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Website & CMS platforms

Best headless CMS

Updated August 2026

Every tool here is assessed against the same criteria, scored before any commercial conversation. Read the full method. No entry on this list is a paid placement.

Every platform here publishes a price. That is not the same as being able to predict what you will pay, because on most of them the step that matters is not usage, it is people. Storyblok's $99 Growth plan hard caps at ten seats. Directus goes from free to $499 a month with nothing in between. Hygraph goes from free to $199. Contentful advertises a $0 Lite tier and prices an additional Space licence on top. Prismic is the only one here with four published steps before Enterprise. Model the plan you will be on in year two, not the one you sign up on.

How this list was built

Six criteria, weighted for this category. Full definitions are at /methodology.

  • Specialisation and fit · 35 · Feature depth, editor experience, and what breaks first at scale
  • Client evidence · 20 · Who is verifiably running at scale on it
  • Commercial transparency · 15 · Whether the published price survives a growing team
  • Independent recognition · 10 · Ratings and analyst coverage, which barely separate anyone here
  • Tenure · 10 · Migration is expensive and rarely reversed, so longevity is evidence
  • Documented outcomes · 10 · Published performance and scale figures

Disclosure: this site runs on Sanity. We pay for it, it pays us nothing, and it is the one platform here we can speak about from daily use.

What these nine publish

  • Seat caps stated, not only seats included: Storyblok, Prismic, Hygraph, Directus
  • The price of an extra seat named publicly: Storyblok at $15, Directus at $50
  • Per-unit overage rates rather than a quote: Sanity alone
  • A published tier above the entry plan: all except Payload, whose hosted plans run through a get-started flow
  • Priced per project or per site rather than per seat: Strapi and Statamic, so growing the team costs nothing
  • Sales-led above the top published tier: all nine

Two things true of the whole category

Open source does not mean free. Payload, Strapi, Directus and Statamic can all be self-hosted at no software cost. You then own hosting, upgrades, backups and security, which is a real budget line and a real person's time.

Every one of these now ships an official MCP server, so an AI coding agent can read and write content on any of them. That is table stakes rather than a differentiator. What still differs is where your content model lives. On Payload, Sanity, Strapi, Statamic and Prismic it sits in your repository, so an agent reads it and a change is a reviewable diff. On Contentful, Storyblok, Directus and Hygraph it lives in the vendor's database. Each of those four ships a CLI or SDK that exports it, which is real and worth using, but it is a sync: someone editing in the admin creates drift your repository does not know about.

At a glance

#ToolRatingFromFree planBest for
1Sanity—$15 per seat/moYesProduct and engineering teams building a custom front end who want the editing experience shaped to their content model.
2Storyblok—$99/moYesMarketing teams who need to build and change pages themselves without waiting on a developer.
3Payload—$0 self-hostedYesNext.js teams who want the content model, admin panel and API defined in the same repository as the front end.
4Contentful—$0, with Lite space licenses at $850/moYesLarger organisations publishing the same content across several brands, regions or locales from one source.
5Prismic—$10/moYesTeams shipping frequent marketing pages who want editors composing from a fixed library of developer-built sections.
6Strapi—$0 self-hosted, $35/mo on CloudYesTeams who want to own the stack and extend the CMS itself, rather than work within a hosted vendor's limits.
7Hygraph—$199/moYesTeams assembling content from several systems who want one GraphQL endpoint in front of all of it.
8Directus—$0 self-hosted, $499/mo TeamYesTeams with a database already in production who want editors working on it directly, not on a second copy of the content.
9Statamic—$349 one-time per siteYesLaravel shops and agencies building many sites who want content version-controlled in git alongside the code.

The tools, ranked

1Sanity logo

Sanity

Headless CMS with a configurable editing studio you build yourself, aimed at teams whose front end is already custom code.

Where it falls short: The Studio is code you configure and deploy, so there is no usable editing interface until a developer has built one.

