Elements CMS 2 Coming Soon!

[ben]

Hi all,

As you may already be aware, Elements CMS v2 is launching soon, and there’s so many amazing updates and new features that I can’t help myself but share some sneak peeks with you. Here’s the main updates coming in v2:

• Online Editor — browser-based WYSIWYG editing for your CMS content. Free for everyone. The single biggest addition in v2.

• New components — Comments (with an approval workflow) and Search (live full-text, no external service). Both free.

• A rewritten core — much cleaner, much faster, and better architected than v1.

• Online Editor Pro — an optional paid upgrade for teams, agencies, and anyone who wants additional features.

If you haven’t already, go watch the previously recorded Online CMS Editor for Elements (Preview) as that’ll give you an idea of what’s coming. We also have a brand new (work-in-progress) website at https://elementscms.io where you can find out more about the included components and the online editor.

In short: The CMS itself stays free. The new Online Editor is free for all users. There are pro features available for the online editor as an optional upgrade.

A look at Online Editor Pro

MCP Server. Lets you ask AI assistants like Claude or ChatGPT to write, edit, or organise content on your site for you. They can read, update, and create content and resources directly — no copy-pasting back and forth.

Elements CMS MCP

AI Writing Assistant. A writing helper built into the Editor. Ask it to draft a post, tighten up a paragraph, summarise something long, or translate into another language.

Elements CMS AI writing assistant

Webhooks. Tells another app whenever you publish, edit, or delete a post. Handy for things like sending a notification to your team in Slack, posting to social media, or kicking off any other automated task.

Elements CMS Webhooks

Version History. An automatic backup of every change. Look at older versions, see what’s different between them, and restore an earlier one with a single click.

Elements CMS Version History

User Management. Add additional users and decide what each of them can do. Handy if you’re handing a site to a client — let them write and publish posts, but keep the settings to yourself.

Elements CMS User management

Custom Frontmatter. Add your own fields to any content type. Need a “client name” on portfolio entries, or an “expiry date” on news posts? Define them once, then fill them in like any other field in the Editor.

Elements CMS Frontmatter

Whitelabel Theming. Restyle the Editor to match your (or your client’s) brand. Change colours, add a logo, the whole lot. Useful for agencies handing over a tool that looks like their own.

Elements CMS Theme Settings

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For existing v1 users

The upgrade path is straightforward. On launch day, install v2 from the Elements Store for free and it will replace your existing v1 components automatically. No migration work, nothing to reconfigure.

Pricing

• The CMS, every component, and the free Online Editor: free.

• Online Editor Pro: an optional paid upgrade. Pricing details with the launch.

Launch

Date to be confirmed shortly. This thread will get an update on the day, however, in the meantime I’m excited to hear any feedback you have so far

[Pegasus]

@ben

For existing v1 users

The upgrade path is straightforward. On launch day, install v2 from the Elements Store for free and it will replace your existing v1 components automatically. No migration work, nothing to reconfigure.

As a big fan of CMS1, this is really great to read. That was honestly my biggest concern.

The sneak peek of CMS2 definitely looks very promising, and it also explains why the two mustached gentlemen haven’t been seen on YouTube lately.

The AI stuff interests me a bit less personally, but there will probably be plenty of people who will love it.

That should be enough praise for now — I’ll just wait for the launch.

[PMUK (Paul Moore)]

@ben it starts “Pro price on launch” so go to the dedicated CMS site and theres a link with the price “??” Yet click on link and it states $99 per annum. So is this correct?

[ercross (Edward Cross)]

Hi Ben,

Is the Online Editor Pro an annual subscription or a one time fee?

Also, will it before for unlimited sites or does it need to be purchased per site?

I am drooling with anticipation!!!

[Pegasus]

@ercross

Is the Online Editor Pro an annual subscription or a one time fee?

I assume the pricing model will probably be similar to TCMS, meaning it likely won’t be a one-time fee.

In general, I think we probably have to move away from expecting one-time payments—especially for products that are actively developed further and receive regular updates.

Personally, I don’t have a problem with that model. I just hope they find a fairer approach than what Joe Workman did with TCMS3. The product itself is good, no question about that, but I find the pricing model completely unattractive—especially if you run multiple blogs, because it can get very expensive very quickly.

I hope Realmac finds a fair and reasonable pricing solution here.

[ben]

@PMUK

Yet click on link and it states $99 per annum. So is this correct?

no, that’s not correct. That was a placeholder that has now been removed.

We’re not ready to announce pricing just yet, so I can’t comment further at the moment. However, I can say there will likely be a special discount to celebrate the launch.

@ercross

Is the Online Editor Pro an annual subscription or a one time fee?

The Pro features will be available as a monthly or annual subscription.

@ercross

will it before for unlimited sites or does it need to be purchased per site?

Pro features will be per-domain.

@Pegasus

I hope Realmac finds a fair and reasonable pricing solution here.

You can use the entire CMS, including the online editor for FREE. v2 will also includes commenting and instant search, alongside all the free existing components.

I think this is way better than anything else out there, especially in the Mac website building space.

The free online editor will be sufficient for editing small personal sites — if you want the additional features outlined above, you can optionally upgrade.

[MikeV (Mike)]

Hiiii @ben,

Can you guys please add an translate feature? My dutch clients would love this if they can edit posts in their own language. Or is it possible to add an option that we can change the language manually?

