Simple, honest pricing
Self-hosted on your own server — no per-visitor fees, no usage metering, and no surprise tier jumps when your blog does well.
All prices include VAT. Businesses with a valid EU VAT number receive a 0% VAT invoice under the reverse charge, at the same price.
Free
For one site, free forever
No card needed
1 site · 1 seat
Start Free- Posts, drafts & scheduled publishing
- Rich text editor — headings, images, video embeds, FAQ block
- Categories & Tags
- Frame Setup — a step-by-step guide that connects your site's menu and footer, fixes included
- XML sitemap, Open Graph tags, noindex, lazy-loaded images
- Blog in any language — 7 ready-translated, any other in your own wording
- Full backup & restore — posts, settings, team & images, on-demand + scheduled
Pro
Best for individuals and small teams
VAT included
Cancel any time. The paid features stop when you stop paying.
Pay once, keep it for good. 1 year of updates included.
More updates after that: €49 a year, only if you want them
5 or more licenses: €141.55 each (5% off), 10% off from 10
1 site · 5 seats
Start ProEverything in Free, plus:
- Media Library — shared images, alt text, usage-aware delete
- Comments — spam-protected, moderation queue
- No "Powered by DonkeyCMS" credit on your blog
- AI & search visitors — see which AI tools and search engines really read your blog, and when
- WordPress import — posts, pages, categories, tags, images
- Image Optimizer Plus — optimize the whole library in one go, keep the originals, choose the quality
- Focal-point cropping tool — drag & zoom to choose what stays in frame
Business
Best for businesses and more team members
VAT included
Cancel any time. The paid features stop when you stop paying.
Pay once, keep it for good. 1 year of updates included.
More updates after that: €99 a year, only if you want them
5 or more licenses: white-label and €236.55 each (5% off), 10% off from 10
1 site · Unlimited seats
Start BusinessEverything in Pro, plus:
- Custom roles with granular permissions
- Editorial workflow — draft → review → approve, author emailed the outcome
- DonkeyBoard — team plans, tasks and shared notes, linked to your posts
- Built-in analytics — visits, top posts, referrers, no cookies
- Meet the team page — everyone who writes for you, in your order
- Cloud backup — Google Drive (one click), Cloudflare R2, Backblaze B2
- Newsletter integrations — 6 platforms supported
Detailed comparison
| Feature | Free Free Start Free | Pro €6/month €149/once Start Pro | Business €15/month €249/once Start Business |
|---|---|---|---|
| Core & editor | |||
| Posts, drafts & scheduled publishing Write at 2 a.m., publish at 9. Nobody needs to know. | |||
| Rich text editor — headings, images, video embeds, FAQ block Headings, pictures, videos. No HTML degree required. | |||
| Anonymous posting toggle Go invisible. Nobody will know it was you. | |||
| Live post preview (never writes to the database) Peek before you publish. Nothing is saved until you say so. | |||
| Single-image upload Pick a picture, drop it in. Done. | |||
| Configurable SMTP — emails go out under your own site's name Your emails come from you, not from some mystery server. | |||
| One-click updates — backed up first, restored automatically if an update fails One click. If anything goes wrong, it puts everything back. | |||
| Blog in any language — 7 ready-translated, any other in your own wording Bonjour, Hola, Merhaba. Your blog, your words. | |||
| Admin panel in 7 languages — each team member picks their own You in English, your editor in German. Nobody has to compromise. | |||
| "Updated" date on posts edited after publishing Fixed a typo? Readers see the post is fresh. So does Google. | |||
| Your own time zone for dates & scheduled posts Your 9 a.m., not your server's idea of 9 a.m. | |||
| Light / Dark / Auto mode Your readers pick the lighting. | |||
| "Sync with page" mode — mirrors your site's own dark-mode toggle Your site flips the lights, the blog follows. | — | ||
| Frame Setup — a step-by-step guide that connects your site's menu and footer, fixes included Your menu and footer, copied over. Looks like the blog was always there. | |||
| Frame Studio — ongoing menu/logo edits, no code editing Change a menu link without touching code, or calling your developer. | |||
| Menu fixes for blog pages — a see-through or fixed menu, sorted with a click Your homepage menu floats over a photo. Your blog has no photo. We noticed. | |||
| Page converter — your pages back as .php, menu and footer lines already in place Upload, download, done. No line numbers to hunt. | |||
| Previous versions of your menu and footer — preview and restore the last 10 Changed your mind? Ten times, even. | — | ||
| Check my website for changes — copy menu and footer updates in one click New page on your site? Your blog catches up in one click. | — | ||
