Kiln vs Pages CMS

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.

Pages CMS is an open-source content management system for static sites whose files are stored in GitHub repositories. It edits repository files directly, so content does not require a separate CMS database. Users add a `.pages.yml` configuration, sign in, edit through the web interface, and save changes back to GitHub. The visual editor includes rich-text editing and syntax highlighting. A media manager supports drag-and-drop uploads and selecting multiple files, while full-text and faceted search covers content. The design is responsive for mobile. Pages CMS is available as an online hosted service, Vercel deployment, or self-hosted installation, with MIT-licensed source code. GitHub is supported; the FAQ says GitLab and Bitbucket are not. AWS S3 and Cloudflare R2 connections are listed as upcoming. The Free plan costs nothing. Help is offered through documentation, Discord, and GitHub issues.