# ButterCMS vs dotCMS

> dotCMS scores 57.7 (C) to ButterCMS's 51.4 (D) for content management. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/buttercms-vs-dotcms
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/buttercms-vs-dotcms.md (~4,200 tokens)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (the key docs and every listing in one file, at most 16 MB, about 4 million tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (the whole catalogue as tools, no key)
- DNS: dig +short TXT <slug>.grade.anchorterminal.com (the grade as a DNS TXT record, for a sandbox with no HTTP where names still resolve; also top., best.<category>. and <a>.vs.<b>. under the zone, and the same under grade.letme.dev)
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)
- Updated: 2026-11-07

dotCMS scores 57.7 (C) on agent readiness against ButterCMS's 51.4 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. ButterCMS leads on reliability and schema & documentation. Both do content management.

- ButterCMS: grade D, 51.4/100, rank #1021 of 1486. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/buttercms.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/buttercms.json
- dotCMS: grade C, 57.7/100, rank #780 of 1486. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/dotcms.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/dotcms.json
- Best headless CMS and website publishing for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/cms/index.md
- All 136 cms comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cms/index.md

## Which one, for what

### ButterCMS (D)

Good for: A team already on a paid ButterCMS plan that wants an agent to draft and publish pages, collection items and blog posts in small volumes.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 82 against 47
- Schema & documentation, 78 against 65

Also in its favour:
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
- Free to start without a card

Watch for: The Write API is a paid add-on on Advanced ($249 a month) and Professional ($399), capped at 2,000 and 5,000 write calls a month. Its price is not published

### dotCMS (C)

Good for: Enterprises already on dotCMS who want an agent to manage content and pages.

Ahead on:
- Security & auth, 63 against 31
- Payments & pricing, 35 against 20
- Maintenance & community, 75 against 17

Also in its favour:
- Runs on your own machine

Watch for: Pre-1.0 package, with the dev docs still pointing at the beta tag


## Why the edge

### Maintenance & community: dotCMS +58

- ButterCMS (17): No dated API changelog was found, and no dated API change in the docs. The docs sitemap's page dates record no change, so they don't set recency. The newest SDK release across the ten official SDKs is `buttercms` 3.0.3 on 4 September 2025 (Python 2.1.1 on 7 May 2024, .NET 2.1.1 on 16 April 2025, the others older), more than 180 days ago (0 of 30). No three releases or dated changelog entries in 90 days (0). Support by chat and email, a knowledge base and public SDK repositories, with no public changelog (5 of 15). Ten official SDKs are listed and none has a release in the last year (7 of 15, a partial kept). The JavaScript SDK has test and release workflows and moved to trusted publishing in November 2025, with no commits in the last 90 days (5 of 10).
- dotCMS (75): dotCMS core tagged v26.11.06-03 on 6 November 2026; the MCP package's last release was 0.1.1 on 2 September (30). Core tags several times a week (20). GitHub issues and a community forum; response times weren't read because the GitHub API refused us for its rate limit (10 of 25). Not in the official MCP registry; official JavaScript client libraries (8 of 15). The MCP package's dependencies and CI state weren't read (7 of 10). 30+20+10+8+7 = 75.

### Reliability: ButterCMS +35

- ButterCMS (82): Graded on the hosted Read and Write APIs. Public status page on Atlassian Statuspage with CDN, API and Login Page components and a history feed (20). The feed's newest incidents are two on 20 October 2025, so the 90 days to 4 November 2026 are clean (30). Limits are published as monthly quotas by plan, from 50,000 calls on Free to 1M on Professional, with 2,000 or 5,000 write calls on the add-on. No per-second limit is published (10 of 15, a partial kept from the 9 October check). Free and trial accounts get a 429 that the docs say may carry `Retry-After`, the docs show exponential backoff for 5xx errors, and the bulk-operations page says to check whether content exists before creating it to avoid duplicates during retries. There are no idempotency keys, so safe-retry guidance without keys (12). The pricing page lists an SLA on Enterprise with no SLA document or figure, which this run reads as 0. The v2 API is generally available (10).
- dotCMS (47): Read with the local-software lines, since the MCP server is a stdio package the owner runs against their own instance. Official npm package with Node 20 or later and Bun stated (20). The monorepo has CI and the MCP app has vitest tests and smoke tests; whether they pass on main wasn't read (12 of 25). Open issues weren't read because the GitHub API refused us for its rate limit (10 of 25). 0.1.0 and 0.1.1 without release notes for the package (5 of 15). Pre-1.0, and the dev docs still call it beta (0). 20+12+10+5+0 = 47.

