Strapi is a popular open-source headless CMS built with JavaScript that gives developers much control over their content API. With both REST and GraphQL support and self-hosting, Strapi is a capable platform. Still, not all users will agree it's the best headless CMS you can get.
These are the biggest complaints:
Performance bottlenecks: Strapi users often complain about performance drops, limited query capabilities, and a lack of built-in mutations. This can cause inefficient data fetching, so you often need to manually configure the system, especially in high-traffic use cases.
Inflexible content modeling: Strapi has decent content modeling features, but lacks out-of-the-box support for advanced content relationships and validations. As frequent custom coding and plugins are required, building and managing structured content becomes a burden.
Limited editorial and collaboration features: Strapi also lacks advanced content approval workflows, versioning, batch operations, custom roles, and granular permissions - all of which are essential for collaboration in bigger content teams.
No integrated CDN and SEO optimization: You must rely on external services to achieve high-performance, globally distributed delivery. This creates problems for teams that want to optimize their websites for speed, SEO, and reliability.
#Top 7 Strapi Alternatives
Here are the best Strapi alternatives we'll be reviewing in this article:
- Hygraph
- Sanity
- Contentful
- Storyblok
- Directus
- Prismic
- Contentstack
Let's begin.
#1. Hygraph
Hygraph is a modern, API-first, headless CMS for creating and delivering structured content at scale. Built on GraphQL, Hygraph has strong querying capabilities and an intuitive, user-friendly interface. Hygraph is ideal for managing complex relationships between content types. This makes it a great choice for building dynamic, data-rich applications.
Pros:
- GraphQL-native platform: Hygraph is built from the ground up with GraphQL, granting developers precise querying capabilities.
- Very scalable: Fast and reliable content delivery through globally distributed networks - great for enterprise use.
- Flexible content modeling: Comes with a flexible schema builder that supports complex relationships between content types.
- Multi-tenancy: Built-in localization and custom role management make Hygraph a strong choice for organizations with a global presence.
- Developer-friendly: Provides a rich set of APIs, software development kits, and command line interface (CLI) tools. Integrations for modern frameworks like Next.js and Gatsby.
Cons:
- Fewer integrations: Compared to Strapi or Contentful, there's a limited choice of plugins and extensions.
- No native visual editing: Hygraph mainly focuses on structured content, which makes it less suitable for projects that require a more traditional visual editing workflow.
Hygraph use cases
✅ Composable websites: AutoWeb, one of the first internet companies in the automotive industry, chose Hygraph to replace their in-house CMS that hindered organic growth and produced only an average user experience. By replacing their rigid-backend CMS with Hygraph, AutoWeb can now optimize the user experience with ease. Instead of weeks, the developer team needs a few days to implement new components. As a result, the improved organic capability helps AutoWeb to generate more clicks, pageviews, and conversions.
✅ Data projects: Hygraph helped the Oetker Group, a global leader in the Food and Beverage industry, break down data silos, centralize local technical solutions, and create meaningful touchpoints with first-party data so they could gain a better understanding of consumers. Now Oetker uses Hygraph to manage brands across 40 different countries and subsidiaries.
✅ Knowledge management and portals: Looking for a CMS that meets the strict data governance and security requirements, Statistics Finland, chose Hygraph as its new content platform. Hygraph's custom granular permissions protect the integrity of the citizens' data and allow users to have the right level of clearance within the CMS.
✅ Content federation: Telenor, a multinational telecommunication company, chose Hygraph to create a content platform that would support its rapidly expanding video streaming service without losing speed and quality. The Telenor team is able to programmatically feed content from multiple sources into Hygraph which simplifies the work for content editors.
Start exploring Strapi's best alternative by signing up for a free-forever account.
#2. Sanity
Sanity is a headless CMS with real-time collaboration features and plenty of flexibility, while Strapi uses sequential editing flows, with no native real-time co-editing. With Sanity, you get total control over how your content is structured using JavaScript, so you can shape it to fit your exact needs.
Pros:
- Highly customizable Sanity Studio for editing environment and workflows
- Queryable content lake
- Real-time collaboration (beta)
- Integrates with modern developer stacks like Next.js, Vercel, and Netlify
- Query directly from the front-end or back-end using Sanity's custom query language - GROQ
Cons:
- No native visual editor
- GROQ isn't as widespread as GraphQL or SQL
- Overwhelming for teams that need a lightweight CMS for publishing blogs
- JavaScript knowledge is required to set up custom schemas and workflows
Sanity use cases
✅ Multi-platform content delivery: Thanks to a headless, API-first design, you can use Sanity for omnichannel publishing on websites, mobile apps, digital signage, or even augmented/virtual reality environments.
