The Publii core application is free and open-source under the GPL-3.0 license. You can use it for personal and commercial websites without buying the application. Running a website can still involve costs. Hosting, domains, optional premium themes, plugins, and third-party services may be paid. The Publii Marketplace contains both free and commercial products.

Publii FAQ: How the static CMS works

Publii is a desktop CMS that creates static websites. You manage the site locally, generate the finished files on your computer, and publish them to your chosen hosting provider. This FAQ explains the workflow, costs, hosting options, privacy controls, and differences from WordPress.

What is Publii?
How does Publii work?
How is Publii different from WordPress?
Is Publii free?
Can I use Publii offline?
Where can I host a Publii website?
Do I need coding knowledge to use Publii?
What types of websites work well with Publii?
Can a Publii site use forms, comments, search, or ecommerce?
Is Publii suitable for a privacy-focused website?
Does Publii make a website GDPR-compliant?
Can teams or multiple authors use Publii?
How is Publii different from a command-line static site generator?
Is Publii headless or serverless?

What is Publii?

Publii is a free, open-source desktop CMS for Windows, macOS, and Linux. It provides visual tools for writing, organizing, and previewing content, then generates a static website made from HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and media files.

The Publii application and its content database stay on your computer. The published website does not require the Publii application, PHP, or a CMS database on the server. See the Publii documentation for an overview of the workflow.

How does Publii work?

You create and edit the site in the Publii desktop application. When you preview or publish, Publii combines your content with the selected theme and generates the finished website files.

Create a site and choose a theme.
Write posts or pages and configure navigation, SEO, and site settings.
Preview the generated website locally.
Publish the files to a supported hosting provider or export them for manual deployment.

Visitors receive the generated files from the host. Publii does not need to run on the public server.

How is Publii different from WordPress?

Publii generates pages before publication. A conventional self-hosted WordPress site uses PHP, a database, themes, and plugins on the server to build or retrieve a response. Full-page caching can let WordPress serve pre-generated HTML, so the practical difference depends on its hosting and configuration.

Area	Publii	Self-hosted WordPress
Page generation	Pages are generated on your computer before publication.	Pages are normally handled by the server, although caching can serve pre-generated responses.
Editing	Desktop application with local site data.	Browser-based administration on the server.
Public CMS stack	No Publii admin panel, PHP runtime, or Publii database is required on the host.	WordPress core, PHP, a database, themes, and plugins normally remain online.
Dynamic features	Added selectively with JavaScript, plugins, APIs, or external services.	Available through WordPress core, themes, plugins, and custom server-side code.
Maintenance	The public site has no Publii runtime to update. Hosting, themes, integrations, and local backups still need attention.	Core, themes, plugins, PHP, and the database require maintenance unless a managed provider handles it.

Because Publii generates the HTML before deployment, the host has less work to do for a standard page request and exposes a smaller live CMS attack surface. Actual speed and security still depend on the theme, scripts, images, hosting, credentials, and configuration. Read the detailed Publii vs WordPress comparison for use cases and trade-offs.

Is Publii free?

The Publii core application is free and open-source under the GPL-3.0 license. You can use it for personal and commercial websites without buying the application. The source code and license are available in the Publii GitHub repository.

Running a website can still involve costs. Hosting, domains, optional premium themes, plugins, and third-party services may be paid. The Publii Marketplace contains both free and commercial products.

Can I use Publii offline?

Yes. After installation, you can create and edit content, change site settings, customize installed themes, and preview the generated site without an internet connection. Site data remains on your computer unless you place it in a synchronized folder or publish it to a remote host.

You need internet access to publish to an online server, download application updates or Marketplace products, and use any external resources or services that your site depends on.

Where can I host a Publii website?

Publii can publish to several hosting and storage services:

FTP, FTPS, or SFTP hosting
Netlify
Amazon S3
Google Cloud Storage
GitHub Pages
GitLab Pages
a Git repository
manual deployment to a local folder

The generated files can be moved between compatible hosts because the public site does not require a Publii-specific server stack. Features such as HTTPS, custom domains, CDN delivery, redirects, and pricing depend on the selected provider and may require additional configuration. See the server configuration guide for current deployment options.

Do I need coding knowledge to use Publii?

No coding is required for the standard publishing workflow. Publii includes a Block Editor and a WYSIWYG Editor for visual editing. A separate Markdown Editor is available for writers who prefer Markdown syntax.

HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and Handlebars are useful when you want to create or substantially modify a theme. These skills are optional for writing content, managing navigation, changing standard theme settings, and publishing a site. Compare the three Publii editors or see the theme developer documentation.

What types of websites work well with Publii?

Publii is suited to content-focused websites whose core pages can be generated before publication. Common examples include:

blogs and magazines
documentation and knowledge bases
portfolios
company and product websites
campaign and landing pages
small resource directories

A different platform may be a better fit when the website depends on browser-based team editing, customer accounts, memberships, complex ecommerce, frequently changing database content, or extensive server-side application logic.

Can a Publii site use forms, comments, search, or ecommerce?

Yes. A static site can use client-side JavaScript, Publii plugins, APIs, and external services for features such as search, analytics, comments, forms, chat, and ecommerce.

These integrations can introduce their own scripts, cookies, data processing, security requirements, and costs. For a project built around accounts, real-time collaboration, or complex transactions, a dynamic application or a dedicated backend may be more appropriate.

Is Publii suitable for a privacy-focused website?

Publii can provide a privacy-conscious starting point because the published site does not require a public CMS login, a Publii database, or server-side Publii processing. Official themes also keep their standard assets local rather than loading them from third-party CDNs.

The final privacy profile depends on the complete site. Hosting logs, analytics, forms, embedded media, comments, advertising, fonts, and other third-party integrations can collect or transmit visitor data. Review each service and disclose relevant processing in the site's privacy information.

No CMS can guarantee that a website is GDPR-compliant. Compliance depends on what data the site collects, why it is processed, which services receive it, the applicable legal basis, retention practices, disclosures, and the site's configuration.

Publii includes tools that can help with privacy-oriented configuration, including a cookie banner, consent groups, privacy controls for embedded content, and integrations for consent-aware services. Site owners remain responsible for configuring and testing those tools and obtaining legal advice when required. See the GDPR cookie banner documentation.

Can teams or multiple authors use Publii?

Publii supports multiple author profiles, but it is not a browser-based multi-user CMS with central accounts, roles, and simultaneous editing. The application was designed around local site files.

A team can place a Publii site in a shared, synchronized folder and open it on multiple computers. Contributors should coordinate edits and backups to avoid conflicting file changes. Follow the multi-computer workflow guide before sharing a project.

How is Publii different from a command-line static site generator?

Both Publii and tools such as Hugo or Jekyll generate static files. The main difference is the authoring workflow.

Area	Publii	Command-line generator
Interface	Desktop graphical interface	Usually a terminal, code editor, and project files
Writing	Block, WYSIWYG, or Markdown editor	Usually Markdown or another text-based format
Configuration	Settings panels with optional theme development	Configuration files, templates, and build commands
Deployment	Built-in connections and manual export	Usually a Git or CI/CD workflow chosen by the developer
Best fit	Writers, designers, site owners, and developers who want a visual local CMS	Developers who want a code-first workflow and direct control over the build system

Is Publii headless or serverless?

Publii is primarily a local static CMS. It renders content and themes into a finished website rather than serving content from a hosted headless CMS API.

You can publish the generated site to managed static hosting and connect individual features to APIs or serverless functions. In that setup, the hosting or integrations may use serverless infrastructure, but Publii does not require it. The terms describe deployment and integration choices, not the basic Publii publishing model.