Lightweight PHP CMS
for Business & Export Sites

You need PHP 8.0 or higher, with support for MySQL 5.7+ or SQLite 3. PHP must have the PDO, GD, and mbstring extensions enabled. We recommend running Nginx or Apache. It runs on all mainstream shared hosting and cloud servers.

1. Download the latest ZIP archive from GitHub Releases
2. Extract it and upload it to your server's website root directory
3. Make sure the uploads and storage directories are writable
4. Visit http://your-domain/install/ in your browser
5. Follow the wizard prompts to enter your database details and admin account

YikaiCMS supports two databases: MySQL 5.7+ and SQLite 3. You can freely choose during installation. SQLite is ideal for small sites and needs no extra database service; MySQL is better suited to medium and large sites and offers stronger performance. Switching the database type after installation is not recommended.

YikaiCMS is free to use for both personal and commercial projects, with no front-end attribution required. The source is fully public — you may use and modify it freely, including building sites for your clients. Since v1.16.0 it is released under the YikaiCMS Software Licence: the free edition keeps the Powered by mark in the admin panel, which a commercial licence may hide, and redistributing the software itself (for example repackaging it for release) requires prior written permission. v1.15.x and earlier remain under the original MIT licence.

Download the official password reset tool, upload reset_password.php to your website root directory, and open that file in your browser to select an admin account and reset its password. Delete the file immediately once the reset is complete.

Work through these in order; the first one covers most cases:
1. Rewrite rules not configured — most common on Nginx. Channel URLs look like /news.html and the server must hand them to PHP.
  · Baota panel + Nginx (easiest): Site → Settings → Rewrite, pick wordpress from the dropdown and save. YikaiCMS ships a PHP-side router, so that generic rule is enough.
  · Apache: make sure the site is allowed to read .htaccess (rules are already included).
  · Aliyun / HiChina shared hosting: Control panel → Advanced environment settings → NGINX settings. Replace the default location / {} and location ~ /.ht {deny all;} with the block below and save (takes effect immediately):
  · Hand-rolled Nginx: see deploy/nginx-server.conf in the source for a complete example, then reload Nginx.
2. Channel is disabled — check its status under Channels in the admin panel.
3. Slug conflict — a slug already used by another channel or page will clash; pick a different one.
4. Channel type is "link" — those only redirect to the URL you entered and have no page of their own.
5. Static output is on — pages are served from generated files, so regenerate after adding a channel.
Still stuck? Send us the latest entry from Admin → System Info → Error Log and we can pinpoint it quickly.