Sveltia CMS: Netlify/Decap CMS successor

Sveltia CMS is a Git-based lightweight headless CMS under active development as a modern, powerful, direct replacement for Netlify CMS (now Decap CMS). We have picked up where they left off and have already solved over 280 issues reported in the predecessor’s repository, ranging from critical bugs to top feature requests.

Built from the ground up, Sveltia CMS offers excellent UX, DX, performance, security and internationalization (i18n) support. Although some features are still missing, our numerous enhancements across the board ensure smooth daily workflows for content editors and developers alike.

This free, open source successor to Netlify/Decap CMS is currently in public beta, with version 1.0 expected in early 2026. Despite the beta status, it’s already used by hundreds of individuals and organizations worldwide in production. Check out the Showcase page for some examples.

Note

We are in the process of migrating the README content to the new documentation site, which is still a work in progress. Please note that some of the information may be inaccurate or incomplete. Thank you for your patience during this transition.

Table of contents

• Motivation
• Project Status
• Differentiators
• Compatibility
• Getting Started
• Tips & Tricks
• Support & Feedback
• Contributions
• Roadmap
• Related Links
• Privacy
• Disclaimer
• Acknowledgements

Motivation

See the Successor to Netlify CMS page.

Project Status

Sveltia CMS is currently in beta, with version 1.0 (GA) scheduled for release in early 2026. Check our release notes and follow us on Bluesky for updates. See also our roadmap.

While we fix reported bugs as quickly as possible, usually within 24 hours, our overall progress may be slower than you think. The thing is, it’s not just a personal project of @kyoshino, but also a complicated system involving various kinds of activities that require considerable effort:

• Ensuring high compatibility with Netlify/Decap CMS
  • The vast majority of existing configurations work out of the box
  • It works as a drop-in replacement for most use cases
  • Some missing features will be implemented before or shortly after GA
• Tackling as many Netlify/Decap CMS issues as possible
  • So far, 280+ issues, or 610+ if including duplicates, have been effectively solved in Sveltia CMS (Yes, you read it right)
  • Target:
    • 300 issues, or 600 if including duplicates, by GA — Almost there! 🚀
    • 450 issues, or 900 if including duplicates, in the future 💪
    • or every single issue that’s relevant, fixable, and worth dealing with 🔥
  • Issues include everything:
    • Outstanding issues from feature requests to bug reports
    • Issues closed as stale or without an optimal solution
    • Discussions
    • Stalled pull requests
  • Many of the bugs, including the annoying crashes, have already been solved
    • The remaining bugs are mostly related to unimplemented features
  • Many of their top-voted features are on our table or already implemented in Sveltia CMS
• Solving our own issues
• Preparing top-notch documentation
• Implementing our own enhancement ideas for every part of the product

Differentiators

See the Successor to Netlify CMS page.

Compatibility

See the Migrating from Netlify CMS or Decap CMS page.

Deprecations

See the Migrating from Earlier Versions of Sveltia CMS page.

Compatibility with Static CMS

See the Migrating from Static CMS page.

Getting Started

Installation & setup

See the Getting Started page.

Migration

See the Migrating from Netlify CMS or Decap CMS page.

Tips & Tricks

Enabling autocomplete and validation for the configuration file

See the Configuration Basics page.

Providing a JSON configuration file

See the Configuration Basics page.

Providing a TOML configuration file

See the Configuration Basics page.

Providing multiple configuration files

See the Configuration Basics page.

Working around an authentication error

See the Troubleshooting page.

Working with a local Git repository

See the Local Workflow page.

Enabling local development in Brave

See the Local Workflow page.

Using a custom icon for a collection

See the Collections page.

Adding dividers to the collection list

See the Collections page.

Using a custom media folder for a collection

See the Internal Media Storage page.

Specifying default sort field and direction

See the Entry Collections page.

Including Hugo’s special index file in a folder collection

See the Entry Collections page.

Using singletons

See the Singletons page.

Using keyboard shortcuts

See the User Interface Overview and Content Editor pages.

Controlling entry file paths

See the Entry Collections page.

Translating entry fields with one click

See the Translation Services page.

Localizing entry slugs

See the Internationalization page.

Disabling non-default locale content

See the Internationalization page.

Using a random ID for an entry slug

See the Entry Collections page.

Configuring multiple media libraries

See the Media Storage page.

Optimizing images for upload

See the Internal Media Storage page.

Disabling stock assets

See the Stock Photos page.

Using entry tags for categorization

See the How-Tos page.

Editing site deployment configuration files

See the How-Tos page.

Editing data files with a top-level list

See the List Field page.

Changing the input type of a DateTime field

See the DateTime Field page.

Rendering soft line breaks as hard line breaks in Markdown

See the How-Tos page.

Controlling data output

See the Data Output page.

Understanding exceptions in data output

See the Data Output page.

Disabling automatic deployments

See the Deployments page.

Setting up Content Security Policy

See the Security page.

Showing the CMS version

See the Updates page.

Support & Feedback

See the Support and Feedback pages.

Contributions

See Contributing to Sveltia CMS. Bug reports are highly encouraged.

Roadmap

See the Roadmap page.

Related Links

• Introducing Sveltia CMS: a short technical presentation by @kyoshino during the This Week in Svelte online meetup on March 31, 2023 — recording & slides

As seen on

• LogRocket Blog – 9 best Git-based CMS platforms for your next project
• Jamstack – Headless CMS
• Hugo – Front-end interfaces
• Made with Svelte

Privacy

See the Privacy page.

Disclaimer

This software is provided “as is” without any express or implied warranty. We are not obligated to provide any support for the application. This product is not affiliated with or endorsed by Netlify, Decap CMS or any other integrated services. All product names, logos, and brands are the property of their respective owners.

Acknowledgements

This project would not have been possible without the open source Netlify CMS project. We are grateful to the maintainers for their hard work over the years. We would also like to thank the Sveltia CMS user community for their valuable feedback and ongoing support, which has helped us to identify issues and improve the product.