Laravel is a free, open-source PHP framework for building web applications. It's popular because it simplifies common development tasks like routing, database queries, and authentication and provides a solid structure.

Now, Laravel already handles databases really well. You've got Eloquent, migrations, seeders: the whole package. So why would you even need a CMS?

Well, here's the thing: if your project involves managing content like blog posts, landing pages, team bios, product descriptions, or anything that's going to be updated by someone who isn't a developer, a CMS saves you from reinventing the wheel. It gives non-technical folks a UI to create, edit, and publish content without touching your codebase or database directly.

Laravel doesn't come with a built-in CMS, which is great for flexibility but also means you're left to choose one on your own.

You have two routes: a Laravel headless CMS that serves content over an API, or a Laravel-based CMS that runs inside the framework. We cover seven options across both, Hygraph and Strapi on the headless side, then Statamic, Filament, Twill, October CMS and Winter CMS. Picking the route first narrows the list fast.

#Headless CMS or Laravel-based CMS?

A headless CMS manages content and delivers it through an API, with no frontend of its own. Your Laravel app, a mobile app or a storefront fetches content over HTTP and renders it however you like. Our headless CMS guide has the full picture.

Headless works well when:

• Content reaches more than one channel, such as a website, an app and an eCommerce frontend.
• Editors work in their own interface, separate from your deployments.
• You'd rather not host and patch the CMS yourself.
• Content comes from several systems and you want one API in front of it.

A Laravel-based CMS is built on the framework. Content lives in your database or files, pages render with Blade or the CMS's own templating, and everything deploys together.

Laravel-based works well when:

• You're building one website and want a single stack.
• Your team thinks in PHP and Blade and wants to extend the CMS like any Laravel code.
• Self-hosting is a requirement.

A quick rule of thumb:

• Headless: content serves several channels, markets or languages, or editors and developers work at different speeds.
• Laravel-based: the CMS and the site are one project and will stay that way.
• A package like Filament or Twill: you want to build your own admin and own every line of it.

#Laravel CMS comparison table

Prices are as of October 2026, from each vendor's pricing page. Plans change, so check before you commit.

#Laravel headless CMS options

1. Hygraph: best for multi-channel content at scale

Hygraph is a GraphQL-native headless CMS built for teams that need to scale content across platforms, regions, and languages. It's ideal for Laravel developers who want precise control over how they fetch content and structure their frontend, without being tied to a traditional monolithic CMS.

Laravel keeps the business logic, and Hygraph handles the content for every channel. As a fully managed SaaS, it leaves you no CMS server to host or patch.

Your Laravel app talks to Hygraph's Content API over HTTP, so Laravel's HTTP client (or Guzzle, which it's built on) is all you need:

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Http;

$response = Http::withToken(config('services.hygraph.token'))
    ->post(config('services.hygraph.endpoint'), [
        'query' => '{ posts { title slug } }',
    ]);

$posts = $response->json('data.posts');

Key features of Hygraph:

• GraphQL-native content API: Hygraph lets you query only the data you need. This keeps things lean and efficient, especially when you're dealing with large-scale content across different platforms.

• Flexible content modeling: Build your schema with relations, components, and field types.

• Content federation via remote sources: Hygraph can pull in and unify content from external APIs, databases, or services so you don't need to build custom glue code or ETL (extract, transform, load) pipelines. With content federation, your Laravel app makes one GraphQL call even when product data lives elsewhere.

• Localization: Manage locales and markets from one project with built-in localization.

• Environments, roles and permissions: Test schema changes in a separate environment, and control who can see or edit what with role-based access, down to individual models or fields.

• Live preview: Editors see changes in context with live preview before they publish.

• AI Agents and MCP server: AI Agents handle repetitive work like translation and summaries, and editors review every change before it goes live. The Hygraph MCP server uses the Model Context Protocol, an open standard for linking AI assistants to tools, and connects assistants like Claude or Cursor to your project, with delete and unpublish blocked through MCP.

