The Best PHP CMS (Headless): Highest-Rated on G2

Intuitive admin interface

So easy to use. So easy to customize. You’re going to love the content you build better with ButterCMS.

Handy integration with PHP

Our PHP CMS has a simple content API and drop-in PHP SDK that makes the magic happen in minutes, not hours.

A truly zero-maintenance solution

With ButterCMS, you’ll never worry about security upgrades, hosting, or performance again.

Powerful CMS for PHP. Zero headache.

Drop our API-based CMS into your PHP app in minutes.

ButterCMS provides a component-based CMS and content API for PHP apps. Use ButterCMS to enable dynamic content in your apps for page content, blogs, and anything else. Most customers get our PHP CMS set up in one hour or less.

That leaves plenty of time for you and your marketing team to do what you do best: create killer apps with killer content.

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See how Butter’s API enables you to compose flexible page layouts and easily reorder components, without a developer.

“Best CMS on the market”

Butter's API slides right into our apps and lets us avoid having yet another WordPress site. DANIEL, FOUNDER OF COLLECTIVE IDEA

Deploy our PHP Starter in 30 Seconds!

Or follow the below commands to clone a copy of the repo from github, install dependencies, set your free Butter token, and run your local server on localhost:8000/.

$ git clone https://github.com/ButterCMS/larvel-starter-buttercms
$ cd laravel-starter-buttercms
$ composer install
$ echo 'LARAVEL_APP_BUTTER_CMS_API_KEY=your_free_api_token_here' >> .env
$ php artisan serve

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Built to make content marketing easy

ButterCMS is the best headless cms for PHP for a simple reason: PHP developers can build solutions that marketing people love. Our API allows your content gurus to quickly spin up high-converting, dynamic landing pages, SEO pages, product marketing pages, and more, all using simple drag-and-drop functionality.

SEO landing pages
Customer case studies
Company news & updates
Events + webinar pages
Education center
Location pages
And more...

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The simplest PHP CMS you'll find

Our simple setup saves you time and money. Take us for a spin to see for yourself!

It's the epitome of plug-and-play simplicity for content creators. It does exactly what I need it to. LUKE GARDNER, CONTENT SPECIALIST, PRINTAVO

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Fast integration with any PHP app

Our mission was to make it easy to integrate Butter with your existing PHP app in minutes. It’s so simple! To demonstrate, here’s a mini tutorial to give you a feel for the process of adding marketing pages to your app.

Of course, you can also use our Collections to do advanced content modeling. For a full integration guide, check out our Official Guide for the ButterCMS PHP API client.

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See how easily you can integrate the ButterCMS Pages API with your app.

Seamless PHP components

Empower your marketing team with dynamic landing pages that align perfectly with your PHP components.

Components are the essential building blocks of any PHP app, and ButterCMS handles them with ease.

Our drag and drop interface makes it simple to structure your content to match existing PHP components and to create new reusable components whenever you need them.

One PHP CMS with everything you need

There’s a reason so many developers are choosing a headless PHP CMS. It’s easy to set up, offers flexible, customizable content modeling, and gives you access to our full PHP API.

Custom page types
Custom content modeling
CDN for assets
Webhooks
Testing environment
Customer case studies
Location pages

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ButterCMS saves you development time

Most customers get our PHP CMS up and running in less than an hour. Try it yourself!

Simple as can be, with powerful features and great customer support. DILLON BURNS, FRONT END DEVELOPER, KEYME

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How to integrate ButterCMS into your PHP application

Just follow the simple steps below to complete the integration and begin creating pages with Butter. Be sure to check out our full guide to creating pages using the ButterCMS PHP API.

First you would set up a new Customer Case Study page type in Butter and create a page. With your page defined, the ButterCMS API will return it in JSON format like this:

{
    "data": {
        "slug": "acme-co",
        "fields": {
            "facebook_open_graph_title": "Acme Co loves ButterCMS",
            "seo_title": "Acme Co Customer Case Study",
            "headline": "Acme Co saved 200% on Anvil costs with ButterCMS",
            "testimonial": "<p>We've been able to make anvils faster than ever before! - <em>Chief Anvil Maker</em></p>\r\n<p><img src=\"https://cdn.buttercms.com/NiA3IIP3Ssurz5eNJ15a\" alt=\"\" caption=\"false\" width=\"249\" height=\"249\" /></p>",
            "customer_logo": "https://cdn.buttercms.com/c8oSTGcwQDC5I58km5WV",
        }
    }
}

To create these pages in our app, we create a dynamic route that fetches content for the page by using a URL parameter in routes/web.php:

Route::get('/customers/{slug}', 'CustomerController@showCustomer');

Create a new controller in app/Http/Controllers/CustomerController.php:

<?php

namespace App\Http\Controllers;

use Illuminate\Routing\Controller as BaseController;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Response as Response;
use ButterCMS\ButterCMS;

class CustomerController extends BaseController {

  private static $apiToken = 'your_api_token';
  private $client;

  public function __construct() {
    $this->client = new ButterCMS(CustomerController::$apiToken);
  }

  public function showCustomer(string $slug) {
    $page = $this->client->fetchPage('customer_case_study', $slug);
    return view('customer', [
      'seoTitle' => $page->getField('seo_title'),
      'facebookTitle' => $page->getField('facebook_open_graph_title'),
      'headline' => $page->getField('headline'),
      'customerLogo' => $page->getField('customer_logo'),
      'testimonial' => $page->getField('testimonial'),
    ]);
  }

}

Display results in resources/views/customer.blade.php:

<html>
  <head>
    <title>{{$seoTitle}}</title>
    <meta property="og:title" content="{{$facebookTitle}}" /> 
  </head>
  <body>
    <h1>{{$headline}}</h1>
    <img width="100%" src="{{$customerLogo}}">
    <p>{{$testimonial}}</p>
  </body>
</html>

That's it! If you browse to your homepage you'll see your homepage populated with the content you created in Butter.

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About ButterCMS

What kind of database can I use?

No database required! We're a SaaS CMS or CaaS. You simply call our Content API from your app. We host and maintain all of the CMS infrastructure.

Do you host my templates?

Unlike CMSs you might be used to, we don't control or host any of your templates. The design of your app (HTML + CSS) lives in your application along side the rest of your app. Your application calls our Content API and we return your content in JSON format. You can then render this content in any way you'd like.

Can I import my content?

Yep. To import existing content from another platform, simply send us an email.

How do you compare to WordPress?

In short, we offer all the same easy-to-use editing capabilities of WordPress but are significantly easier for developers to setup and maintain. This means you spend less time working on your CMS and more time focusing on things important to your business.

Can I self host Butter?

No, we're a SaaS CMS or CaaS. You simply call our Content API from your app. We host and maintain all of the CMS infrastructure.

For more information on how we compare to a traditional CMS, check out API-based CMS vs Traditional CMS on the Butter blog. Do you have more questions? Read our FAQ below, or feel free to chat with us directly.

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