10 Best PHP Website Builders Available In 2024

In this article, we’ll explore the top 10 PHP website builders and website CMS, focusing on their diverse features and applications for developers. From the simplicity and flexibility of OctoberCMS to the robust e-commerce capabilities of Magento, each PHP-based solution brings its strengths to the table. 

Top 10 PHP Website Builders For Developers 

OctoberCMS

Overview

OctoberCMS, utilizing the Laravel framework, is a PHP-based CMS known for its simplicity and flexibility. The CMS combines Laravel’s robustness with ease of customization, featuring a user-friendly interface, customizable design, and modular structure. 

Moreover, it offers visual page-building tools, supports multilingual content, and is scalable with various plugins. Available in 36 languages, OctoberCMS is a versatile and adaptable CMS choice.

Key features

• Modular Structure for Easy Customization: OctoberCMS uses a modular design, letting you easily modify and expand your website’s features. You can add or change functionalities using plugins and themes. 

This flexibility means you can personalize your site without starting from scratch, saving time and effort while tailoring it to your needs.

• Laravel Framework Foundation: Built on the robust Laravel framework, OctoberCMS benefits from a strong, reliable PHP foundation. This framework offers tools and pre-built elements that simplify website development. 

It ensures your website is secure, efficient, and maintains high performance, thanks to the solid groundwork provided by Laravel.

• Simplified Content Management: With OctoberCMS, managing your website’s content becomes a breeze. Its user-friendly interface empowers non-technical users to edit and update content effortlessly. 

The built-in visual editor lets you make changes without delving into complex code, ensuring smooth content management for everyone involved.

• Multilingual Support for Diverse Audiences: OctoberCMS enables creating of websites in multiple languages, allowing you to reach diverse audiences worldwide. 

Whether catering to different regions or languages, this feature ensures your content is accessible and relevant to a global audience, helping you expand your reach and connect with various communities seamlessly.

Pros

• Free and open-source CMS.
• Flexible for scaling the CMS.
• Offers a wide variety of themes and plugins.

Cons

• Requires developer input for customization.
• Smaller user base compared to WordPress and other CMS.

OpenCart

Overview

OpenCart, a PHP-based eCommerce platform, is designed for creating online stores. As an open-source system, it allows for easy customization by PHP developers. Its user-friendly interface facilitates easy navigation, and it supports multiple languages and unlimited product categories, making it suitable for large inventories. 

OpenCart offers over 20 payment methods and a wide range of extensions, aiding in business growth. Popular among many websites, it has a large community and provides opportunities for developers to build feature-rich eCommerce platforms.

Key features

• Administrator Dashboard for Comprehensive Insights: OpenCart’s dashboard offers a holistic view of essential data, including total orders, sales figures, customer details, online users, and sales analytics through widgets. 

This centralized display enables administrators to swiftly grasp critical information, aiding in effective decision-making and oversight of the online store’s performance. PHP is crucial in processing these statistics, enabling real-time data presentation and analysis.

• Expansive Marketplace for Extensions and Themes: The OpenCart marketplace, with over 13,000 extensions and themes, offers developers and businesses various add-ons and design options. 

It simplifies selling modules and themes with low bureaucracy and competitive commission rates, encouraging innovation in the OpenCart community. The platform’s PHP framework ensures easy integration of these extensions, boosting functionality and customization.

• MVC-L Architecture for Structured Development: OpenCart employs the MVC-L (Model-View-Controller-Language) framework. This software architectural pattern aids developers in organizing and extending the platform. 

This structured approach enhances code maintainability and allows for the inclusion of a language entity, facilitating multilingual support and efficient development.

• API for Seamless Integration: Featuring an API, OpenCart enables seamless communication between third-party applications and the online store. 

This functionality enhances integration capabilities, allowing external systems or software to interact efficiently with the store, fostering a more connected and versatile eCommerce environment.

Pros

• Simple and quick setup process.
• Numerous free themes are available.
• Wide selection of modules and extensions.
• Simplifies site setup across various managers.

