Components for dashboards & CMSs.
One content API, any backend.
Laika CMS is a component library for building dashboards and CMSs, paired with a content API. Compose an admin from ready-made modules, define your content once, and serve it as a JSON:API. Self-hosted by default, backed by the filesystem, a database, a Git repo, or the CMS you already run. 40+ backends in all.
1import { buildJsonApi } from "laikacms/storage-api";2import { FileSystemStorageRepository } from "laikacms/storage-fs";34const repo = new FileSystemStorageRepository({ basePath: "./content" });5const api = buildJsonApi({ repo });67// a JSON:API for your content that runs anywhere fetch runs8export default { fetch: api.fetch };
An open-source content layer you actually own.
Laika CMS is two things: a component library for building dashboards and CMSs, and a content API. The admin is a modular dashboard you compose and extend, not a UI you inherit. And the storage backend is a swappable detail, not an architecture you marry, so it ships with 40+ of them, including the headless CMS you may already run. All of it yours, self-hosted, under the MIT license.
MIT licensed, forever
Dashboard components, the content API, storage adapters, the Decap bridge: every line is MIT. No proprietary tier, no upsell, no vendor capture. Self-hosting is the default. Read the source before you adopt it.
Headless by design
Your content lives behind an API, not inside a theme. Render it with React, Vue, Astro, a static site generator, a mobile app, or all of them at once, from the same source of truth.
Backend-agnostic: 40+ stores
Back your content with the filesystem, object storage, a Git repo, any SQL database, MongoDB, Notion, Neo4j, IPFS: 40+ stores in all. Change the repository in a single line.
A component library for dashboards
The admin is not a fixed UI: compose your dashboard from ready-made components and extend it with your own screens. The same library powers production back offices today.
Runtime-agnostic
The API hands back a standard fetch handler, so the same code runs on Node, Bun, Deno, Cloudflare Workers, or in the browser.
API-first
A clean JSON:API over your content. Point Decap CMS at it, or build your own front end on the very same endpoints.
Pluggable serializers
Store content as JSON, YAML, Markdown with frontmatter, or raw bytes. The on-disk format is a choice, not a constraint.
Decap-native
A git-gateway-compatible HTTP handler with OAuth2 + PKCE built in. Point Decap CMS straight at Laika, or self-install the hosted gateway. All MIT.
Developed in the open
Built publicly on GitHub with changesets and open issues. Contributions, adapters and issues welcome.
Where Laika sits.
The headless CMS field is full of good tools: here is the honest map. What sets Laika apart is never a gimmick: it is who owns the code, who owns the content, and who decides what you pay for.
The enterprise SaaS standard. Polished and proven. And fully proprietary, metered per seat, with your content living in their cloud.
The same API-first workflow, MIT end to end, with content in a store you own.
An open-source Studio in front of the proprietary hosted Content Lake: the editor is yours, the data layer is theirs.
Open all the way down: the API layer is MIT too, and it fronts your database, bucket or repo.
Self-hosted open core on Node and SQL, with an Enterprise Edition and a cloud for the advanced features.
One MIT tier, no enterprise edition, and it runs beyond Node: Bun, Deno, workers, the browser.
MIT, code-first and Next.js-native, backed by Postgres or MongoDB. Now part of Figma.
Framework-free and independent, with 40+ interchangeable backends instead of two.
The successor to Forestry: visual editing over Markdown, with the commercial TinaCloud at the centre.
Git is one backend here, not the business model. The whole stack self-hosts.
An open-source, Astro-native CMS built for humans and agents.
Framework-agnostic by design: bring Astro, or anything else that speaks fetch.
Open Source
Too many beloved CMSes went fully commercial and then shut down, taking a generation of workflows with them. That is the failure mode this project is built to rule out: a tool you build on should not be able to change its mind about you.
Free, forever
The complete CMS: content modeling, the JSON:API, every storage backend, the dashboard, the Decap bridge, auth. If you need it to run Laika in production, it is MIT.
Paid, eventually
Optional conveniences that save you time and raise productivity. Everything paid is something you could self-host or simply skip. Self-hosting stays the default.
Never
Features moved behind a paywall after you adopted them. An enterprise edition. Rent charged on access to your own content.