed with C#, SQL server, jQueryUI, and TinyMCE, supporting multi-tenant webroot and database.
It is user-friendly, easily understandable, and highly extensible using standard languages and patterns like HTML, CSS, jQuery, and C#.
ninianne985- Raytha
Raytha is a powerful, versatile, and lightweight CMS with an easy-to-use interface and fast performance. It offers custom content types, a template engine, various access controls, and supports multiple storage providers.
It also provides an automatically generated REST API and allows direct editing of HTML templates within the platform.
Features
- Content Types: Effortlessly create and customize content types, no code changes required.
- Role Based Access Control: Design customized roles with specific access permissions and assign them to individual users.
- Built In Template Engine: Easily modify templates within the platform using the popular Liquid templating engine.
- Headless Mode: Instant access to a REST API based on your content, automatically generated for you.
- Audit Logs: Built-in audit trail that tracks all edits made for enhanced security.
- Single Sign On: SAML and Json Web Token authentication are available out of the box for both administrators and public users.
- Revisions: Revisions of all content and templates are stored, enabling you to go back and revert to a previous version if needed.
- File Storage: The platform supports local file storage by default, but cloud storage options such as Azure Blob or S3-Compatible can be enabled if desired.
RaythaHQ6- CMSprinkle
CMSprinkle is a micro-CMS designed for easy integration with ASP.NET Core applications, ideal for managing small amounts of dynamic content. It was created for the C# Advent site, which required a simple solution for managing content from a mobile device, without the need for a full CMS.
Features
- Easy Integration: Integrates with ASP.NET Core Razor pages, with a bias towards simplicity.
- Authentication Support: Configurable authentication for managing content: use whatever auth you want.
- Flexible Routing: Default /cmsprinkle base URL but you can change to whatever you want.
- Database Support: Compatible with Couchbase and SQL Server for content storage, whichever you're already using.
- Customizable Error Messages: Define custom messages for content-missing errors.
- Minimal tracking: Content is date/time stamped and stamped with the username who last updated it.
- Markdown: write your content in standard Markdown (using stackedit-js), which is rendered (and sanitized) as HTML
Cons
- Not ideal for large projects
- Does not support image and file uploading
- Does not support file storage
- Requires heavy data focus
mgroves7- Mixcore CMS (Recommended)
Mixcore CMS is the future of enterprise web CMS, boasting open-source capabilities, and flexibility with both headless and decoupled architectures.
Built on the robust ASP.NET Core/Dotnet Core, it seamlessly enables the creation of diverse apps and tailor-made APIs. The back-office, anchored on Bootstrap 5, accelerates new project initiation and enhances existing Bootstrap 5 projects.
Features
- Databases: MySQL, SQL Server, PostgreSQL, SQLite
- Reliability: Member roles and permissions
- High Security: Strong Data Encryption and Security compliance
- Multilingual: Flexible multilingual content migration
- High Performance: Millisecond response time
- Cross Platforms: Powered by .NET Core and runs everywhere
- Online Coding: Visual Studio Code's heart inside
- Customizable Designs: Ability to build any kind of website
- SEO Friendly: No extra plugin required
- Media Management: Supports multiple file formats
- Manage On The Go: Ability to manage and code from anywhere
- Easy and Accessible: No advanced tech knowledge required
- Analytics: Built-in Google Analytics dashboard
- Dynamic Modular Architecture: Powerful module layers & Attribute sets feature
- Extensibility: API-first architecture for easy plug-and-play
- Easy Backup: Powerful 1 step export
- More Coffee time: Additional features not listed here for exploration
- Easy to install using Docker.
mixcore8- ACBlog
AcBlog is an open-source, extensible static and dynamic blog system. It is your way to go if you require a simple blog.
StardustDL9- Behlog
Behlog is a powerful .NET CORE CMS suitable for managing websites, eCommerce, and blogs. It allows multi-website management, content, category, and tag management, post creation and scheduling, and password protection for posts.
Features
- Easy to develop, simple to use
- Managing Website's contents, Categories and Tags.
- Create posts, publish at any time.
- Built-in support for RTL languages
- Use passwords to protect posts if you don't want your content to be public.
- Use PostTypes to generate Blog, Pages, Image Galleries, Products and other Custome contents.
- Manage Users which can be admins, authors or even subscribers with diffrent access.
- User Registeration and Subscriptions.
- Like & Comments.
- PostMeta and UserMeta to keep extra data about Posts and Users.
- Keep Visit records for Websites and their Posts (IP, user-agent, ...).
- Create Forms with diffrent FieldTypes.
- File and media management.
- Security based on .NET CORE Identity, Roles and Claims.
- eCommerce solution, you can sell products online, create invoices and more.
- manage customers, Customers can login and change their profile, shipping addresses, invoices, history,...
- Globalizations using resources.
- Support themes with razor syntax.
- Search Engine Optiomized, using custome slugs.
- Supports multiple databases, SQL Server, SQLite and more.
imaun10- FlexDotnetCMS
FlexDotnetCMS is a powerful and flexible ASP .NET CMS that can also serve as a headless CMS. It supports automatic single page and universal apps with server-side rendering, ensuring no loss of CMS functionality like frontend editing or dynamic navigation.