From
$15 per seat/mo
Free plan
Yes
Best for
Product and engineering teams building a custom front end who want the editing experience shaped to their content model.
  • Pricing basisPer seat, not per site
  • Free tier20 seats, 10,000 documents, public datasets only
  • Editing experienceStudio you configure in code, with live preview against your own front end
  • Self-hostStudio yes; the content API is Sanity-hosted
  • AI agent supportRemote MCP server at mcp.sanity.io, 40+ tools spanning documents, schema and releases
Visit Sanity
2Storyblok logo

Storyblok

Headless CMS built around a visual editor that previews your live front end while editors work on it.

Where it falls short: The visual editor needs your front end wired to their bridge before it previews anything, so the experience it is bought for is not there on day one.

From
$99/mo
Free plan
Yes
Best for
Marketing teams who need to build and change pages themselves without waiting on a developer.
  • Pricing basisPer plan with seat caps; $15/mo per extra seat
  • Free tier1 seat, 20,000 stories, 2 locales
  • Editing experienceVisual editor against your live front end
  • Self-hostNo, SaaS only
  • AI agent supportOfficial MCP server; can change component schemas as well as entries
Visit Storyblok
3Payload logo

Payload

TypeScript-native headless CMS and application framework that runs inside a Next.js app rather than alongside one.

Where it falls short: Hosted pricing is not published as a table, and the supported installer needs an interactive terminal, so unattended setup takes a workaround.

From
$0 self-hosted
Free plan
Yes
Best for
Next.js teams who want the content model, admin panel and API defined in the same repository as the front end.
  • Pricing basisFree self-hosted; hosted and Enterprise quoted
  • Free tierUnlimited, self-hosted under MIT
  • Editing experienceGenerated admin panel, no visual page editor
  • Self-hostYes, MIT licence
  • AI agent supportFirst-party MCP plugin; content model is TypeScript in your repo
Visit Payload
4Contentful logo

Contentful

Enterprise-leaning headless CMS built around structured content models and multi-market delivery.

Where it falls short: The content model is rigid by design, which suits governance at scale and frustrates small teams wanting to reshape a model quickly.

From
$0, with Lite space licenses at $850/mo
Free plan
Yes
Best for
Larger organisations publishing the same content across several brands, regions or locales from one source.
  • Pricing basisPer plan, with Space licences priced separately on top
  • Free tierYes; Free and Lite both start at $0
  • Editing experienceStructured editor, no visual page editor
  • Self-hostNo, SaaS only
  • AI agent supportRemote MCP server at mcp.contentful.com/mcp plus a local open-source one; can change content models
Visit Contentful
5Prismic logo

Prismic

Headless CMS built around reusable page sections, aimed at marketing and engineering shipping landing pages together.

Where it falls short: The slice model keeps editors inside a fixed library, which is the point, but it suits marketing pages better than a complex relational content model.

From
$10/mo
Free plan
Yes
Best for
Teams shipping frequent marketing pages who want editors composing from a fixed library of developer-built sections.
  • Pricing basisPer plan, stepped by seat count
  • Free tier1 user, 4M API calls, 2 locales
  • Editing experienceSlice-based page builder with preview
  • Self-hostNo, SaaS only
  • AI agent supportOfficial MCP, free on all plans; cannot delete or publish
Visit Prismic
6Strapi logo

Strapi

Open-source Node.js headless CMS with a large plugin ecosystem, run self-hosted or on Strapi Cloud.

Where it falls short: Its MCP server reaches entries only, so an agent changing the content model has to edit files rather than work through the API.

From
$0 self-hosted, $35/mo on Cloud
Free plan
Yes
Best for
Teams who want to own the stack and extend the CMS itself, rather than work within a hosted vendor's limits.
  • Pricing basisPer project, not per seat
  • Free tierCommunity edition, self-hosted, unlimited entries
  • Editing experienceBuilt-in admin panel, no visual page editor
  • Self-hostYes, MIT licence
  • AI agent supportBuilt-in MCP server, entries only; content types via the separate AI assistant
Visit Strapi
7Hygraph logo

Hygraph

GraphQL-native headless CMS with content federation, pulling other APIs into one graph alongside its own content.

