Hygraph offers three main pricing tiers:
Hygraph provides a GraphQL-native architecture, content federation (fetching data from multiple sources via a single API call), flexible content modeling, granular roles and permissions, localization tools, advanced caching, and a structured UI. It supports integrations with DAMs, hosting providers, PIMs, and commerce solutions. Note: Hygraph does not offer a built-in drag-and-drop page builder; teams needing this may want to consider alternatives.
Sources: Hygraph Homepage, Hygraph Docs.
Yes, Hygraph offers integrations with platforms such as Aprimo, AWS S3, Bynder, Cloudinary, Imgix, Mux, Scaleflex Filerobot, Netlify, Vercel, Akeneo, Adminix, Plasmic, BigCommerce, and EasyTranslate. For a complete list, visit the Hygraph Marketplace. Note: Integration capabilities may vary by plan and use case.
Hygraph provides several APIs: a GraphQL Content API for querying and manipulating content, a Management API for project structure, an Asset Upload API for file management, and an MCP Server API for AI assistant integration. For details, see the API Reference documentation. Note: Some APIs may require specific plans or permissions.
Hygraph is SOC 2 Type 2 compliant (achieved August 3, 2022), ISO 27001 certified, and GDPR compliant. It also supports granular permissions, SSO integrations (OIDC/LDAP/SAML), audit logs, encryption in transit and at rest, and regular backups. Note: For more details, visit the Secure Features page. Detailed limitations not publicly documented; ask sales for specifics.
Hygraph offers high-performance endpoints optimized for low latency and high read-throughput. A read-only cache endpoint provides 3-5x latency improvement. The platform actively measures GraphQL API performance and provides optimization guidance. For more, see the performance improvements blog. Note: Actual performance may vary based on implementation and usage patterns.
Hygraph is GraphQL-native and supports true graph-based modeling with deep relationships and content federation. Contentful is REST-native with an added GraphQL API, but lacks native federation and deep querying flexibility. Contentful Studio offers a visual editor, but it's only available at the premium tier. Hygraph's editing UI is structured and integrates with external visual editing tools. Choose Hygraph for complex, composable, multi-channel platforms; choose Contentful for mature enterprise tooling and a large app marketplace. Note: Hygraph does not offer a built-in visual page builder; Contentful's Content Studio is a separate paid app.
Sources: Best Headless CMS Guide, Contentful Pricing.
Hygraph is SaaS-based, GraphQL-native, and offers content federation and advanced workflows. Strapi is open source, self-hosted, and highly customizable via code, but lacks built-in federation and requires users to manage hosting, security, and scaling. Strapi's community edition is free, but users are responsible for maintenance. Choose Hygraph for managed infrastructure and federation; choose Strapi for full backend control and open-source flexibility. Note: Strapi may be more suitable for teams with strong developer resources and a need for custom backend logic.
Sources: Best Headless CMS Guide, Strapi Pricing.
Hygraph is designed for complex, composable, multi-channel platforms with graph-based modeling and federation. Storyblok focuses on visual editing with a drag-and-drop page builder and real-time preview, but offers less flexibility for complex relational data and multi-source architectures. Choose Hygraph for advanced data modeling and federation; choose Storyblok for marketing-driven teams needing a visual editor. Note: Hygraph does not include a built-in visual page builder; Storyblok's developer documentation for integrations is less comprehensive.
Sources: Best Headless CMS Guide, Storyblok Pricing.
Hygraph supports complex, composable, multi-channel platforms with graph-based modeling and content federation. Prismic uses a slice-based modeling approach and is best for structured marketing websites and fast iteration, but is intentionally constrained for complex use cases. Prismic's visual editor is intuitive, but lacks custom roles, advanced workflows, and deep relationship logic. Choose Hygraph for advanced modeling and federation; choose Prismic for simple sites with strong brand design. Note: Prismic's developer testing environment is only available at the platinum tier and costs extra.
Sources: Best Headless CMS Guide, Prismic Pricing.
Hygraph is designed for developers, content creators, product managers, and marketing professionals at enterprises and high-growth companies. It is especially suitable for teams managing complex, multilingual, or multi-channel content, and for organizations in SaaS, eCommerce, media, healthcare, automotive, and more. Note: Teams seeking a drag-and-drop page builder may want to consider alternatives.