It avoids SEO issues common in classic SPAs and supports other frontend libraries like VueJS. It also includes an automatic RSS and JSON generator and supports static file generation.
Features
- Supports automatic single page and universal apps with server-side rendering
- Avoids SEO issues common in classic SPAs
- Supports other frontend libraries like VueJS
- Includes an automatic RSS and JSON generator
- Supports static file generation
- Automatic Google Site Map Generator
- Decoupled CMS: CMS is only used to house content
- Headless CMS: Comes with an API for loading content via AJAX
- Works alongside other SPA Javascript Frameworks like React / Vue / Angular
- FrontEnd Editing: Every field can be edited from the frontend of the website
- Visual Layout Editor: Create, delete, reorder the rows, columns, and fields
- Ability to create custom fields with unique layouts
- Ability to modify the layout of all pages with a specific page type or unlink from a page type and create a unique layout
- Responsive layout testing directly through the CMS
- Draft versions for pages
- Programming in the CMS is done using C# and the Razor Syntax
- Access to the entire framework code
MacdonaldRobinson11- Squidex
Squidex is an open-source headless CMS and content management hub that provides a rich API with OData filter and Swagger definitions, allowing users to build their own UI. It requires Node.js and MongoDB for installation.
Users can deploy using Docker, or to Azure, AWS, Heroku, IIS, or GCP.
Squidex12- RawCMS
RawCMS is an API-first, headless CMS developed in ASP.NET Core, utilizing MongoDB for data storage and designed for hosting on Docker containers.
Features
- API-first, headless CMS designed for Docker containers
- Utilizes MongoDB for data storage
- Allows data modeling without coding
- Flexible due to its API approach
- Can be used with GraphQL or REST standard
- Ready to use and deployable on all platforms
- Backend consolidation in a single platform
- Consolidates Log Collecting, Api Gateway, Translation, Session Storage and CMS
- Modern and intuitive architecture
- Encourages efficient application building
- Modular: Each module is shipped in a NuGet package that can be added to the system to gain new features
- Headless: RawCMS doesn't include any presentation logic. All presentation is delegated to the caller. This aims to create a scalable and reusable system
- Packaged: RawCMS must be shipped into a single deployable package or added into an existent ASP.NET Core application as a NuGet package.
- Extensible: RawCMS must be customized by the user through extension only. So no changes to the code will be done, just adding new packages.
- Buildless: RawCMS must give the possibility to manage an installation without the need to manage a codebase or a code repository. It will be possible to add lambdas code at runtime.
- Caller Friendly: Produce data in many formats to help integration (Odata, GraphQL)
Low Level Features
- Store and filter any data using MongoDB expression
- Docker container ready
- Data validation
- Possibility to add business logic on the backend
- Authentication against external Oauth2 server
- Provide Oauth2 tokens and store users into local DB
- Possibility to create a custom endpoint
- Upsert and incremental update
- GraphQL data query
- Api Gateway
- Relation between entities
arduosoft13- DragonFly
DragonFly is a free, open-source ASP.NET Core CMS + Blazor. It offers schema definition, custom fields, content management, FieldGenerator, ModelGenerator, BlockField for structured content, asset management, and various blocks including TextBlock, HtmlBlock, and more.
Features
- Define schema with custom fields
- Create, update, delete and publish/unpublish content items based on schema
- Create new Fields with FieldGenerator
- Create typed content items with ModelGenerator
- BlockField for structured page content
- TextBlock, HtmlBlock, ColumnBlock, GridBlock, AssetBlock, YouTubeBlock, CodeBlock,..
- Asset management
- Folder tree
- Asset metadata like ImageMetadata and PdfMetadata
- Use IAssetProcessing after asset upload
- Create thumbnails for image and pdf files with ImageWizard
- REST API
- Permissions for content, schema, asset, asset folder, webhooks
- Dynamic permissions for every schema
- Background tasks
- WebHooks
- MongoDB storage
- Create proxies with ProxyGenerator
- Admin interface with Blazor
usercode14- Cofoundry
Cofoundry is an open-source .NET Core CMS and application framework that prioritizes code-first development, unobtrusive integration, extensible and flexible architecture, and user-friendly content management.
cofoundry-cms15- Platformus CMS
Platformus CMS is a free, open-source, and cross-platform CMS based on ASP.NET Core, ExtCore framework, and Magicalizer. It supports commercial use, works on various operating systems, can be used in the cloud, supports different databases, and is modular and extendable.
Features
- Free and Open Source: Can be used for commercial projects as the NuGet packages or the source code.
- Modern and Cross-Platform: Works on Windows, Linux, and Mac, can be used in the cloud, can be easily scaled, and supports different databases.
- Modular and Extendable: Supports third-party extensions and allows building extension libraries to reduce development time.
- Multilingual and Multicultural: Includes user interface, content, and data formats.
- Flexible Content Management: Allows management of content using intuitive tools. Even complex data structures can be described without programming.
- Customizable Security: The permissions and roles security features allow flexible control over access to the web application resources.
Platformus
