Visual editor
Click into the page and edit text and images right where they appear. Drag & drop blocks, insert new ones in place.
Your developers create building blocks with typed parameters—the design stays in their hands.
IllusionPublish · for agencies
Editorial workflows for your clients – without touching the code.
IllusionPublish is the paid add-on for exactly one IllusionCMS instance. Your developers keep building in the CMS. Your clients’ editors work in Publish—with a visual editor, workspaces, approval chains and permissions down to single fields.
Self-hosted next to your CMS. If Publish ever stops, your website keeps running.
30 days
Free trial with all features
1 instance
One Publish per IllusionCMS
0 lock-in
Content always lives in the CMS
5 languages
Interface and manuals
How it works
Developers build. Editors publish.
Build blocks in the CMS
Edit drafts in Publish
Editors change text and images on the page. Drafts live only in Publish—never on the live site.
Approve and go live
Packages pass the approval chain and go live atomically—all at once, or at a scheduled time.
Packages
One change, one package.
Every edit lands in a package—a page, a few entries, a global block. Reviewers see exactly what changed, field by field, before anything goes live.
- Changes shown as a diff, down to single block parameters
- Preview links for external reviewers, no login required
- Comments with @mentions and notifications
Block editor
Forms next to the real page.
Each block opens as a form with exactly the fields your developers defined—text, images, variants, nested buttons. The live preview updates as you type.
- Click any text in the preview to jump to its field
- Add, move and duplicate blocks within the allowed limits
- Global blocks change everywhere, with per-page overrides
Workspaces & approval chains
Every client gets their own workflow.
A workspace covers part of the site—a page tree, some collections, file folders—and its own team. Its approval chain decides who has to sign off before a package goes live.
- Stages with groups, deadlines and deputies
- Four-eyes principle: your own changes never count as approval
- Publish atomically, right away or at a scheduled time
Translations
No language falls behind.
When the source version of a page is published, IllusionPublish flags every other language as outdated—and keeps the list until each one is updated.
- Start a translation as a package with one click
- See who is working on which language
- Confirm a version as current if nothing needs to change
Permissions
Down to the single field.
Grant groups read, edit, create, delete and publish rights per website, collection or global blocks—and hide individual fields or make them read-only.
- Editors never see what they can’t change
- The most generous right wins, no hidden denials
- “Check permissions” shows what a user can actually do
Audit log
Who changed what, and when.
Every sign-in, edit, approval and publish is recorded with user, object, details and IP address—ready for questions from clients or auditors.
- Filter by action, user, text and date
- Approvals and overrides with their reason
- Logged on the server, not editable from the interface
For editors
Comfortable for people who don't write code.
Editors never see the CMS. They get a calm interface that shows the real website—and only what they are allowed to change.
Form editor
Every block as a clear form with live preview—for structured content and collection entries.
Preview links
Share drafts with external reviewers—no account needed, with an expiry date.
Compare with live
See exactly what changed before anything goes live—text, images and block structure.
Working together
See who else has an item open, comments and mentions, notifications in the app and by email.
Translations
Publishing the source language opens translation tasks for all other languages—with a side-by-side compare against the original.
For agencies and admins
Control without bureaucracy.
Set up who may change what, who approves and when things go live—once per client.
Workspaces
Areas of the site (page trees, collections, global blocks) with their own team and approval chain.
Approval chains
Any number of stages: one, all or n of m approvers, deadlines, reminders and escalation.
Field-level permissions
Hidden, read-only or editable—down to single parameters of a building block.
SSO, SCIM & passkeys
OIDC with Entra ID, Google or Keycloak, automatic group mapping, deprovisioning via SCIM.
Scheduled publishing
Packages go live at a set time—complete and atomic.
Notifications
In-app and email, configurable per user—escalations can’t be switched off.
Four-eyes principle
Nobody approves their own changes—except owners who override with a mandatory reason.
Full audit log
Who did what, when, with which content—every approval and every override.
Fair licensing
IllusionCMS stays free. IllusionPublish is licensed per CMS instance as a time-based license—updates are included for the whole term.
The license is a signed file that Publish checks offline. There is no phone-home and no activation server.
If a license expires, Publish pauses: administrators can still sign in and install a new license, all data is kept. Your website is never affected—it is served by IllusionCMS, which keeps running unchanged.
Pricing
Licenses depend on the size of your setup. Tell us about your project and we’ll send you an offer.
Requirements
- IllusionCMS 0.6 or newer (0.7 recommended)
- Linux, Windows, macOS or Docker
- A token with write access to the CMS
Trial
Try IllusionPublish free for 30 days.
Full features, no license file, no registration. After 30 days Publish pauses until you install a license—your data stays.
IllusionPublish 0.4.1
Release notes and checksums below the list. Update IllusionCMS first, then Publish.
Let's talk about your clients.
Questions about licensing, setup or a demo with your own content? Get in touch.