Greetings,

Mike

[Pegasus]

Nice idea … maybe a simple Markdown-based solution with the option to upload language files. That way, the community could create translation files themselves and share them, so everyone can use the ones they need. For true nerds, even Klingon would be possible ^^

[ben]

@MikeV

Can you guys please add a translate feature? My dutch clients would love this if they can edit posts in their own language

Good news! The online editor supports translations and has already been translated in to 5 languages, including Dutch.

[MikeV (Mike)]

You guys rock!

[Flash]

@ben I must say, this caught my eye! I’ve created a pretty intricate and extensive Claude project for the website I mentioned in another post. This got me thinking—would it be possible to link our Elements project to the Claude Project? It could really be a “game changer!”

[handshaper (Robin Mair)]

This made my day! I was just about to start work on adding a blog to my main website; now I’ll be waiting patiently for the arrival of v2 so I can start the work.

Congratulations! This will be a gamechanger for Elements.

[ben]

@Flash

would it be possible to link our Elements project to the Claude Project? It could really be a “game changer!”

What does your Elements project in Claude do?

You’ll be able to connect Claude to your Element CMS content via a custom connection. This will give Claude access to all of your CMS content and the ability to upload new resources, change settings, moderate comments, and more.

[Pegasus]

I took a closer look at your new Elements CMS website … credits probably go out to @weaverpixel for that one.

@ben, I also have a question for you. It’s specifically about the Collection Grid with filtering & sorting.

Has this received an update in CMS2 as well?

My question is whether there is now a way to display random blog posts — meaning simply showing any posts at random.

My next question would be whether it’s possible to have some kind of blacklist option for tag filters. In other words: show all posts except those with the tag “RapidWeaver Classic.”

This kind of extended filtering for the Collection Grid would be a dream and would bring so much more flexibility.

And one last thing … is it possible in the Collection Grid to add breakpoint settings for pagination as well, similar to Columns and Rows?

Sometimes it makes sense to show fewer items per page on mobile than in the desktop view.

[Flash]

It has all the Settings and supporting Documents and Research I use for writing. I must initiate all the chats for the project from the prompt within the Project window. The advantage would be that Claude can see the Elements project and make way better suggestions for the “whole” project versus a page-by-page basis. In theory anyway.

[handshaper (Robin Mair)]

@ben

Custom Frontmatter. Add your own fields to any content type. Need a “client name” on portfolio entries, or an “expiry date” on news posts? Define them once, then fill them in like any other field in the Editor.

@ben When you create custom frontmatter, does it apply to all posts or only the one you are creating?

I use the front matter to enter values that I display in a table of dimensional information, but I don’t need the same information on all of my Markdown files, only the ones I use for this purpose. So I’m trying to understand whether these extra items I create are going to propagate or not.

I have had this working for some time using extra items I created, just trying to get a better understanding of how this will be impacted when v2 is released, if at all.

[MichaelDroste]

Wow - just watched the preview - great work

Not sure I want to watch the pro features videos - then I’ll want that

Very clever the admin portal and editing - don’t know if I want to change my workflow…

Have gotten use to writing in Typora - then dragging into elements - add the header from a previous post - edit for new post then preview and adjust…

Gotten good at it…

But I’m open to see the new features…

For me - line breaks seem to be a problem and I have to manually enter them and some headers are always too big

Hopefully I can fine tune and fix with the online editor…

I had hoped Typora would have fixed the markdown files… but they still need a little tweaking inside elements - for me

[MichaelDroste]

MCP Server - knew I shouldn’t watch it… lol

I want it!

Wow time saver - creates: title - headers - keywords - author - etc - then publishes it?

My ‘old’ manual method looks ancient compared to this…

Wow amazing times… which do you guys like better?

Chat or Claude?

Been trying Gemini this month…

(On a complete side note - like the music background track on these video demos) very Apple like…

Just cancelled Gemini - going back to chat gpt - can’t wait to get started… got to get chat gpt up to date… was using Gemini for help with writing, help with podcast scripts, and help with podcast summaries…

[ben]

@Pegasus

I took a closer look at your new Elements CMS website … credits probably go out to @weaverpixel for that one.

not sure what you mean here, I designed and built the entire site from scratch using Elements

@Pegasus

I also have a question for you. It’s specifically about the Collection Grid with filtering & sorting.

Has this received an update in CMS2 as well?

Collection filtering and sorting is currently unchanged in v2.

@Pegasus

My next question would be whether it’s possible to have some kind of blacklist option for tag filters. In other words: show all posts except those with the tag “RapidWeaver Classic.”

Not currently, but that would be a cool feature to add after v2 has been released

@Pegasus

And one last thing … is it possible in the Collection Grid to add breakpoint settings for pagination as well, similar to Columns and Rows?

Again, not currently but we could look at something like that in the future.

[ben]

@handshaper

When you create custom frontmatter, does it apply to all posts or only the one you are creating?

Custom frontmatter applies across all posts in that collection. Once you add a field, it shows up in the right sidebar of the markdown editor for every post.

If a post was created before you added the field, that field will simply appear empty until you fill it in.

I’d like to add a way to “backfill” existing posts with new custom frontmatter values, but that won’t make it into v1.