Pico is a flat file CMS, this means there is no administration backend or database to deal with. You simply create .md files in the “content” folder and that becomes a page.
Pico trades one-click setups and complex management interfaces for blazing speed, flexibility, and a lightweight footprint.
Pico is free and open source software.
Key Features
- Uses Markdown for formatting your pages. Writing in Markdown is a lot quicker than coding in HTML, and much easier to learn.
- Highly extendable and customizable.
- Good selection of ready-to-go themes and plugins. Pico’s themes are built using Twig Templates. Twig is a template engine which provides an easy and powerful way to customize your website.
- Use Pico with no prior knowledge of HTML.
- All of Pico’s content is stored in flat files. This includes the metadata for your pages as well. Pico places all the metadata at the beginning of each file. The metadata is formatted using YAML, which makes it very easy to manage.
Website: picocms.org
Support: Documentation, GitHub Code Repository
Developer: Dev7studios Ltd
License: MIT License
Pico is written in PHP. Learn PHP with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
Related Software
| PHP-Based Web Content Management Systems | |
|---|---|
| WordPress | Create a beautiful website, blog, or app |
| Drupal | Platform and content management system written in PHP |
| Joomla! | Award-winning system to build Web sites and powerful applications |
| Grav | Super fast modern CMS |
| Pico | Blazing speed, flexibility, and a lightweight footprint |
| TYPO3 | Small to midsize enterprise-class content management system |
| MODX | Powerful framework to deploy and secure websites and web applications |
| SilverStripe | Flexible, open source programming framework, and CMS |
| ProcessWire | Polished content management system (CMS) and framework (CMF) |
| Concrete | CMS, CMF and easy to use Web Builder |
| Textpattern | Flexible, elegant and easy-to-use open source system |
| XOOPS | eXtensible Object Oriented Portal System |
| Fork | User friendly environment to build, monitor and update your website |
| Winter | PHP/MySQL based application for managing dynamic web content |
| Bolt CMS | Based on Silex and Symfony components, uses Twig |
| Contao | (formerly TYPOlight) Specializes in accessibility (back end and front end) |
| Backdrop | Fork of Drupal |
| e107 | Portal or CMS using PHP and MySQL |
| ImpressCMS | Community developed Content Management System |
| ExpressionEngine | Mature, flexible, secure content management system |
| Pluck | Focuses on user friendliness; lets anyone manage a website |
| Lavalite | CMS built with Laravel |
| Geeklog | Very extensible system with good support for blogging |
| eZ Platform | Professional PHP application framework with advanced CMS |
| CMS Made Simple | Designed for simple stable content sites |
| b2evolution | Highly integrated CMS |
Read our verdict in the software roundup.
| Flat File Content Management Systems | |
|---|---|
| Grav | Super fast modern CMS |
| Pico | Blazing speed, flexibility, and a lightweight footprint |
| Bludit | Simple flexible system storing content in JSON |
| CMSimple | PHP based content management system |
| GetSimple CMS | XML based data storage |
| WonderCMS | Another flat file CMS built with PHP |
| HTMLy | Prioritizes simplicity and speed |
| Automad | Includes a multi-layer caching engine and elegant dashboard |
| HamsterCMS | Tiny flatfile PHP content management system |
| Flextype | Hybrid CMS: headless CMS and full functionality of a traditional CMS |
Read our verdict in the software roundup.
| Lightweight Alternatives to WordPress | |
|---|---|
| Hugo | Fast framework for building websites |
| Jekyll | Blog-aware static site generator |
| Grav | Super fast modern CMS focusing on speed and simplicity. No installation |
| Pico | Blazing speed, flexibility, and a lightweight footprint |
| Textpattern | Flexible, elegant and easy-to-use open source CMS |
| GetSimple CMS | Saves all data to structured XML-files |
Read our verdict in the software roundup.
 Explore our comprehensive directory of recommended free and open source software. Our carefully curated collection spans every major software category.This directory is part of our ongoing series of informative articles for Linux enthusiasts. It features hundreds of detailed reviews, along with open source alternatives to proprietary solutions from major corporations such as Google, Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, IBM, Cisco, Oracle, and Autodesk. You’ll also find interesting projects to try, hardware coverage, free programming books and tutorials, and much more. Know a useful open source Linux program that we haven’t covered yet? Let us know by completing this form. |