Statamic

Jack McDade and Jason Vena launched Statamic in 2012 as a flat-file CMS — content stored in text files rather than a database. The pitch was compelling for developers: version control your entire site including content with Git, no database to manage, blazing performance, a beautiful control panel. Statamic grew as a premium product ($199 one-time license for the classic version) targeting Laravel developers and agencies who were tired of WordPress's database-dependent architecture. A massive v3 rebuild in 2020 moved to a freemium model — free for personal sites, paid for commercial use — and the community exploded. Jack and the team were vocally indie, anti-VC, and focused on developer happiness above all. The Statamic community became one of the most loyal in the CMS ecosystem. Revenue grew to $100k+/month from licenses, Statamic Cloud hosting, and a marketplace. An inspiring bootstrapped product in a space dominated by a free open-source giant (WordPress), winning through developer experience and architecture quality.