ChartaCMS – a drop-in, flat-file content management system for HTML-websites

Charta CMS – The CMS that gets out of your way

Charta is a lightweight, self-hosted content editor for people who build websites in HTML — and want to keep it that way.

Edit your pages. Not your workflow

Most CMS platforms make a deal with you: hand over your content, your structure, and your hosting — and we’ll make editing easier. Charta doesn’t make that deal.
Your pages stay as plain HTML files. Your server stays yours. Charta simply adds a login screen and a clean editor on top of what you already built.

How it works

— Drop it on your server
Upload Charta to any PHP host. No database setup, no build step, no configuration files to wrestle with.
— Log in
One URL. One login screen. You’re in.
— Edit your pages
Click any page in the sidebar. Edit visually, or switch to the raw HTML editor if you prefer. Save. Done.

How to make an element editable?

In Blocs, just add the class “charta-edit” to it before publishing the site to the server. It’s that easy.

Built for the way real websites work

Plain HTML files
Your content lives in .html files on your server — not locked inside a database. Move hosts, switch editors, or work directly in your FTP client. Everything stays portable.

Visual editing, no surprises
Edit text, change headings, restructure content — directly on the page. What you see is what gets saved.

Code editor included
When you need to get into the markup, the full HTML editor is one click away. No round-trips to a separate CMS interface.

Multi-user, with real access control
Add team members, assign them specific pages, and choose whether they get access to the code editor. Simple, but complete.

Self-hosted, always
No monthly fees. No vendor lock-in. No third-party servers holding your content. Deploy on your own hosting and it’s yours.

Who is Charta for?

— Freelance developers who build HTML sites for clients and need a simple way to hand over editing without handing over the codebase.
— Small agencies who want to maintain brand control and keep client sites lean — without managing a WordPress installation per client.
— Developers who build for themselves and want to update content from any browser without cracking open a code editor for every small change.

What you won’t find here

— No page builders
— No plugin marketplace
— No monthly subscription
— No database to back up
— No 47-step installation wizard
— No dashboard that takes longer to load than the website itself

TRY THE DEMO

Available at https://demo.chartacms.com.

CMS access:
Log in: https://demo.chartacms.com/editor.php
Username: admin
Password: testing