Introduction
What Justflows is, the problem it solves, and how to find your way around these docs.
5 min read
Justflows is a self-hostable website and content platform. A non-technical user installs it through a browser wizard — no terminal, no npm, no compilation after the first start. A TypeScript developer gets a stable, typed SDK and plugin API.
It is the most extensive free open-source web platform we know how to ship: a complete website out of the box and a headless content API, in one MIT-licensed install, with nothing held back for a paid tier.
Core is MIT — plugins and themes are not
justflows-platform-ce (core, SDK, server) is MIT. Plugins and themes declare their own license in the package manifest. Official Marketplace listings and installed .jfpkg files must use a GPL-compatible SPDX identifier (GPL, MIT, BSD, ISC, and similar).
Two modes, one platform
You do not pick a product. You pick a mode — and you can switch later.
Full website
Themes, blocks, menus, and a public HTML site — WordPress simplicity on a modern stack.
Headless CMS
Published posts and pages over REST. Your Next.js app, native app, or anything that speaks HTTP.
Why it is lighter than PHP
A PHP CMS rebuilds itself on every hit: parse the files, autoload the classes, register every plugin, render, tear it all down. Justflows boots once and stays warm. Plugins, theme, and routes are registered at start. Most public requests never reach the database at all — page cache, object cache, and static-friendly output ship in the core.
These docs match the code
Every page describes justflows-platform-ce as it ships: admin routes, env vars, hook names, CLI commands, and packages. If a UI exists but is not persisted yet, the page says so.
How these docs are organised
- [Getting started](/documentation/quickstart) — ideas, a first install, and the vocabulary.
- Install — Docker, shared hosting, source, databases, and
.env. - Content — posts, pages, blocks, media, comments, menus, languages, WordPress import.
- Appearance — themes, the customizer, CSS providers.
- Extend — plugins, hooks, marketplace.
- Developers — public API, CLI, packages.
- Operations — users, settings, security, cache, performance, health, updates.
Who it is for
| You are… | Start here |
|---|---|
| Installing a site for the first time | Quickstart then Installation |
| Writing and publishing | Content and the block editor |
| Building a plugin or theme | Plugins and Hooks |
| Connecting a frontend | Public API |
| Running it in production | Configuration, Caching, Security |