Free & Open Source CMS

Your website.
Finally yours.

Fonderie is a free, local CMS that turns your writing into a fast static website. No subscriptions. No plugins. No cloud lock-in. Just you, your words, and a site that loads in milliseconds.

Static site generators already exist. But they all require a terminal, config files, and a developer mindset. Fonderie is the first one that runs like an app — double-click, browser opens, you have a CMS. No terminal. No YAML. No Node.js. No pipeline to learn.
Download free See how it works →

Works on Windows, Mac & Linux · No internet required · Your data stays local

0€
to download and use forever
<1s
average page load time
0
plugins to maintain
100%
of your content, yours
How it works

Three steps. That's it.

Fonderie runs entirely on your computer. No cloud. No account. No waiting.

01
Write
Open Fonderie in your browser. Write posts and pages using a clean editor. Add images, set categories, configure your theme — all from a beautiful local dashboard.
02
Build
Click "Build". Fonderie converts everything into clean, fast HTML files — no database, no PHP, no server-side rendering. Just plain files that any browser can read.
03
Publish
Enter your FTP credentials once. Then hit "Publish to web" — Fonderie uploads only what changed. Your site is live in seconds, hosted wherever you choose.
Sound familiar?

Paying €15/month just to publish words on a page?

If you're running a simple blog or small business site on WordPress, you're paying for a database, a PHP server, and 58 plugins — most of which you didn't ask for and don't understand.

Fonderie does the same job. It costs nothing. It loads faster. And it never gets hacked.

Switch to Fonderie →
WordPress
Hosting + plugins + theme + SSL + backups €180/yr
Plugin updates Security patches Database maintenance Slow load times Vulnerabilities
Fonderie
Fonderie + cheap static hosting €0/yr
No updates needed Nothing to hack No database Loads instantly Free forever
Why Fonderie

Built differently.
For good reason.

Most website builders were designed for the company selling them, not for you. Fonderie was built the other way around.

⚡
Blindingly fast
Static HTML loads instantly. No database queries, no server rendering, no waiting. Your site scores 100 on PageSpeed before you even try.
🔒
Nothing to hack
No PHP, no database, no login page exposed to the internet. Static files have no attack surface. Sleep well.
💶
Free forever
Fonderie is free and open source. Pay for hosting if you want — a basic plan costs €3/month. Or host it yourself for free on GitHub Pages or Cloudflare Pages.
📦
Your data, your files
Everything lives on your computer as plain Markdown files. No export button needed — your content was never trapped to begin with.
🌐
Works offline
Write and build without an internet connection. Publish when you're back online. Your CMS doesn't need their servers to function.
🧩
Add anything via embed
Forms, shops, comments, analytics — paste any embed code into your content. Fonderie plays well with every third-party service.
Features

Everything you actually need.

No bloat. No paywalled features. No plugin marketplace. Everything that matters is built in.

✍️
Markdown editor
Clean writing experience with live preview and full HTML support.
🏠
Homepage builder
Visual drag-and-drop builder for your homepage layout.
🎨
5 built-in themes
Default, Minimal, Bold, Noir, and Blank. All fully customisable.
🖌️
Appearance controls
Fonts, colours, spacing — tweak every visual detail without touching code.
📄
Posts & Pages
Full blog post management with categories, tags, and custom slugs.
🖼️
Media library
Upload and manage images. Automatically copied to your output folder.
🗺️
Auto sitemap
XML sitemap generated automatically on every build. Great for SEO.
🔗
Redirects
Manage 301 redirects from a simple list. No .htaccess required.
🧭
Menu builder
Build header and footer navigation menus with any links you want.
🏗️
Header builder
Visual editor for your site header — logo, nav, layout, colours.
🦶
Footer builder
Multi-column footer with menu and content blocks.
📡
FTP & SFTP publish
Publish directly to any host. Incremental uploads — only changed files.
🌍
Multiple sites
Manage multiple websites from one Fonderie installation.
👁️
Local preview
Instant preview server at localhost:5001. See exactly what gets published.
🔍
SEO controls
Meta title, description, keywords, OG tags — set per post and page.
📦
Export & backup
Export all your content as a zip at any time. Your data is always portable.
Perfect for

Built for people like you.

If you need a website that looks great, loads fast, and doesn't require a developer to maintain — Fonderie is for you.

