Kirby is a commercial open source content management system powered by PHP that can scale from small sites to high traffic platforms. The solution is about seven years old and built on sustainable model with a reliable roadmap. The solution even if it looks small, it is packed with features that help you build high-end projects faster, more efficient, and more enjoyable.
Kirby comes with an incredible performance and can be scaled to match the popularity of any project. The solution is tailored for clients and agencies, content creators, developers and also designers. Your developers can extend the sites created by creating new page types, templates, landing pages and custom features anytime. It’s important to know that there will be no unexpected road-blocks in the future.
Its content structure is open and easy to migrate to any other system, so there is no lock-in with the solution. The solution is optimized for content creators no matter if you need to curate projects, products, retailers, team members, restaurant menus, customers, galleries, albums, documentation or articles, the control panel will always feel at home. Powered by VueJs, the UI is fast and responsive, fully version-controllable and easy to back up. This frees you and your team from annoying or costly editing issues in addition to the availability of the multi language support.
Building sites with Kirby
Building sites with Kirby is like playing with LEGO, you can use the PHP API to fetch any type of content or file, filter, modify and combine data and create anything that your project requires. Whenever you hit a road-block, you can be pretty sure that there’s a way to extend the system with a plugin and the forum will always be there for you to help you with new ideas.
All you need is a web server with URL rewriting and PHP 7.4 recommended (7.3 and 8.0 supported) with mbstring, curl, ctype and gd extensions installed. To get started you can choose between the StarterKit (Recommended) or the PlainKit (Advanced users).
The Starterkit is a full-blown installation with a lot of example content, blueprints, templates and more. It is ideal for new users to explore many of Kirby’s options and get to know the Panel. While the Plainkit is a minimal setup of the CMS with the basics you need to start a project from scratch. It is the ideal choice if you are already familiar with Kirby and want to start step-by-step.
All you need is to unzip the downloaded package under the web root, then visit http://localhost or http://localhost/panel for the control panel. You can play with the platform locally but once you publish your website, you need to purchase a license. You can use Composer also to install the package :
composer create-project getkirby/starterkit your-project
The project is very well documented, you will find the getting started docs in addition to a cookbook and screncasts to install or explore different functionalities of the CMS. Lots of plugins and themes are available to extend and customize your Kirby site, and if most plugins are free, themes are commercial and prices goes from $10 to $70.
Create online shops !
You can also create online shops with Kirby, and actually there is a commercial plugin Merx that you will need to buy, in addition to the site license. Merx license is €89. The solution is flexible, simple and very powerful, in addition that it support Stripe (Credit Card, SEPA Direct Debit, SOFORT) and Paypal out of the box.
Another solution will be Snipcart, which is not hard to integrate into the platform, however require some manual modification and a flat rate of 2% on each transaction. Also the code is quiet old, so not sure if this will work in the same way with the latest version of the CMS.
Kirby pricing
Kirby is not free software. However, you can try Kirby and the Starterkit on your local machine or on a test server as long as you need to make sure it is the right tool for your next project. … and when you’re convinced, buy your license. Pricing starts from $109 +VAT if applicable.
Overall Kirby seems to be an interesting alternative for a content management system, a business established with a sustainable model with a reliable roadmap will certainly attract not only new clients but also developers to implement paid solutions and even start new businesses.
Official website: https://getkirby.com/