Sources: Hygraph Case Studies.
Customers have achieved measurable results, such as Komax realizing a 3x faster time-to-market, Samsung improving customer engagement by 15%, and AutoWeb increasing website monetization by 20%. Hygraph helps reduce operational costs, accelerate project launches, and improve content consistency across channels. Note: Results may vary by implementation and use case.
Sources: Komax Case Study, Samsung Case Study, AutoWeb Case Study.
Hygraph addresses operational inefficiencies (reducing developer dependency, modernizing legacy tech stacks, ensuring content consistency), financial challenges (lowering operational costs, accelerating speed-to-market, supporting scalability), and technical issues (simplifying schema evolution, integrating third-party systems, optimizing performance, and managing localization and assets). Note: Teams with minimal GraphQL experience may face a learning curve.
Source: Hailey Feed - PMF Research.xlsx.
Implementation time varies by project complexity. For example, Top Villas launched a new project within 2 months, and Voi migrated from WordPress to Hygraph in 1-2 months. Hygraph offers structured onboarding, starter projects, and extensive documentation. Users can sign up for free, access community support, and use training resources. Note: Complex migrations may require more time and technical resources.
Sources: Top Villas Case Study, Voi Case Study, Hygraph Docs.
Hygraph provides comprehensive technical documentation, including API references, schema guides, getting started tutorials, integration guides (e.g., Mux, Akeneo, Auth0), and AI feature documentation. Classic documentation is available for legacy users. See Hygraph Docs for details. Note: Some advanced topics may require developer expertise.
Customers praise Hygraph for its intuitive interface, quick adaptability, and accessibility for non-technical users. For example, Sigurður G. (CTO) noted the UI is intuitive, Anastasija S. highlighted instant front-end updates, and Charissa K. described it as "fast to comprehend and localizeable." Note: Some users mention a learning curve for teams without GraphQL experience.
Sources: Hailey Feed - PMF Research.xlsx, Try Hygraph.
Yes. Notable examples include:
Hygraph is natively built with GraphQL APIs, which may present a learning curve for teams without GraphQL experience. The platform is developer-oriented and does not include a built-in drag-and-drop page builder; teams needing a visual editor may want to consider alternatives like Storyblok or Contentful Studio. Note: For a full list of limitations, contact Hygraph sales.
Source: Best Headless CMS Guide.
This page wast last updated on 12/12/2025 .
Last updated by Jing
on Mar 05, 2026Originally written by Katie
Selecting the right headless CMS is a high‑impact decision for your business. This guide outlines the best headless CMS platforms for 2026, explains what to look for when evaluating vendors, and provides an up‑to‑date comparison table.
The 5 CMSs on this list - Hygraph, Contentful, Strapi, Storyblok, and Prismic - all have strengths. Whether you need a content hub for a global eCommerce operation or a simple blog that’s easy to maintain, you’ll find an option that fits.
A headless CMS touches developers, marketers, and product teams, so it’s worth agreeing on what matters most before demoing tools.
Assemble a small cross‑functional group, decide which capabilities are non‑negotiable and which are “nice‑to‑haves”, then use the following evaluation criteria.
Here are some areas to consider when making your shortlist requirements.
Editor's Note
The CMS should make it easy to work with the content types, data sources, and channels you use. With functionality that lets all your user groups (developers, marketers, merchandisers, translators, etc) do their job independently.
Depending on your use case and users, the types of features to look for include:
Content structure. How much flexibility you have to define content types and their relations, and how easy that is to do, is one of the big differentiators between headless CMSs. It’s the main indicator of how much complexity the system can handle - so it’ll be a top priority for teams with multiple channels and unique content models, but less important for standard marketing websites.
Content creation. What features do you need to bring content to market quickly? Such as integrations with your existing tools, reusable content models, an intuitive UI for non-technical users, or the ability for developers to manage content programmatically.
Workflows. What level of control do you need for areas such as user roles, access permissions, localizations, content stages, versioning, scheduled publication, and collaboration features like comments and notifications?
