Compare
Zeku vs Decap CMS.
Checked , from each project's own site and repository.
Zeku is a writing app for your Astro site, not a full-blown CMS. It handles posts and pages within your content collections, reading frontmatter and markdown, leaving the rest to whatever you already build your site with. There's no web admin portal, no user roles, and no page builder.
Decap CMS, formerly Netlify CMS, and Zeku both edit the Markdown in your Astro repository, and neither adds a database. The difference is where you write. Decap is a page on your website that anyone you invite can log in to, and Zeku is an app on your computer that reads your project directly.
Side by side
| Decap CMS | Zeku | |
|---|---|---|
| Where you write | In a browser, at an admin page on your site | In a desktop app for Windows, Mac or Linux |
| Setup | Add the admin page, a config.yml describing every field, and a login through your git host | Open your project's folder |
| Your Astro schema | Not read: you describe each field again in config.yml | Read from content.config.ts and the schema astro sync writes |
| Writing | A rich text or Markdown editor for each field | Live-preview Markdown, with callouts, tables, math and Mermaid drawn as you type |
| Preview | A preview pane you can style with your own templates | Your real page, from your own astro dev, beside the editor |
| Before publishing | Field validation from config.yml | Fields your build would reject are marked, links to missing pages are underlined, and an SEO check runs per page or collection |
| Publishing | Commits through your git host, with an optional workflow that turns drafts into pull requests | Commits and pushes with your own git |
| Who can edit | Anyone you give access, from any browser | Whoever has the app and the repository |
| Without the internet | Only through its local backend, a proxy you run while developing | Yes, it edits the files on your disk |
| Price | Free and open source | $19 once for a founding license until October 31, then $39, with a 14-day trial |
When Decap fits better
- Several people edit the site, especially people who will never open a code editor or install an app.
- You want edits reviewed before they go live, as pull requests.
- It has to be free and open source.
If Decap's approach is the right one for you, look at Sveltia CMS too. It reads the same config.yml with a faster, more modern editor and is under very active development.
When Zeku fits better
- You're the one writing, on your own computer.
- You want the editor to know your schema without describing every field a second time, and to catch what your build would reject before you publish.
- You want to see the real page as you write, through your own dev server.
- You'd like to write offline and publish with your own git.
Using both
They don't get in each other's way, since both read and write the same Markdown files in your repository. A team can keep Decap for the people who edit in a browser while the main writer uses Zeku, and git keeps them in step. Moving from Decap to Zeku needs no conversion: open your project, and remove the admin page once nobody uses it.
Weighing more than these two? Every Astro CMS option, compared.