TinaCMS is a Git-backed headless CMS with live visual editing. Compare TinaCMS pricing plans, key features and how it stacks up against other CMS tools.
TinaCMS is an open-source headless content management system designed for developers building sites with React-based frameworks such as Next.js, Gatsby and Astro. Unlike traditional headless CMS platforms that store content in a proprietary database accessed through an API, TinaCMS treats a Git repository as the source of truth, saving content as Markdown or MDX files that live alongside a project's code and are versioned through normal Git commits.
The project traces back to Forestry.io, a closed-source Git-backed CMS launched in 2016. The same team later built TinaCMS as an open-source, more flexible successor with a focus on live visual editing, releasing it publicly in October 2019. In May 2024, Australian software consultancy SSW acquired TinaCMS, taking over its ongoing development, support and commercial hosting offering, TinaCloud.
TinaCMS's central idea is inline, real-time editing: instead of editing content in a separate admin panel and then previewing the result, editors make changes directly on the rendered page and see the update instantly, while the underlying Markdown or MDX file is updated and can be committed to Git. This appeals to teams who want a comfortable content-editing experience for marketers or writers without sacrificing the developer benefits of Git-based version control.
TinaCMS's signature capability is visual, inline editing: content fields are mapped to a schema defined in code, and editors can click directly into text, images or structured fields on the live page to make changes, with edits reflected immediately in the preview. This removes the disconnect between a CMS admin form and the actual rendered output that many headless CMS tools suffer from.
Because content is stored as Markdown or MDX in the project's own Git repository, every edit becomes a Git commit, giving teams full version history, branching and pull-request based review for content changes just like code changes. This also means content can be edited locally, in a code editor, or through the TinaCMS visual interface interchangeably.
TinaCloud, the hosted commercial layer, adds real-time multi-user collaboration, an editorial workflow with draft and review states, role-based permissions, and managed authentication so non-technical teams can log in and edit without needing GitHub accounts themselves. Enterprise customers can add single sign-on and custom roles.
TinaCMS itself, the open-source editing framework, is free to self-host with no user limits imposed by the software. Most of TinaCMS's monetization comes through TinaCloud, the optional hosted backend that handles authentication, real-time collaboration and media management without requiring a team to run its own infrastructure.
TinaCloud's free tier supports up to two users per project. Paid tiers scale from the Team plan, around 24 US dollars per month or 290 US dollars per year, through Team Plus and Business tiers that raise user limits and add features like editorial workflows and API access, up to custom Enterprise pricing for organizations that need SSO, custom roles and dedicated support.
TinaCMS is an open-source, Git-backed headless CMS that lets teams edit content directly on the live rendered page while storing the underlying content as Markdown or MDX files in a GitHub repository.
The core TinaCMS editing framework is free and open source for self-hosting. TinaCloud, the optional managed hosting and collaboration layer, has a free tier for two users and paid plans starting around 24 US dollars per month.
Forestry.io was a closed-source, Git-backed CMS launched in 2016 by the same team that later built TinaCMS as an open-source, more extensible successor with live inline editing, released in 2019. Forestry.io has since been sunset in favor of TinaCMS.
Australian software consultancy SSW acquired TinaCMS in May 2024 and now maintains its development, support and TinaCloud hosting service.
Yes, TinaCMS is built primarily for React-based frameworks, with strong support for Next.js as well as Gatsby and Astro.
Content is stored as Markdown or MDX files inside the project's own Git repository, so every edit is tracked as a normal Git commit rather than stored in a separate database.
TinaCloud is TinaCMS's optional commercial hosted backend that adds authentication, real-time multi-user collaboration, editorial workflows and media management on top of the open-source editing framework.
Yes, once a developer sets up the content schema, TinaCMS's live inline editing gives non-technical editors a page-based, visual editing experience comparable to traditional CMS admin panels.