Six Apart
Six Apart is a Tokyo-based Japanese software company that develops and sells Movable Type, an enterprise CMS platform, in software, cloud, AWS, and SaaS editions. It serves large enterprises, media publishers, government agencies, financial institutions, and SMBs across Japan.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2003
- HeadquartersTokyo, Japan
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What Six Apart does
Six Apart (シックス・アパート株式会社) is a Tokyo-based Japanese software company founded in 2003 that develops and markets Movable Type, one of the most established enterprise content management system (CMS) platforms in Japan. The company sells Movable Type across four deployment formats — on-premises software, managed cloud (hosted on IDCF Cloud or Sakura Cloud), AWS Marketplace AMI, and SaaS (MovableType.net) — and complements the core CMS with add-on modules including Movable Type Advanced (commercial database/LDAP support, ¥1,650,000 perpetual + ¥330,000/year maintenance), Movable Type Premium (workflow and compliance features co-developed with Future Spirits, ¥825,000+), SmartSync Pack, MT Commerce, and standalone services such as MovableType.net Form and MovableType.net Site Search. Underlying technology is a Perl-based CMS supporting static site generation, dynamic publishing, and a REST/JSON Data API enabling headless and decoupled architectures for multi-channel content distribution.
The company monetizes through a hybrid revenue model combining perpetual enterprise software licenses with annual maintenance contracts, recurring cloud and SaaS subscriptions (MovableType.net from ¥3,850/month), partner-delivered professional services via the MTRS remote support offering (¥10,000–¥550,000), and add-on service subscriptions. Its customer base spans large enterprises, media/publishers (J-CAST, Rittor Music, Shueisha), government and public-sector organizations (Hiroshima Prefectural Government), financial institutions (SBI Sumishin Net Bank, Sony Bank, Sony Life Insurance), broadcasters (FM Yokohama, WOWOW), transportation companies (Hokkaido Airport, Gurunavi), and SMBs — reached through direct enterprise sales, a self-serve SaaS motion, and the nationwide ProNet partner network comprising hundreds of web production agencies.
Six Apart's go-to-market combines sales-led enterprise licensing, product-led growth via the MovableType.net SaaS, channel-partner distribution through ProNet, and an extensive event-driven seminar and regional user-group program (MT Tokyo, MT Nagoya, MT Kyushu, etc.). Notable long-tenure deployments include J-CAST News on Movable Type since 2006 and Gurunavi's 500,000-store, 1.1 billion monthly-PV site running MT Advanced with PowerCMS, indicating strong enterprise stickiness in Japanese digital content infrastructure.
Six Apart firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Six Apart
- Legal name
- シックス・アパート株式会社 (Six Apart Ltd.)
- Website
- https://sixapart.jp
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2003
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Short description
- Six Apart is a Tokyo-based Japanese software company that develops and sells Movable Type, an enterprise CMS platform, in software, cloud, AWS, and SaaS editions. It serves large enterprises, media publishers, government agencies, financial institutions, and SMBs across Japan.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Where Six Apart is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Tokyo
- HQ country
- Japan
- HQ region
- Asia
Offices1 record
Markets served
Six Apart business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure, Operations
Revenue model
- Movable Type Software License Sales: Perpetual license sales for Movable Type software edition, with annual maintenance fees. One-time license fee covers initial installation; annual maintenance covers updates and support.
- Movable Type Cloud (Subscription): Monthly or annual subscription for managed cloud CMS service on IDCF Cloud or Sakura Cloud infrastructure. Includes automatic updates, backups, SSL, WAF, and server management.
- MovableType.net SaaS Subscription: SaaS CMS subscription starting from ¥3,850/month for Standard plan. Business plan (¥7,700/month) adds staging functionality. Higher-tier plans for more sites and features.
- Enterprise Licenses (Premium/Advanced): High-value perpetual licenses for Movable Type Premium (¥825,000 initial / ¥275,000/year maintenance) and Movable Type Advanced (¥1,650,000 initial / ¥330,000/year). Premium Advanced Edition at ¥1,980,000.
