Cloud CMS vs October CMS

What Cloud CMS is

Cloud CMS is now presented within the proprietary Gitana content platform. It models structured and relational content as a JSON-Schema-backed graph, supports branches, workflow, releases, search, REST and GraphQL delivery, and can be purchased as hosted service or commercially licensed self-managed Kubernetes containers. Plan limits, SSO, MFA, support, SLA and infrastructure responsibility vary substantially by edition.

What October CMS is

October CMS is a self-hosted PHP CMS and application platform built on Laravel. Its source is public, but the platform is licensed under October's EULA rather than a standard permissive open-source license: each production website needs a project license, with development and staging environments for that same website covered. New accounts receive one complimentary license with one year of updates; an expired perpetual license keeps running but loses Update Gateway access. Hosting, database, deployment, backups and plugin governance remain the operator's responsibility.

What Cloud CMS is built to do

Content graph

Models JSON documents, binary attachments and typed relationships using JSON Schema-backed definitions.

Versioned collaboration

Uses branches, changesets, pull-style merges, releases and conflict handling for content work.

REST and GraphQL

Delivers structured content through APIs, queries, search, traversal and supported language drivers.

Enterprise identity

Supports plan-dependent SAML 2.0 or JWT SSO, group mapping and multifactor options.

What October CMS is built to do

Laravel foundation

Uses Laravel 12, Composer dependencies and Artisan commands for development and operations.

Themes and plugins

Separates presentation and extensible application behavior into project-controlled packages.

Roles and permissions

Controls backend access with users, custom roles, permission inheritance and super-user boundaries.

Multisite management

Manages domain, locale, theme and content variations from one installation.

Choose Cloud CMS if

• Complex content domains with typed relationships, workflow and multiple delivery environments
• Headless applications needing REST, GraphQL, search and scheduled publishing
• Organizations that can validate hosted limits or operate the full Kubernetes stack

Skip Cloud CMS if

• A simple website CMS would satisfy the content and publishing model
• Required users, API volume, SSO or SLA do not fit an approved commercial tier
• The team cannot govern graph schemas, workflow and self-managed infrastructure complexity

Choose October CMS if

• Custom content sites where Laravel-native development is an advantage
• Agencies that can standardize deployment, updates and plugin review across projects
• Multisite or multilingual builds after validating shared-installation and license boundaries

Skip October CMS if

• A fully managed SaaS CMS with vendor-operated backups and upgrades is required
• The organization requires an OSI-style permissive license without per-site production terms
• The team cannot maintain PHP, Composer dependencies, plugins, database migrations and recovery

Cloud CMS: pros & cons

• Rich content model: JSON Schema types, aspects, binary attachments and graph associations support structured and relational domains.
• Editorial lifecycle: Branches, changesets, workflow, releases and scheduled deployments separate work from live delivery.
• API-first delivery: REST, GraphQL, queries, search, traversal and language drivers support headless applications.
• Deployment choice: Hosted plans shift backups and maintenance to Gitana; self-managed containers run in a customer VPC or on-premises.
• Commercial platform: The product is proprietary and self-managed use requires a commercial license.
• Material plan differences: Users, projects, API throughput, storage, SLA, SSO, MFA and support change by hosted tier.
• Self-managed operations: Kubernetes deployment transfers upgrades, backups, availability, secrets, databases and observability to the customer.
• Modeling complexity: Graph relationships, branching, workflow and deployment mappings require governance and specialist implementation.

October CMS: pros & cons

• Developer-oriented stack: Laravel, Composer, Artisan, Twig themes and plugins support code-first customization.
• Self-hosted ownership: Application code, configuration, content database and deployment environment stay under the operator's control.
• Editorial controls: Backend users, roles, permissions and multisite content support governed authoring workflows.
• Flexible deployment: Composer/SSH and an official no-shell Deploy plugin cover different hosting environments.
• Production licensing: Public source does not remove the per-website license and EULA requirements.
• Updates depend on renewal: The site keeps running after expiry, but gateway updates and Marketplace access require an active license.
• Self-hosted operations: PHP, database, web server, secrets, patches, backups and recovery are the customer's responsibility.
• Extension risk: Marketplace or custom plugins add separate maintenance, compatibility, security and license surfaces.