Best for:

Laravel projects that publish to more than a website: marketing sites, eCommerce platforms, multilingual apps, and teams with complex setups across several markets. It also fits teams where developers build with Laravel and GraphQL while editors manage content in Hygraph's UI.

Pricing (as of October 2026): The free Hobby plan includes 3 seats, 2 locales, 1,000 entries and 500,000 API calls a month. Growth is $199 a month with 10 seats and 3 locales. Enterprise is custom. Full details are on the pricing page.

2. Strapi: best for self-hosted Node.js headless setups

Strapi is an open-source headless CMS that makes it easy for developers to build customizable APIs and content systems that plug into any frontend. Built in Node.js, it's framework-agnostic and plays well with tools like Laravel, even though it's not PHP-based itself. Strapi 5 is the current major version, and your Laravel app calls it with standard HTTP clients.

Key features of Strapi:

• Content-Type Builder with Dynamic Zones: Build content models in a no-code interface, and use Dynamic Zones so editors can arrange sections without breaking layouts.

• Customizable APIs: Strapi generates REST and GraphQL endpoints for each content type, and you can extend the logic in code.

• Authentication and RBAC: Built-in user management and role-based access control for editing and API access.

• Self-hosted or fully managed: Run Strapi on your own infrastructure or opt for Strapi Cloud. It supports PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, and SQLite.

Best for:

Teams that want full control over their CMS and API structure and are happy to run a Node.js service beside their Laravel app. For a side-by-side view, read Hygraph vs Strapi.

Pricing (as of October 2026): The self-hosted Community edition is free. Growth is $45 a month for 3 seats, plus $15 a month for each extra seat, and Enterprise is custom. Strapi Cloud starts at $35 a month per project (Strapi pricing).

#Laravel-based CMS options

3. Statamic: best for flat-file, Git-friendly sites

Statamic is a modern CMS built on Laravel that skips the traditional database in favor of a flat-file setup. This makes it faster and easier to version control, making it a great fit for developers who want more control over their project's structure.

Statamic 6, released in February 2026, brought a redesigned control panel and supports Laravel 12 and 13.

Key features of Statamic:

• Flat-file by default, database when needed: Statamic stores your content as Markdown and YAML files, which makes it Git-friendly, portable, and fast. You can move to a database when the project needs one.

• Customizable control panel: With Blueprints and fieldsets, you can structure your content exactly how you want.

• Live preview and block-based editing: Editors preview changes in real time and use Bard, Statamic's block-based editor, to build flexible page layouts.

• Multisite, multilingual, and headless-ready: Pro adds multiple sites and languages, revisions and drafts, plus REST and GraphQL APIs.

Best for:

Laravel developers who want deep stack integration and no database unless the project calls for one. Marketing sites, documentation hubs and blogs are a natural fit.

Pricing (as of October 2026): Statamic Core is free. Pro costs $349 per site with one year of updates, then $99 a year for updates. Pro is free to use while in development, and Enterprise pricing is on request.

4. Filament: best for building a custom Laravel admin

Filament is an open-source admin panel framework for Laravel, built with Livewire, Alpine.js and Tailwind CSS. Out of the box it's an admin toolkit, and many teams use it as the base for a CMS because it gives you forms, tables and resources on top of your own Eloquent models.

You install it as a Composer package into a Laravel app. Filament 5, released in January 2026, needs PHP 8.2 or newer and Laravel 11.28 or newer.

Key features of Filament:

• Resources from your models: Generate admin screens for any Eloquent model, then shape forms and tables with a PHP API.

• Form and table builders: Rich field types, filters, actions and validation, all written in PHP.

• Plugin ecosystem: Community plugins add page builders, media managers and SEO fields, while content stays in your own database tables.

Best for:

Teams that want a content admin tailored to their app and are happy to build the content model themselves, especially when content sits beside orders, users or other app data.

Pricing (as of October 2026): Free under the MIT license.

