Raytha vs WordPress: an open source CMS for .NET teams
WordPress is the most widely used CMS in the world and the right choice when you want thousands of themes and plugins, cheap hosting everywhere and a huge talent pool. Raytha is an open source alternative for teams whose stack is .NET: it runs on .NET 10 and PostgreSQL and ships custom content types, Liquid templates, role-based access, audit logs, SAML/JWT single sign-on and a REST API without plugins.
Last reviewed October 2026 against Raytha 2.0.1 and the current WordPress release.
Raytha vs WordPress at a glance
| Raytha | WordPress | |
|---|---|---|
| License | MIT | GPLv2 or later |
| Stack | .NET 10, PostgreSQL | PHP, MySQL or MariaDB |
| Market share | Small, focused project | About 40% of all websites (W3Techs, October 2026) |
| Content model | Custom content types and fields in the admin | Posts and pages; custom post types and fields via code or plugins |
| Templates | Liquid, edited in the browser with revisions | PHP themes and block themes |
| Page building | Site pages built from widgets | Block editor (Gutenberg) |
| Extensions | Raytha Functions (JavaScript), webhooks | More than 60,000 free plugins on WordPress.org |
| SSO | SAML and JWT built in | Through plugins |
| Audit log | Built in | Through plugins |
| API | REST API v1 for every content type, API keys | Built-in REST API |
| Hosting | Self-hosted: Docker or Railway | Almost any host, plus WordPress.com |
What WordPress does well
WordPress runs about 40% of all websites and holds close to 59% of the CMS market, according to W3Techs in October 2026. That reach brings real advantages: a theme or plugin for almost any need, hosting from a few dollars a month, a block editor many marketers already know, and developers and agencies in every city. For a brochure site, a blog or a store built with WooCommerce, it is hard to beat on time to launch.
Why .NET teams look elsewhere
The friction usually starts when WordPress sits next to a .NET product. Your team writes C#, deploys containers and runs SQL databases, and the website is the one PHP and MySQL system nobody wants to own. Requirements such as single sign-on, granular roles, an audit trail or a clean API often mean adding plugins from different authors, each with its own update cycle.
Where Raytha fits
Raytha was built by .NET developers for this situation. The plumbing that usually takes plugins is in the core:
- Custom content types with 13 field types, created in the admin and stored in the database.
- Liquid templates edited in the browser, with revision history and themes you can pull and push as files.
- Role-based access control per content type, and an audit log of every change.
- Single sign-on with SAML or JWT for administrators and public users, plus email and password and emailed one-time codes.
- A REST API generated for your content, with API keys scoped by permission.
- File storage on local disk, Azure Blob Storage or any S3-compatible service.
- One container on .NET 10 with PostgreSQL, deployable with Docker or a one-click Railway template.
The codebase follows Clean Architecture with commands and queries, so a .NET developer can find their way around and extend it.
When to choose WordPress
- You want the largest choice of themes, plugins and agencies.
- You need cheap shared or managed hosting, or a fully hosted service such as WordPress.com.
- Your team knows PHP, or nobody on the team writes code.
- You need e-commerce, multilingual content or marketing integrations that already exist as plugins.
When to choose Raytha
- Your team and infrastructure are .NET, and you want the website on the same stack.
- You need SSO, roles and an audit trail without stitching plugins together.
- Your content is structured (directories, resources, events, job boards) and you want custom content types and a REST API for it.
- You prefer a small, self-hosted, MIT-licensed app over a plugin stack you have to keep patched.
Before you switch
Raytha has no plugin marketplace, no e-commerce and no built-in multilingual content, and it runs on PostgreSQL only. There is no one-click WordPress importer; content is usually moved with a script that reads the WordPress REST API and writes to Raytha's REST API or CSV import.
FAQ
Is there a WordPress alternative written in .NET?
Yes. Raytha is an open source (MIT) CMS written in C# on .NET 10. Umbraco, Orchard Core and Piranha are other open source .NET options.
Is Raytha free?
Yes. Raytha is MIT-licensed with no license fees or per-seat pricing. You host it yourself.
What share of websites use WordPress?
W3Techs reports WordPress on about 40.2% of all websites and 58.7% of sites that use a known CMS, as of October 2026.
Does Raytha have plugins?
Not in the WordPress sense. You extend Raytha with Liquid templates, Raytha Functions (server-side JavaScript for HTTP endpoints, template helpers and content events), webhooks and the REST API, or by changing the open source code.
Related comparisons
- Raytha vs Umbraco: a lightweight open source .NET alternative
- Raytha vs DNN (DotNetNuke): a modern open source .NET CMS
- Raytha vs Strapi: a Strapi-style headless CMS for .NET
- Raytha vs Sitefinity: an open source .NET CMS for associations
- All Raytha comparisons
Try Raytha
Raytha is free and MIT-licensed. Deploy it in a few minutes with the Railway template or Docker, following the quickstart. The platform overview lists what is in the box, and the source and release notes are on GitHub.
