SonaCMS – A flat-file PHP CMS with no database

romeo193611 pts0 comments

GitHub - romeo19361/SonaCMS: The zero drag flat file CMS with no databases to babysit · GitHub

/" data-turbo-transient="true" />

Skip to content

Search or jump to...

Search code, repositories, users, issues, pull requests...

-->

Search

Clear

Search syntax tips

Provide feedback

--><br>We read every piece of feedback, and take your input very seriously.

Include my email address so I can be contacted

Cancel

Submit feedback

Saved searches

Use saved searches to filter your results more quickly

-->

Name

Query

To see all available qualifiers, see our documentation.

Cancel

Create saved search

Sign in

/;ref_cta:Sign up;ref_loc:header logged out"}"<br>Sign up

Appearance settings

Resetting focus

You signed in with another tab or window. Reload to refresh your session.<br>You signed out in another tab or window. Reload to refresh your session.<br>You switched accounts on another tab or window. Reload to refresh your session.

Dismiss alert

{{ message }}

romeo19361

SonaCMS

Public

Notifications<br>You must be signed in to change notification settings

Fork

Star

main

BranchesTags

Go to file

CodeOpen more actions menu

Folders and files<br>NameNameLast commit message<br>Last commit date<br>Latest commit

History<br>4 Commits<br>4 Commits

SonaCMS

SonaCMS

assets

assets

css

css

forms

forms

images

images

inc

inc

.htaccess

.htaccess

CHANGELOG.md

CHANGELOG.md

INSTALL.md

INSTALL.md

LICENSE.md

LICENSE.md

README.md

README.md

THIRD-PARTY-LICENCES.md

THIRD-PARTY-LICENCES.md

index.php

index.php

robots.txt

robots.txt

sitemap.php

sitemap.php

View all files

Repository files navigation

SonaCMS

A flat-file PHP CMS. No database — pages and blog posts are stored as plain JSON files on disk.

sonacms.com — download, docs, and a live demo.

Why

Most CMSs make you set up and maintain a database before you can publish a single page. SonaCMS skips that step entirely. Content lives as readable JSON files, so backups are a cp, there's no migration step between versions, and there's one less service to secure and keep patched.

Features (v1.1)

Flat-file storage — pages and posts saved as JSON, no database required

Page & post editor — built on Editor.js, with custom block tools self-hosted (no third-party CDN dependencies)

SEO out of the box — dynamic sitemap, canonical URL support, Open Graph image upload

Forms with email delivery — built-in mail handling via PHPMailer, with SMTP2GO support

Self-hosted — deploy to any PHP-capable host over SSH/SFTP, no managed database service needed

Requirements

PHP 8.0+

A web server (Apache/Nginx) with write access to the content directory

No database

Installation

Download the latest release from sonacms.com or clone this repo.

Upload to your server via SSH/SFTP.

Set folder permissions on assets/content/ and assets/uploads/ so PHP can write to them.

Visit your domain and follow the setup wizard to create your admin account.

Full install and configuration docs: sonacms.com/docs

Project structure

/inc/ developer-customisable includes<br>/css/ site styling<br>/forms/ form handlers<br>config.php site configuration<br>/SonaCMS/app/ upgradeable core (don't edit directly)

Licensing

SonaCMS is source-available, not open source . The code here is public for transparency, audit, and customisation, but production use requires a paid licence:

Single-Site Licence — $49 — one production domain

Annual Developer Licence — $199/yr — unlimited production instances, includes updates during the active subscription

See LICENSE.md for full terms, and THIRD-PARTY-LICENCES.md for bundled open-source components.

Support

Questions or issues: open a GitHub issue, or reach out via sonacms.com.

About

The zero drag flat file CMS with no databases to babysit

Resources

Readme

License

View license

Uh oh!

There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

Activity

Stars

stars

Watchers

watching

Forks

forks

Report repository

Releases

Version 1.1

Latest

Jul 13, 2026

Packages

Uh oh!

There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

Contributors

Uh oh!

There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

Languages

PHP<br>65.7%

CSS<br>32.9%

Hack<br>1.4%

You can’t perform that action at this time.

sonacms file database reload flat search

Related Articles