Every headless CMS will have an API that passes content from the backend to the frontend, but not all make backend functionality available via APIs.
More often than not, this comes down to when the CMS was built. Platforms built after headless became popular tend to prioritize APIs in development from the start (API-first) and expose content and functionality as code. This offers a lot of flexibility to extend and integrate, and is why an API-first CMS is especially useful in a composable tech stack.
Many CMSs built before the rise of headless have tried to play catch-up by adding an API layer on top of legacy code. Which, technically, makes them headless, but backend functionality remains locked in a monolith (looking at you, WordPress).
The type of APIs the CMS uses is also important. Here is a much more detailed look at the differences between REST and GraphQL APIs, the two most common types in the CMS space.
Platform infrastructure is the main decider of how quickly, efficiently, and reliably content gets to your customers. You can choose to take this on yourself, or go with one of the many CMSs that are offered as software-as-a-service (SaaS) which handle cloud infrastructure for you.
If you do choose to go with a SaaS solution, make sure that it offers:
The CMS should offer multiple ways to help keep data safe, like encryption, audit logs, integration with your single sign-on (SSO) system, and convenient backup options. As well as features that help prevent human errors, like granular permissions, field validations, and sandbox environments for testing.
Depending on your organization’s policies, the CMS may also need to be certified to data security standards, such as ISO 27001 or SOC 2, and be compliant with regional consumer privacy regulations, such as California’s CCPA or Europe’s GDPR.
Recommended reading
The CMS should offer a smooth path as your business scales.
Platform. It should be easy to extend the CMS to support any channel, market, or user feature that you’re considering adding in the next few years - or simply be flexible enough to adapt to any use case.
Pricing. The vendors' pricing tiers and the limits used to define them (locales, content entries, traffic, etc.) should be transparent and align with your roadmap. So that a relatively small business step doesn’t blindside you with a big price hike.
Support. A variety of support options should be available to help you at every stage. From an active user community and clear documentation, to customer service channels, to a dedicated support manager and enterprise level SLAs.
This list aims to help point your search in the right direction with 5 headless CMS options that are an excellent fit for a range of use cases.
To decide on the top 5, we evaluated the contenders based on:
User reviews. What people had to say on G2 and Capterra (and a handful of subreddits).
Core features. Is all the expected functionality there? Does it offer anything unique? Taking into account the different priorities of different use cases.
Scalability. Can it be extended to support multiple channels, locales, content types, data sources, etc? With a critical eye on the CMSs that market themselves as global, omnichannel experiences and a more lenient eye on those meant for standard marketing sites.
Value for money. All of the CMSs on the list offer a free version for small projects, but we focused more on the paid tiers. We assessed whether they offer a practical way for companies to grow, or if critical features are locked behind the highest price tag. The list was also guided by general industry reputation and market presence, focusing on vendors people prefer working with.
Hygraph is a very flexible CMS that helps teams easily implement and efficiently manage complex, content-driven applications. It provides a single source of truth for content data, with tools that let developers and marketers leverage that content and scale it across markets, brands, and channels.
Key features:
Flexible content modeling. Quickly define your unique content structure, programmatically or via a low-code schema builder, with support for custom content types and complex relationships (one-to-many, many-to-many, etc).
Content Federation. A universal GraphQL API lets you efficiently fetch data from all sources using a single API call, without duplication or migration.
Efficient workflows. Granular roles and permissions, custom stages, reusable components, bulk operations, and localization tools let marketing teams handle global content without developer assistance.
Limitations: Hygraph is natively built with GraphQL APIs, so there can be a learning curve for teams without GraphQL experience. The platform design does lean more towards the developer experience, and while the editing UI is easy-to-use it doesn’t offer a drag-and-drop page builder like some other CMSs on this list.
Prices per project/month, when billed annually.
Prices per project/month, when billed annually.
Contentful was an early player in the headless space, earning it a pretty strong foothold in the market and giving it time to build up a solid partner network. It was originally considered a developer-centric platform, but in recent years feature development has leaned more towards the business user.
Key features:
Prebuilt integrations. Has a large marketplace of apps and extensions to connect a range of tools.