5. Twill: best for agency-built editorial sites

Twill is an open-source CMS toolkit for Laravel, created by the agency AREA 17. It gives you the building blocks of a CMS, including a block editor, media library and publishing workflow, and you assemble them into an admin that fits each project. The current major version is Twill 3.

Key features of Twill:

• Block editor: Build pages from reusable blocks, with nested blocks, repeaters and previews.

• Media and file library: Upload to local storage, S3 or Azure Blob Storage, with image rendering through Glide, Imgix or TwicPics.

• Modules, revisions and permissions: Model content as modules and singletons, with revision history and advanced user permissions.

Best for:

Agencies and teams that build editorial or marketing sites in Laravel and want a polished editing experience without starting from zero. Rendering stays in your Laravel app, usually with Blade.

Pricing (as of October 2026): Free. The software uses the Apache 2.0 license and the UI uses CC BY 4.0, so apps with the Twill UI must show "Made with Twill" in the admin footer, linked to twillcms.com.

6. October CMS: best for plugin-driven client websites

October CMS is a Laravel-based, self-hosted CMS designed to give developers full control without overwhelming them or their clients. Because it's tightly integrated with Laravel, October CMS feels familiar to anyone used to the framework. You can reuse code, build custom plugins, and create complex business logic. October CMS 4 runs on Laravel 12, and version 4.2 added opt-in support for Laravel 13.

Key features of October CMS:

• Built on Laravel: Routes, controllers, models and everything in between work the way you already know.

• Component-based architecture: Break your frontend into reusable components and drop them into any page.

• Clean backend for editors: The admin area is simple and uncluttered, which keeps onboarding easy for non-technical users.

• Plugin and theme Marketplace: Extend the CMS with plugins and themes, from SEO tools to eCommerce.

Best for:

Agencies that build Laravel-based client sites and like pulling features from a marketplace: small business websites, client portals and custom web apps.

Pricing (as of October 2026): Every new account gets one free license with a year of updates. A Single License is $39 with a year of updates, and updates cost $39 a year after that. Agencies can get unlimited licenses for $26 a month, billed annually. Licenses are perpetual, so a site keeps running if you stop renewing (October pricing).

7. Winter CMS: best for a free, community-run October alternative

Winter CMS is a free, open-source content management system built on Laravel. It was forked from October CMS and is maintained by a community of developers and agencies focused on open collaboration and long-term reliability.

Winter offers a developer-first experience without sacrificing usability for clients. The current 1.2 release line is built on Laravel 9, so check that it matches the Laravel version your project needs.

Key features of Winter CMS:

• Laravel underneath: Use Laravel's routing, models, migrations, and more, and extend the CMS as you would any Laravel app.

• Plugin and theme system: Start with a lean core, then extend the backend or spin up entire app modules.

• Focus on stability: The maintainers take backwards compatibility seriously.

Best for:

Teams who like the October CMS way of working and want a fully open fork with no license fees.

Pricing (as of October 2026): Winter CMS is open source under the MIT license, with no paid plans.

#How to choose a CMS for your Laravel project

Start with where your content needs to go, then match the tool to your team:

• Many channels, languages or markets, with a separate editor team: Hygraph. One GraphQL API serves every frontend, federation brings in data from other systems, and editors work on their own schedule.
• A Node.js headless CMS you host yourself: Strapi.
• A single site in one Laravel stack: Statamic, October CMS or Winter CMS.
• A custom admin you build and own: Filament or Twill.

Unsure? Ask whether the content will ever live outside this one Laravel site. If it will, a headless CMS saves you a migration later.

#Final thoughts

Choosing the right CMS for your Laravel project depends on what you're building and who you're building it for.

Laravel-based tools are a great match when the CMS and the website are one project. Once content has to reach several channels, markets or teams, a Laravel headless CMS gives you room to grow, and Hygraph lets Laravel stay focused on business logic while it handles the content.

Want to see how it all fits together? Check out how to integrate Hygraph with Laravel.