### Security & auth: dotCMS +32

- ButterCMS (31): One read token and one write token per account, with no scopes, and the docs say rotation is done by contacting support (20 for plain revocable keys, less the fixed 10 because the read token is documented as an `auth_token` query parameter, 10 of 30). That token also returns drafts with `preview=1`. The read token is a read-only credential and writes default to draft. No approval step for API writes was found, and approval workflows are listed on Enterprise (10 of 20). The API returns stored content, and no guidance on treating it as untrusted input was found (3 of 15). Audit logs and access logs are listed as Enterprise functions, and versions record who saved them (6 of 15). A responsible-disclosure section in the docs gives security@buttercms.com and says reports get a prompt response, with no stated time, and the security page describes penetration tests. No security.txt, no bug bounty, and the certifications listed are those of the AWS and Heroku data centres (7 of 20).
- dotCMS (63): JWT API tokens per user with role permissions and an expiry, created only by administrators (25 of 30). A read-only token can be made through a restricted role, but the MCP server asks for write permission; workflows support multiple-approval steps (14 of 20). Content returned from the CMS reaches the agent, and the sandbox isolates the token, with no prompt-injection guidance (5 of 15). Audit logging for API calls wasn't established in the pages read (5 of 15). A valid security.txt with PGP, a responsible disclosure policy with bounties, LTS security backports and a public list of known security issues, which is drawn by script and couldn't be read. No certification was found (14 of 20). 25+14+5+5+14 = 63.

### Payments & pricing: dotCMS +15

- ButterCMS (20): No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Four plans have public dollar prices, the Write API add-on's price is not published and Enterprise is through sales (10). The Free plan needs no card and covers the Read API. Writing needs a paid plan and the add-on, and we did not establish whether the 14-day trial includes it (10 of 20). A person signs up in a browser, and the write token needs a purchase or a request to support (0).
- dotCMS (35): Scored with the self-hosted rule, with prices from the cloud plans. No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Cloud prices are on request only (0). Free with every capability under $5 million in revenue under the BSL, with no card (20). Self-hosting needs no dotCMS account, and tokens can be minted by API on one's own instance (15 of 20). 0+0+20+15 = 35.

### Schema & documentation: ButterCMS +13

- ButterCMS (78): Public OpenAPI 3.1 files for the whole API, the Read API, the Write API and webhooks, linked from the docs index. The combined file has 28 operations on 4 November 2026, 18 reads and 10 writes (25). A docs llms.txt and a Markdown copy of every docs page (10). All operations have a description, and the write descriptions state field rules, defaults and what the API cannot do. The docs say when to use an SDK and when to call REST (16 of 20). Request bodies have required fields and 40 enums in the combined file, but the `fields` object depends on each account's page types and no endpoint returns those types (9 of 15). 328 examples in the combined file and a page of status codes with causes and sample bodies (13 of 15). The version is in the `/v2` path. No API changelog was found (5 of 15).
- dotCMS (65): The search tool exposes the instance's own OpenAPI spec, so the contract is machine-readable, though the tools themselves take JavaScript code (20 of 25). llms.txt and Markdown pages on dev.dotcms.com (10). The README says what each tool is for and gives examples; when not to use them isn't stated (12 of 20). Code strings rather than typed parameters for search and execute (4 of 15). Examples for both tools; error behaviour of the sandbox isn't documented (9 of 15). dotCMS changelogs are dated; the MCP package has no changelog (10 of 15). 20+10+12+4+9+10 = 65.

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | ButterCMS | dotCMS | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 82 | 47 | ButterCMS +35 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 78 | 65 | ButterCMS +13 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 64 | 68 | dotCMS +4 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 31 | 63 | dotCMS +32 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 20 | 35 | dotCMS +15 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 17 | 75 | dotCMS +58 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 52 | 54 | dotCMS +2 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -2 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **51.4 · D** | **57.7 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | ButterCMS | dotCMS |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | MCP server |
| Vendor | ButterCMS LLC | dotCMS LLC |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.buttercms.com/v2` | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP | stdio |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under ButterCMS's terms of service. The SDKs and starter projects on GitHub are MIT | BUSL-1.1 |
| Tools exposed | none | 7 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2025-09-04 | 2026-09-02 |
| Terms last updated | no date given | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2022-08-15 | 2026-09-08 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 6.9k npm/wk | 43 npm/wk |

## How the scores have moved

### ButterCMS

- -2.0 on 4 November 2026: checklist
- +0.1 on 28 October 2026: new evidence

### dotCMS

No score change since it was listed.

