Contao vs Plone
Contao
contao.org
Plone
plone.orgSide by side
| Figure | Contao | Plone |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Spec score · Content Management Systems | 8.9 (#17) | 9.0 (#12) |
| Custom content types | Yes | Yes |
| Custom user roles | Yes | Yes |
| Deployment | Contao can be installed as a preconfigured Managed Edition with Contao Manager or added as a Symfony bundle using Composer. | Plone can run on UNIX-based systems, Windows, and macOS, as well as servers and cloud deployments. |
| Editing | Editors can use TinyMCE, edit multiple records at once, and restore prior versions. | Plone 6 provides a modern editing interface with blocks for text, images, video, maps, forms, and search. |
| Editorial workflows | Yes | Yes |
| Founded | 2006 | 2004 |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Headquarters | 3250 Lyss, Switzerland | Eugene, Oregon, USA |
| Intended users | The homepage cites use for landing pages, portals, e-commerce, and enterprise sites. | Plone describes itself as suited to editors, developers, and decision makers, with use cases including government and universities. |
| Media library | Yes | Yes |
| Multilingual content | Yes | Yes |
| Platform type | self_hosted | hybrid |
| Security | Contao supports passkeys or two-factor authentication and automatically locks accounts after too many failed login attempts. | Plone's security team publishes security fixes and asks users to report security issues responsibly. |
| SEO tools | Yes | Yes |
Plans
In their own words
Contao
Contao is a free, open-source content management system for professional websites and scalable web applications. One installation can operate multiple websites and multilingual sites. Editors can work in TinyMCE, change multiple records together, and restore earlier versions. Administrators can assign permissions to individual backend fields for users or groups, while editorial workflows, custom roles, custom content types, a media library, and multilingual content support organize publishing. The core includes calendar, news and blog, newsletter, form-generation, and full-text-search modules. SEO features include schema.org data and generated XML sitemaps, with stated WCAG 2.1 AA support. Passkeys or two-factor authentication and account locking address access security. Contao runs on web servers with current PHP and MySQL, and can be installed through Contao Manager or Composer. It is based on Symfony and extendable through its directory or Packagist.
Plone
Plone is a free, open-source content management system for websites, intranets, and custom applications. Plone 6 provides a block-based editing interface for text, images, video, maps, forms, and search; its layouts can create flexible multi-column pages that adapt to different devices. Editors can define content types through the web without code and build forms by drag and drop, with submissions sent by email or stored as CSV. A faceted search block filters results by facets. Plone also supports editorial workflows, custom roles, multilingual content, SEO tools, and a media library. A React-based frontend and REST API are supported, and the ecosystem includes more than 100 add-on products. It can run on UNIX-based systems, Windows, and macOS, on premises or in cloud deployments. The site says users retain control of their data. Each major version receives five years of security support; Plone 6 support is listed through 2027-12-31. Service providers offer development, training, customization, and deployment help.