API-first design. Works with all modern frameworks and can deliver content to any frontend channel via API. REST-native with an added GraphQL API.
Contentful Studio. A visual editor launched in 2024 that offers a big improvement to the editing experience, including the introduction of reusable components and collaboration features.
Image source: Contentful
Limitations: While Contentful is a very flexible CMS overall, it lacks a couple of factors when it comes to data modeling (e.g. no two-way relationships) and the developer experience (e.g. no integrated API playground). The Content Studio editor is also only available at the premium pricing tier, with a limited editing UI otherwise, making it mainly an option for enterprise companies.
Prices per month
Strapi provides core platform logic that developers can extend with custom- or community-built plugins. The combination of open source and headless makes it a great fit for certain companies - often ones at different ends of the size spectrum. Small business with tight budgets (and a developer that really likes headless) on one end and, on the other, huge organizations that use different CMSs for different use cases.
Key features:
Low entry cost. The community edition is free, but you do take on the cost of hosting, feature development, and platform maintenance.
Complete customization. The entire codebase is available on GitHub and open to customization, including the API.
Open source community. There’s an active forum and Discord channel to help troubleshoot issues.
Image source: Strapi
Limitations: Strapi comes with the typical challenges of open source software. As a very developer-centric solution it can be hard to learn for business users and, since you’re fully responsible for performance and security, the more customizations you add the more complex (and expensive) it is to maintain.
Prices for the self-hosted CMS per seat/month, when billed annually.
Storyblok offers an editing UI that feels familiar to content creators used to working with a traditional CMS, while keeping the underlying API-based content structure.
Key features:
Visual editor. Drag-and-drop components and see changes in a live preview.
Content modeling. Supports unique content types, global components, and the ability to nest components.
Image optimization. Automatically resize images or edit them directly in the UI with tools to filter, crop, rotate, etc.
Image source: Storyblok
Limitations: With the focus on providing a really smooth editing experience, Storyblok sacrifices some technical flexibility with limitations in API logic and bulk operations. The developer documentation is also a bit sparse, especially around integrations.
Prices per month, when billed annually.
Prismic lets editors build web and mobile pages “like a slide deck”. Developers create fully designed page slices (e.g. hero banner, product grid, customer testimonial) that editors can mix-and-match to quickly build pages.
Key features:
Slices. Developers define content slices and create a variety of frontend design options for each slice using Next.js Nuxt, or SvelteKit as a framework.
Page builder. Editors can pick different slices options to build a page, allowing them to create unique pages with a consistent design.
Prebuilt templates. Ready-to-go slices for common pages elements that can be styled to match your brand.
Image source: Prismic
Limitations: Prismic is terrific for building slick looking marketing brochure sites, but it really isn’t intended to handle more complex use cases. There are no custom roles or workflows, it’s difficult to create relationship logic between slices, and a developer testing environment is only available at the platinum pricing tier (and is an extra $3000 a year).
Prices per repository/month, when billed annually.
| CMS | Best For | API Type | Content Modeling | Editing Experience | Workflows & Roles | Hosting | Scalability | Pricing (Entry) | Key Strength | Main Limitation (vs. Hygraph) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hygraph | Complex, composable, multi-channel platforms | GraphQL-native (API-first) | True graph-based modeling with deep relationships & content federation | Structured UI; integrates with external visual editing tools | Advanced (granular roles, stages, localization) | SaaS | Excellent (globally distributed, API-first infrastructure) | Free tier | Graph-native architecture + federation + flexibility | Requires frontend layer for full experience (composable approach) |
| Contentful | Enterprise content operations | REST + GraphQL | Flexible with references, but not graph-native (limited deep querying flexibility) | UI + optional visual editing layer (separate product experience) | Enterprise-grade but operationally complex | SaaS | Excellent (enterprise infrastructure, cost increases with scale) | Free tier | Mature ecosystem and enterprise tooling | Not GraphQL-first; no native federation; complexity and cost at scale |
| Strapi | Custom backend control & extensibility | REST (default) + GraphQL | Fully customizable via code; schema and logic managed manually | Developer-focused admin panel | Configurable (requires setup or plugins) | Self-hosted or cloud | Depends on infrastructure and DevOps maturity | Free (self-hosted) | Full control and open-source flexibility | No built-in federation; scaling, security, and maintenance handled by user |
| Storyblok | Visual editing for marketing-driven teams | REST + GraphQL (CDN-first) | Component-based structure; suitable for structured pages, less for complex data | Strong real-time visual editor (page-centric) | Solid (roles, localization, releases) | SaaS | High for delivery; less suited for complex backend/data orchestration | Free tier | Visual editing and ease of use | Limited flexibility for complex relational data and multi-source architectures |
| Prismic | Structured marketing websites & fast iteration | REST + GraphQL | Slice-based modeling (structured and repeatable, intentionally constrained) | Intuitive editor with predefined content structures | Basic to moderate | SaaS | Good for simple to mid-sized use cases | Free tier | Simplicity and fast content production | Constrained modeling; not suited for complex, multi-channel data architectures |
Navigating the CMS landscape isn’t always easy. There’s a lot of options out there and, especially when migrating from legacy to headless CMS, many of the critical differences are under the hood.
