Silex — the visual builder for static sites

The web belongs to everyone. Silex is a free/libre visual website builder — no lock-in, no subscription, no tracking. Design visually, export clean HTML/CSS, host anywhere.

Try Silex online | Documentation | Desktop app — coming soon | Manifesto

Why Silex?

Most no-code tools lock you in: proprietary formats, forced hosting, subscriptions. Silex is different.

• Your data is yours — standard HTML/CSS output, export everything, host anywhere, leave anytime
• Real web skills — everything you learn in Silex (HTML, CSS, JAMstack) is transferable knowledge
• Community-owned — maintained by Silex Labs, a non-profit recognized as being of general interest. No investors, no exit strategy, transparent finances
• Free forever — always free software (AGPL), all features included, no premium tier

"The only open source alternative to Webflow." — "The most powerful and graphically precise website builder that I have experienced."

Who is Silex for?

• Web agencies — visual workflow, static output, scale client work without scaling your team
• WordPress developers — visual frontend, content from WP via GraphQL, ditch the theme layer
• Freelance webdesigners — create client sites without code, export standard HTML, host anywhere
• No-code developers — go beyond Wix/Squarespace with full CSS control and no vendor lock-in

Features

• GrapesJS-based visual editor — drag-and-drop page building with HTML, CSS, and JS editors
• Static HTML output — fast, secure, easy to host anywhere
• CMS integration — bind components to WordPress, Strapi, Squidex, or any GraphQL API
• 11ty compatible — generate static sites from Silex templates, deploy with CI/CD
• Desktop app (coming soon) — work offline, no account needed, AI-ready with built-in MCP server. Built with Tauri for Windows, macOS, Linux. Follow progress.
• Plugin system — extend with server and client plugins in JS/TS
• SEO tools — meta tags, Open Graph, per-page settings
• Self-hosting — Docker, Node.js, or one-click deploy on CapRover, YunoHost, Elest.io

Quick start

Use it online — v3.silex.me (free, requires a GitLab account for storage)

Desktop app (alpha) — download for Windows, macOS or Linux. Work offline, no account needed.

Run with Node.js:

npx @silexlabs/silex

Then open http://localhost:6805.

Contributing

Silex has been built by contributors from around the world since 2009. Today, over 1,000 people use it every week, and 23,000+ accounts have been created. It's a small, friendly community — you'll get noticed, your PRs get reviewed, and your work has real impact.

• Good first issues — start here
• Contributing guide — coding standards, PR process, discuss-first rule
• Community forums — ask questions, share ideas
• Chat — quick help
• Bug reports
• AI-assisted coding — setup guide for Claude Code, Cursor, opencode, etc.

See the Development section below for build, submodules, and release workflow.

Development

How the repo is organized

This is a meta repo — it doesn't contain much code itself. Instead, it pulls together all Silex packages as git submodules in the packages/ directory. Dependencies are managed with Yarn Workspaces.

Each package (e.g. silex-lib, grapesjs-fonts) is its own git repository with its own issues, PRs and releases. You can contribute to a single package without touching the rest.

Day-to-day work happens on main — PRs target this branch. Deployments are driven by git tags: prerelease tags (e.g. v3.7.0-1) deploy to canary.silex.me and produce desktop test builds; stable tags (e.g. v3.7.0) deploy to v3.silex.me and publish desktop downloads.

Dev setup

git clone git@github.com:silexlabs/Silex.git --recurse-submodules -j8
cd Silex
nvm install        # optional — uses version from .nvmrc
yarn install       # installs dependencies and builds all packages
yarn start         # starts the editor at http://localhost:6805

Windows users: Run yarn install --ignore-scripts && yarn run build instead.

Working on a package

1. Fork the package repo on GitHub (e.g. silexlabs/silex-lib)
2. Add your fork as a remote: sh cd packages/silex-lib git remote add fork git@github.com:<your-username>/silex-lib.git
3. Create a branch, make changes, push to your fork: sh git checkout -b my-fix # ... make changes ... git commit -m "fix: description of the fix" git push fork my-fix
4. Open a PR from your fork against the upstream repo (silexlabs/silex-lib)

Releasing

Run yarn run release for guided version bumping across packages. Run without arguments to see help and options (prepatch, preminor, patch, minor, dry-run).

