Formcms

FormCMS's strongest idea is that the data model comes first and the interface is generated from it. You define content structure, and FormCMS produces REST CRUD endpoints and a GraphQL API, with CRUD hooks available when you need custom business logic in .NET. That is a meaningfully different starting point from a typical headless CMS, where you often wire up content types and then hand-build the API layer yourself. The AI layer covers two audiences rather than one. For non-developers, AI page generation replaces template work, and a visual page designer handles layout. For developers, the agentic core drafts, optimizes, and organizes content while the API layer stays the primary interface. FormCMS v1.0 is live, which matters because the project is now at a stable release instead of a demo. The deployment story is documented rather than hand-waved. The Docker Compose guide consolidates the Node.js frontend/backend and the ASP.NET Core CMS into a single container behind Nginx, with the .NET service on port 5001 and the Node service on port 3001. Database choice is a runtime setting: 0=SQLite, 1=Postgres (the default), 2=SqlServer, 3=MySQL. There's also a documented fallback: if the database is unreachable, the app doesn't crash — it enters Setup Mode at /mate/settings so you can fix the connection string from the UI. Postgres and SQLite data persist in named volumes, and the project pins its Linux Foundation project lineage in the xinit calls rather than treating the database as an afterthought. Where it asks more of you: FormCMS is self-hosted, so you own upgrades, backups, and uptime. The settings file lives inside the container and is lost on docker-compose down unless you map a volume — a real operational gotcha the docs themselves flag. There's no evidence in the sources of a third-party plugin marketplace comparable to better-established headless CMS platforms, and the sources don't name the specific underlying AI model powering the agentic features. Teams without .NET or container experience, and no one to own deployment, will find Stash's PWA convenience doesn't offset that. The fit is clearest for Microsoft-stack teams: ASP.NET Core backend, React frontend, Docker Compose deployment, and a data-driven model that generates the API surface. If that's your world, FormCMS removes a category of glue code. If you'd rather not operate a database and a container stack, this isn't the tool for you.