# Winter CMS

Open-source PHP content management system built on the Laravel framework, forked from October CMS.


Source: https://findsoftware.frbit.cloud/winter-cms/
Last reviewed: 2026-10-18
Updated: 2026-10-25
Listed since: 2026-10-18

## Record

### Links

- home: https://wintercms.com
- repository: https://github.com/wintercms/winter
- docs: https://wintercms.com/docs
- plugins: https://wintercms.com/marketplace (in development, no listings)
- x: https://twitter.com/usewintercms
- discord: https://discord.gg/D5MFSPH6Ux
- forum: https://github.com/wintercms/winter/discussions

### Identity

- status: active
- maintainer: Frostbyte Foundation (organizational backing), led by Luke Towers
- maintainerType: foundation
- parent: unknown
- firstRelease: unknown
- hqCountry: unknown

### Kind

- category: cms
- hosting: php
- language: php
- runtime: php
- runtimeMin: php 8.1
- basedOn: laravel

### Content

- contentStore: database
- databases: mariadb, mysql, postgres, sqlite, sqlserver
- adminUi: yes
- headlessApi: unknown
- templating: twig
- i18n: via official Winter.Translate plugin

### Rendering and deploy

- runsAs: per-request
- renderingModes: unknown
- installMethod: composer create-project wintercms/winter, web installer, softaculous, docker

### License

- licenseModel: open-source
- license: MIT

### Releases

- currentMajor: 1
- latestReleaseDate: 2026-08-19

### Adoption

- githubStargazers: 1522
- packagistDownloads: 47293
- npmWeeklyDownloads: not applicable
- contributors: 340
- pluginCount: unknown
- packagistMonthlyDownloads: 862
- ecosystemsMonthlyDownloads: unknown
- httpArchiveSites: unknown
- wordpressActiveInstalls: unknown
- dependentRepos: unknown
- dependentPackages: unknown

### Sources

- name: https://wintercms.com (read 2026-10-18)
- urls: https://github.com/wintercms/winter (read 2026-10-18)
- urls: https://wintercms.com (read 2026-10-18)
- urls: https://wintercms.com (read 2026-10-18)
- maintainer: https://github.com/wintercms/winter (read 2026-10-18)
- maintainerType: https://wintercms.com (read 2026-10-18)
- category: https://github.com/wintercms/winter (read 2026-10-18)
- basedOn: https://github.com/wintercms/winter (read 2026-10-18)
- language: https://github.com/wintercms/winter (read 2026-10-18)
- runtime: https://wintercms.com/docs/v1.2/docs/setup/installation (read 2026-10-18)
- runtimeMin: https://wintercms.com/docs/v1.2/docs/setup/installation (read 2026-10-18)
- runtimeMin: https://repo.packagist.org/p2/wintercms/winter.json (read 2026-10-18)
- contentStore: https://wintercms.com/docs/v1.2/docs/cms/themes (read 2026-10-18)
- databases: https://wintercms.com/docs/v1.2/docs/setup/installation (read 2026-10-18)
- adminUi: https://github.com/wintercms/winter (read 2026-10-18)
- templating: https://wintercms.com/docs/v1.2/docs/cms/themes (read 2026-10-18)
- i18n: https://github.com/wintercms/wn-translate-plugin (read 2026-10-18)
- installMethod: https://wintercms.com/docs/v1.2/docs/setup/installation (read 2026-10-18)
- installMethod: https://wintercms.com/docs/v1.2/docs/architecture/using-composer (read 2026-10-18)
- license: https://github.com/wintercms/winter (read 2026-10-18)
- licenseModel: https://wintercms.com (read 2026-10-18)
- currentMajor: https://api.github.com/repos/wintercms/winter/releases/latest (read 2026-10-18)
- latestReleaseDate: https://api.github.com/repos/wintercms/winter/releases/latest (read 2026-10-18)
- githubStargazers: https://api.github.com/repos/wintercms/winter (read 2026-10-18)
- contributors: https://api.github.com/repos/wintercms/winter/contributors (read 2026-10-18)
- packagistDownloads: https://packagist.org/packages/wintercms/winter.json (read 2026-10-18)
- packagistDownloads: https://packagist.org/packages/winter/wn-system-module.json (read 2026-10-18)
- urls: https://wintercms.com/marketplace (read 2026-10-18)
- runsAs: https://wintercms.com/docs/setup/installation (read 2026-10-19)
- packagistMonthlyDownloads: https://packagist.org/packages/wintercms/winter/stats.json (read 2026-10-25)

## Notes

Winter CMS is a content management system written in PHP on Laravel, with the project's own Storm library underneath. It began in 2021 as a fork of October CMS. Its themes are plain files, and an optional database layer can store modified CMS files. Themes use Twig. A backend administrator account is created during installation, and multilingual sites use the official Winter.Translate plugin.

The official container image runs FrankenPHP. The Frostbyte Foundation provides organizational backing, Luke Towers leads the project, and paid support is offered by Ringer HQ, a separate company.

## Worth knowing

The official marketplace is still in development and lists no extensions; it points to a community list instead. The [installation guide](https://wintercms.com/docs/v1.2/docs/setup/installation) lists the PHP extensions the install needs.

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Data licensed CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Attributes are recorded, never scored; absent means unknown.
Credit, in full: FindSoftware, CC BY 4.0