AI / Vibe coding

Design websites with AI — open, local, yours. Learn more

The upcoming Silex Desktop app will let you create and transform sites through prompts: describe what you want, see it built live, refine the design in real time, publish clean HTML/CSS anywhere.

Silex uses MCP (Model Context Protocol), an open standard — so you choose your AI. Run a local model with Ollama for full privacy, or use any MCP-compatible tool: OpenCode, Goose, Claude Code, etc. The MCP server is optimized for small local models (7B+).

See the vibe coding roadmap for what's coming (prompt library, examples cookbook, best practices guide — contributions welcome).

MCP setup (for developers)

Once Silex Desktop is running, connect your AI tool to:

http://localhost:6807/mcp

OpenCode — add an MCP server in your config file with URL http://localhost:6807/mcp.

Goose — add a remote server in your profile config with endpoint http://localhost:6807/mcp.

Claude Code — claude mcp add --transport http silex http://localhost:6807/mcp

Any other MCP client — use a Streamable HTTP transport pointed at the same URL.

Packages

This project is made up of 24 packages — click to expand

Package	Description
@silexlabs/sitemapgen	Generate asitemap.xml from a static site generator (SSG) output directory.
Silex Server (Rust)	A Rust implementation of the Silex website builder server, providing storage and hosting connectors for website manag...
Silex plugins	Environment-agnostic plugin system for Silex, inspired by 11ty config.
Silex Plugin Starter	Starter template for writing Silex plugins.
Silex Platform by Silex Labs	Ready-to-deploy Silex instance maintained by Silex Labs.
Silex core library	Core library of Silex — Node.js server, visual editor, npx CLI and Docker image.
Silex Desktop	Desktop application for Silex, the free/libre no-code website builder.
Silex Dashboard	Dashboard plugin for managing websites in Silex.
Silex Dashboard 2026	Next-generation dashboard for Silex, replacing the legacy Vue.js dashboard.
node_modules Path	Get the path of the node_modules folder in your scripts or CLI or package.json.
@silexlabs/grapesjs-version-flow	A GrapesJS plugin for managing version upgrades and migrations with sequential upgrade flow and modal UI
Symbols plugin for GrapesJS	This plugin enables users to create symbols, which are reusable elements, in a page and accross pages
Grapesjs Storage Rate Limit	A plugin for GrapesJS that provides rate-limited storage, allowing you to save changes immediately and then cool down...
GrapesJs Notifications Plugin	Centralized notification system for GrapesJS plugins.
Grapesjs Loading	Shows a loading bar while the site is loaded or saved.
GrapesJS Keymap Dialog	This GrapesJS plugin implements a floating UI showing the available keymaps for the editor.
Grapesjs Fonts	Custom Fonts plugin for grapesjs
Grapesjs Filter Styles	This plugin adds a search bar in the Style manager so that users can search for a CSS style
GrapesJs Data Source plugin	This GrapesJS plugin integrates various APIs into the editor, providing powerful data-driven website building capabil...
GrapesJS CSS Variables	Define and manage CSS custom properties in GrapesJs editors, e.g. --primary.
GrapesJS AI Capabilities	Discovery and metadata layer for GrapesJS commands.
GrapesJS Advanced Selector Manager	An advanced selector management plugin for GrapesJS, designed for cases where the default Selector Manager falls short
Expression & Popin Form Components	A set of reusable web components to manage expressions (chains of tokens) and form overlays.
eleventy-plugin-concat	Eleventy plugin to bundle your scripts and styles.

Contributors

Silex is made up of many packages (git submodules), each with its own contributors. This project is maintained by Alex Hoyau and owned by the non-profit Silex Labs

2026 — Alex Hoyau, Safal2004, Wassim Triki

2025 — Alex Hoyau, ceubri, Mazen Kamal, Piotr Golebiewski, oliviermgx

2024 — Alex Hoyau, oliviermgx, JeremyZXi, SuperDelphi

2023 — Alex Hoyau, [Eskeminha