Cons

• Requires technical expertise for customization.
• Limited SEO optimization.
• Performance slowdowns during high web traffic.
• Lack of an event system within modules for user task setup.

PyroCMS

Overview

PyroCMS, built on Laravel, offers a user-friendly CMS for both developers and content creators. Its modular structure enables easy customization, and the intuitive interface simplifies content management. 

Supporting multiple content types and languages, it focuses on SEO and user management. The CMS is adaptable for various projects, from simple websites to complex apps, benefiting from Laravel’s robust capabilities.

Key features

• Files Module: The Files Module in PyroCMS seamlessly manages assets using Laravel’s Filesystem integration. It offers a user-friendly interface to handle assets stored anywhere through Storage Extensions. 

Additionally, it automates image optimization, utilizing PHP functionalities to manipulate and enhance image outputs, ensuring efficient file management within the CMS.

• Pages Module: PyroCMS’s Pages Module simplifies page management and navigation using various content types supported by streams. With flexible page types, users can structure content as desired and generate navigation effortlessly. 

Leveraging the Twig templating system (a PHP-based template engine) allows powerful layouts and customizable response handling for an intuitive page-building experience.

• Users Module: The Users Module provides robust user and authorization management. It streamlines user, role, and permission handling with an approach that conceals features from unauthorized users. 

With PHP-powered customization, users benefit from adjustable profiles, simplified permission control, multi-role assignment, and adaptable registration processes.

• Variables Module: PyroCMS’ Variables Module utilizes Streams to manage content variables efficiently. Employing variable groups for organized content management, it offers versatile content creation using various field types. 

It is a powerful tool for handling different content variables within the CMS.

Pros

• Adaptable for diverse projects due to its versatility as a PHP CMS.
• Seamlessly integrates with third-party APIs and applications.
• Simple installation process and user-friendly interface.

Cons

• Limited community support because of a small user base.
• Less extensive and updated extension marketplace.

Drupal

Overview

Drupal, an open-source PHP CMS, enables the management of diverse websites and applications. Its flexibility suits everything from personal blogs to enterprise applications. Offering extensive customization and scalability, Drupal has a strong developer community and modules for enhanced functionality. 

Used by major sites like The White House, NASA, and Tesla Motors, Drupal excels in content authoring, performance, and security. As a GPL-licensed open-source project, it fosters collaboration and innovation, maintaining its commitment to being free.

Key features

• Performance and Scaling: Drupal, powered by PHP, handles heavy traffic sites like the GRAMMY Awards and Pfizer. Slow load times impact revenue, but Drupal’s performance features and modern CDN deliver fast and consistent experiences. 

It ensures uptime without server failures, runs daily performance checks, and scales across server clusters to meet demand effectively.

• Multilingual Capabilities: Drupal’s PHP-driven automated translation reaches diverse audiences seamlessly. Core modules enable complete site translation, from content types to menus, supporting languages like Arabic and Hebrew. 

This widens audiences, enhances SEO, and boosts conversions by providing content in users’ preferred languages.

• Security Measures: Drupal is renowned for robust security within PHP CMS. It’s among the most secure platforms, with over a million developers and a dedicated security team. 

It’s strict coding standards and community reviews prevent vulnerabilities. Banking and governments choose Drupal for its security, ensuring user access control, encryption, and mitigation of threats like DoS attacks.

• Personalization Tools: Drupal leverages PHP for sophisticated personalization, creating unique visitor profiles from geolocation and behavior data. This allows targeted content delivery, reducing user search time and increasing conversions. 

It offers customized experiences, visitor segmentation across devices, and A/B testing, enabling targeted marketing to boost ROI effectively.

Pros

• The platform offers extensive expandability.
• Regular patches and updates bolster platform security.
• Well-suited for eCommerce ventures.
• Ideal PHP CMS for high-traffic websites.

Cons

• Complex for non-developers to grasp.
• Not suitable for blogs or publications.
• Custom module installation is challenging.

ExpressionEngine

Overview

ExpressionEngine, a powerful PHP-based CMS, is well-suited for managing large-scale website content. Its adaptable architecture supports customization through scripts for additional features. New content added in ExpressionEngine is immediately visible to users. 

