Contao is a free, open-source PHP CMS for accessible, secure websites. Learn about its history, features, self-hosting requirements, and community support.
Contao is a free, open-source content management system written in PHP. It first appeared in 2006 as TYPOLight and was renamed Contao in 2010. Since version 4 (2015), it has been built on the Symfony framework and is licensed under LGPL-3.0, so it can be downloaded, self-hosted, and modified at no cost.
Development is coordinated by a community of core contributors, the nonprofit Contao Association, and partner agencies such as terminal42 gmbh in Lyss, Switzerland, which has maintained Contao extensions and the official Contao Manager for more than a decade.
Contao provides a full CMS toolset: page and content-element management, a newsletter module, form building, a calendar/event module, and multi-language site support. Accessibility has been a core design priority since the project's early years, and Contao is widely used by organizations that need WCAG-conformant public-facing sites.
Because it runs on Symfony, Contao supports Composer-based extension installation via Packagist and integrates with modern PHP development workflows, giving it a large third-party extension ecosystem.
Contao itself is free open-source software with no license fee. Costs instead come from self-hosting (server and database infrastructure), optional Contao Association membership, premium extensions sold on the Contao extension marketplace, and implementation or support services from certified Contao partner agencies.
Yes. Contao is free, open-source software licensed under LGPL-3.0; costs come from hosting, optional extensions, and any paid implementation support.
Contao was originally released in 2006 as TYPOLight and renamed Contao in 2010.
Contao requires PHP and a MySQL or MariaDB database, and since version 4 has been built on the Symfony framework.
Contao is maintained by a community of core developers, the nonprofit Contao Association, and contributing agencies such as terminal42 gmbh.
Yes, self-hosting on a VPS, dedicated server, or partner-agency hosting is the standard deployment model.
Yes, multi-language site management is a built-in feature.