Its not very different but its more mature. It has awesome apis and it has best admin interface.

We use it for many websites, its something hackernews people will not like but its fastest way to make small-medium size websites i know of.

The prices seem really reasonable ($17 for personal, $89 for commercial). Have you found it reasonably usable for non-tech users?

Is it just an honor system licensing? If it's a file based CMS, nothing stopping me from putting the files on any webserver right?

Edit, to answer (from the docs):

There's no validity check of your code or any other communication between your Kirby installation and the Kirby server. You get a clean installation without any hacks or tricks. Entering the license code is for your own records, so you can track which installation uses which license.

I'm focusing on making Kirby better instead of fighting software pirates. I trust in you to support me with a legally purchased license if you like Kirby.

It is. Legally you need to pay a license to use it and to get tech support, but if you never ask for support, no one is going around checking for non-licensed users. I roll the fee into my expenses when I use it for clients.

for nontech person to administrate or make website?

administrate is easy, you can actualy easily build the admin interface so nobody can mess it up (compared to worpress that everybody breaks)

to make website - you have to do some coding

I can second this. Just build my homepage anew with Kirby. And just 17 bucks was totally worth it.

Great APIs and a really good documentation.

With a little bit of coding it went really fast and well.