The platform excels in creating pages by dynamically formatting database content for optimal display on various devices. Its capability to handle vast content volumes efficiently, coupled with its adaptability and dynamic content presentation, highlights its strength.

Key features

• Your Own Code with ExpressionEngine Tags: ExpressionEngine utilizes templates for web pages, where users can incorporate various elements like HTML, JavaScript, and PHP alongside ExpressionEngine Tags. 

These user-friendly tags empower users to create dynamic and engaging web experiences effortlessly. With these tags, users can infuse their code into templates, enabling the creation of personalized and interactive web content.

• Effortless Member Management: ExpressionEngine boasts exceptional member management capabilities, facilitating the seamless handling of various user types.

This feature allows users to build exceptional user experiences by efficiently managing user profiles and their interactions within the system.

• Centralized Control for Multiple Sites: Users can efficiently oversee multiple websites through a single ExpressionEngine installation. Each website can have its distinct identity or share elements like design, content, and user profiles across the platforms. 

This centralized control empowers users to manage multiple sites conveniently, streamlining tasks and enhancing consistency.

• Expandability through Add-Ons: ExpressionEngine benefits from a thriving developer community that produces add-ons to extend the system’s capabilities. These add-ons provide solutions for diverse needs, ensuring users can find tools and enhancements for various tasks. 

With a wide array of add-ons available, users can extend ExpressionEngine’s functionalities to cater to specific requirements, enhancing the system’s versatility and adaptability.

Pros

• Customizable edit forms for easy navigation and data input.
• Template system independent of HTML structures.
• Preview the window to check changes before saving.
• Integrated SEO tools for content enhancement.
• Strong security features.

Cons

• Limited expansion of content boxes in specific templates affecting navigation and editing.
• Inadequate support from developer networks.
• Fewer available third-party add-ons and plugins.

Magento

Overview

Magento, a leading PHP CMS, is designed for advanced eCommerce, used by top brands like Ford, Nike, and Foxconnect. It specializes in creating dynamic online shopping experiences and is known for robust security, with advanced password protection and strong defenses against attacks. 

Especially, an active developer community continually improves Magento with updates and patches. Magento 2, with significant enhancements, reaffirms its position as a premier CMS for online retail.

Key features

• Flexible Content Management: Magento, a PHP-based CMS, offers a flexible content management system, allowing users to update and customize their website content easily. 

With a user-friendly interface, managing pages, products, and categories becomes straightforward, empowering even those with limited technical skills to control their online presence efficiently.

• Robust E-commerce Capabilities: Magento excels in e-commerce functionalities, providing PHP developers with a powerful platform to create and manage online stores. 

Its robust features include secure payment gateways, customizable product catalogs, and seamless order processing, making it an ideal choice for businesses seeking a reliable e-commerce solution.

• Scalability and Performance: A key advantage of Magento as a PHP CMS is its scalability. The platform can handle growing businesses by efficiently managing increased traffic and expanding product catalogs. 

Leveraging PHP’s performance capabilities, Magento ensures a smooth and responsive user experience, even as the website grows in complexity and size.

• Open Source Architecture: Magento, an open-source PHP-based platform, lets developers access and modify its source code for tailored customization. This openness encourages a dynamic community of developers to contribute to its continuous improvement. 

Using PHP makes the codebase more accessible and modifiable, suiting a wide range of business needs.

Pros

• Feature-rich platform for modern eCommerce.
• High accessibility for users.
• Active community development of plugins and extensions.
• Scalable to accommodate large applications.

Cons

• Premium and enterprise versions are expensive.
• Slightly slower loading times compared to other platforms.
• Exclusive compatibility with dedicated hosting.
• Product support comes with a high price tag.

WordPress

Overview

Founded in 2003, WordPress has grown from a simple blogging platform to a widely used PHP-based CMS for various websites. Known for its user-friendly interface, it allows easy content creation and customization with themes and plugins. WordPress supports multiple content types and includes features for editing, scheduling, and SEO. 

