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Sym8 – XSLT-powered CMS

Symphony CMS – PHP 8 ready

Sym8 is a fast, XSLT-powered CMS — modular, modern, and ready for PHP 8.

HTML5 inside

All standard HTML5 input types – including color, email, month, number, range, tel, time, url and week – are now natively supported in the Symphony Core. And even the good old radio button. This enables native browser validation and improves accessibility and usability out of the box.

Features

Modern & stable

Optimized for PHP 8.x – proven code base, ready for the future.

UTF8MB4

100% Unicode – including emojis 😎

Valid HTML

No clutter, no errors, no trailing slashes – just clean markup.

Minified HTML

Automatic compression for faster speeds and better SEO.

Screenshots

Screenshot of the Sym8 backend dashboard
Screenshot of the Sym8 backend Extensions page
Screenshot of a sample section
Screenshot of a section entry
Screenshot of the generated frontend form markup
Screenshot of the Symphony system log
Screenshot of the ImportCSV result page
Screenshot of the Symphony log listing failed import entries
Screenshot of the frontend debug output
Sym8 page render time and query statistics
Screenshot of the final installer screen

Versioning

Sym8 intentionally starts at version 2.84.0, following a clear logic:

  • 2: reflects the underlying Symphony codebase,
  • 84: indicates the maximum supported PHP version (8.4),
  • 0: denotes the patch level.

This versioning scheme is designed to restore trust among developers by making it immediately clear which PHP version is fully supported — without needing to read through changelogs or compatibility notes.

Roadmap

Sym8 doesn’t stop at the first release — the following next steps are already planned:

  1. PHP 8.5 compatibility (planned for January 2026)
  2. Modernized installer interface using Pico CSS
  3. Feature-rich extension update for “Members”
  4. Improve language system with centralized, workspace-based language files
  5. Full backend redesign with native JavaScript and a clean, modern UI

Support

We offer free support for Sym8 itself (e.g., installation, blueprints, data sources) as well as commercial support for migrating and customizing older SymphonyCMS extensions.

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