CMS Brew vs Decap CMS, compared honestly.
Both keep content in your Git repository. The difference is everything around it: config.yml and OAuth wiring vs automatic mapping, and an admin panel vs a chat with guardrails.
No credit card, cancel anytime.
The short answer
Choose Decap CMS if you want free, self-hosted, and open source, and your editors can live with a form-based admin panel you configure and maintain. Choose CMS Brew if you hand finished sites to non-technical clients: there is no config file or OAuth to wire, clients edit by describing changes in chat, and risky changes wait for your approval before going live.
Why developers go looking for a Decap alternative
Decap CMS, the old Netlify CMS, is still a solid free option, and it is still maintained by the community. The pain is everything around it. Netlify deprecated Identity and Git Gateway, the login path most Decap sites were built on, so classic setups now owe an auth migration to a self-hosted OAuth app or a third-party bridge.
And even with auth sorted, the day-two problems stay: you model every collection and widget in config.yml by hand, for every client site, and your client still faces a form-based admin panel they use twice a year and never quite learn.
The easy auth path is gone
Netlify Identity and Git Gateway are deprecated. A new Decap setup means wiring your own OAuth app, or adding another service, just to log the client in. CMS Brew ships sign-in out of the box: Google, or a 6-digit email code.
config.yml is a per-site job
Every collection, field, and widget is modeled by hand, then kept in sync with the site as it evolves. CMS Brew maps the editable content from the repository automatically. There is no schema or config file to write.
An admin panel is still an admin panel
Decap's editor is collections, forms, and markdown widgets. A client who edits twice a year forgets it between visits. In CMS Brew they type what they want changed and see it in a live preview before it publishes.
Side by side
CMS Brew vs Decap CMS
| CMS Brew | Decap CMS | |
|---|---|---|
| What the client sees | A chat. They describe the change in plain words and watch a live preview. | An admin panel with collections, forms, and markdown widgets to learn. |
| Setup per site | Connect the GitHub repository. Content is mapped automatically. | Write and maintain config.yml: collections, fields, widgets. |
| Client sign-in | Built in: Google or an emailed 6-digit code. | Bring your own OAuth. Netlify Identity and Git Gateway are deprecated. |
| Guardrails | Per-field guard levels: Open, Warn, Review, Locked. Code is never editable. | Clients can edit any field the config exposes. Editorial workflow adds drafts, not per-field rules. |
| Out-of-scope requests | Refused in the editor and escalated to you with the client's original words. | Not a concept. The request reaches you as an email or a phone call. |
| Publishing | One commit to your repository, one-click revert. | Also Git commits. Both tools keep content in your repo. |
| Running the CMS | Hosted. Nothing is added to your site, no admin page to ship or update. | A self-hosted admin page you ship with the site and keep updated. |
| Price | $39/mo for 5 sites, unlimited editors, 7-day free trial. | Free and open source. Decap Turbo, its paid team add-on, is separate. |
The honest trade-off
Where Decap wins: it is free, open source, and self-hosted, and if your auth is already wired and your client is comfortable in a form admin, it keeps working. CMS Brew earns its fee when the panel itself is the problem: rare editors, no appetite for config and auth upkeep, and changes you want to review before they go live.
Stick with Decap CMS if
- Your OAuth is already wired and working, and nobody is asking you to change it.
- Your editors are technical enough to be comfortable in a form admin with markdown widgets.
- The budget for the site is zero, and your time spent on config and auth upkeep does not count.
- You need a feature CMS Brew deliberately does not have, like clients creating whole new pages.
How it works
Three steps, then it's live.
- 01Connect
Point it at the site you built
CMS Brew turns it into a simple list of things your client can edit. No rebuild, no plugin.
- 02Edit
Clients edit in plain words
Your client opens a chat and says what to change: a phone number, a headline, a photo. They see it live before it ships.
- 03Publish
Safe changes go live
Safe edits publish in one click. Bigger requests, like a new page or code, come straight to you.
How to switch from Decap CMS to CMS Brew
- 1
Connect the repository
Sign in and connect the site's GitHub repository. There is no content migration because there is no content to move: your Markdown, frontmatter, and images already live in the repo, and CMS Brew maps the editable content automatically.
- 2
Set your guards
Review the mapped fields and set a guard level per category: Open publishes freely, Warn asks the client to confirm, Review holds the change for you. Structural and code fields are locked from the start.
- 3
Invite the client
Send the client an invite. They sign in with Google or an emailed 6-digit code, no GitHub account and no new password. Their first edit is a message, not a training session.
- 4
Retire the panel when ready
Run both side by side as long as you like; both write plain commits. When you are confident, delete the /admin page and config.yml from the repo, and the OAuth app or auth bridge that served it.
FAQ
What people ask before switching.
Stop being the person who updates the phone number.
Give your client the keys to the content. Keep the keys to the code.
Prefer to talk first? Book a 30-minute call