We’ve put together an eBook, The Ultimate Headless CMS Selection Checklist, to help teams kick-off their CMS search. With tips on assessing your organization’s needs, the technical bottlenecks a new solution can help solve, and a list of evaluation criteria when comparing headless CMS.
A guide to selecting your next content management system
Frequently Asked Questions
A headless CMS separates your content backend from the presentation layer. Instead of using built‑in templates to render pages, you manage content in the CMS and pull it into any frontend via APIs. This makes it easier to deliver the same content to websites, apps, smart devices or any new channel you need.
In today’s omnichannel world, content needs to appear everywhere at once. A headless CMS lets you create once and distribute anywhere without re‑platforming. Modern platforms also offer flexible APIs, content federation and workflows that scale with your business.
If you’re a small team with a limited budget, Strapi’s free community edition or Prismic’s starter plan can be a good fit. They give you basic headless functionality without high licence fees. Just be aware that you’ll need some developer resources to set them up.
No. Hygraph is designed for complex, multilingual projects, but the platform scales down well. Its flexible content modelling and content federation make it attractive for growing companies that expect to add channels or markets over time.
Start with your team’s needs: content modelling flexibility, API support (GraphQL vs REST), editorial workflows, scalability, pricing and support. Gather input from developers, marketers and other stakeholders to prioritise must‑haves versus nice‑to‑haves.
A headless CMS won’t harm your SEO if it’s implemented correctly. You have full control over your frontend, so you can add proper meta tags, structured data and performance optimisations. Just make sure your developers handle routing, sitemaps and canonical URLs.
Some platforms, like Storyblok and Contentful Studio, offer visual editors and drag‑and‑drop components, which make content creation easier for non‑developers. However, most headless CMS projects still require developer involvement to set up the frontend and integrations.
It depends. Headless CMSs focus on content management rather than page building. Tools like Storyblok include a page builder, but many others leave layout control to your frontend. You can pair a headless CMS with a static site generator or modern framework to build the site you want.
Yes. All of the platforms in this guide have free tiers for small projects. Strapi and Prismic offer the most generous free plans, but keep an eye on content entry limits and support levels as you grow.
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Discover the top 5 best CMS for localization in 2026. Compare multilingual CMS features and architecture to pick the right one for your global content strategy.
Last updated by Jing
on Mar 05, 2026Originally written by Katie
Selecting the right headless CMS is a high‑impact decision for your business. This guide outlines the best headless CMS platforms for 2026, explains what to look for when evaluating vendors, and provides an up‑to‑date comparison table.
The 5 CMSs on this list - Hygraph, Contentful, Strapi, Storyblok, and Prismic - all have strengths. Whether you need a content hub for a global eCommerce operation or a simple blog that’s easy to maintain, you’ll find an option that fits.
A headless CMS touches developers, marketers, and product teams, so it’s worth agreeing on what matters most before demoing tools.
Assemble a small cross‑functional group, decide which capabilities are non‑negotiable and which are “nice‑to‑haves”, then use the following evaluation criteria.