| Blog shown as the current page in your menu You are here. Now your menu says so too. | — | ||
| Content organization | |||
| Categories & Tags A place for everything, and everything in its place. | |||
| Media Library — shared images, alt text, usage-aware delete Won't let you delete a photo that's still in use. Saves you from yourself. | — | ||
| Theming | |||
| Full typography, accent colors, corner style, width controls Make it yours, down to the last corner. | — | ||
| No "Powered by DonkeyCMS" credit on your blog Your blog, no footnote. | — | ||
| Admin dashboard dark mode Vampires like this. | |||
| SEO & GEO | |||
| XML sitemap, Open Graph tags, noindex, lazy-loaded images The boring SEO stuff, done for you. | |||
| JSON-LD Article + FAQ structured data Tells Google and AI tools what your post is about, in their own language. | |||
| Breadcrumbs & 301 redirects Changed a post's address? Old links still find it. | |||
| RSS feed For readers (and apps) who like new posts delivered. | |||
| AI & search visitors — see which AI tools and search engines really read your blog, and when ChatGPT never signs the guest book. So we keep one for it. | — | ||
| Default social share image No more blank boxes when someone shares your post. | — | ||
| Custom head/footer code fields For that one tracking snippet your marketer insists on. | — | ||
| Media handling | |||
| Share picture in the shape social sites show (1200×630), made from your original Every shared link gets a picture that fits. | |||
| Image Optimizer — automatic WebP conversion Same photo, smaller file, faster page. Hidden location and camera details are removed too. | |||
| Image Optimizer Plus — optimize the whole library in one go, keep the originals, choose the quality One button for every old picture. The originals stay safe. | — | ||
| Focal-point cropping tool — drag & zoom to choose what stays in frame Keep the face, lose the ceiling. | — | ||
| Crop in the Media Library — five shapes, one picture or a whole selection Square, wide or tall. Your call. | — | ||
| Engagement & admin UX | |||
| Comments — spam-protected, moderation queue Real people welcome. Spam bots, not so much. | — | ||
| Social share buttons, related posts, reading time "4 min read." Now they have no excuse. | — | ||
| Contents list on posts — beside the text on wide screens, a section menu on phones Long post? Readers jump straight to the part they came for. | |||
| Reading mode — a quiet full-screen reader with paper, sepia, gray and night colors One tap and it's just the words. No cookies were harmed. | |||
| Donkle Search — a search bar on your blog, finding posts by every word in the title, excerpt or text Eighty posts and one reader in a hurry. Found it. | — | ||
| Recent Posts widget — your 3 newest posts anywhere on your site Show your latest posts on your homepage, or anywhere else. | |||
| Recent Posts widget options — 6 or 9 posts, in a grid or a slider with arrows Nine posts, one tidy row. Readers click, or swipe on a phone. | — | ||
| Saddlebag — private notes for each person on your team Our donkey carries your notes. It is loyal and knows how to keep a secret. | — | ||
| Dashboard stat cards Numbers. Some people really love numbers. | 3 cards | 8 cards + chart & sorting | 11 cards + chart & sorting |
| Authors | |||
| Author profiles — a display name, round photo and short bio for every writer Readers see a face, not "admin2". | |||
| Author pages — each writer's posts on a page of their own Who wrote this, and what else did they write? One click. | |||
| About the author box — job title, bio and links under every post Enjoyed the post? Now they can follow the person. | — | ||
| "Writes about" — each writer's topics on their author page The baker writes about baking. Search engines take note. | — | ||
| Contact email — an envelope button spam robots can't read Readers can write in. Robots can't harvest. | — | ||
| Guest authors — credit outside writers without an account or a seat Give the guest the credit. Keep the keys. | — | ||
| Meet the team page — everyone who writes for you, in your order The staff photo, minus the awkward group pose. | — | — | |
| Backups | |||
| Full backup & restore — posts, settings, team & images, on-demand + scheduled Your safety net, on a schedule, so you don't have to remember. | |||
| Cloud backup — Google Drive (one click), Cloudflare R2, Backblaze B2 Because hosting companies have bad days too. | — | — | |
| Team & permissions | |||
| Team members (Master is always free, on every tier) Bring friends. | Master only | Master + 4 | Unlimited |
| Email invitations & self-service account page Invite by email. They pick their own password. | — | ||
| Custom roles with granular permissions Writers write, editors edit, nobody touches the settings. | — | — | |