## Verdicts

**ButterCMS.** The Read and Write APIs have a public OpenAPI 3.1 file, Markdown docs and a status page with no incident since October 2025. The Write API is a paid add-on from the $249 plan, capped at 2,000 or 5,000 calls a month. Writes answer 202 with no identifier, and no SDK has had a release since September 2025.

**dotCMS.** dotCMS's MCP server keeps the tool list to seven by letting the agent search the instance's OpenAPI spec and run API calls in a sandbox that never sees the token. It is a pre-1.0 package that needs a write token, and cloud prices are on request.

## Before you call either

### ButterCMS

1. End every path with a slash. A missing slash returns a 301, and the vendor counts the redirect and the retry as two API calls
2. Send the write token only as `Authorization: Token <token>`. The `auth_token` query parameter works for reads only
3. On page creation send every field key of the page type, with empty strings for fields left blank
4. A 202 means queued, not saved. Read the entry back with `preview=1` to confirm, and check a slug exists before retrying a create
5. Call the REST API directly for writes. The JavaScript SDK 3.0.3 has list, retrieve and search methods only

### dotCMS

1. Search the spec with `search` before writing an `execute` call, and return only the fields you need
2. Use a token for a dedicated user and role, not an administrator's
3. Confirm with the user before execute calls that publish, archive or delete content
4. Keep results small with pick and first, since output is capped at about 25,000 characters
5. Use download_assets for theme folders so files land on disk instead of in context

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, ButterCMS or dotCMS?

dotCMS scores 57.7 (C) on agent readiness against ButterCMS's 51.4 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. ButterCMS leads on reliability and schema & documentation.

### Do ButterCMS and dotCMS need an API key?

Both need an API key.

### Can an agent call ButterCMS and dotCMS without installing anything?

ButterCMS has a hosted endpoint at https://api.buttercms.com/v2. dotCMS runs on your own machine, with no hosted endpoint listed.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/buttercms-vs-dotcms.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/buttercms-vs-dotcms.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "buttercms", "b": "dotcms"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare buttercms dotcms`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/buttercms.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/dotcms.json

## Other comparisons with ButterCMS or dotCMS

- [BCMS vs ButterCMS](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bcms-vs-buttercms.md)
- [BCMS vs dotCMS](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bcms-vs-dotcms.md)
- [ButterCMS vs Contentstack](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/buttercms-vs-contentstack.md)
- [ButterCMS vs Cosmic](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/buttercms-vs-cosmic.md)
- [ButterCMS vs DatoCMS](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/buttercms-vs-datocms.md)
- [ButterCMS vs Directus](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/buttercms-vs-directus.md)
- [ButterCMS vs Ghost](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/buttercms-vs-ghost.md)
- [ButterCMS vs Hygraph](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/buttercms-vs-hygraph.md)
- [ButterCMS vs Kontent.ai](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/buttercms-vs-kontent-ai.md)
- [ButterCMS vs Payload](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/buttercms-vs-payload.md)
- [ButterCMS vs Prismic](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/buttercms-vs-prismic.md)
- [ButterCMS vs Sanity](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/buttercms-vs-sanity.md)
- [ButterCMS vs Storyblok](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/buttercms-vs-storyblok.md)
- [ButterCMS vs Strapi](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/buttercms-vs-strapi.md)
- [ButterCMS vs Webflow](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/buttercms-vs-webflow.md)
- [ButterCMS vs WordPress](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/buttercms-vs-wordpress.md)
- [Contentstack vs dotCMS](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/contentstack-vs-dotcms.md)
- [Cosmic vs dotCMS](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cosmic-vs-dotcms.md)
- [DatoCMS vs dotCMS](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/datocms-vs-dotcms.md)
- [Directus vs dotCMS](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/directus-vs-dotcms.md)
- [dotCMS vs Ghost](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/dotcms-vs-ghost.md)
- [dotCMS vs Hygraph](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/dotcms-vs-hygraph.md)
- [dotCMS vs Kontent.ai](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/dotcms-vs-kontent-ai.md)
- [dotCMS vs Payload](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/dotcms-vs-payload.md)
- [dotCMS vs Prismic](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/dotcms-vs-prismic.md)
- [dotCMS vs Sanity](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/dotcms-vs-sanity.md)
- [dotCMS vs Storyblok](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/dotcms-vs-storyblok.md)
- [dotCMS vs Strapi](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/dotcms-vs-strapi.md)
- [dotCMS vs Webflow](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/dotcms-vs-webflow.md)
- [dotCMS vs WordPress](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/dotcms-vs-wordpress.md)

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Query this catalogue directly over MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (Streamable HTTP, no key). How: https://www.anchorterminal.com/agents/#mcp