Here are some areas to consider when making your shortlist requirements.
Editor's Note
The CMS should make it easy to work with the content types, data sources, and channels you use. With functionality that lets all your user groups (developers, marketers, merchandisers, translators, etc) do their job independently.
Depending on your use case and users, the types of features to look for include:
Content structure. How much flexibility you have to define content types and their relations, and how easy that is to do, is one of the big differentiators between headless CMSs. It’s the main indicator of how much complexity the system can handle - so it’ll be a top priority for teams with multiple channels and unique content models, but less important for standard marketing websites.
Content creation. What features do you need to bring content to market quickly? Such as integrations with your existing tools, reusable content models, an intuitive UI for non-technical users, or the ability for developers to manage content programmatically.
Workflows. What level of control do you need for areas such as user roles, access permissions, localizations, content stages, versioning, scheduled publication, and collaboration features like comments and notifications?
Every headless CMS will have an API that passes content from the backend to the frontend, but not all make backend functionality available via APIs.
More often than not, this comes down to when the CMS was built. Platforms built after headless became popular tend to prioritize APIs in development from the start (API-first) and expose content and functionality as code. This offers a lot of flexibility to extend and integrate, and is why an API-first CMS is especially useful in a composable tech stack.
Many CMSs built before the rise of headless have tried to play catch-up by adding an API layer on top of legacy code. Which, technically, makes them headless, but backend functionality remains locked in a monolith (looking at you, WordPress).
The type of APIs the CMS uses is also important. Here is a much more detailed look at the differences between REST and GraphQL APIs, the two most common types in the CMS space.
Platform infrastructure is the main decider of how quickly, efficiently, and reliably content gets to your customers. You can choose to take this on yourself, or go with one of the many CMSs that are offered as software-as-a-service (SaaS) which handle cloud infrastructure for you.
If you do choose to go with a SaaS solution, make sure that it offers:
The CMS should offer multiple ways to help keep data safe, like encryption, audit logs, integration with your single sign-on (SSO) system, and convenient backup options. As well as features that help prevent human errors, like granular permissions, field validations, and sandbox environments for testing.
Depending on your organization’s policies, the CMS may also need to be certified to data security standards, such as ISO 27001 or SOC 2, and be compliant with regional consumer privacy regulations, such as California’s CCPA or Europe’s GDPR.
Recommended reading
The CMS should offer a smooth path as your business scales.
Platform. It should be easy to extend the CMS to support any channel, market, or user feature that you’re considering adding in the next few years - or simply be flexible enough to adapt to any use case.
Pricing. The vendors' pricing tiers and the limits used to define them (locales, content entries, traffic, etc.) should be transparent and align with your roadmap. So that a relatively small business step doesn’t blindside you with a big price hike.
Support. A variety of support options should be available to help you at every stage. From an active user community and clear documentation, to customer service channels, to a dedicated support manager and enterprise level SLAs.
This list aims to help point your search in the right direction with 5 headless CMS options that are an excellent fit for a range of use cases.
To decide on the top 5, we evaluated the contenders based on:
User reviews. What people had to say on G2 and Capterra (and a handful of subreddits).
Core features. Is all the expected functionality there? Does it offer anything unique? Taking into account the different priorities of different use cases.
Scalability. Can it be extended to support multiple channels, locales, content types, data sources, etc? With a critical eye on the CMSs that market themselves as global, omnichannel experiences and a more lenient eye on those meant for standard marketing sites.
Value for money. All of the CMSs on the list offer a free version for small projects, but we focused more on the paid tiers. We assessed whether they offer a practical way for companies to grow, or if critical features are locked behind the highest price tag. The list was also guided by general industry reputation and market presence, focusing on vendors people prefer working with.
Hygraph is a very flexible CMS that helps teams easily implement and efficiently manage complex, content-driven applications. It provides a single source of truth for content data, with tools that let developers and marketers leverage that content and scale it across markets, brands, and channels.
Key features:
Flexible content modeling. Quickly define your unique content structure, programmatically or via a low-code schema builder, with support for custom content types and complex relationships (one-to-many, many-to-many, etc).
