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Statamic review

Git-based

Reviewed by Eugene SuslovUpdated August 2026No affiliate links

Statamic is a CMS that installs as a Laravel package and stores content as flat files in your repository by default, which means git handles versioning, review and deployment. It can also use a database through Eloquent when flat files stop making sense.

The control panel is one of the better ones in PHP, with Blueprints for content modelling and more than forty field types. Headless use through REST and GraphQL requires the Pro licence.

Who Statamic is for

Laravel teams and agencies who want a CMS inside an application they already understand, with content in git rather than a database.

Not the right pick if you want a hosted service or if your team is not PHP-shaped.

Strengths and limits

What it does well

  • Content as flat files in git gives version history, code review and environment parity for free.
  • Installs into an existing Laravel app, so a team already on Laravel adopts almost no new infrastructure.
  • The control panel and Blueprint modelling are genuinely good, not a developer-only tool.
  • One-off per-site licensing rather than a subscription.

Where it falls short

  • The free Core edition has one admin user and no API, so headless use requires the $349 Pro licence per site.
  • Source-available under the Statamic licence, not open source.
  • Flat files scale poorly past a few thousand entries, at which point you are moving to Eloquent anyway.
  • Laravel is a hard prerequisite, which narrows the audience sharply.

Statamic pricing

Core is free with one super admin account, one content form, Blueprint modelling with more than forty field types, unlimited collections and taxonomies, asset management and live preview. It does not include the API.

Pro is $349 per site including one year of updates, then $99 a year, and adds unlimited users and roles, revisions and content history, the REST and GraphQL APIs, multi-site and multilingual editing, white labelling and git integration. Enterprise is quote-only and adds SSO, audit logging, an SLA and offline licence validation.

Check current Statamic pricing

Verdict

An excellent fit for Laravel shops and a genuinely nice CMS to use, with the flat-file model solving deployment problems that database CMS tools create.

For headless specifically, note that the API is a paid feature: the free tier will not get you there. Budget $349 per site from the start.

Visit Statamic

Statamic FAQ

  • Is Statamic free?
    The Core edition is free with one super admin user, but it does not include the REST or GraphQL API. Headless use needs Pro at $349 per site, including a year of updates and then $99 a year.
  • Does Statamic need Laravel?
    Yes. It installs as a Laravel package and runs inside a Laravel application. That is an advantage if you already use Laravel and a hard blocker if you do not.

This is an independent review. We have no affiliate relationship with Statamic, earn nothing if you sign up, and no vendor pays for placement in the directory. Prices were read from the vendor's own pages in August 2026 and change without notice.