I wanted to share Blackcube CMS, a content management system built for developers who are tired of fighting against their CMS instead of building with it.
What makes it different?
Most CMSs force you to adapt your code to their conventions. With Blackcube, you write your own code. The CMS injects content into your controllers, and from there, everything is yours: your architecture, your rendering logic, your business rules.
Key features:
Total Developer Control
You code 100% of the front-end rendering
No imposed conventions or forced architecture
Built on Yii2 framework with pure PHP MVC
Flexible Content Structure
JSON Schema-based block system (no SQL migrations needed)
Add new fields without breaking existing content
Modular page construction with reusable blocks
Performance by Design
Hazel Tree: mathematically optimized hierarchical structure
Granular caching that only refreshes what changed
Fast navigation without oversized servers
4 Ways to Organize Content
Nodes (for hierarchical site navigation)
Composites (for articles and free content)
Tags (for cross-category organization)
Categories (to group tags)
When Blackcube is NOT for you:
You don't have PHP developers on your team
You want to assemble plugins without coding
You need everything configurable through an admin interface
You're just starting to learn web development
When Blackcube IS for you:
You have a development team that knows PHP MVC
Your project has specific business logic requirements
You need custom integrations and complex workflows
You want to invest long-term without constant rebuilds
You refuse to compromise on your architecture
The philosophy
Traditional CMSs accumulate technical debt: plugins that break with updates, customizations that become unmaintainable, rebuilds that come back too often.
Blackcube eliminates these hidden costs by letting your team code a custom application while the CMS only handles structured content. No dependency on third-party plugin ecosystems, no rebuild needed when requirements evolve.
Details
License: BSD 3-Clause (free, permissive)
Framework: Yii2
Installation: Via Composer
Requirements: PHP 8.3+, MySQL 8.0+ / MariaDB 10.11+
Multilingual: Technical structure provided (language per content, language-specific URLs) - you define your translation process
Documentation: https://cms.blackcube.io
GitHub: https://github.com/blackcubeio
License: BSD 3-Clause
Would love to hear your thoughts, especially from developers who've struggled with CMS limitations in the past. Happy to answer any questions!
Note: This is not a "no-code" solution. Blackcube is for developers who want to write clean code without fighting their CMS.
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