Kirby
Kirby operates a commercial, file-based CMS built on PHP and Vue.js, selling €99 one-time per-project licenses to web developers, designers, content editors, and digital agencies globally while remaining bootstrapped, profitable, and supported by a 5-person core team and an active open-source community.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2012
- HeadquartersMannheim, Germany
- Headcount1–10
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What Kirby does
Kirby is the commercial operation behind Kirby CMS, a file-based content management system founded in 2012 by Bastian Allgeier and legally organized as Content Folder GmbH & Co. KG in Neckargemünd, Germany. The product stores content as plain text and YAML files organized in folders, eliminating the need for a database and enabling straightforward version control and deployment. Built on PHP 8+ with a Vue.js-powered admin interface called the Panel, Kirby supports both traditional rendered websites and headless deployments for delivery to browsers, mobile devices, or any HTTP client. The latest major release, Kirby 5, introduced collaborative editing preview, dark mode, chunked uploads, a Redis cache driver, and PHP 8.4 support.
The company's revenue model is a one-time commercial license priced at €99 per project (domain), with three years of included updates; development and private installations remain free. Kirby operates as a product-led growth business — prospects can trial the product instantly via the trykirby.com demo server (30,000+ demos created since launch) before purchasing through Paddle on the company website. In 2023 the company layered on a partner network of agencies and freelancers to drive a secondary referral revenue stream. The target customer base spans web developers, designers, content editors, and digital agencies — primarily SMBs and individuals — with no disclosed enterprise anchor accounts.
Kirby is entirely bootstrapped, profitable for over a decade, and operated by a stable five-person core team split between Germany and Turkey, supplemented by a community of 60+ code contributors and 324 translators that have localized the Panel into 52 languages. There is no outside investment, and the company reinvests all revenue into development.
Kirby firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Kirby
- Legal name
- Content Folder GmbH & Co. KG
- Website
- https://getkirby.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2012
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 1–10 employees
- Short description
- Kirby operates a commercial, file-based CMS built on PHP and Vue.js, selling €99 one-time per-project licenses to web developers, designers, content editors, and digital agencies globally while remaining bootstrapped, profitable, and supported by a 5-person core team and an active open-source community.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Where Kirby is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Mannheim
- HQ country
- Germany
- HQ region
- Europe
Offices3 records
Markets served
Kirby business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure
Revenue model
- Commercial Software Licensing: Kirby generates revenue primarily through commercial software licenses for public-facing websites. Each project (defined by its URL/domain) requires a separate license. The company has been profitable for over a decade through this model.
- Partner Network: Since 2023, Kirby's partner network of agencies and freelancers provides a secondary revenue stream, likely through referral arrangements or partnership agreements.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| One time/ perpetual license | Multi-year contract | Regular/Commercial License at €99 |
| Freemium | Pay-as-you-go | Free for Development Installations |
| Freemium | Pay-as-you-go | Free for Private Installations |
| Freemium | Multi-year contract | Free/Discounted for Good Causes |
Go-to-market motion1 record
Distribution channels3 records
Marketing channels10 records
Kirby product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Kirby is a commercial, file-based content management system (CMS) built with PHP 8+ and Vue.js that stores content in simple text files where folders represent pages, eliminating the need for a database. The platform includes the Kirby Panel admin interface for non-technical content editors and supports both traditional and headless deployments, as well as static site generation. The company sells per-project commercial licenses (€99) for public sites, while development and private installations are free.
Product overview
Kirby is a commercial, file-based content management system (CMS) built with PHP 8+ and Vue.js. The core offering consists of Kirby CMS (the main platform that stores content in text files), the Kirby Panel (the administrative web interface), and Kirby 5 (the latest major version with collaborative editing features). The product ecosystem includes plugins and themes available through official directories, comprehensive documentation including a guide, reference, and cookbook, plus community resources such as the Kosmos newsletter, Discord chat, and forum. Kirby operates on a commercial licensing model where licenses are required for public sites, with development and private installations remaining free. The company maintains a fully remote team based in Germany and Turkey with no outside investment.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- Kirby CMS A commercial, file-based content management system (CMS) built with PHP 8+ and Vue.js that stores content in simple text files (YAML-based) with folders representing pages. Designed for web developers, designers, digital agencies, and content creators building websites of any scale, supporting both traditional and headless deployment modes and delivering content to browsers, mobile devices, smart watches, and other endpoints.
- Kirby 5 The fifth major generation of Kirby CMS, introducing collaborative preview mode, dark mode theme for the Panel, the Entries Field for managing multiple structured entries, batch delete operations, custom file previews, chunked uploads for large media assets, custom view buttons, plugin license management, and PHP 8.4 support. Available as a free upgrade for existing Kirby license holders.
- Kirby Plugins An official directory of community-contributed and commercially-licensed extensions that extend Kirby CMS functionality, covering use cases from media handling and form building to SEO and integrations. Available through the official plugins directory at plugins.getkirby.com.
