A modern flat-file CMS for web professionals who believe content ownership shouldn't be negotiable — and design shouldn't be left up to whoever logs in.
The problem with mainstream CMS
If any of these sound familiar, you're exactly who we built Total CMS for.
Squarespace. Wix. Webflow. If the platform changes its pricing or shuts down, your clients start over from scratch. That's not a solution — that's a dependency you're responsible for selling them into.
A plugin conflict, a security patch, a theme update gone sideways at 2am. You didn't sign up to be a WordPress maintenance technician. Neither did your clients. Yet here you both are.
Pink text. Purple backgrounds. Fonts that shouldn't be anywhere near your work. Platforms that give clients full access guarantee they'll eventually break something — and you'll hear about it.
Why Total CMS
Total CMS was built by web professionals, for web professionals. After more than a decade powering client sites, we know exactly what drives designers and developers crazy about mainstream CMS platforms — and we built the opposite.
Flat-file JSON storage means nothing to configure, nothing to break, and nothing that fights your hosting environment.
Works with Stacks, hand-coded HTML, JavaScript frameworks, or any tool that speaks to a PHP server.
Built on Slim 4 and Twig 3 — clean, standards-compliant, and built to last across hosting environments.
Content lives on your server, in your files. No platform dependency — ever.
How it works
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.
Choose from 24 built-in content types — blogs, galleries, file management, styled text, and more. Or design your own custom schemas with exactly the fields you need. The result is a clean admin interface your clients can actually navigate on their own.
This is the part that changes everything. You decide which fields are editable. Clients update the content you want them to update. Employees add blog posts without touching anything structural. Your design stays exactly the way you built it — because it's not up for negotiation.
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.
AI-Native
Total CMS 3.5 ships with a built-in MCP server — not a bolt-on. Connect Claude Code, Cursor, or Windsurf 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.
Your CMS is queryable by your agent — schemas, content, docs.
tcms — collections, schemas, objects, deploys. All scriptable.
Install once. Your agent scaffolds T3 sites the right way.
The admin your clients will actually enjoy
Every screen, phone-friendly
Explore
Pricing
No monthly fees. No per-site subscriptions. No pricing tier that makes your proposal awkward. One-time purchase, licensed per domain. Bake it into your project cost and move on.
$159
One-time · per domain
$359
One-time · per domain
Let’s talk
Custom licensing
No credit card required · Full Pro features during trial · Need a lightweight way in? Total CMS Lite is $79
Compare all features, upgrade paths, and update pricing → · Or buy a license in the store →
Who it's for
You control the admin. You control which fields clients can edit. Deliver a great site and an editing experience your clients actually enjoy — without the ability to break your work. No subscription makes the proposal easier to close, too.
You built the site right. Now marketing needs to publish blog posts without reformatting the homepage. Total CMS draws a clear line between content and structure — your team gets a clean, focused editor. The site stays intact.
Total CMS 3.5 ships with a built-in MCP server, so Claude Code, Cursor, or Windsurf can query your schemas and content in real time — no hallucinating, no guessing. Scaffold a complete site in a session. The CLI does what you expect. The REST API is clean.
Integrations
Total CMS is front-end agnostic. It works with hand-coded HTML, PHP templates, JavaScript frameworks via the REST API, or your favourite visual site builder. Bring your own tools.
Total CMS is the CMS of choice for the Stacks web building community – with dedicated CMS stacks for every content type, collection loop stacks, and automatic deployment built in.
View Stacks IntegrationConnect once over MCP. Every T3 project your agent touches gets accurate, real-time answers — not training-data guesses.
MCP Setup GuideTestimonials
“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.
Get Started
Total CMS gives you a modern, professional CMS that you own completely — your data, your design, your rules. Try it free for 45 days and see why web professionals keep choosing ownership over dependency.
Start Your Free 45-Day Trial
