Block-based editor
Write posts & pages in a visual Puck + Tiptap editor — drag in hero sections, galleries, and FAQ accordions.
Next.js 16 · Self-hosted · v1.6
Built sharp.
Built sharp.
Stays sharp.
NextPress is the publishing engine you run yourself — the classic CMS model you already know, rebuilt server-first on Next.js. No PHP, no tracking, with SEO and security baked into core. One repo, one deploy, your data.
0PHP
Pure TypeScript, top to bottom — strict, server-first, type-safe.
1deploy
One Next.js app on Vercel's free tier. One repo, your data.
100% yours
Self-hosted. No tracking pixels, no third parties, no lock-in.
<10min
Install, finish the wizard, publish your first post.
Familiar model
Everything you know. None of the baggage.
If you've run the classic PHP CMS, NextPress feels familiar from day one — the same mental model, rebuilt type-safe and server-first.
| The classic CMS | NextPress |
|---|---|
| Posts & post types | Posts with typed schemas & revisions |
| Categories & tags | Topics (flat) + Pillars & Spikes (hub-and-spoke) |
| Actions & filters | Type-safe hook bus (actions + filters) |
| Plugins (PHP) | Isolated TypeScript plugins — own data, migrations & routes |
| Themes | Swappable presentation layer + visual builder |
| Options table | Settings registry with Zod validation & encryption |
| Roles & capabilities | Granular permissions + step-up auth |
| Sitemap / RSS / robots (plugins) | Built-in and load-bearing — ships in the essential tier |
Features
A full CMS surface — nothing bolted on later
Content, media, themes, plugins, and a REST API. The pieces you'd reach for a subscription to add are already in the box.
Pillars & Spikes
Topical clusters: one overview Pillar auto-links its focused Spikes, wiring internal links and sitemap structure.
Media library
Uploads, galleries, automatic WebP. Keep blobs in the DB or swap to Cloudflare R2 — no code change.
Menus & mega-menus
Structured navigation and rich mega-menus, built in the admin — without touching a theme file.
Themes & builder
Swap the presentation layer per site and customize templates, fonts, and colors in a visual builder.
Typed plugins
Every feature is a plugin with its own data, settings, migrations & hooks. A broken one is sandboxed — never takes the site down.
REST API
Bearer-token REST API with rate limiting and per-token IP allowlists for headless frontends and mobile apps.
Clean upgrades
Pull a new release — your customizations live in plugins and themes, not patched-into core.
The editor
A real visual editor — not a text box
Compose posts and pages by dragging blocks into place. Hero sections, image galleries, and FAQ accordions are first-class, powered by Puck + Tiptap and backed by typed block schemas.
- Drag-and-drop hero, gallery, and FAQ blocks.
- Same editor for posts and pages — one thing to learn.
- Revisions and a per-post SEO panel in the right rail.
Themes
Customize the look in the browser
The visual theme builder edits templates, fonts, and colors live — no rebuild, no theme file spelunking. Swap the whole presentation layer per site while your content stays put.
- Live template, font, and color editing.
- Reusable widgets, incl. a newspaper suite.
- Swappable layer — activated per site.
SEO
SEO that survives everything
Sitemaps, schema.org structured data, canonical URLs, RSS, and OG/Twitter cards ship in an essential-tier plugin that loads even when every optional plugin fails. Per-post meta and a redirects manager are built in.
- Structured data & schema.org per content type.
- Open Graph & Twitter cards, topic landing pages.
- A redirects manager for slug-rename continuity.
Screenshots
See the whole thing
The admin, the editor, media, themes, SEO, security, and the public site it renders. Click any shot to zoom in.
No screenshots in this category.
In core, always on
SEO and security aren't add-ons
The two things sites get wrong under pressure are the two things NextPress refuses to make optional.
SEO survives everything
Ships in an essential-tier plugin that loads even if every optional plugin is disabled.
- Sitemaps, schema.org, robots.txt, RSS, canonical URLs.
- Per-post meta plus Open Graph & Twitter cards.
- Topic landing pages for internal-link clusters.
- A redirects manager for slug renames.
Security is the baseline
Defense in depth on the auth path — encrypted, audited, and lockable out of the box.
- Brute-force account lockout + IP & country blocking.
- Step-up re-authentication for sensitive actions.
- Append-only audit log + failed-login forensics.
- Encrypted credentials at rest, secret redaction in logs.
Developer & API
Extend it in TypeScript. Ship it on Vercel.
Plugins are TypeScript files in your repo — install one by cloning it, uninstall by deleting it. Every plugin brings its own data, settings, migrations, and hooks, and a broken plugin is isolated at boot. Consume everything over a Bearer-token REST API.
Next.js 16
React 19
TypeScript
Turso libSQL
Drizzle ORM
NextAuth v5
Vercel
A plugin is just TypeScript
export const plugin = definePlugin({
name: 'reading-time',
migrations: ['001_init.sql'],
filters: {
'post.render': (html, post) => withReadingTime(html, post),
},
})
Read it back over REST
curl https://yoursite.com/api/posts \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $NEXTPRESS_TOKEN"
Quick start
Live in three steps
Runs on Node.js 22+. Turso is optional — skip it and NextPress writes to a local SQLite file, perfect for kicking the tires.
STEP 01
Clone & install
# grab the engine
git clone …/nextpress-engine.git
cd nextpress-engine
npm install
STEP 02
Configure & migrate
# set AUTH_SECRET in .env.local
cp .env.example .env.local
npm run plugins:discover
npm run migrate
STEP 03
Run the wizard
npm run dev
# open /admin → first-run wizard
✓ your first post in < 10 min
Deploying for real? Fork the repo, create a Turso database,
import at vercel.com/new, and set
AUTH_SECRET + TURSO_DATABASE_URL + TURSO_AUTH_TOKEN. The build runs
plugins:discover + migrate for you. Full walkthrough in the
docs.
Free for noncommercial use
Own your publishing stack
One repo, one deploy, your data. Fork it, finish the wizard, and publish your first post in under ten minutes.
$ git clone https://github.com/drewaltukhov/nextpress-engine.git