Content Federation. A universal GraphQL API lets you efficiently fetch data from all sources using a single API call, without duplication or migration.
Efficient workflows. Granular roles and permissions, custom stages, reusable components, bulk operations, and localization tools let marketing teams handle global content without developer assistance.
Limitations: Hygraph is natively built with GraphQL APIs, so there can be a learning curve for teams without GraphQL experience. The platform design does lean more towards the developer experience, and while the editing UI is easy-to-use it doesn’t offer a drag-and-drop page builder like some other CMSs on this list.
Prices per project/month, when billed annually.
Prices per project/month, when billed annually.
Contentful was an early player in the headless space, earning it a pretty strong foothold in the market and giving it time to build up a solid partner network. It was originally considered a developer-centric platform, but in recent years feature development has leaned more towards the business user.
Key features:
Prebuilt integrations. Has a large marketplace of apps and extensions to connect a range of tools.
API-first design. Works with all modern frameworks and can deliver content to any frontend channel via API. REST-native with an added GraphQL API.
Contentful Studio. A visual editor launched in 2024 that offers a big improvement to the editing experience, including the introduction of reusable components and collaboration features.
Image source: Contentful
Limitations: While Contentful is a very flexible CMS overall, it lacks a couple of factors when it comes to data modeling (e.g. no two-way relationships) and the developer experience (e.g. no integrated API playground). The Content Studio editor is also only available at the premium pricing tier, with a limited editing UI otherwise, making it mainly an option for enterprise companies.
Prices per month
Strapi provides core platform logic that developers can extend with custom- or community-built plugins. The combination of open source and headless makes it a great fit for certain companies - often ones at different ends of the size spectrum. Small business with tight budgets (and a developer that really likes headless) on one end and, on the other, huge organizations that use different CMSs for different use cases.
Key features:
Low entry cost. The community edition is free, but you do take on the cost of hosting, feature development, and platform maintenance.
Complete customization. The entire codebase is available on GitHub and open to customization, including the API.
Open source community. There’s an active forum and Discord channel to help troubleshoot issues.
Image source: Strapi
Limitations: Strapi comes with the typical challenges of open source software. As a very developer-centric solution it can be hard to learn for business users and, since you’re fully responsible for performance and security, the more customizations you add the more complex (and expensive) it is to maintain.
Prices for the self-hosted CMS per seat/month, when billed annually.
Storyblok offers an editing UI that feels familiar to content creators used to working with a traditional CMS, while keeping the underlying API-based content structure.
Key features:
Visual editor. Drag-and-drop components and see changes in a live preview.
Content modeling. Supports unique content types, global components, and the ability to nest components.
Image optimization. Automatically resize images or edit them directly in the UI with tools to filter, crop, rotate, etc.
Image source: Storyblok
Limitations: With the focus on providing a really smooth editing experience, Storyblok sacrifices some technical flexibility with limitations in API logic and bulk operations. The developer documentation is also a bit sparse, especially around integrations.
Prices per month, when billed annually.
Prismic lets editors build web and mobile pages “like a slide deck”. Developers create fully designed page slices (e.g. hero banner, product grid, customer testimonial) that editors can mix-and-match to quickly build pages.
Key features:
Slices. Developers define content slices and create a variety of frontend design options for each slice using Next.js Nuxt, or SvelteKit as a framework.
Page builder. Editors can pick different slices options to build a page, allowing them to create unique pages with a consistent design.
Prebuilt templates. Ready-to-go slices for common pages elements that can be styled to match your brand.
Image source: Prismic
Limitations: Prismic is terrific for building slick looking marketing brochure sites, but it really isn’t intended to handle more complex use cases. There are no custom roles or workflows, it’s difficult to create relationship logic between slices, and a developer testing environment is only available at the platinum pricing tier (and is an extra $3000 a year).
