Git-based CMS
Siteshare vs Pages CMS
Pages CMS is free and open source: you describe your content in a .pages.yml file, and your client edits it in forms, by email invite, without a GitHub account. Siteshare works on the site as your AI built it: nothing to move into files, nothing to describe.
| Question | Siteshare | Pages CMS |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | An editor at the client's own site, /edit, on the site you built | A free, open-source (MIT) CMS for GitHub repositories, hosted at app.pagescms.org or self-hosted |
| How someone edits | Chat, select or draw on the real site; double-click to type | Forms and a rich-text editor for the content you describe, with a media manager |
| Setup in your code | None: a GitHub App on the repository | A .pages.yml with content types and fields, and content in files it can edit |
| Where content lives | Your repository | Your repository |
| Before it goes live | A draft, a build check on a clean copy, then one commit on main | Saving commits to the repository; your host rebuilds the site |
| What a client may change | Four levels per client; anything above waits for your approval | What you describe in .pages.yml; finer permissions are listed as coming soon |
| AI | An assistant per site, built in | None |
| Price | Free for 1 site, then $9 a site a month, down to $4 as you grow (5 sites $36, 20 sites $126); clients and builders unlimited | Free |
Fields first, or the page as it is
Pages CMS is a light, free answer when your content is already in files: blog posts in Markdown, events in JSON. You describe content types and fields in .pages.yml, and your client gets clean forms.
A site built with an AI coding assistant usually doesn’t look like that. The texts sit in the pages and components themselves. To use Pages CMS you first move them into data files and wire the pages to read them. Siteshare skips that step: the client points at what should change or asks for it, and the assistant edits the files where the content actually is.
Safety
In Pages CMS a save is a commit, and your host builds it. In Siteshare a change is a draft on the real site first; Publish builds exactly the files that go live on a clean copy, and only a site that builds gets one commit on main. What a client may change is set per client, and anything beyond waits for you.
Price
Pages CMS is free. Siteshare is free for one site and then $9 a site a month, less as you grow.
When Pages CMS is the better choice
- Your content already lives in Markdown, JSON or YAML files, such as a blog or a list of events.
- You want a free, open-source editor and don't mind describing each field.
- Editors fill well-defined entries and don't need to change the rest of the page.
Questions
My AI coding assistant suggested Pages CMS for my client. Why look at Siteshare?
To use Pages CMS, the content has to move out of your pages into files and be described in .pages.yml first. Siteshare works on the site as it is, including text inside components, so there is nothing to move or describe before your client can start.
Does my client need a GitHub account?
In neither. Pages CMS invites collaborators by email, and Siteshare signs a client in with a code by email.
Hand it over. Get your evenings back.
Free for one site, forever. No card needed.