Sanity.io Alternatives

Hygraph (formerly GraphCMS)

Free plan

8.9 /10

Hygraph (rebranded from GraphCMS in 2022) is the GraphQL-native headless CMS with content federation capabilities. Hobby free covers 2 locales + 3 seats + 500K API calls + 100 GB asset traffic + 1,000 entries. Growth at $199/month is the real team tier — 10 seats, 3 locales, 1M API calls, 10,000 content entries, 1 remote source. Enterprise custom with up to 80 locales + 10 remote sources + multitenancy.

• Content federation via GraphQL remote sources is category-unique — unified API across sources
• GraphQL-native API is developer-friendly vs Contentful's REST-first legacy
• Up to 80 locales on Enterprise is best-in-category for international brands

Full Review Visit Hygraph (formerly GraphCMS)

Contentful

Free plan

8.7 /10

Contentful is the enterprise content platform leader. Free tier at $0 with 10 users + 2 locales + 100K API calls — evaluation-only. Lite at $300/month is the real paid entry — 20 users + 3 locales + 1M API calls + scheduled publishing + comments + task management. Premium custom (typical $30,000-200,000+/year) unlocks unlimited users/roles/locales + 99.99% SLA + 24/7 support.

• Category-defining enterprise content platform with 12+ year track record
• Unlimited locales + users on Premium justifies enterprise pricing for complex brands
• AI Actions integrated into content workflows with Claude 3.5 Sonnet + GPT-4o

Full Review Visit Contentful

Strapi

Free plan Free trial

8.6 /10

Strapi is the Node.js-based open-source headless CMS with optional managed cloud. Strapi OSS is free forever self-hosted with the largest plugin ecosystem in open-source CMS. Strapi Cloud Developer free evaluation tier, Essential ~$15/month per project, Pro ~$99/month, Scale ~$499/month. Strapi Enterprise Edition (self-hosted commercial) custom pricing typical $15,000-50,000+/year for advanced features.

• Open-source foundation (MIT-like community edition) provides self-host escape hatch
• Node.js runtime enables deep JavaScript/TypeScript customization
• Largest plugin ecosystem in open-source CMS space

Full Review Visit Strapi

Directus

Free plan Free trial

8.5 /10

Directus is the relational database-backed headless CMS. Self-hosted free for non-production or organizations under $5M annual finances (commercial license required above). Cloud Professional at $99/month billed annually covers 5 Studio Users + 75,000 entries + 250K API requests + 500 GB bandwidth + 150 GB storage. Cloud Enterprise custom with dedicated infrastructure + 20+ regions.

• Relational data model (PostgreSQL/MySQL) handles complex schema better than document databases
• Self-hosted open source provides escape hatch for organizations under $5M annual finances
• Studio Users metric favorable for apps with many API-only users

Full Review Visit Directus