Its large community contributes many themes and plugins, making it scalable for both personal and enterprise use. Using PHP and a MySQL database, WordPress leads the CMS market, available in over 68 languages and used by numerous government websites globally.

Key features

• Plugin Architecture: WordPress boasts a robust plugin architecture, offering many extensions that enhance its functionality. PHP developers can create plugins to add features, improve performance, or customize aspects of a WordPress site. 

The plugin system ensures modularity, allowing users to select and activate only the required functionalities. This flexibility contributes to the scalability and adaptability of WordPress-powered websites.

• Dynamic Content Management: WordPress, a PHP-based platform, is adept at handling dynamic content. Its database-driven structure simplifies updating and organizing posts, pages, and media. 

This capability ensures WordPress websites can scale effectively with growing content, maintaining performance and responsiveness, making it a flexible solution for various website and content types.

• Database Interaction with PHP: WordPress utilizes PHP to interact with a MySQL or MariaDB database, storing and retrieving content, settings, and user data. This dynamic interaction is essential for managing and serving dynamic content on websites. 

PHP’s seamless integration with MySQL in the WordPress environment ensures efficient data handling, contributing to the platform’s scalability and performance.

• Action Hooks and Filters: WordPress, built on PHP, employs action hooks and filters that enable developers to extend and modify core functionalities. Action hooks allow users to execute custom PHP code at specific points in the execution process. 

At the same time, filters provide a way to manipulate data before it is displayed. This PHP-centric feature empowers developers to fine-tune and expand WordPress functionalities without altering the core codebase.

Pros

• WordPress is an open-source and free CMS.
• Explore the extensive plugin and theme directories.
• Rely on a highly secure platform.
• Leverage integrated SEO features.
• Be part of a vast and supportive community.

Cons

• Some themes and plugins might entail extra costs for advanced features.
• The open-source aspect poses a potential vulnerability to hackers.
• Achieving customization necessitates a profound understanding.

Joomla

Overview

Joomla, a powerful PHP CMS, is well-suited for creating influential blogs and dynamic websites, especially portfolios. Despite being less well-known than WordPress, it offers easy integration with SQL databases and one-click hosting for effortless responsive website creation. 

Its variety of designs and extensions add extra features to web apps. Used by major companies like eBay and IKEA, Joomla runs over 2 million sites, making up 6% of all websites. As a top CMS, supporting over 64 languages with free plugins and themes, Joomla stands out in the PHP CMS landscape.

Key features

• Diverse Designs and Extensions: Joomla’s variety of designs and extensions, compatible with its PHP CMS, offer users easy enhancement of their websites. 

These tools provide the flexibility to customize web applications for specific needs, from adding new functionalities to improving aesthetics. This rich ecosystem of designs and extensions makes Joomla a user-friendly and versatile platform for diverse online projects.

• One-Click Hosting Integration: Joomla streamlines the integration of websites with hosting providers through a convenient one-click process. This user-friendly feature simplifies the often complex task of linking a website to its hosting platform. 

By eliminating technical barriers, Joomla ensures that users can quickly and effortlessly connect their websites to hosting services, making the process more accessible for individuals and businesses without extensive technical expertise.

Pros

• Intuitive UI for a user-friendly experience.
• Highly adaptable front-end for versatile design options.
• Regular security updates ensure website safety.
• Ideal for blogs and dynamic web applications.

Cons

• Non-developers may find adding custom designs challenging.
• Limited availability of modules for purchase.
• Some plugins may need modification for full compatibility.

Craft CMS

Overview

Craft CMS is a newer PHP-based content management system designed with developers in mind. While its user base may be smaller, it caters to developers with ease of use. Craft allows users to craft their front ends, although proficiency in HTML and CSS is necessary. 

For developers, it offers a straightforward backend, facilitating content editors in quickly locating desired features and publishing content regularly. Although it may be less user-friendly for non-developers, Craft CMS stands out as a promising platform, prioritizing flexibility and simplicity in content management for those with coding expertise.