| Editorial workflow — draft → review → approve, author emailed the outcome Nothing goes live until someone says yes. | — | — | |
| DonkeyBoard — team plans, tasks and shared notes, linked to your posts Publish the post and its task ticks itself. No second tool needed. | — | — | |
| Built-in analytics — visits, top posts, referrers, no cookies Who's reading what. No cookies involved. | — | — | |
| Newsletter integrations — 6 platforms supported Turn readers into subscribers. | — | — | |
| Read-only JSON API for published posts For developers who want your posts somewhere else. They'll know. | — | — | |
| Migration | |||
| WordPress import — posts, pages, categories, tags, images Leaving WordPress? Bring your posts with you. | — | ||
| Complete uninstall tool Breakups happen. We clean up after ourselves. | |||
| White-label | |||
| White-labeled admin panel — your own logo & name Your name on it. We were never here. | — | — | With 5+ licenses |
| Security — every tier, no exceptions | |||
| Rate limiting, CSRF protection, hardened cookies Password guessers get bored and go home. | |||
Every tier is self-hosted on your own server, and every tier includes the security hardening — there is no “secure” upsell.
Pricing questions
Billing, VAT, refunds and the small print, in plain words. Still unsure? Ask us.
Paying
Yes. The price you see is what you pay as a consumer, VAT included, whichever EU country you're in. Payment is handled by Creem, our reseller and the official seller on your invoice. Creem works out the VAT for your country and sends you the invoice. Businesses with a valid EU VAT number receive a 0% VAT invoice under the reverse charge, and the price stays the same. Need your company name on the invoice? Create it in Creem's customer portal, using the link in your receipt email. And no, your card details never reach us. We wouldn't know what to do with them anyway.
A one-time license is paid once and keeps working for good, with a year of updates included. A monthly plan is a rental: it costs less to start, and the paid features stop when you stop paying. Pro is €149 once or €6 a month, Business €249 once or €15 a month. Renting Pro costs more than buying it after about 25 months, so if you plan to stay, pay once. Every feature is the same either way.
Yes, any time, with no phone call and no "are you sure?" maze. Your plan keeps working until the end of the month you already paid for, then your blog moves to the Free plan: posts stay online, paid features lock, nothing is deleted. Change your mind later? Subscribe again and everything comes back the way you left it. A one-time license has nothing to cancel.
Yes. If you're not happy with DonkeyCMS, or it just isn't the right fit, email hello@donkeycms.com within 14 days of buying a license (or of your first monthly payment) and you get every cent back. No questions asked, no hard feelings, and the donkey won't sulk (much). Your blog then carries on with the Free plan: posts stay online, paid features lock. Later monthly payments aren't covered, so cancel before one if you don't want it. Volume orders (5 or more licenses) are for business use and update renewals are delivered at once, so neither can be refunded. Want to try first? Buy a single Pro or Business license, or a month, which keep the 14 days. The details are in section 6 of our Terms.
Plans, sites and seats
Nothing stops. Your one-time license keeps working with every feature of its plan; you just don't get the newer versions. Want them? Renew from your account whenever you like: one more year is €49 for Pro and €99 for Business, paid once, never charged automatically. Renew late and the new year starts on the day you pay, so you never pay for months you skipped.
One live installation on one domain or subdomain. So example.com/blog and shop.example.com/blog are two sites. You also get one extra copy of each site for free, for a staging server or your own computer, as long as it isn't a public website. Every license is for one site. Need more? Buy one license per site: from 5 at a time, each costs 5% less.
No, seats are included in each plan. Free is just you. Pro has 5 seats: you plus 4 team members. Business has unlimited seats, so invite the whole team.
Yes. Buy 5 to 9 one-time licenses of the same plan in one order and each costs 5% less: €141.55 for Pro, €236.55 for Business. From 10 it's 10% less: €134.10 and €224.10. Pick the number on the plan's page and the price changes by itself, no code needed. Once you've bought 5, later orders keep the 5%.
Buy 5 or more Business one-time licenses in one order. Each of those sites shows your logo and your name in the admin, and none of ours. It stays that way when you hand a site over: we move its license to your client's email address and their updates keep the white-label. A single Business license, Pro and the monthly plans don't include it.