CMS

CMS tools are for managing content without touching code — the kind of work every indie hacker eventually hits and would rather not build from scratch. 8 tools are listed here, each picked and written up individually rather than pulled from an affiliate feed. Contentful is usually the first one people try: the headless CMS your client's procurement team already trusts — solid APIs, but the pricing scales fast. Directus takes a different angle — wraps your existing SQL database in instant APIs and an admin UI — less a CMS, more a database with a great front door. And Ghost is worth a look too: built for writers who want to publish and get paid, not wrangle plugins — the sane pick for a blog or newsletter. Every listing below includes the actual tradeoff, not marketing copy, so you can pick based on what you're building instead of what ranks highest in a sponsored roundup elsewhere.