Key features

• Unified Relationship System: Craft CMS simplifies content management through its unified relationship system. Whether dealing with entries, categories, tags, assets, users, or plugin-supplied element types, the consistent experience benefits content authors and template designers. 

Craft’s core relationship system ensures seamless interactions, making it easy for users to build and manage powerful relationships between various elements within the PHP CMS environment.

• Efficient Multi-Site Management: Craft enables users to run multiple sites from a single install, streamlining content management for diverse locales or separate websites under the same parent company. 

Users can easily add and configure additional sites, defining site-specific section settings such as URL formats and template choices. Organizing sites into groups enhances overall efficiency, allowing users to conveniently manage and order multiple sites within the Craft CMS Control Panel.

• Built-in Localization Support: Craft CMS has localization capabilities, allowing for easy content management across different languages and territories. Users can define content using custom fields, creating a centralized system for targeted translations or variations. 

The CMS further simplifies localization by organizing these fields into groups applicable to sections, users, assets, and tags, enhancing its flexibility within the PHP CMS framework.

Pros

• Lightweight for efficient performance.
• Includes commercial features for advanced functionalities.
• Developer-centric design for ease of customization.
• Highly functional with robust capabilities.

Cons

• Higher cost compared to some alternatives.
• Geared more towards advanced users and developers.
• Limited availability of plugins compared to other CMS options.
• It is not open-source, limiting community-driven contributions.

TYPO3

Overview

TYPO3 stands out as a top-tier PHP CMS, catering to various operating systems like Windows, Linux, macOS, FreeBSD, and OS/2. Ideal for large companies’ portals and eCommerce platforms, TYPO3 benefits from a robust community for ongoing support. Its unique feature separates content and code, providing users with exceptional flexibility. 

Supporting over 50 languages and integrated localization, TYPO3 seamlessly adapts to users worldwide. The installation process is straightforward, requiring just a few simple steps. 

Key features

• Content and Code Separation: TYPO3 distinguishes itself by separating content and code, offering users exceptional flexibility. This approach streamlines content management and customization, making it easier for developers and content creators to collaborate without interference.

• Cross-Platform Compatibility: TYPO3, a robust PHP CMS, operates seamlessly on various operating systems, including Windows, Linux, macOS, FreeBSD, and OS/2. This cross-platform compatibility ensures users can deploy TYPO3 in their preferred environment, enhancing flexibility and accessibility.

• Efficient Installation Process: TYPO3 boasts a user-friendly installation process that can be completed in just a few steps. This simplicity contributes to a quick and hassle-free setup, making TYPO3 an accessible option for users, regardless of their technical expertise. 

The straightforward installation enhances the overall user experience and reduces barriers to entry for new users.

Pros

• A sizeable community for ongoing support.
• Flexibility with a wide range of functions.
• Suited for enterprise-level applications.

Cons

• Hard to configure, requiring advanced skills.
• Difficulty finding entry-level training resources.

What should you consider when choosing a PHP CMS website?

User-Friendliness

• Prioritize an intuitive CMS with a user-friendly interface.
• Ensure easy placing of audio, text, pictures, and videos on web pages.
• Look for self-explanatory tools for efficient content management.

Design Templates

• Choose a PHP CMS with a variety of design templates.
• Opt for platforms offering pre-made templates and customization options without coding skills.

Data Portability

• Select a CMS with tools for easy data migration in the future.
• Consider future hosting changes and ensure smooth data transition.

Optional Extras

• Explore add-ons and extensions for a personalized website experience.
• Adapt the CMS to diverse budgets and goals with additional features.

User Support

• Look for CMS platforms with large user communities for community support.
• Consider providers offering dedicated forums and 24/7 support services for technical assistance.

Costs

• Evaluate both free and paid CMS platforms.
• Consider additional expenses for templates, add-ons, and hosting services.
• Acknowledge the cost-effectiveness of CMS platforms for beginners launching websites.

FAQs

Bottom line

These top 10 PHP website builders and website CMS will provide you with reliable options for building your online website effectively. When selecting a PHP website CMS, prioritize user-friendly interfaces, diverse design templates, and data portability tools.