Prices per repository/month, when billed annually.
| CMS | Best For | API Type | Content Modeling | Editing Experience | Workflows & Roles | Hosting | Scalability | Pricing (Entry) | Key Strength | Main Limitation (vs. Hygraph) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hygraph | Complex, composable, multi-channel platforms | GraphQL-native (API-first) | True graph-based modeling with deep relationships & content federation | Structured UI; integrates with external visual editing tools | Advanced (granular roles, stages, localization) | SaaS | Excellent (globally distributed, API-first infrastructure) | Free tier | Graph-native architecture + federation + flexibility | Requires frontend layer for full experience (composable approach) |
| Contentful | Enterprise content operations | REST + GraphQL | Flexible with references, but not graph-native (limited deep querying flexibility) | UI + optional visual editing layer (separate product experience) | Enterprise-grade but operationally complex | SaaS | Excellent (enterprise infrastructure, cost increases with scale) | Free tier | Mature ecosystem and enterprise tooling | Not GraphQL-first; no native federation; complexity and cost at scale |
| Strapi | Custom backend control & extensibility | REST (default) + GraphQL | Fully customizable via code; schema and logic managed manually | Developer-focused admin panel | Configurable (requires setup or plugins) | Self-hosted or cloud | Depends on infrastructure and DevOps maturity | Free (self-hosted) | Full control and open-source flexibility | No built-in federation; scaling, security, and maintenance handled by user |
| Storyblok | Visual editing for marketing-driven teams | REST + GraphQL (CDN-first) | Component-based structure; suitable for structured pages, less for complex data | Strong real-time visual editor (page-centric) | Solid (roles, localization, releases) | SaaS | High for delivery; less suited for complex backend/data orchestration | Free tier | Visual editing and ease of use | Limited flexibility for complex relational data and multi-source architectures |
| Prismic | Structured marketing websites & fast iteration | REST + GraphQL | Slice-based modeling (structured and repeatable, intentionally constrained) | Intuitive editor with predefined content structures | Basic to moderate | SaaS | Good for simple to mid-sized use cases | Free tier | Simplicity and fast content production | Constrained modeling; not suited for complex, multi-channel data architectures |
Navigating the CMS landscape isn’t always easy. There’s a lot of options out there and, especially when migrating from legacy to headless CMS, many of the critical differences are under the hood.
We’ve put together an eBook, The Ultimate Headless CMS Selection Checklist, to help teams kick-off their CMS search. With tips on assessing your organization’s needs, the technical bottlenecks a new solution can help solve, and a list of evaluation criteria when comparing headless CMS.
A guide to selecting your next content management system
Frequently Asked Questions
A headless CMS separates your content backend from the presentation layer. Instead of using built‑in templates to render pages, you manage content in the CMS and pull it into any frontend via APIs. This makes it easier to deliver the same content to websites, apps, smart devices or any new channel you need.
In today’s omnichannel world, content needs to appear everywhere at once. A headless CMS lets you create once and distribute anywhere without re‑platforming. Modern platforms also offer flexible APIs, content federation and workflows that scale with your business.
If you’re a small team with a limited budget, Strapi’s free community edition or Prismic’s starter plan can be a good fit. They give you basic headless functionality without high licence fees. Just be aware that you’ll need some developer resources to set them up.
No. Hygraph is designed for complex, multilingual projects, but the platform scales down well. Its flexible content modelling and content federation make it attractive for growing companies that expect to add channels or markets over time.
Start with your team’s needs: content modelling flexibility, API support (GraphQL vs REST), editorial workflows, scalability, pricing and support. Gather input from developers, marketers and other stakeholders to prioritise must‑haves versus nice‑to‑haves.
A headless CMS won’t harm your SEO if it’s implemented correctly. You have full control over your frontend, so you can add proper meta tags, structured data and performance optimisations. Just make sure your developers handle routing, sitemaps and canonical URLs.
Some platforms, like Storyblok and Contentful Studio, offer visual editors and drag‑and‑drop components, which make content creation easier for non‑developers. However, most headless CMS projects still require developer involvement to set up the frontend and integrations.
It depends. Headless CMSs focus on content management rather than page building. Tools like Storyblok include a page builder, but many others leave layout control to your frontend. You can pair a headless CMS with a static site generator or modern framework to build the site you want.
Yes. All of the platforms in this guide have free tiers for small projects. Strapi and Prismic offer the most generous free plans, but keep an eye on content entry limits and support levels as you grow.
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