Your sites, without a database. Run from your desktop.
Orkestra CMS fits in a folder: no MySQL, no plugins to keep an eye on, no dashboard demanding an update every morning. Orkestra Control handles all of them from Windows — and, if you want it to, your AI assistant writes, illustrates and publishes for you.
The complete software, no card, and it never stops working. Your free key is one ask away on our Discord. From €200 excl. tax a year only if you want the versions that come next.
01The problemOrkestra
A publishing site should not need this much upkeep
A conventional CMS means an engine, a database, a dozen plugins and an update notice every morning. The day something breaks, you first have to work out which of the three layers caused it.
Multiply that by the number of sites you look after. Time spent maintaining eventually outgrows time spent publishing — and that time is not billable.
Orkestra starts from the opposite idea: fewer moving parts, so fewer things to watch. A folder of files, a PHP engine, and one piece of software that talks to all your sites from a single place.
02The answer
Three pieces, and nothing else to install
An engine that fits in a folder
Orkestra CMS writes your articles, pages and settings as files. There is no database to create, back up separately or repair. Copying the folder backs up the whole site — and dropping it elsewhere moves it.
- Installs in minutes on ordinary shared hosting
- The engine updates itself, and rolls back if anything fails
- Browser notifications for readers, with no third-party service
- Built-in ad slots, with no external script
Software that runs them all
Orkestra Control is a self-contained Windows application. It connects to each of your sites, shows their status at a glance, and lets you write, illustrate, schedule and publish without ever opening a browser.
- Visual editor, media, categories, menus, settings
- Publish the same article to several sites at once
- Remote backups, engine updates across the whole fleet
- Build offline test sites on your own machine
An AI that writes for you
Orkestra Control exposes your sites to an assistant such as Claude, in plain language. You ask for an article; it writes in the site's own language, picks images from your image banks, and publishes. You proofread.
- 26 tools: content, media, themes, settings, local sites
- Your credentials stay on your machine, encrypted
- Works with Claude Desktop and Claude Code
- Nothing is published unless you asked for it
03What nobody else doesMCP / 26
Say it, read it back, it's live
Orkestra Control ships an MCP server: your AI assistant no longer hands you text to copy across — it works directly on your sites.
You ask
"Write a piece about the September workshops for the studio site, illustrated, and schedule it for Monday 8am."
It writes
In whichever language the site is set to — French, English, Italian or German — using the categories you already have.
It illustrates
Searching the image banks you supplied keys for, cropping to the right ratio and crediting the photographer.
It publishes
Article scheduled, cover image in place, reader notification ready to go. All that's left is your read-through.
Nothing passes through our servers: the assistant talks to your machine, and your machine talks to your sites.
04The catalogue53
53 themes, every one adjustable
Magazine, newspaper, blog, notebook, portfolio: each theme arrives with its own layout options, colours and typefaces, changeable without writing a line of CSS. The colours below are the real ones.
Every theme accepts the software's 108 colour harmonies: pick a hue and a harmony, and the whole theme retunes itself while keeping accessible contrast.
05Comparison
Where Orkestra sits
| Orkestra | Conventional CMS | Paid flat-file | Hosted blog | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Database | None | MySQL | None | Host's own |
| Price | Free, then from €200 excl. tax/yr | Free + paid plugins | Licence per site | Subscription per site |
| Number of sites | Unlimited | Unlimited | One licence each | One subscription each |
| Desktop application | Yes | No | No | No |
| Driven by an AI | Yes, 26 tools | No | No | No |
| Themes included | 53 | Third-party market | One or two | A handful |
To be fair: a conventional CMS has an extension ecosystem Orkestra does not, and an enormous community behind it. If your project rests on a complex store or one specific business module, stay where you are. Orkestra is built for editorial sites — reviews, blogs, brochure sites, local magazines — and that is where it is better.
06Pricing200 €
Free and complete. You pay only for what comes next.
The free edition is not a trial: it is the whole software, for unlimited sites, and it runs indefinitely. The subscription opens exactly one thing — the versions that follow.
Free edition
The complete software, frozen at its version, running indefinitely
- Free key, asked for on our Discord
- No expiry date
- Unlimited sites, online and local
- The Orkestra CMS engine and 53 themes
- Visual editor, media, image banks
- REST API and MCP server for AI
- Reader notifications, backups
- Interface in 5 languages
Subscription
Everything above, and everything to come
Beyond 3 machines: +50 € excl. tax per extra machine.
Indicative amount. Invoicing is in euros.
- Every update released that year
- The major versions that follow: 2, 3, 4…
- Themes added to the catalogue
- Fixes, as soon as they ship
- One-click update of the software
- Support by email
07What people ask us
01Is the free edition crippled?
No. It is frozen, which is not the same thing: every feature is there and will stay there, but that version no longer changes. You can run as many sites as you like, use the API, the AI assistant, all 53 themes and the notifications, without paying — and it runs indefinitely, with no end date.
02Why do I have to go through Discord for the free key?
Because that is where the product lives: help from other users, bug reports, release announcements. Join the server, ask for your key, get it. It is free, with no commitment, no card and no expiry date — we would simply rather know who is using the software, and be able to answer you.
03What happens if I stop paying?
Your software carries on working, at the last version you received, with nothing switched off. You never lose access to your sites: the subscription only governs downloading new versions.
04Do I need special hosting?
Ordinary shared hosting with PHP 8.1 or newer is enough. No database to order, no background process to keep alive, no command line.
05What if I want to leave Orkestra one day?
Your content is readable files in your own folder, not rows in a proprietary database. Take them over FTP, with no export tool and without asking us for anything.
06Is the AI compulsory?
Not at all. It is an option, not a route you have to take. The software is fully usable by hand, through its visual editor, and plenty of people will never connect an assistant to it.
07Does it run on Mac or Linux?
Orkestra Control is a Windows application. The CMS itself runs on any PHP hosting, and its admin area opens in a browser whatever system you are on.
Try it before paying anything
The free edition is complete and never stops working. Grab your key on Discord, install it, build a site, publish. If you then want the versions that follow, they cost from €200 excl. tax a year.