October CMS — Self-Hosted CMS Platform Built on Laravel

Introduction

October CMS is an open-source, self-hosted content management system built on top of the Laravel PHP framework. It emphasizes simplicity and clean code, giving developers full control over their content architecture without the bloat common in legacy CMS platforms. The project targets agencies and developers who want a modern back-end with straightforward theming and extensibility.

What October CMS Does

• Provides a modular CMS with a drag-and-drop page builder and AJAX framework for dynamic content
• Ships with a built-in marketplace of plugins for blogs, e-commerce, forms, and SEO
• Uses Twig templating for themes, allowing front-end developers to work without touching PHP
• Includes a media manager, file attachments, and image resizing out of the box
• Supports multi-site and multi-language configurations for complex publishing setups

Architecture Overview

October CMS extends Laravel, inheriting its routing, Eloquent ORM, queue system, and Artisan CLI. The core is split into modules (Backend, CMS, System) that boot independently. Plugins register themselves via a Plugin.php manifest, defining models, controllers, components, and migrations. Themes live as directory trees of HTM partials, layouts, and pages parsed by the Twig engine. The AJAX framework handles form submissions and partial updates without full-page reloads.

Self-Hosting & Configuration

• Requires PHP 8.1+, a web server (Nginx or Apache), and MySQL/PostgreSQL/SQLite
• Install via Composer with composer create-project october/october mysite or the web installer
• Configure database, mail, and queue drivers in the standard Laravel .env file
• Use php artisan october:update to pull core and plugin updates from the marketplace
• Deploy behind a reverse proxy with SSL termination; supports Docker via community images

Key Features

• Clean, intuitive back-end UI for content editors with granular role-based access control
• AJAX framework built into the front-end stack for dynamic partial rendering
• First-class Laravel integration means full access to Eloquent, queues, events, and middleware
• Plugin and theme marketplace with hundreds of community and commercial extensions
• Built-in support for content scheduling, drafts, and revision history

Comparison with Similar Tools

• WordPress — far larger ecosystem but carries legacy PHP patterns and heavier overhead; October is leaner and Laravel-native
• Statamic — also Laravel-based but stores content in flat files by default; October uses a relational database
• Craft CMS — polished commercial CMS with Yii2; October is fully open-source and free at the core
• Directus — headless-first with any SQL database; October is a traditional server-rendered CMS with optional API layer
• Strapi — Node.js headless CMS; October targets PHP teams who want server-side rendering and Twig templates

FAQ

Q: Is October CMS free? A: The core is open-source under the MIT license. Some marketplace plugins and themes are paid, but you can build a full site with free components.

Q: Can I use October CMS as a headless CMS? A: Yes. You can expose content via RESTful or GraphQL APIs using community plugins while disabling the front-end theme layer entirely.

Q: How does October CMS handle updates? A: Run php artisan october:update to pull the latest core and plugin versions. The system runs database migrations automatically during the update process.

Q: Does it support multi-tenant or multi-site setups? A: The Multisite plugin allows serving multiple domains from a single installation, each with its own theme, pages, and content scope.

Sources

• https://github.com/octobercms/october
• https://octobercms.com/docs