Features

Great for web designers

Perch is a great lightweight CMS for web design companies to use in their projects, as well as a handy way for individuals to manage the sites they’re passionate about.

• Quick to get started
• A low, one-off cost – no monthly billing
• Brandable interface

• Add a CMS to an existing site
• Flexible license enables local and live versions
• Hosted with the website

Great for clients

Perch has a simple user interface that clients love. It is designed to give the user confidence in updating their sites, enabling them to manage their content independently.

• Simple to use
• Use your favourite WYSIWYG editors
• Proper control panel

• Multi-level undo
• Save as draft
• Preview changes

Powerful content management

Perch is a lightweight CMS with deceptively powerful features. Unlike basic content editing systems, Perch truly manages content, just on a smaller scale.

• Share and reuse content across pages
• Create multiple-item content regions Updated
• Automatically resize and crop images

• Create multilingual sites
• Upload documents, video, audio and more

Flexible templates with full markup control

With a template system designed by pedantic front-end engineers, Perch leaves you in full control of your site’s HTML.

• Full HTML5 support
• Retain full markup control
• Easily integrate your favourite scripting solutions

Not just for small sites

Perch is great for small sites, but has some big features for more demanding sites, too.

• Free blog, event calendar and image gallery add-ons
• Integrate dynamic maps
• Add new pages and generate navigation with Pages app

• Search your content with site search New
• Use forms to send email or collect visitor information New
• Add e-commerce capability with our free Shop app New

First-class support

Whether you’ve got two-dozen sites running Perch or just one, our support team are here to answer your questions, and our community forum is buzzing to share ideas. If you need professional help, our Registered Developers can take on Perch projects.

• Responsive technical support
• Friendly online documentation
• Busy community discussion forum

• Registered developer network
• Updates and fixes to the same version are free
• Free backup app to keep your data safe

Great for developers

There’s lots in Perch for developers. Whether you need a drop-in CMS solution for a custom web app, or want to use Perch as a framework to build your functionality on, the options are there.

• Can be dropped in with many MVC frameworks
• Full developer API
• Simple plug-in API for editor and UI customisation
• PHP5 and MySQL

• Ground-up structured data architecture
• Easily use microformats and HTML5 microdata
• No reliance on JavaScript

What makes Perch different?

Perch is a small CMS that you download and install on your own server. This means you stay in complete control and aren’t dependent on any third-party services. The interface can be branded with colours and a logo to help make integration seamless. How easy is it to use? Watch the video tutorial and see for yourself.

Will it work on my server?

Perch uses PHP5 and MySQL which most common hosting plans have. It will run on both Unix-type web servers and Windows. It’s easy to get running on a development machine using XAMPP on Windows or something like MAMP on a Mac, so it shouldn’t be a problem developing with it before you go live.

To check compatibility you can download and run the Perch Server Compatibility Test Suite which will check that your local or live server meets the requirements.

Do you have a quick overview?

Read our one page guide to Perch and the company behind the product.