3k stars · MIT · v0.248.0 (2026-10-17) · Track this in Rising ↗
A drop-in admin page for a file-based site that works on a phone, and reads Decap CMS's own config file — Decap has not cut a release since June 2024.
Radar check
What we found when we opened it. Every bar is one fact, with its date.
Last code pushed 27 Oct 2026, the same day before this check.
Latest release v0.253.1 on 27 Oct 2026.
Public since March 2023, a little over 3 years.
3,004 stars and 228 forks.
1,259 commits and 191 new issues in the last 90 days.
36 contributors. 35 pull requests merged in 90 days.
A security policy says how to report a problem. 12 published security advisories.
How the bars are scored
- Alive. Days since the last code push: a week or less 100, a month 90, three months 70, six months 50, a year 30, eighteen months 15, older 0.
- Releases. Age of the latest GitHub release, on a similar scale; no bar when the project publishes no releases.
- Maturity. Age of the project: eight years 100, five 90, three 70, two 55, one 40, six months 25, younger 10.
- Adoption. Stars on a log scale: 100,000 stars is 100, 10,000 is 80, 1,000 is 60, 100 is 40.
- Activity. Commits in the last 90 days: 300 or more 100, 100 85, 30 65, 10 45, any 25.
- Community. People who have contributed: 100 or more 100, 30 80, 10 60, 5 40, 2 25, one 10.
- Security. A published security policy 80, none 40; published advisories are listed, not scored.
Checked by Repo Radar on 27 Oct 2026 from the repository on GitHub. Covered in Edition 14.
▶Repo detailsthe review · specs · pros & cons · install
What it does
Sveltia CMS is a complete rewrite of Decap CMS, which was once called Netlify CMS. It reads the same config.yml settings file, so instructions written for Decap still apply. It loads from one script tag on an admin page of the site. Editors sign in with a GitHub or GitLab account, and each save becomes an ordinary commit in the repository, which is the folder of code and history that git keeps. It is built for small screens as well as large ones, and it shows two languages side by side. Releases are frequent: version 0.248.0 was published on 17 October 2026. It runs no server of its own, and it stores content nowhere except the repository.
Why it matters
Who it suits. It suits a file-based site whose writer wants to fix a paragraph from a phone. It suits anyone following an older guide that still points at Decap CMS, since the settings file carries over unchanged. Skip it when editors cannot each be given a GitHub or GitLab account, because signing in is how it saves.
Verdict. The cheapest useful hour on this page: two files added, and two files deleted again if it disappoints. The version is still below 1.0 and releases land most weeks, so pin the version that was tested and read the notes before moving up. Thinkmill/keystatic (#1) gives tighter control over field types, and hunvreus/pagescms is the hosted take on the same idea.
Summary (Key Points)from the README
Key features
- Git-based headless CMS: Built for static sites, with content managed through Git.
- Single-page app on a CDN: Delivered as a small, maintenance-free web application served from a CDN.
- Editor and developer UX: Designed for both content editors and developers.
- First-class i18n: Offers internationalization (i18n) support as a core feature.
- Netlify/Decap compatibility: Positioned as a successor to Netlify/Decap CMS with high compatibility with existing installations.
- Issues resolved: The README says 390 issues from the Netlify/Decap repository have been solved (855 including duplicates).
- Framework and host agnostic: Works with Astro, Eleventy, vanilla JavaScript, custom tooling and any hosting platform.
- Showcase and demo: The showcase lists 700 real-world examples, including 190 sites migrated from Netlify/Decap CMS and 105 from WordPress, and a demo site can be tried without installation.
Important
- Project claims: The performance, security and reliability improvements, the "feature complete" status and the adoption by U.S. government agencies are the project's own statements, not independently verified in the README.
- Migration path: The README targets existing Netlify/Decap CMS users, but it describes only "high" compatibility, not full compatibility, so existing setups may need checking.
- Missing details: The README does not list system requirements, supported Git providers or the license name, so these need to be checked in the documentation.
Written by an AI model from the project’s README; not part of the review, and it can be wrong.
- One script tag and one settings file to add. Two files to delete if it does not suit.
- It works properly on a phone. Very few tools of this kind do.
- Released most weeks. The newest version is one day old, which is the strongest sign of life there is.
- The version number is 0.248.0, still below 1.0, so behaviour can change between releases.
- Releases come very often. That is good for fixes, but somebody has to decide when to stop upgrading.
- Every editor needs a GitHub or GitLab account with access to the repository. That is fine for one writer and awkward for a guest author.
mkdir -p public/admin
