Bolt CMS is a free, self-hosted, open-source PHP CMS built on Symfony and Twig. Use it as a traditional or headless content management system.
Bolt CMS is an open-source, self-hosted content management system written in PHP. It was created in 2012 by Bob den Otter, a Dutch developer based in The Hague, as a lightweight alternative to larger CMS platforms, and is built on Symfony components, Doctrine, and the Twig templating engine.
Bolt can run as a traditional server-rendered CMS or as a headless CMS via API-Platform, and it supports SQLite, MySQL, or PostgreSQL as its database backend. The project is MIT licensed, with no cost to download, install, or run.
Bolt offers a content editor available in around 15 languages, an extension system built on Composer packages, and support for custom code to adapt the CMS to specific project needs. Its headless mode exposes content through an API for use with any frontend framework.
Because it is self-hosted, teams control their own server environment, data, and hosting costs. The current supported release line is Bolt 6.x; older Bolt 3.x/4.x releases are considered legacy.
Bolt CMS is free and open source under the MIT license. There are no paid tiers, subscriptions, or per-seat fees for the software itself; the only costs are self-managed hosting and any paid third-party extensions a team chooses to add.
Support is community-driven through documentation and the project's GitHub/Codeberg repositories rather than a commercial support contract, since Bolt has no official enterprise pricing plan.
Yes, Bolt CMS is fully open source under the MIT license with no licensing cost.
Yes, Bolt supports a headless/decoupled mode via API-Platform in addition to traditional server-rendered output.
Bolt is built in PHP on Symfony components, Doctrine, and Twig, and supports SQLite, MySQL, or PostgreSQL.
Following founder Bob den Otter's death in January 2024, the Dutch agency Ontwerpwerk acquired steward agency Two Kings to continue the project alongside community contributors.
Yes, Bolt is self-hosted; there is no official managed cloud version, so you install it on your own server or hosting provider.