Vvveb

What it is

Vvveb is an open-source CMS and website builder written for PHP. It combines a visual drag-and-drop page builder with ordinary CMS features such as blog posts, pages and media, plus an ecommerce module and a headless API. The company's site pitches it at beginners, creators, small businesses, agencies and developers who want a finished website or storefront without building a front end from scratch, and it lets developers drop down to plain HTML and PHP templates when they want more control. The company's pages do not name a headquarters or a founding year.

What you build and how

The site describes four ways to use Vvveb: as a traditional CMS, as a visual builder, as a headless CMS, or as a hybrid of a visual front end and API-driven apps. A blog, a company site, a portfolio and an online store can all live in one installation, because the multi-site feature lets you manage several websites or subdomains from the same dashboard.

The editor. The builder is described as a real WYSIWYG editor. You customize any page and element visually, with edit-in-place content, real-time preview and component-based blocks, and the site says the page looks exactly as it does in the editor, with no difference between the two. Themes come with a visual theme editor. For anyone starting from an existing design, the templating system uses plain HTML, and the company says any HTML template can be converted into a theme in a few minutes. A built-in demo import loads initial content and configuration for a theme so you are not starting from an empty site.

Data and hosting. Vvveb supports 3 database engines: MySQL, SQLite and PostgreSQL. With SQLite the install is a single step with no database setup,. It runs on PHP versions from 7.4 to 8.4 and above. The company says its low footprint lets it run fast even on free shared hosting, and that advanced caching lets pages serve as quickly as static sites and absorb traffic spikes. Security advice on the page includes pointing the document root at the /public folder so only index.php is exposed.

Ecommerce. The homepage calls Vvveb "a full featured ecommerce platform with advanced functionality" and mentions multiple payment methods. In its comparison pages the company lists products, orders, variants, shipping and taxes as native features, in contrast to headless tools that need outside integrations.

Headless and APIs. Both a GraphQL API and a REST API are available, and the comparison pages say they cover pages, posts, products, categories and media. That lets a team build a mobile app or a React, Vue or Next.js front end on top of the same content while editors keep using the visual dashboard.

Multi-language and SEO. You can publish content in several languages or sell in different currencies, and language packs translate the admin interface. SEO features named on the page are automatic sitemaps, robots.txt configuration, hreflang support, Open Graph meta tags and a Lighthouse score the company says it targets at 100%.

Access and security. Role-based permissions work at the action level for each role, and they apply to both the dashboard and the GraphQL and REST APIs. The company lists a hidden, randomized admin login URL, 2FA, built-in integrity checks and a core it says is safe against SQL injection.

AI and extensions. An AI assistant generates content and suggests layouts, colors and content that match your brand style, and the page says it also does automated design optimization and responsive adjustments. An integrated extensions marketplace is meant for adding features beyond the core.

The evidence from the pages

Pricing is simple to state because the site shows none. The homepage says "100% open source", "Free forever" and "No credit card required", with a Free Download button, and the page lists no paid plans, trial limits, user caps or content limits. Open source is described as "transparency and collaboration. Free to use for everyone." The pages do not name a license.

Specific claims worth knowing before you plan a build:

• 3 database engines, 1-click installation with SQLite, and PHP 7.4 through 8.4 and above.
• A Lighthouse 100% score as a stated target, and a time to first byte of "a few miliseconds" (the site's spelling).
• Role-based access with action-level permissions, applied to the dashboard and both APIs.
• Native ecommerce with products, orders, variants, shipping and taxes, according to the company's own comparison pages.
• GraphQL and REST APIs for pages, posts, products, categories and media.

The company's comparison pages set Vvveb against Storyblok and Strapi, and the homepage links to further comparisons with WordPress, Drupal, Contentful, Payload, Shopify and WooCommerce. Those pages are written by Vvveb, so read them as its own positioning. They say Storyblok and Strapi need a custom front end, have no themes and no built-in ecommerce, while Vvveb ships all three. The same pages list the strengths the company claims for itself: beginner-friendly visual UI, clean PHP templates, low maintenance and a fast, optimized core. The company's pages publish no customer count, no user count and no compliance certifications, and the security features above are product claims rather than audits.

Who it suits and who it does not

Vvveb suits a founder, freelancer or small business that wants a site and a shop under one roof and is happy to host it. It also suits an agency building client sites on templates it can convert from plain HTML, a designer who wants visual control without writing front-end code, and a developer who wants a PHP codebase with GraphQL and REST access in case a mobile app or JavaScript front end arrives later. Because installation with SQLite takes one step and the code runs on modest hosting, it is a reasonable choice for a low-cost first site.

The caveats are about running it yourself. Vvveb is software you install, so hosting, updates, backups and uptime are yours to handle, and the pages describe no managed cloud service or support plan. The site does not list a template or integration count, so you should look at the theme and extension marketplaces directly to see whether your needs are covered. A team that wants a hosted builder with a support contract and a published price list will find none on these pages. And if your stack is not PHP, the plain-HTML templating and APIs help, but the core is still a PHP application you have to be comfortable operating.