SOURCE AVAILABLE · PHP · ZERO DEPENDENCIES

Static sites your clients can edit.

Drop it into the site you've already got, or start fresh — either way you get an admin panel for a static site: no database to secure, no build step to run, and nothing server-side on the page a visitor loads.

View on GitHub See how it works

01 Templates Your HTML, your CSS

02 Admin panel Client edits content

03 Static HTML Publish. Done.

Without Chassy

−A database to secure, back up, and keep patched
−Plugin updates on a schedule you didn't choose
−A login screen for bots to find and hammer
−Hosting cost climbs as the site grows

With Chassy

✓No database. Nothing to migrate, nothing to lose
✓No plugins. No updates to schedule
✓No server code on the page a visitor loads
✓Runs on the cheapest hosting there is

How it works

One setup. Then it's just content.

You wire up the templates once. After that, the client never touches code.

quick start

$ git clone https://github.com/magnabytes/chassy-cms
$ cd chassy-cms
$ php -S localhost:8080

Developer — once

Drop the repo into public_html/
Import the existing index.html
Swap static text for {{placeholders}}
Define fields through the UI
Hand over the login

Client — always

Log in to /admin/
Click a page: Home, About, Menu
Edit text, upload photos
Click "Publish Live"
Site is live. No rebuild step to run

Features

What it does

Drop-in setup

Works on Apache, nginx, OpenLiteSpeed, and Caddy out of the box. Copy the files into an existing web root and it runs.

Works with the site you already have

Import your existing index.html straight from the admin panel — even if it's been live for years. Your markup and CSS stay exactly as you wrote them.

Auto-scaffolding

Replace a paragraph with {{about_text}} and save. The admin panel detects the new tag and builds the input for it.

Pure static output

Publish writes plain HTML files. The public site has no database and no PHP running on the pages a visitor loads.

Multi-user access

Admin accounts for developers, editor accounts for clients. Editors update content. Only admins touch templates and settings.

Version history

Every publish saves a timestamped snapshot. Restore any previous version in one click.

See it in action

This is the whole interface.

Three screens. Nothing here you'll need a manual to find.

Chassy CMS dashboard listing four pages — Home, About, Menu, and Visit — each with an Edit button and field count. — **Dashboard**Every page in the site, one screen.

Chassy CMS page editor showing plain text fields for a homepage hero headline, subtext, and button link. — **Page editor**Plain fields. No code, no CMS jargon.

Chassy CMS media library showing a grid of three uploaded images with file size and upload date. — **Media library**Upload once. Every size handled.

Compare

How it stacks up

Same job, four different sets of tradeoffs. Here's where each one lands.

	ChassyThis project	WordPressTraditional CMS	Kirby & GravRuntime flat-file CMS	Hugo, Jekyll & EleventyStatic site generators
Code running on the live site	None	PHP, every request	PHP, every request	None
Database required	None	MySQL	None	None
Build toolchain or git required	None	None	None	Node, git
Non-technical client can edit content	Yes	Yes	Yes	Only with a separate headless CMS
Runs on $5/month shared hosting	Yes	Yes, slows as it grows	Yes	Needs a host that runs the build

Bcrypt passwordsNever stored in plain text

CSRF on every writeChecked before any save

MIME-sniffed uploadsNot trusted by file extension

No telemetryNo network calls, ever

Licensing

Free for personal and nonprofit use. Licensed for commercial.

Start here

Personal & Nonprofit

Free Forever

Blogs, portfolios, hobby projects, and nonprofits. Use it, modify it, deploy it. No signup, no license key.

View on GitHub

Single-Use Commercial

Contact for pricing

One license per client website you build and hand off. Covers a single commercial deployment.

Email licensing

Agency Bulk

Contact for pricing

Unlimited client deployments across your studio. One license, every project.

Email licensing

FAQ

Before you dig into the code

Is this a subscription?: No. It's 100% free forever for personal and nonprofit use. Commercial use is a flat one-time fee per client site or per agency. No recurring payments either way.
Do I have to rebuild my existing site to use it?: No. Chassy is built to drop into a site you already have — a client's five-year-old build, an agency handoff, anything. Import the existing index.html from the admin, swap the parts that should be editable for {{tags}}, and everything else stays untouched.
Can my client break the layout or crash the site?: No. Editors only see the fields you've defined. They can't touch templates, code, or settings.
What if I need more than plain text fields later?: Repeatable lists (menu items, testimonials, team members) and image fields are built in, and you can add new fields anytime from the admin. It's not built for a full blog with pagination and tags, though.

Hand your client a login, not a maintenance contract.

View on GitHub See how it works