CMS

15 Open-source Next.js CMS Solutions, Starters and Templates

Hazem Abbas

Jul 19, 2023 — 10 min read

Next.js is a popular open-source framework for building server-side rendered React applications. It provides a seamless developer experience with features like automatic code splitting, server-side rendering, and optimized performance.

Advantages of Next.js

Some of the advantages of using Next.js include:

Server-side rendering: This allows for faster initial page loads, improved SEO, and better accessibility.
Automatic code splitting: This effectively reduces the size of JavaScript bundles, resulting in faster page loads.
Easy deployment: Next.js applications can be easily deployed to various cloud platforms like Vercel, AWS, and Google Cloud.

Benefits of using Next.js Based CMS

Using a Next.js-based CMS for deployment offers several benefits, including:

Cleaner code: By using a CMS, developers can separate content from code, resulting in cleaner, more maintainable code.
Faster content updates: Content editors can easily make changes to the site without needing a developer's assistance.
Improved collaboration: Developers and content creators can work together more effectively with a CMS, resulting in a more efficient workflow.

Overall, Next.js and its associated CMS options provide developers with flexible, efficient tools for creating server-side rendered applications with an intuitive content management system.

If you are looking for Next.js starters and boilerplates, we got you covered thru the following series of articles here:

In this post, we offer you the best open-source CMS that uses Next.js, which makes it easier for developers to extend, scale and customize.

1- Tina CMS

Tina is a free and open-source Git-backed headless content management system with support for visual editing, that uses Next.js, React, and TypeScript.

It comes with a rich visual editor, WYSIWYG editor, block editor, image and file support, and many more.

2- Outstatic CMS

Outstaic CMS is an amazing open-source CMS that uses GitHub as a backend for the content, images, and documents. It enables users to create custom collections, and manage everything from a simple admin panel.

3- Nextra CMS

Nextra is a CMS starter that can be used to create documentation websites, landing pages, and company websites.

4- Nextin

Nextein is a completely free and open-source library that wraps around the powerful Next.js framework. It provides a seamless way to write static sites using Markdown and React, making it easier for developers to create stunning websites with ease. With Nextein, you can leverage the full power of Next.js, which offers a wide range of features and tools to make your web development experience a breeze.

5- Payload CMS

Payload is a CMS that has been designed for developers from the ground up to deliver them what they need to build great digital products. If you know JavaScript, you know Payload. It's a code-first CMS, which allows us to do a lot of things right:

Payload gives you everything you need, but then steps back and lets you build what you want in JavaScript or TypeScript - with no unnecessary complexity brought by GUIs. You'll understand how your CMS works because you will have written it exactly how you want it.
Bring your own Express server and do whatever you need on top of Payload. Payload doesn't impose anything on you or your app.
Completely control the Admin panel by using your own React components. Swap out fields or even entire views with ease.
Use your data however and wherever you need thanks to auto-generated, yet fully extensible REST, GraphQL, and Local Node APIs.

Payload CMS Features:

Completely free and open-source
GraphQL, REST, and Local APIs
Easily customizable ReactJS Admin
Fully self-hosted
Extensible Authentication
Local file storage & upload
Version History and Drafts
Field-based Localization
Block-based Layout Builder
Extensible SlateJS rich text editor
Array field type
Field conditional logic
Extremely granular Access Control
Document and field-level hooks for every action Payload provides
Built with Typescript & very Typescript-friendly
Intensely fast API
Highly secure thanks to HTTP-only cookies, CSRF protection, and more

6- Nextplate

Nextplate is a free starter template built with Next.js, TailwindCSS & TypeScript, providing everything you need to jumpstart your Next project and save valuable time.

Features

👥 Multi-Authors
🎯 Similar Posts Suggestion
🔍 Search Functionality
🌑 Dark Mode
🏷️ Tags & Categories
🔗 Netlify setting pre-configured
📞 Support contact form
📱 Fully responsive
📝 Write and update content in Markdown / MDX
💬 Disqus Comment
🔳 Syntax Highlighting

📄 15+ Pre-designed Pages:

🏠 Homepage
👤 About
📞 Contact
👥 Authors
👤 Author Single
📝 Blog
📝 Blog Single
🚫 Custom 404
💡 Elements
📄 Privacy Policy
🏷️ Tags
🏷️ Tag Single
🗂️ Categories
🗂️ Category Single
🔍 Search

7- Cromwell CMS

Cromwell CMS is a free open source headless TypeScript CMS for creating lightning-fast websites with React and Next.js. It has a powerful plugin/theming system while providing an extensive Admin panel GUI for WordPress-like user experience. We are focused on empowering content-creators and people with no programming knowledge to conveniently use all features of the CMS in their projects.

Main features of Cromwell CMS:

Online store and blogging platform management systems.
Drag-and-drop theme editor.
Simple installation of themes and plugins from the official store and their local management.
Free full-featured online store and blog themes with multiple plugins.
Integrated Database. SQLite, MySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL are supported to use.
Developer-friendly experience. Use all power of Next.js, Nest.js, TypeORM, TypeGraphQL along with CMS API to build any type of website.

8- Nobelium

A static blog built on top of Notion and Next.js, deployed on Vercel.

Nobelim Features include:

Simple setup and configure
Fast page render and responsive design
Deploy in mins on Vercel
Supports comments
Comes with built-on RSS, and Analytics support
Supports multiple languages
SEO-fiendly
User-friendly URLs
Automatic incremental regeneration and no need to redeploy after update the content in notion

Nobelium

9- Blogify

Blogify is a MIT open-source Next.js and tailwind CSS based template to build a blog with Markdown.

10- Next.js with ButterCMS

This project was created as an example use case of ButterCMS with React and Next.js, and will not be actively maintained.

11- Next.js Blog with Sanity CMS

This starter is a statically generated blog that uses Next.js for the frontend and Sanity to handle its content. It comes with a native Sanity Studio that offers features like real-time collaboration, instant side-by-side content previews, and intuitive editing.

Features Highlight:

A performant, static blog with editable posts, authors, and site settings
A native and customizable authoring environment, accessible on yourblog.com/studio
Real-time and collaborative content editing with fine-grained revision history
Side-by-side instant content preview that works across your whole site
Support for block content and the most advanced custom fields capability in the industry
Webhook-triggered Incremental Static Revalidation; no need to wait for a rebuild to publish new content
Free and boosted Sanity project with unlimited admin users, free content updates, and pay-as-you-go for API overages
A project with starter-friendly and not too heavy-handed TypeScript and Tailwind.css

12- Next.js CMS with Ghost Backend

Create and publish flaring fast blogs with next-cms-ghost. Powered by the React framework Next.js and content fed by headless Ghost, you'll get a production ready hybrid frontend that combines the best of static and server-rendered sites.

Most importantly, your website can be easily distributed globally to be served from the edge. At the same time your content creators can continue to work with the Ghost authoring system they are used to.