DEV Community: Mohd Hakim Johari

VonCMS v1.22 Preview

Mohd Hakim Johari — Sat, 04 Apr 2026 06:47:24 +0000

VonCMS v1.22 Preview

For those who have tested VonCMS, here’s a preview of what’s coming in v1.22.

This update focuses on improving real-world publishing workflows, team collaboration, and performance.

Editor Logs (RBAC Ready)

Built-in editor logs allow you to track:

Who edited a post
What was changed
When the change happened

This is especially useful for teams using RBAC (writers, editors, admins).

Advanced Media Manager

The media system is no longer just an upload tool. It now includes:

Media library sync (FTP / file manager detection)
Responsive image generation
Orphan file cleanup
On-demand image rebuild

All built-in — no plugin dependency.

Category Tabs

A cleaner way to manage and organize categories directly within the interface.

Quick Editor (Frontend Editing)

Edit any post directly from the frontend without entering the admin dashboard.

This significantly improves editing speed and overall UX for content teams.

Architecture

VonCMS is built as a hybrid system:

React frontend (SPA + SSR hybrid)
PHP + MySQL backend (shared hosting compatible)

Built for developers who want modern UX without requiring a Node.js deployment.

GitHub

Current version: v1.21.5
https://github.com/Vondereich/VonCMS

If you find this project interesting, consider giving it a ⭐

VonCMS will be fully open source soon.

The goal is simple:
Build a modern CMS that is powerful, practical, and accessible — especially for developers who are tired of plugin-heavy systems.

I Built a CMS That Runs a Live News Portal on Shared Hosting. LCP: 0.4s.

Mohd Hakim Johari — Wed, 18 Mar 2026 18:04:47 +0000

I Built a CMS That Runs a Live News Portal on Shared Hosting. LCP: 0.4s.

Not a demo. Not a side project collecting dust.

A real news portal. Real traffic. Real deadlines.

And it runs on a regular shared hosting server — the kind that costs a few dollars a month.

Why I Built It

I wanted a CMS that behaved the way I think about performance: lean by default, not lean after you've installed five optimization plugins and tuned a CDN.

Most CMS options in the market fall into two camps:

The heavy camp — battle-tested, massive ecosystems, but you're fighting against the architecture to get clean performance numbers. Every page load carries the weight of decades of backward compatibility.

The headless camp — clean and fast, but now you're managing a Node.js server, a separate frontend, API keys, deployment pipelines. The overhead shifts from runtime to infrastructure.

I wanted a third option: fast by architecture, simple by design, deployable like it's 2010.

That's VonCMS.

The Architecture

React 19 frontend. PHP 8.2 backend. MySQL. No Node in production.

The entire page — content, SEO metadata, ad config, related posts — resolves in a single database query. React handles navigation and rendering as a SPA. PHP handles the data layer, API, sitemaps, schema, and server logic.

The result:

Metric	VonCMS
DB Queries per page	1
RAM usage	~15–25MB
LCP (shared hosting)	< 0.4s
Plugin dependencies	0

That last line matters. Everything ships built-in:

Full SEO stack — meta, schema, XML sitemaps, llms.txt for AI crawlers
Ads manager — header, sidebar, in-feed, AdSense-ready
Comment system with role-based moderation
Newsletter
Redirect manager
WebP auto-conversion on upload
OTA updater with SHA256 integrity validation
Image SEO engine — <image:image> sitemap injection, schema image binding
SPA ad persistence — solves the AdSense freeze problem on React navigation
Path agnosticism — root, subfolder, or subdomain, zero manual config

No plugin hunting. No dependency chain. Just install and publish.

Security as Architecture, Not Afterthought

Every request passes through a 6-layer stack:

SQLi — 100% PDO parameterized queries
XSS — DOMPurify + server-side context-aware stripping
CSRF — mandatory token validation on all state-changing requests
Session binding — cryptographic UA-binding against session hijacking
Rate limiting — IP-based flood protection on high-risk endpoints
Data masking — automatic credential redaction in API responses

Plus: OTA updates enforce SSL and SHA256 package validation before extraction. The installer locks permanently after setup — no UI-level re-installation exploit possible.

It's Proven in Production

VonCMS powers Skrip Global — a live Malay-language news portal.

Scheduled posts. Breaking news workflow. Ad networks. Reader comments. Real traffic spikes.

That's the benchmark I build against. Not synthetic tests.

Who It's For

Developers who want full ownership of their publishing stack. Agencies tired of plugin debt. Publishers who want performance without infrastructure complexity.

It runs on any shared host with PHP 8.0+ and MySQL. Setup is three steps: upload zip, run /install, log into /admin. No Composer. No npm. No Docker.

Where It's Heading

VonCMS goes open source at 1,000 active installations. Not before — so there's a real community ready to sustain it when the repo opens.

Version 2.0 brings a plugin marketplace and full community governance.

Currently at v1.21.0 "Breeze" — performance refinement, UI polish, PHP 8.5 preparation.

GitHub: github.com/Vondereich/VonCMS

If you try it, drop a comment. I read everything.

Why I Built VonCMS: A WordPrxxx Alternative for the Rest of Us

Mohd Hakim Johari — Wed, 24 Dec 2025 08:34:42 +0000

I just want a blog that works without installing 47 plugins."*

Sound familiar? That's exactly why I spent the last year building VonCMS.

The Problem

Every time I set up a new blog or small website, I faced the same dilemma:

Option A: WordPrxxx

Install WordPress ✅
Find a good theme (2 hours later...)
Install security plugin
Install SEO plugin
Install caching plugin
Install backup plugin
Wonder why my site loads in 5 seconds

Option B: Headless CMS

Set up Strxx/Contentful
Build React frontend from scratch
Deploy to Node.js hosting
Realize I spent 3 days on a "simple blog"

The Solution

What if there was a middle ground? A CMS that:

✅ Comes with a beautiful frontend (no theme hunting)
✅ Has modern React performance (sub-second loads)
✅ Runs on cheap PHP hosting (cPanel friendly)
✅ Includes essential features out of the box
✅ Doesn't require npm install or build step

That's VonCMS.

How It Works

1. Download the Deploy zip
2. Upload to your hosting
3. Extract
4. Run installer wizard (5 minutes)
5. Done! You have a working blog.

No npm. No build step. No Node.js server. Just upload and go.

Features That Just Work

🎨 Three Premium Themes

Default - Clean, minimalist
TechPress - News portal layout
Prism - Modern grid design

✍️ Visual Editor

Full WYSIWYG with:

Image uploads
Video embeds (YouTube, TikTok)
Tables
Code blocks
AI writing assistant (Gemini)

🔒 Security Built-In

Session protection
CSRF tokens
Spam detection for comments
Strong password enforcement

📊 SEO Ready

Auto meta tags
Sitemap generation
Open Graph support

The "Use What's Provided" Philosophy

I designed VonCMS with a simple rule: If a feature is commonly needed, it should be included.

No hunting for plugins. No compatibility issues. No update nightmares.

You customize through the admin panel, not by editing code.

Who Is This For?

✅ Bloggers who want simplicity without sacrificing speed
✅ Small businesses that need a website, not a project
✅ Developers who want to deploy fast, not configure forever
✅ Anyone frustrated with WordPress bloat

Try It

GitHub: https://github.com/Vondereich/VonCMS/tags
Documentation: Included in download

VonCMS is free to use for unlimited projects. Deploy version is ready to go - source code available for those who want to contribute.

What features would make you switch from WordPress? Let me know in the comments! 👇