Where it falls short: The MCP server is still in Early Access, and the free tier's twenty model limit is reached quickly by a content model of any real complexity.

From
$199/mo
Free plan
Yes
Best for
Teams assembling content from several systems who want one GraphQL endpoint in front of all of it.
  • Pricing basisPer plan with fixed seat counts
  • Free tier3 seats, 1,000 entries, 20 models
  • Editing experienceStructured editor, no visual page editor
  • Self-hostNo, SaaS only
  • AI agent supportOfficial MCP server, Early Access
Visit Hygraph
8Directus logo

Directus

Data platform that layers a headless CMS and admin app over any existing SQL database rather than owning the data itself.

Where it falls short: It expects a database you already run and someone comfortable with it, so teams wanting a content store handed to them will find it more setup than they wanted.

From
$0 self-hosted, $499/mo Team
Free plan
Yes
Best for
Teams with a database already in production who want editors working on it directly, not on a second copy of the content.
  • Pricing basisPer plan with seat and collection caps; $50/mo per extra seat
  • Free tier3 seats, 25 collections, 5 flows
  • Editing experienceAdmin app over your own tables, no visual page editor
  • Self-hostYes, on every tier at no software cost
  • AI agent supportOfficial MCP server on every tier including free
Visit Directus
9Statamic logo

Statamic

Laravel-based CMS that stores content as flat files in your repository, usable headlessly through its REST and GraphQL APIs.

Where it falls short: The headless REST and GraphQL APIs are a Pro feature, so the free Core tier cannot be used headlessly at all.

From
$349 one-time per site
Free plan
Yes
Best for
Laravel shops and agencies building many sites who want content version-controlled in git alongside the code.
  • Pricing basisOne-time per site, not a subscription
  • Free tierCore, one admin user, no headless API
  • Editing experienceControl panel with live preview
  • Self-hostYes, and content lives in your repo
  • AI agent supportNo official MCP server found; content is flat files an agent can edit directly
Visit Statamic

Pick on the constraint that will not move, because everything else is negotiable and this decision is not easily reversed.

Your editors must work without a developer. Storyblok. The visual editor is the product rather than a feature bolted alongside one, and no other platform here matches it for a marketing team that ships pages weekly.

You are building on Next.js and want one repository. Payload. The content model, the admin panel and the API are part of your application rather than a service beside it, and the generated types mean the front end knows every field name.

You want the content model reviewed in pull requests. Sanity, Payload, Strapi, Statamic or Prismic. On all five the model is files, so a schema change arrives as a diff rather than as something a colleague did in an admin panel on Tuesday.

You are shipping marketing pages fast with a small team. Prismic. The slice library keeps editors inside components you control, the pricing ladder has four published steps rather than a cliff, and pulling the model generates your types on the way through.

You have a database already in production. Directus. It sits on top of what you have rather than asking you to move content into a second store, which no other platform here offers.

You are publishing into several markets and languages at once. Contentful. Multi-space and multi-locale delivery is what it is genuinely best at, and it is the reason large organisations keep choosing it despite the cost.

You want to own the whole stack and extend the CMS itself. Strapi. Community edition is MIT, the plugin ecosystem is the largest here, and cloud pricing is per project, so adding editors costs nothing.

Several systems need to sit behind one API. Hygraph. Content federation pulls other services into the same graph, which nothing else in this list does natively.

You build many sites on Laravel. Statamic. A one-time licence per site rather than nine subscriptions changes the economics for an agency, though the headless APIs need the Pro tier.

If none of those constraints is binding, the honest answer is that Sanity, Payload and Storyblok will all serve a team of five to fifteen well, and the deciding factor will be whether your editors need to see the page while they work.

Frequently asked questions

What does a headless CMS actually cost for a team of ten?