✍️
Bloggers
Write, publish, done. No plugins, no updates, no hosting bills eating into your passion project.
🖼️
Portfolios
Designers, photographers, and developers who want their work front and centre — not their CMS.
🎨
Artists
Painters, illustrators, musicians, sculptors. A space that feels like yours, not a business card.
🏢
Company websites
Small businesses that need a clean, professional presence without an agency or a monthly retainer.
🚀
Landing pages
Launch an idea fast. No ongoing maintenance, no database to babysit. Add a Tally form and you're live.
💼
Freelancers
Services, rates, contact — all you need to get hired. Build it in an afternoon, forget about it forever.
❤️
Non-profits
Tight budget, zero technical overhead. Spend your resources on the mission, not the hosting bill.
🎉
Events
Weddings, conferences, concerts, reunions. A beautiful one-page site that lives as long as you need it.
🍽️
Restaurants & venues
Menu, hours, location, reservations via embed. Everything a local venue needs — for the price of nothing.
📄
Online CVs
Your résumé as a website, on your own domain. Looks better than a PDF and you actually own it.
📍
Local businesses
Plumber, dentist, hairdresser — just needs to be found. Fast, cheap, no technical knowledge required.
🎓
Teachers & educators
Tutors, coaches, course creators. Share resources, list your services, reach your students — for free.
Comparison

How does it stack up?

Honest comparison against the most common alternatives.

Feature Fonderie WordPress Squarespace Ghost
Price Free Free + hosting €5–30/mo €13–40/mo €9–199/mo
Page speed ✦ Excellent ⚬ Varies ⚬ Moderate ⚬ Good
Security ✦ No attack surface Frequent vulnerabilities ⚬ Managed ⚬ Managed
Works offline ✦ Yes No No No
Plugin updates ✦ None needed Constant N/A N/A
Your data is portable ✦ Always ⚬ Export possible Limited export ⚬ Export possible
Database required ✦ No Yes Yes Yes
Vendor lock-in ✦ None ⚬ Some High ⚬ Some
Multiple sites ✦ Yes, built-in ⚬ Multisite plugin Paid plan Separate instance
What you leave behind

The baggage you never
have to carry again.

These aren't missing features. They're problems you're no longer paying someone to create for you.

✕
Monthly subscription fees
No recurring charges, no plan upgrades, no "this feature requires Pro". Fonderie is free and stays free.
✕
Plugin update anxiety
No more logging in every week to update 14 plugins, hoping nothing breaks. There are no plugins to update.
✕
Getting hacked
WordPress powers 43% of the web and is the most targeted CMS on the planet. Static HTML has nothing to exploit.
✕
Slow loading times
No more database queries on every page load. No more paying for expensive hosting just to get acceptable speed.
✕
Vendor lock-in
Your content is plain Markdown files on your own computer. If you ever leave Fonderie, you take everything with you.
✕
Bloated dashboards
No more wading through menus designed to upsell you. Fonderie shows you exactly what you need and nothing else.
✕
Needing the internet to write
Your CMS runs locally. Write on a plane, in a cabin, on a train with no wifi. Publish when you're back online.
✕
Paying to export your own content
Your words are yours from day one. No export wizard, no premium migration tool, no data hostage situation.
Works with everything

Add any feature
with a paste.

Fonderie builds static HTML. That means any third-party embed just works. No plugins. No API keys. No configuration. Paste the code, publish, done.

Forms & Leads
Tally — free beautiful forms
HubSpot — CRM-connected forms
Typeform — conversational forms
Mailchimp — email signups
E-commerce
Shoprocket — full shop embed
Gumroad — digital products
Stripe — payment links & buttons
Lemon Squeezy — SaaS billing
Analytics
Plausible — privacy-first analytics
Fathom — GDPR compliant
Google Analytics — classic
Umami — self-hosted option
Comments
Disqus — classic comment threads
Giscus — GitHub-powered comments
Remark42 — self-hosted
Live chat & Support
Crisp — free live chat
Tawk.to — free forever plan
Intercom — enterprise chat
Media & Search
Pagefind — client-side search
YouTube — video embeds
Spotify — audio embeds
Calendly — booking widgets
SEO

Fast sites rank higher.
Fonderie sites are always fast.

Most CMS platforms make you install a plugin to fix SEO problems they created. Fonderie has no SEO problems to fix — it generates clean, fast, well-structured HTML from the start.

