Wagtail

Wagtail is a Python-based CMS that gives content teams a clean editing interface while keeping developers in control of the front end. It uses Django under the hood, so any Django admin, model, or view can be extended or overridden. The page tree is the core organizing principle, but Wagtail also supports structured StreamField blocks for flexible layouts without freetext HTML.

You can build anything from a simple blog to a multi-site newsroom with Wagtail. It offers a built-in image renditions system, revision and workflow controls, form builder, and a GraphQL API via the wagtail-headless module. Wagtail integrates with Elasticsearch for advanced search, S3 for media storage, and any Python app you can install. It runs on Linux servers behind nginx or Apache, typically with PostgreSQL or MySQL.

Wagtail is free and open source under the BSD license. It powers high-traffic sites like Google’s AI principles page, NASA’s Eyes on the Earth, and the UK’s National Health Service digital handbook. If your team values Python, wants to avoid the plugin overhead of WordPress, and needs a CMS that grows with you, Wagtail is worth a serious look.