October CMS review 2026: Laravel-based CMS features, Single and Unlimited license pricing, pros, cons, and how it compares to WordPress and Craft CMS.
October CMS is an open-source content management system built on the Laravel PHP framework, combining Laravel's routing, templating, and database tooling with a content-editing interface aimed at both developers and their non-technical clients. It was founded in 2014 by Alexey Bobkov and Sam Georges and has grown into one of the most established Laravel-based CMS platforms.
Unlike general-purpose CMSs such as WordPress, October CMS is built developer-first: sites are assembled from themes and plugins distributed through October's official Marketplace, and developers work directly with familiar Laravel conventions like migrations, Eloquent models, and Composer packages rather than a proprietary plugin system.
October CMS provides a theming engine for building front-end templates and pages, and a plugin architecture for extending backend functionality, both of which are distributed and discovered through October's official Marketplace. The backend administration panel gives non-technical content editors a familiar CMS editing experience while developers retain full control over the underlying Laravel codebase.
Because it is built on Laravel, October CMS inherits Laravel's routing, ORM (Eloquent), queueing, and testing tools, letting developers extend a site with standard Laravel packages alongside October-specific plugins. The platform supports multisite functionality, a drag-and-drop page builder, and a form-and-list-based backend builder for creating custom admin interfaces without hand-coding every screen.
Every new October CMS account starts with a complimentary one-year license, giving full access to system updates and the Marketplace at no upfront cost while a developer builds and evaluates a project. After the first year, continued updates require a paid license.
The Single License costs $39/year and suits freelance developers or Marketplace plugin authors working on one site at a time, while the Unlimited License is a subscription priced at $312/year when billed annually (or $360/year billed monthly) for agencies and organizations managing many sites, which also unlocks access to October's Partner Program. Development, staging, and test environments of a single website can share one license, and the core platform code remains open source regardless of license tier.
October CMS includes a complimentary one-year license with every new account; after that, continued updates require either a $39/year Single License or an Unlimited License subscription starting at $312/year, though the core code remains open source.
October CMS was founded in 2014 by Alexey Bobkov and Sam Georges.
October CMS is built on top of the Laravel PHP framework, using Laravel's routing, ORM, and package ecosystem.
The Single License ($39/year) covers one website and suits freelance developers, while the Unlimited License subscription ($312/year billed annually) covers unlimited websites for agencies and organizations, and also grants access to the Partner Program.
Building and extending an October CMS site generally requires PHP and Laravel knowledge, though the backend content-editing interface is designed to be usable by non-technical editors once a site is built.
October CMS targets developers with a Laravel-based, code-first workflow and a smaller marketplace, while WordPress is easier for non-developers and has a much larger plugin and theme ecosystem.
Yes, October CMS is open source and self-hostable on any server that supports PHP and Laravel's requirements, regardless of license tier.