One of my goals for 2025 was to ship Total CMS 3. While I thought it would be during the summer, I still made it. Total CMS 3 has turned into so much more than I ever imagined. This is 100% because of 2 things: beta testers and building a full client site with it.
A little over a year ago, Gary Loch reached out to help him build an updated version of his Greener Camping Club site. While I normally do not build websites for other people, I felt this was a great opportunity to really exercise Total CMS. I just put the final touches on the site last week and it should be ready for the world to use in early 2026. Building a client site with T3 was an invaluable experience that contributed to T3’s development.
Next up, there have been so many awesome beta testers. But I want to give special thanks to Bill Burden who was the first user to really get into the trenches and test things earlier than almost anyone. As T3 became more mature, the number of beta testers started to grow. These users have already built some really impressive websites with it. These sites would have been nearly impossible to build using Stacks before. So a special thanks to…
Joshua
Chris Powers
Davide
Ben
Jochen Abitz
Matthias Wolf
Adam Jackson
Steven Jones
Massimo
Dr. Bob Bourdage
Scott Pam
There were others that helped. If I missed you, I am sorry. Thank you for helping make Total CMS 3 what it is.
Please check out the new Total CMS product page on Weaver’s Space too. A new dedicated website for it will come in 2026.
@joeworkman@A.B.Cole What are the differences between the three different levels of Content Management System 3. I think there’s a Lite version, a Standard version, and a Pro version.
If you buy a lower version and later decide to upgrade to Pro, is there an upgrade option? If so, is there a discount for the upgrade?
You can see the differences in the multiple lists on this page: Total CMS 3 for Stacks Website Builder
You get a discount when upgrading to a higher version. I think that the discount is around 50 bucks, but I could be wrong. @joeworkman? Also you can use older Total CMS 1 licenses as a ‘coupon code’ when buying a TCMS 3 license.
Yes. There are a ton of different upgrade paths from T1 to T3 and between the various T3 editions. The pricing is handled all within the built-in store so that you know what your options are for your exact setup.
The prices are basically a little bit more than what the different between the prices would be. I tried to keep it as fair as I could for everyone.
Yes, but everybody who already bought EasyCMS can use it as long and for as many sites he likes. It doesn’t make sense IMO to still offer it now that TCMS3 Lite is available (with much(!) more features than EasyCMS ever had)…
The discounted upgrading is done from within TCMS3. You can download and install it for free (without any financial risk or the risk of loosing your TCMS1 content). Then you’ll see your upgrade options and can buy the discounted version directly from within the admin area.
Here is a small matrix for Total CMS pricing. I will work on getting this onto the product page.
From ↓ / To →
T3 Lite
T3 Standard
T3 Pro
New Purchase
$79
$159
$359
Total CMS 1
—
$119
$299
T3 Lite
—
$99
$319
T3 Standard
—
—
$229
T3 Pro
—
—
—
You cannot purchase upgrades directly from my site, it would just be too confusing and people would potentially purchase the wrong upgrades. This is why Total CMS 3 has a built-in store in the admin dashboard. It knows your domain and license information. Therefore it only provides the upgrade paths available to you.
It was a considerable amount of work to build this but I feel that I have made it very user friendly. Hopefully @wolf will agree.
And what will be the renewal pricing every 2 years?
Obviously if I am going to engage a client on TCMS3 then I need to give them details of ongoing renewal costs , at least for the 1st renewal…in 2 years time…
