FAQ

General

We've been Wordpress and Woocommerce users for a long time, but have decided to build a PHP CMS that does 'most' of what they both do, but in a much simpler and faster way.

In 2026, the popularity of Wordpress is dwindling, for various reasons and there are many developers looking for alternatives. WP bloat, stability, security, exploits etc. can be a concern, especially when using many plugins.

With XCMS, you own it, with no ongoing or additional costs and no paywall. It can be used on as many sites as you wish.

Anything you want! Build your own website, with or without a store. Maybe you just want to use it as a blog.

If you're a web agency, you can build fast loading, SEO friendly websites and stores for your clients.

Stores selling physical and/or digital products • Digital Subscription Stores • B2B and Trade Stores

Blogs • Business Sites • Directories • Documentation • Landing Pages • Portfolios etc.

None of those. It's a plain PHP8 / MySQL, super lightweight CMS, with easy to use administration back end.

XCMS performs just as fast as any flat file CMS does.

8.1.0 minimum (currently tested up to 8.5.10)

It can do, but the .htaccess file will need tweaking (URL rewrite rules). There are converters available online.

Yes. After install, the disk space usage is approx. 12MB. It will of course perform better on a cheap VPS or dedicated server.

Products

  • Simple - One SKU, one price, one stock level
  • Variant - Multiple SKUs, prices, images, stock levels - Unlimited attributes and options, auto-generated
  • Digital - Securely delivered electronic goods, with download limits and expiry dates

admin_add_variant_product.png

Payments

XCMS supports PayPal 'hosted fields' checkout (with SCA/3D Secure) and 'standard' PayPal checkout, which are arguably the most popular and recognised payment methods.

PayPal operates in more than 200 countries and regions. You can also accept Apple Pay and Google Pay with PayPal, subject to eligibility.

Here's a full list of payment methods supported. Check to see what’s available in your country.

In the future, we may add other gateways, such as Stripe.

Yes. PayPal payments use Strong Customer Authentication (SCA_WHEN_REQUIRED). You can also make it mandatory (SCA_ALWAYS).

https://developer.paypal.com/platforms/checkout/advanced/customize/3d-secure/sdk

Registered customers and guests can download a PDF invoice. Example

Below is the guest order confirmation and guest order confirmation email...

order_confirmation.png