# Blog — Clear CMS

> What's new in Clear CMS, and notes on running a website without the headaches.

*Blog*

## News and changelog

What's new in Clear CMS, and notes on running a website without the headaches.

### Introducing Clear CMS

2026-09-25

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A website editor for the people who actually keep websites up to date: click anything on the page, change it, publish.

Most small organisations don't have a web team. They have an office manager, a volunteer coordinator, or an owner who does a bit of everything. Their website still needs to change every week: a new event, a new photo, a corrected phone number.

Most website tools make that harder than it should be. You log in to a back office, hunt for the right form, fill in boxes that don't look anything like the page, press save, and go and check whether it came out right.

**Clear CMS starts from a simpler idea: the easiest way to change a website is to click on it.** You open your real site, click the headline, and type. Click a photo to swap or reframe it. Click a button to rename it or change where it goes. Flip to phone size to check it still fits. When you're happy, press Publish.

Around that, we built the things a small team needs and nothing it doesn't: drafts, one-button publishing and a full history with restore; a media library with folders, tags and galleries; multilingual pages with auto-translate; your own domain with automatic SSL; visitor stats; and a "?" next to anything that needs explaining.

**Your content stays yours.** Every page is saved as open, readable files in storage you control, and you can export the whole site as a zip whenever you like.

Clear CMS already runs real sites for community organisations, non-profits and local businesses. If you'd like to see it on a site like yours, [book a demo](https://clearcms.app/contact).

![Editing a headline directly on a live page in Clear CMS](https://clearcms.app/images/shots/edit-inline.webp)

[Introducing Clear CMS](https://clearcms.app/blog/introducing-clear-cms)

### Why we save your website as plain files

2026-09-22

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Your website's content shouldn't be locked inside someone else's database. Here's how Clear CMS keeps it yours.

When you move a website from one system to another, the hard part is rarely the design. It's the content: years of pages, news, photos and settings, stored in a format only the old system understands.

Clear CMS avoids that trap on purpose. **Every page, setting and photo is saved as ordinary files**, in an open layout we call Mosaic: one small, readable file per page or item, and photos as normal image files. The files live in storage you control.

That has a few practical benefits:

**You can take everything with you.** The Export button downloads your whole site as a zip file, with or without its history. Keep it as a backup, or use it to move.

**Nothing is hidden.** Any developer can open the files and see exactly what's there. No special tools, no database dump.

**Backups are simple.** Copying files is the most boring, reliable thing a computer can do. That's what we want for your content.

It also means Clear CMS has to earn its place by being pleasant to use, not by making it hard to leave. We think that's the right way round.

[Why we save your website as plain files](https://clearcms.app/blog/your-content-is-yours)

### What's new: September 2026

2026-09-20

changelog

Your own domains with automatic SSL, themeable looks, a tidier media library, visitor stats and help on every screen.

**Your own domain.** Connect a web address you own from the Domains page. Clear CMS shows the records to add and tracks the connection until the padlock certificate is active.

**Looks and layouts.** Templates now come with looks: colours, fonts, spacing and card styles you can change without touching the page layout.

**Media library.** Folders, tags and galleries, with a count of where each photo is used and a filter for unused photos.

**Photo framing per screen.** Set a separate focus point and zoom for phones.

**Invite your team.** Invite people by email; they sign in with email or Google and see only their own site.

**Visitor stats.** See how many people visit and which pages they read.

**Help everywhere.** A "?" button next to settings explains them in plain English and links to the docs.

[What's new: September 2026](https://clearcms.app/blog/changelog-2026-09)