Between nothing and roughly $500 a month, and the spread is about seats rather than traffic. Ten editors on Sanity Growth is $150 a month. On Storyblok it is Growth Plus at $349, because Growth stops at ten seats. On Prismic it is the $150 Medium plan, which allows twenty-five. On Strapi Cloud it is $35 to $90 whatever the headcount, because pricing is per project. Self-hosting Payload, Strapi, Directus or Statamic costs nothing in licence and $20 to $100 a month in hosting, plus the time of whoever maintains it.

Is a self-hosted headless CMS really free?

The software is. The system is not. Payload and Strapi are MIT, Directus charges no software cost on any tier, and Statamic Core is free. You then provide the server, the database, the backups, the upgrades and the security patching. For a team with someone who already does that work it is genuinely cheaper. For a team without one it usually is not, because the first outage costs more attention than a year of subscription.

Which headless CMS is best for Next.js?

Payload, because it runs inside the Next.js application rather than beside it. The content model is a TypeScript config file in the same repository, the admin panel is generated from that config, and running type generation produces interfaces your front end imports directly, so a renamed field becomes a type error rather than a blank page. Sanity and Prismic both have strong Next.js support and generated types too, but they remain a separate service you call.

Do marketing teams need visual editing?

If they publish pages without a developer, yes, and it should decide the choice. Storyblok previews your live front end while an editor arranges blocks, so what they see is the page. Sanity and Prismic both offer preview against your own front end but need a developer to wire it. Contentful, Strapi, Directus and Hygraph present a structured form instead, which is faster for typing content and worse for judging how a page will look.

Can an AI coding agent work with these?

All nine ship an official MCP server, so an agent can read and write content on any of them. The difference is the content model. On Payload, Sanity, Strapi, Statamic and Prismic the model is files in your repository, so an agent reads it directly and any change it makes is a reviewable diff. On Contentful, Storyblok, Directus and Hygraph the model lives in the vendor's database. Each ships an export or migration tool, but an agent has to query rather than read, and a colleague editing in the admin creates drift.

How hard is it to migrate between headless CMS platforms?

Harder than moving the content, which is the part everyone plans for. Entries export as JSON from all nine. What does not move is the shape: field types differ, rich text is stored differently on every platform, and references have to be rebuilt. Then your front end has to be rewritten against a new API, and any visual editing integration redone. Budget weeks, not days, and treat this choice as close to permanent.

Do I need GraphQL, or is REST enough?

For most sites REST is enough, and every platform here offers both except Sanity, which uses its own GROQ query language alongside a GraphQL option. GraphQL earns its keep when one page needs data from many content types and you want a single request, or when several systems sit behind one endpoint, which is Hygraph's whole argument. If your pages map roughly one to one onto content entries, the choice will not change your week.

Which has the most generous free tier?

Sanity, for a team. Twenty seats, ten thousand documents and a full API, which is more than most projects need for a year. Directus gives three seats and twenty-five collections, Hygraph three seats and a thousand entries, Storyblok one seat, Prismic one user. If self-hosting is on the table then Payload and Strapi are unlimited and free under MIT, which beats all of them, provided you count the server and the maintenance as part of the price.

When is headless the wrong choice?

When nobody on the team will build the front end. A headless CMS deliberately ships no website: it hands you an API and expects code at the other end. If you need a site live next month and have no developer, a hosted site builder will serve you better and cost less. Headless earns its keep when the front end is custom anyway, when the same content feeds a site and an app or several markets, or when you want the content model reviewed in version control rather than clicked into an admin panel.

How many languages can each one handle on an entry plan?

Fewer than most teams expect, and locales are metered like seats. Storyblok allows two on Starter and Growth, and ten on Growth Plus. Prismic runs two on Free, rising through three, four and five to eight on Platinum. Hygraph gives two on Hobby and three on Growth, with up to eighty reserved for Enterprise. Sanity, Payload, Strapi, Directus and Statamic do not meter locales at all, though on the self-hosted four you are implementing the localisation yourself. If you publish in more than three languages, check this number before the headline price.

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