Agents build. Clients edit. Design holds.
A flat-file PHP CMS with a built-in MCP server. Build your site by hand, in your favorite web builder, or with a coding agent — your client edits only the parts you choose, and your design stays exactly as you built it. No database, no subscription, nothing leaves your server.
In the wild
Built with Total CMS
A yoga studio in Japan, a car dealership in Germany, a newspaper association in Washington — same CMS. Different countries, different industries, front ends with nothing in common, because Total CMS never dictates the markup.
Built something with Total CMS? Send it in →
AI-Native
Your AI agent already knows Total CMS.
Total CMS ships with a built-in MCP server — not a bolt-on. Connect Claude Code, Cursor, or ChatGPT and your agent can query your schemas, search your content, and look up exact Twig signatures in real time. No hallucinated hooks. No guessed API shapes. A real CLI for terminal workflows, and agent skills that teach your AI the T3 way of doing things.
Built-in MCP server
Your CMS is queryable by your agent — schemas, content, docs.
Real CLI
tcms — collections, schemas, objects, deploys. All scriptable.
Agent skills
Install once. Your agent scaffolds T3 sites the right way.
⎿ Created schema: testimonial (name, quote, role, rating, photo)
⎿ blog · gallery · team · testimonials ✓
⎿ {% for item in cms.collection.objects('testimonials')|slice(0, 3) %}
Why Total CMS
Built by someone who got tired of the alternatives.
Rented platforms. Squarespace, Wix and Webflow hold your client’s content on their terms. If the pricing changes or the doors close, your client starts over.
Plugin roulette. A WordPress update, a conflict, a 2am call you didn’t sign up for and can’t bill for.
Open season on your design. Full admin access means your layout is only ever as safe as the client’s restraint.
Guesswork. Your agent invents hooks that don’t exist, because your CMS gives it nothing real to read.
Total CMS is made by Joe Workman, who has been building tools for designers who hand sites to clients since 2009. More than a decade powering client sites showed exactly which of these hurt most — so Total CMS is built as the opposite.
No database required
Flat-file JSON storage means nothing to configure, nothing to break, and nothing that fights your hosting environment.
Front-end agnostic
Works with Stacks, hand-coded HTML, JavaScript frameworks, or any tool that speaks to a PHP server.
Modern PHP 8.2+
Built on Slim 4 and Twig 3 — clean, standards-compliant, and built to last across hosting environments.
You own everything
Content lives on your server, in your files. No platform dependency — ever.
How it works
Get set up in minutes.
Stay in control forever.
Install it on any PHP host.
Drop the tcms directory on your server. No database setup. No complex configuration. Total CMS runs on flat-file JSON storage — meaning it works on virtually any host your clients already use, with nothing to configure and nothing that can break overnight.
Build the content your site actually needs.
Start from the built-in content types — blogs, galleries, file downloads, styled text, and more. Or, on Pro, design your own schemas with exactly the fields you need. The result is a clean admin interface your clients can actually navigate on their own.
Hand it off. Walk away. Sleep well.
Content lives on the server you (or your client) controls. Flat files. No platform dependency. If they ever want to move hosts, change tools, or work with someone else — everything goes with them. That's what ownership actually means.
Guardrails
Control exactly what gets edited.
This is the part that changes everything. You decide which collections each client group can touch and what it can do there, and any field can be read-only. Clients update the content you want them to update. Employees add blog posts without touching anything structural. An agent signed in as your client gets your client’s access, no more. And the layout lives in your templates, where a client’s group never reaches — so your design stays exactly the way you built it.
The admin your clients will actually enjoy
Every screen, phone-friendly
In their words
Trusted by web professionals worldwide.
TCMS3 has opened the door for me to build sites I honestly never would have thought possible before. The flexibility, structure, and freedom it provides changes how I think about content, scale, and long term site growth.
I've never had more control over my designs and the content I need to manage on the go. T3 is the most powerful CMS you'll ever find.
This isn't just a website builder, but the infrastructure of a web app builder… or even, a mini-platform builder.
Total CMS 3 leaves room for all kinds of scenarios that you might need when creating a professional website. After a short training period, you won't want to go back.
Everything you could do before is now cleaner, faster, and more resilient — and there's no going back.
Platform
Extend it. Connect it. Keep your tools.
Extensions
Bundled in the download, not bought from a store. Access control, scheduling, A/B testing, push notifications and Algolia search all ship with Total CMS — each one sandboxed behind permissions you toggle individually. The extension API is public, so you or your agent can build your own from the starter repo.
Integrations
Total CMS never dictates your markup. Hand-code it, generate it, or design it in Stacks, Pinegrow, Bootstrap Studio or Blocs — then drop in Total CMS tags and the content becomes editable. A REST API, a PHP API and the tcms CLI handle everything else.
Pricing
Buy it once.
Own it forever.
No monthly fees. No subscription required. No pricing tier that makes your proposal awkward. One-time purchase, licensed per domain, with two years of updates included — and it keeps running after that. Bake it into your project cost and move on.
Standard
$195
One-time · per domain
- 36+ field types
- Blog with categories & tags
- Access Groups & permissions
- Image watermarking
- MCP server — public content, read only
- REST API (same-origin)
- White-label admin
Pro
$395
One-time · per domain
- Everything in Standard
- Custom schemas
- API keys & webhooks (external API)
- Deck repeatable fields
- MCP server — full access
- OAuth 2.1 server
- Data Views & Automations, including PHP
- Full white-label
Enterprise
Let’s talk
Custom licensing & hosting
- Everything in Pro
- Managed hosting on a dedicated VPS
- Volume & multi-domain licensing
- Priority support
- Custom terms & invoicing
No credit card required · Full Pro features during trial
Compare all features, upgrade paths, and update pricing → · Or buy a license in the store →
Your content should belong to you.
Agents build. Clients edit. Design holds. And every file stays on your server, under a license you buy once. Try it free for 45 days and see why web professionals keep choosing ownership over dependency.
Start Your Free 45-Day Trial- No credit card required
- Full Pro features during trial
- Works on any PHP host
- Cancel anytime (it's free, but still)
Comparing tools? Read our honest head-to-head comparisons and CMS guides.