- Kirby Themes Pre-designed site templates and themes for Kirby CMS available through the official themes directory, enabling faster deployment of Kirby-based websites with pre-built designs.
Quantifiable outcome
- Over 30,000 demo instances created on trykirby.com
- +2 more outcomes
Companies that use Kirby
Customer profileNamed customers5 records
Segments6 records
Ideal customer profiles5 records
Kirby technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Feature8 records
Kirby partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Five partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.
- Community Translatorscore324 community translators have localized Kirby's Panel interface into 52 languages, with some languages at 100% completion. This open translation project enables global adoption.
- KeyCDNminorKeyCDN provides content delivery network support for Kirby, helping optimize asset delivery for Kirby-powered websites. Listed as part of Kirby's support network on the website.
- Community ContributorscoreOver 60 voluntary code contributors have submitted code to Kirby over the years. These community contributions are invaluable to the project's development and are explicitly acknowledged as an essential part of the team.
- Partner Agencies and FreelancersminorA network of reliable partner agencies and freelancers who build Kirby projects for clients. This partner network has supported Kirby with a secondary revenue stream since 2023.
- 3st digitalminorGerman digital agency that hosted and planned the first Kirby Konf conference at their offices in Mainz, Germany. The event was cancelled due to COVID-19 but 3st digital remains committed to hosting when circumstances allow.
Scale indicators13 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights5 records
Kirby competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Ghost: Ghost is an open-source publishing platform focused on bloggers, journalists, and content creators with a modern Node.js stack. Like Kirby, it targets developers and content creators seeking simplicity and performance over database-heavy CMS giants, with similar product-led growth and a community-driven ecosystem.
- Statamic: Statamic is a flat-file CMS built on Laravel/PHP, directly comparable to Kirby in technology stack, file-based architecture, target market (developers and agencies), and pricing model. Both serve the same niche of developers who want flexibility without database overhead.
- Craft CMS: Craft CMS is a PHP-based content management system targeting developers and agencies building custom client websites. It shares Kirby's premium positioning, focus on content modeling flexibility, and SMB/agency customer base, making it one of the most direct commercial competitors.
- Hugo: Hugo is a popular open-source static site generator that shares Kirby's file-based, developer-first philosophy. While Hugo is free and CLI-oriented versus Kirby's commercial Panel-driven approach, both serve developers building content sites and compete for the same 'simple, file-based web publishing' mindshare.
Broad incumbents
- WordPress: WordPress is the dominant open-source CMS powering over 40% of the web, with a massive theme/plugin ecosystem. While Kirby targets a premium niche that avoids WordPress complexity, WordPress is the primary incumbent Kirby competes against for developer attention and project budgets.
- Webflow: Webflow is a visual website builder with integrated CMS that targets designers and agencies without requiring code. It competes with Kirby for the same designer/agency audience but takes a no-code approach, making it a broader incumbent in the 'website building for creators' category.
- Drupal: Drupal is an enterprise-grade open-source CMS used by governments and large organizations. While Kirby targets SMB and developer segments rather than enterprise, Drupal is part of the broader CMS competitive set developers evaluate when choosing a platform for complex content-driven sites.
- Squarespace: Squarespace is a hosted website builder with CMS capabilities targeting creators, small businesses, and individuals. It competes with Kirby for individual/hobbyist users and small businesses who might otherwise consider a self-hosted CMS, representing a broader incumbent in the 'easy website creation' market.
Emerging players
- Contentful: Contentful is a leading headless CMS platform serving enterprise digital teams with API-first content delivery. It represents the headless CMS trend that competes with Kirby's headless capabilities, particularly for technical/enterprise users building multi-channel digital experiences.
- Strapi: Strapi is an open-source headless CMS built on Node.js, gaining traction among developers building API-driven projects. Like Kirby, it offers open-source flexibility, but targets developers seeking headless/API-first architectures rather than Kirby's traditional CMS-with-Panel model.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat4 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Kirby social profiles
Digital presenceKirby financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Kirby leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles5 records
Kirby funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Kirby M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Kirby
What does Kirby do?
Kirby is a commercial, file-based content management system (CMS) built with PHP 8+ and Vue.js that stores content in simple text files where folders represent pages, eliminating the need for a database. The platform includes the Kirby Panel admin interface for non-technical content editors and supports both traditional and headless deployments, as well as static site generation. The company sells per-project commercial licenses (€99) for public sites, while development and private installations are free.
Is Kirby a public or private company?
Kirby is a private company. It is classified as founder individual operated bootstrapped and is currently operating.
When was Kirby founded?
Kirby was founded in 2012. It employs 1 to 10 people.
Where is Kirby based?
Kirby is headquartered in Mannheim, Germany, in the Europe region.
How does Kirby make money?
Two revenue lines are on record. Commercial Software Licensing is the primary driver. The others are partner Network.
Who are Kirby's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Ghost, Statamic, Craft CMS and Hugo. Broad incumbents are WordPress, Webflow, Drupal and Squarespace. Emerging players are Contentful and Strapi.
Does Kirby have an API?
No public API is recorded for Kirby.