The CMS that gets out of your way

A lightweight, open-source PHP blogging platform. No frameworks, no dependencies, no complexity. Just upload and go.

Download Core 3 View on GitHub
-- stars on GitHub

160 KB

That's the entire CMS. For comparison:

WordPress
~60 MB
Core 3
160 KB
Features
Everything you need, nothing you don't
Core 3 ships with the tools a modern blog needs — and a module system for everything else.

WYSIWYG + Markdown

Visual editor or Markdown — switch on any post. Zero external dependencies.

Theme engine

Child themes inherit templates from the parent. Override only what you need. Install via ZIP.

Module system

Hook-based architecture. Inject content, register routes, replace components — without editing core files.

Secure by default

Prepared statements, CSRF protection, XSS-safe Markdown parser, bcrypt password hashing.

Admin panel

Sidebar navigation, flyout menus, appearance customiser, cache management, media library.

Four-step installer

No command line. No package managers. Upload to your host, run the installer, start writing.

Database migrations

Built-in version tracking applies schema changes automatically when you update.

Multiple themes

Light and dark themes included. Build your own with CSS-only overrides and template inheritance.

SEO built in

Clean URLs, Open Graph tags, XML sitemap, RSS feed, configurable meta descriptions.

Extensible
Build a module in minutes

A module is just a folder with two files. Register hooks, declare settings, and the admin panel generates the configuration UI automatically.

Read the developer docs 
// boot.php

Modules::on('footer', function () {
    return '<script src="track.js"></script>';
});

Modules::on('routes', function (&$routes) {
    $routes['/my-page'] = [
        'controller' => 'MyCtrl',
        'action'     => 'index',
    ];
});

Ready to try it?

Core 3 runs on any PHP host with MySQL. Download it, run the installer, and start publishing.