- MTRS (MT Remote Services): Paid remote services for installation, upgrades, security configuration, site migration, and ongoing maintenance. Provided by partner WorldIsMine. Ranges from ¥10,000 (basic survey) to ¥550,000/year (upgrade pack).
- MovableType.net Form & SiteSearch Add-ons: Additional subscription services for form creation (MovableType.net フォーム) and site search (MovableType.net サイトサーチ) available as standalone SaaS services.
- Lekumo Business Blog: Blogging platform service for business use, offering multi-user blog management, smartphone support, and SSL as standard features.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription | Monthly | MovableType.net Standard - entry SaaS CMS |
| Subscription | Monthly | MovableType.net Business - with staging |
| One time/ perpetual license | Annual | Movable Type Premium - software with enterprise add-ons |
| One time/ perpetual license | Annual | Movable Type Advanced - commercial database support |
| One time/ perpetual license | Annual | Movable Type Premium Advanced Edition |
| Subscription | Monthly | Movable Type Cloud - starting tier |
| Subscription | Monthly | CDN/WAF options (cloud) |
Go-to-market motion4 records
Distribution channels5 records
Marketing channels8 records
Six Apart product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Six Apart develops and sells the Movable Type content management system platform in multiple deployment modes: perpetual software licenses (Standard, Premium, and Advanced editions), a managed Movable Type Cloud Version hosted on Japanese cloud infrastructure, a Movable Type AMI Version distributed through AWS Marketplace, and a SaaS suite (MovableType.net with Form and Site Search add-ons). The company also operates the Lekumo Business Blog SaaS, the MT Commerce e-commerce plugin, the MTRS remote management service, and the SmartSync Pack for multi-server replication, and supports the offering through a partner network, training programs, and integration adapters for Salesforce, kintone, COLSIS, and payment/security vendors.
Product overview
Six Apart offers a comprehensive CMS product portfolio centered on Movable Type, available in multiple deployment formats: software (installed), cloud (managed SaaS), and AMI (AWS). The Movable Type family includes enterprise editions (Advanced, Premium) with commercial database support, LDAP integration, multi-server deployment, and staging/server delivery capabilities. The SaaS offerings include MovableType.net (full CMS), MovableType.net Form (form service), and MovableType.net Site Search (internal search), all offered at varying price tiers. The ecosystem is extended through partner plugins (Workflow Pack, Staging Pack, SmartSync Pack), Lekumo Business Blog for business blogging, MT Commerce for e-commerce, and MTRS for remote support services. ProNet is a nationwide partner network for implementation and customization.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- Movable Type: CMS platform for website management and operations
- MovableType.net
- MovableType.net フォーム
- MovableType.net サイトサーチ
- Lekumo ビジネスブログ
- ProNet
Products and services
- Movable Type (Software Edition)
Quantifiable outcome
- Gurunavi manages 500,000 restaurant listings and 1.1 billion monthly page views on MT Advanced + PowerCMS
- +4 more outcomes
Companies that use Six Apart
Customer profileNamed customers12 records
Segments7 records
Ideal customer profiles4 records
Six Apart technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- Yes
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration6 records
Feature10 records
Six Apart partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Four partnerships are on record, tiered core.
- 株式会社フューチャースピリッツ (Future Spirits Co., Ltd.)coreFuture Spirits co-developed Movable Type Premium, an enterprise-enhanced version adding workflow, staging (SiteSync), safe preview, and compliance management features. Future Spirits also handles Premium plan sales and support for cloud edition customers.
- 株式会社COLSIS (COLSIS Inc.)coreCOLSIS developed SmartSync Pack, combining Movable Type software license with proprietary server delivery and workflow plugins. COLSIS is also a ProNet partner implementing MT solutions for large enterprises including Hokkaido Airport, Gaitame.com, and SBI Net Bank.
- 株式会社ワールドイズマイン (WorldIsMine Co., Ltd.)coreWorldIsMine provides MTRS (MT Remote Services) covering installation, upgrades, security configuration, and migration. Also developed MT-Ranking and MT-MCTField plugins listed in the Six Apart plugin directory.
- ProNet Partner NetworkcoreProNet is Six Apart's official nationwide partner program for web production companies. Hundreds of registered partners provide Movable Type implementation, customization, and maintenance services. Partners organized regionally with co-marketing support and training.
