Choosing a headless CMS is one of the most impactful architectural decisions in modern web development. The right choice depends on your content model complexity, team composition, budget, and whether you prefer hosted or self-hosted solutions. Here is a detailed comparison of the three most popular options.
Sanity: The Developer's CMS
Sanity stands out with its real-time collaborative editing and GROQ query language. The content studio is built with React and is fully customisable — you can create bespoke editing experiences that match your content team's workflow exactly. Sanity's structured content approach treats content as data rather than pages, which makes it exceptionally flexible for multi-channel delivery.
The free tier is generous — enough for most small to medium projects. Paid plans scale based on usage (API calls, dataset size, users). The learning curve is steeper than Contentful due to the code-first configuration approach, but this flexibility pays dividends on complex projects. We particularly appreciate Sanity's Portable Text format for rich text, which gives you complete control over how content is rendered.
Strapi: The Open-Source Option
Strapi is the leading open-source headless CMS. You self-host it on your own infrastructure, which means no per-seat licensing costs and full control over your data. It provides a visual content type builder that lets non-developers create content models through a UI, and it generates REST and GraphQL APIs automatically.
The self-hosting requirement is both a strength and a weakness. You avoid vendor lock-in and SaaS costs, but you take on responsibility for hosting, updates, and security. Strapi Cloud offers a managed option for teams that want the open-source benefit without the infrastructure overhead. For Malta businesses concerned about data residency, self-hosting Strapi on European infrastructure ensures compliance.
Contentful: The Enterprise Standard
Contentful is the most established headless CMS in the enterprise space. It offers a polished editing experience, robust content modelling, and excellent documentation. The platform handles infrastructure entirely — you never worry about uptime, scaling, or security patches.
The main drawback is cost. Contentful's pricing scales quickly with content volume and user seats. The free Community tier is limited to 5 users and 25,000 records, which is fine for small projects but constraining for growing businesses. Enterprise pricing requires custom negotiation and can be substantial.
Feature Comparison
- Content modelling: Sanity offers the most flexible schema definition through code. Contentful provides a solid visual schema builder. Strapi falls in between with its visual builder that generates code.
- Querying: Sanity's GROQ is powerful and expressive. Contentful supports GraphQL and its own REST API with filtering. Strapi provides both REST and GraphQL out of the box.
- Editing experience: Contentful has the most polished editor for non-technical users. Sanity is highly customisable but requires development effort. Strapi provides a functional admin panel that is easy to learn.
- Localisation: All three support multi-language content, but Sanity's approach is most flexible for complex localisation requirements with field-level translations.
Our Recommendation
Choose Sanity for complex, developer-led projects where content structure flexibility is paramount. Choose Strapi when you want open-source control and self-hosting capability. Choose Contentful when you need an enterprise-grade platform with excellent editor UX and your budget can support the licensing costs.
At Born Digital, we have delivered projects on all three platforms. Our current default for new projects is Sanity, primarily because of its unmatched content modelling flexibility and the quality of the developer experience. However, we regularly recommend Strapi for budget-conscious projects and Contentful for enterprise clients who prioritise editor experience.