SynaptikCMS — Flat-File PHP CMS, No Database Required

Flat-file architecture

All content lives in lightweight JSON files. No MySQL, no PostgreSQL — nothing to configure, nothing to maintain.

Exceptional performance

No ORM queries, no heavy framework. Pages render directly from cached JSON with minimal PHP overhead.
It's just fast!

Full theme system

Override any template via a cascade fallback. Ship your theme as a ZIP and install it with one click.

Shortcodes

Table of contents, drop galleries, callouts, recent articles, contact forms and more, directly inside any rich-text content.

Markdown support

Write content in Markdown or rich HTML — both are first-class. Tables, code blocks, headings and inline formatting just work.

Custom fields

Extend any content type with your own fields — text, dates, URLs, toggles. Stored in JSON, accessible in templates with zero overhead.

Related content

Surface relevant articles and projects automatically, based on shared tags and categories. Or choose related content manually — no plugin needed.

Media manager

Drag-and-drop uploads, automatic image optimisation, compression, resizing, WebP conversion and a batch processor — all built-in.

Backup & restore

Your entire site is plain JSON files. Back up with a ZIP, restore by importing it in one click. No SQL dumps, no migration scripts.

Accessibility reinforced

A built-in alt-text assistant scans your published galleries and flags every image missing a description, so nothing slips through.

Security-hardened

CSRF tokens, rate limiting, honeypot, hCaptcha support, strict .htaccess rules and security headers included.

SEO-first by design

Open Graph tags, JSON-LD schema, canonical URLs, per-item meta overrides and a built-in sitemap generator.

Extend with plugins

Add newsletters, bookings, redirects and more — self-contained, activated in one click, never touching core files. Browse the plugin library.

Localized Natively

JSON locale files for both front-end and admin. Localised URL slugs out of the box. Add a language in minutes.

Zero installation

Extract the ZIP, upload the files, open install.php once. You’re live. No Composer, no npm, no build step.