⚡
Core Web Vitals
Perfect LCP, zero CLS, minimal FID out of the box. Google's ranking signals are green before you even try.
🧹
Clean HTML output
No bloated theme markup, no plugin garbage, no render-blocking scripts. Search engines read exactly what you wrote.
🗺️
Auto sitemap
An XML sitemap is generated on every build, always current, always submitted-ready. No plugin required.
✏️
Meta title
Set a custom meta title per post and page. If you don't, Fonderie uses your content title. Nothing is ever blank.
📝
Meta description
Write a custom description for every page. The snippet Google shows in search results — fully in your control.
🔑
Keywords
Set meta keywords per post and page. Lightweight, optional, and never auto-generated from guesswork.
🔗
Canonical URL
Every page gets a correct canonical tag pointing to its definitive URL. No duplicate content penalties.
📣
OG & social tags
Open Graph and Twitter Card tags on every page. Your links look great when shared on any platform.
🗂️
Good taxonomy
Categories and tags generate clean archive pages with proper URLs — no collision, no duplication, no mess.
🟢
Zero downtime
No database to crash, no server to overload. Your site is just files. It's always up, which Google rewards.
⚡
Near-zero TTFB
Time to First Byte is instant — no server-side processing, no database query. Google measures this. Fonderie wins.
🚫
No SEO plugin. Ever.
Yoast, RankMath, All in One SEO — these exist to patch WordPress. Fonderie doesn't need patching. SEO is built in.
FAQ

Questions worth answering.

Not at all. Fonderie is designed to be used by anyone. You write in a visual editor, click buttons to configure your site, and hit Publish. The only technical thing you need is FTP credentials from your hosting provider — which they give you in one click.
Anywhere you like. Fonderie publishes via FTP to any web host — Hostinger, SiteGround, OVH, or any other provider. You can also host for free on GitHub Pages, Cloudflare Pages, or Netlify. Fonderie doesn't lock you into any hosting platform.
A static site is made of plain HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files. When someone visits your site, their browser just reads those files — there's no database being queried, no server generating pages on the fly, no PHP running. This makes static sites faster, more secure, and cheaper to host than traditional CMS-powered sites.
Nothing. Your posts and pages are stored as plain Markdown files in a folder on your computer. They're just text files. You can open them in any text editor, import them into any other system, or keep them forever without ever opening Fonderie again. Your content was never ours to begin with.
Yes. Fonderie doesn't include a built-in shop, but you can embed one from Shoprocket, Gumroad, or Stripe in minutes. Paste their embed code into a page, publish, and you have a fully functional shop — without needing a database or server-side code. Many users find this faster and cheaper than dedicated e-commerce platforms.
Yes. Fonderie supports multiple sites from a single installation. Each site has its own posts, pages, images, themes, and FTP settings. Switch between them with one click from the sidebar. There's no limit on the number of sites.
Yes. For €12/year, you can have a fully managed Fonderie site — we handle hosting, publishing, and maintenance. You just write. It's the same CMS, the same speed, the same quality — you just never need to touch an FTP credential.
There is no catch. Fonderie is open source software — you can read every line of code. It costs nothing to run because it runs on your computer, not ours. We make money from the optional €12/year hosted tier for people who want maximum simplicity. That's it.
Fonderie was vibe-coded by Aurélien Fauconnier in two days using Claude Sonnet 4.6. The first website built by Fonderie was published on the 10th of March 2026.
Honest disclaimer

Fonderie is probably
not for you if…

We'd rather tell you now than have you frustrated later. Fonderie is the right tool for a lot of situations — but not all of them. Here's when you should probably look elsewhere.

You need user accounts, membership areas, or gated content — these require a database and server-side logic that static sites can't provide.
You want multiple people editing the same site simultaneously — Fonderie runs on one computer at a time.
You need a complex e-commerce store with inventory management, shipping calculators, and customer accounts — use Shopify.
You're building a web application with dynamic, personalised content per user — you need a proper backend framework.
You need a forum, social network, or any feature that requires users to submit and store content — static sites are read-only by nature.
You're completely comfortable with WordPress and genuinely happy with it — don't fix what isn't broken.
Get started

Your website.
In 30 seconds.

Download Fonderie, double-click to run, and your CMS is open in your browser. No installer. No account. No configuration.

Download free or Get hosted for €12/year →

Works on Windows, Mac & Linux · Open source · MIT License