Kiln vs OpenCms
Kiln
kilncms.comOpenCms
opencms.orgSide by side
| Figure | Kiln | OpenCms |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $4.99/mo | €416.67/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | — |
| Open source | Yes | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | — | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 9 | 4 |
| Spec score · Content Management Systems | 9.0 (#15) | 9.2 (#5) |
| Editing | Editors can change text, images, documents, blocks, galleries, events, and calendar content from the site itself. | Editors work in a browser and can build pages with drag and drop, edit inline, or switch to a form-based editor. |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Support | Self-hosted plans include community support on GitHub, while Fully managed includes priority support. | Premium support targets mission-critical projects, guarantees a response within the next business day, and includes core and OCEE bug fixing. |
Plans
Kiln
- Self-hostedFree
- Kiln Cloud$4.99 a month
- Fully managed$14.99 a month
- Open sourceFree
- Self-hostedFree
- Kiln Cloud$4.99 a month
- Fully managed$14.99 a month
- Concierge setup$399, paid once
- Concierge setup & tagging$399, paid once
OpenCms
- OpenCmsFree
- OpenCms Consulting€1,000, paid once
- 10 Incident Support Package€2,500, paid once
- Premium Support Subscription€5,000 a year
In their own words
Kiln
Kiln is an open-source, click-to-edit CMS for static sites. Invited editors change content directly on a site, with edits saved as Git commits in a repository owned by the site owner. Supported content includes text, images, documents, blocks, galleries, events, and calendar items. The publishing workflow includes drafts, scheduled publishing, named versions, history, and restoration. Owners sign in with GitHub, while invited editors and members can use Google sign-in and be scoped to particular pages or sections. Reviewer seats can comment only; suggest mode lets owners approve or decline proposed changes field by field. Kiln works with GitHub repositories and hosts that redeploy on push, including Cloudflare Pages, Netlify, Vercel, and GitHub Pages. A REST API and kiln-mcp support scoped, sanitized edits by scripts and agents; optional AI assistance uses an API key supplied by the user. Site content remains plain HTML in the customer's repository, even after leaving Kiln. Self-hosted costs nothing; Kiln Cloud is $4.99 a month, and Fully managed is $14.99 a month.