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OpenCms

Features
Ease of use
Ease of management
Quality of support
Affordability
Market presence
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Pricing from
€1,000 per day
Free Trial unavailable
Free version
User corporate size
Small
Medium
Large
User industry
  1. Public sector and nonprofit organizations
  2. Banking and insurance
  3. Healthcare and life sciences

What is OpenCms

OpenCms is an open-source web content management system used to build and manage websites and intranet portals. It provides browser-based content editing, templating, and publishing workflows for teams that need structured content management on Java-based infrastructure. OpenCms is typically deployed and operated by organizations with in-house Java/Tomcat expertise or by service providers that implement and host it.

pros

Open-source and self-hosted

OpenCms is available under an open-source license, which can reduce licensing costs compared with proprietary enterprise CMS platforms. Organizations can self-host and control data residency, infrastructure, and upgrade timing. The source code availability supports deep customization when internal engineering resources are available.

Java-based enterprise deployment

OpenCms runs on a Java stack and is commonly deployed on servlet containers such as Apache Tomcat. This aligns with enterprises that standardize on Java application operations, monitoring, and security practices. It can fit environments where Java skills and tooling are already established.

Built-in authoring and workflow

OpenCms includes browser-based authoring features and supports structured content types, templates, and publishing workflows. These capabilities help teams manage multi-page sites with review and approval steps. It is suited to organizations that want an integrated authoring experience rather than assembling multiple separate components.

cons

Ecosystem and vendor support

As an open-source product, the breadth of third-party extensions, prebuilt integrations, and certified partner offerings can be more limited than larger commercial ecosystems. Support options depend on community resources and available service providers. This can influence risk management for mission-critical deployments.

Modern headless features vary

OpenCms is primarily oriented around traditional CMS patterns and server-rendered site delivery. Organizations prioritizing API-first, composable architectures may need additional integration work to meet modern headless requirements. This can affect time-to-implement for omnichannel delivery use cases.

Higher operational complexity

Running OpenCms typically requires managing Java application infrastructure, application server configuration, and upgrades. Compared with fully managed or SaaS-first CMS options, this can increase ongoing administration effort. Organizations without Java operations experience may need external implementation support.

Plan & Pricing

Plan Price Key features & notes
OpenCms (core software) Free (LGPL) Open-source under the LGPL; can be downloaded, installed and used without license fees. (opencms.org FAQ)
Premium Support Subscription (Alkacon) €5,000 for 12 months Annual premium support from Alkacon; access to OpenCms development team; includes limited core bug-fixing developer hours; auto-renews annually. (alkacon.com support page)
10-Incident Support Package (Alkacon) €2,500 for 10 incidents (valid 12 months) Incident-based support package; no OpenCms core bug-fixing included. (alkacon.com support page)
OpenCms Consulting (Alkacon) €1,000 per day (+ travel expenses) Individual consulting engagements billed per day. (alkacon.com support page)
Alkacon OCEE (enterprise extensions / accelerator) Contact Alkacon / not publicly listed Alkacon OCEE is offered for clustering, caching and other enterprise needs; pricing/details require contacting Alkacon. (alkacon.com)

Seller details

Alkacon Software GmbH
Cologne, Germany
2000
Private
https://www.opencms.org/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/alkacon-software-gmbh

Tools by Alkacon Software GmbH

OpenCms

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