Scale indicators4 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights5 records
Six Apart competitors and assessment
Company assessmentEmerging players
- Strapi: Open-source headless CMS built on Node.js. Overlaps with Six Apart's Data API/headless positioning and targets the same decoupled-architecture use cases, particularly for digital-first projects.
- Contentful: Enterprise headless CMS platform competing for the same multi-channel content distribution use cases that Six Apart's Data API enables. Represents the modern stack Six Apart would face in greenfield enterprise projects.
- microCMS: Japan-based headless CMS targeting Japanese developers and SMBs. Closest emerging competitor to MovableType.net in the Japanese market with a native headless architecture.
Direct peers
- Squarespace: Premium SaaS website builder popular with creators, small businesses, and design-oriented brands. Overlaps with MovableType.net Standard/Business plans on template-driven, hosted website creation.
- Drupal Association: Steward of Drupal, an open-source enterprise CMS widely used for complex, high-traffic sites. Competes with Movable Type in the enterprise/government segment where both serve regulated, multi-author publishing workflows.
- Jimdo: Hamburg-headquartered SaaS website builder with deep Japanese localization and a sizable Japanese user base. Direct SMB competitor to MovableType.net in the Japanese market.
- Automattic (WordPress): Owner of WordPress, the dominant global open-source CMS. Direct competitor to Movable Type across blogging, SMB, and enterprise segments; very different business model (open-source + paid hosting) but same fundamental product category.
- Wix: Global SaaS website builder with strong Japanese market presence. Directly competes with MovableType.net for SMB and self-serve CMS customers seeking zero-server-setup publishing.
Others
- Alfasado: Japan-based Movable Type ecosystem partner and developer of PowerCMS plugin pack for MT. Closely tied to Six Apart as a co-development, training, and implementation partner, but also an adjacent product player in the MT ecosystem.
Broad incumbents
- Adobe (Adobe Experience Manager): Global enterprise content and digital experience management platform. Competes with Movable Type Premium/Advanced for large-enterprise CMS deals where Six Apart would not match Adobe's broader martech portfolio.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat4 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Six Apart social profiles
Digital presenceSix Apart financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Six Apart leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles5 records
Six Apart funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Six Apart 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 Six Apart
What does Six Apart do?
Six Apart develops and sells the Movable Type content management system platform in multiple deployment modes: perpetual software licenses (Standard, Premium, and Advanced editions), a managed Movable Type Cloud Version hosted on Japanese cloud infrastructure, a Movable Type AMI Version distributed through AWS Marketplace, and a SaaS suite (MovableType.net with Form and Site Search add-ons). The company also operates the Lekumo Business Blog SaaS, the MT Commerce e-commerce plugin, the MTRS remote management service, and the SmartSync Pack for multi-server replication, and supports the offering through a partner network, training programs, and integration adapters for Salesforce, kintone, COLSIS, and payment/security vendors.
Is Six Apart a public or private company?
Six Apart is a private company. It is classified as unknown and is currently operating.
When was Six Apart founded?
Six Apart was founded in 2003. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is Six Apart based?
Six Apart is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, in the Asia region.
How does Six Apart make money?
Seven revenue lines are on record. Movable Type Software License Sales are the primary driver. The others are movable Type Cloud (Subscription), movableType.net SaaS Subscription, enterprise Licenses (Premium/Advanced), MTRS (MT Remote Services), movableType.net Form & SiteSearch Add-ons and lekumo Business Blog.
Who are Six Apart's main competitors?
Emerging players on record are Strapi, Contentful and microCMS. Direct peers are Squarespace, Drupal Association, Jimdo, Automattic (WordPress) and Wix. Alfasado is listed as an others. Adobe (Adobe Experience Manager) is listed as a broad incumbent.
Does Six Apart have an API?
Yes. Data API - REST/JSON API available across Movable Type 6 and later versions, enabling developers to access, retrieve, and update content data from various programming languages. Supports content type endpoints from MT7 onward, decoupled/headless CMS architecture for multi-device content delivery, and custom management interface or app development. Developer documentation is at www.movabletype.jp/developers/data-api.