✅ Custom digital experiences: Ideal for building highly tailored websites, platforms, or apps where out-of-box CMS features can't deliver. It's especially useful when you need more control over content modeling and editorial workflows.
✅ Real-time content ops: Sanity is a great choice for product content teams or newsrooms where multiple editors work side-by-side with instant updates and live presence indicators.
#3. Contentful
Contentful is a headless CMS for digital-first businesses. As a composable content platform, it makes it easy to structure content with custom content models and create ''experiences'' that can be deployed to any channel or device. While neither Strapi nor Contentful have real-time editing, Contentful comes with a native visual editor. Its localization features, user roles, and integrations make Contentful especially suited to enterprises.
Pros:
- API-first architecture
- Editor-friendly UI
- Side-by-side live preview
- Custom content modeling
- Roles, permissions, and localization options
Cons:
- Limited Rich Text customization
- Expensive for startups or small teams
- No modular components
Contentful use cases
✅ Multi-channel content distribution: Useful for businesses that deliver content to websites, mobile apps, digital displays, and other endpoints through a single back-end via APIs. For example, a global retail brand can use Contentful to power its website, mobile app, in-store digital displays, and voice assistants, ensuring consistent content delivery through a single API-driven backend.
✅ Enterprise-size sites and apps: Organizations with complex content structures, localizations, and large content teams benefit from Contentful's scalability, permissions, and editing environments. For example, a multinational financial institution may use Contentful to localize information across 20+ markets, and support collaboration among hundreds of content creators with granular permissions.
✅ Headless architecture projects: Contentful is ideal for building decoupled front-ends using frameworks like Next.js, Nuxt, or Gatsby. For example, a digital agency can build an e-commerce site for its clients using Next.js, where product data and blog content are pulled from Contentful's GraphQL API to ensure reliable front-end performance.
#4. Storyblok
Storyblok is a cloud-native headless CMS that allows you to integrate and repurpose your work on any platform. It's frontend agnostic, which means it works on any frontend, framework, or third-party solution. Unlike Strapi, Storyblok has several features that make your system easy to expand, such as multi-site management and customizable workflow options.
Pros:
- Intuitive visual editor
- Customizable publishing workflows
- Google Docs-style commenting directly in the app
- Built-in Digital Asset Manager - manage and edit your assets directly in the platform
Cons:
- Complex to set up
- Outdated documentation
- No integrations with CRM systems
- Limited features for non-website content delivery
Storyblok use cases
✅ Dynamic, content-heavy websites: The visual editor and component-based content model make Storyblok ideal for marketing websites, blogs, and other sites where editors need to see changes in real-time.
✅ SMB websites: You should also consider Storyblok if your business needs a headless CMS but not necessarily with complex integrations or omnichannel distribution. While not the best fit for enterprise-size systems, Storyblok works well for smaller businesses where ease of use is among the top priorities.
✅ Frontend-focused projects: Storyblok's content modeling and visual editor are helpful for projects where frontend experience is important. For example, when creating landing pages for a luxury lifestyle brand, the marketing team can create and preview new pages with designed hero sections, CTA banners, and interactive galleries. At the same time, while maintaining consistency by using pre-designed content blocks.
#5. Directus
Directus is an open-source headless CMS and data platform with a no-code admin interface for managing structured content. Unlike Strapi, which comes with its own database layer, Directus lets you use your existing SQL database without imposing a specific schema.
With more flexibility than Strapi, Directus is especially popular with non-technical users who want an intuitive interface to manage content, but also with developers who want granular control over their data.
Pros:
- Works with any SQL database
- Compatible with any tech stack
- No-code admin panel
- Self-hosted
Cons:
- No native CDN
- Limited localization features
- Setting up complex workflows requires database expertise
- Support communities on Discord and GitHub are smaller compared to Strapi's
Directus use cases
✅ Integrating with existing SQL databases: Directus is perfect for modernizing legacy systems. For example, an educational institution may use Directus to create a new application to display student records, courses, and schedules, which is compatible with the existing SQL database.
✅ Custom backend applications: As a framework-agnostic system, Directus can act as a content and data management layer for complex enterprise systems, which require strict control over architecture. For example, a financial services company that is building an internal analytics dashboard may use Directus to create an admin panel for managing permissions and structured content, while developers build a custom frontend for real-time data visualization.
#6. Prismic
Prismic is a cloud-based headless CMS with a visual preview feature called Slices. You can use it to create marketing websites and content-heavy applications where editors need a straightforward way to build and manage pages.
However, unlike Strapi, which offers full control over your backend and requires more developer setup, Prismic is a hosted solution with a polished UI and built-in integrations for popular frameworks like Next.js and Gatsby.
Pros:
- Fully-managed CMS
- Intuitive visual editor
- Built-in versioning, scheduling, and preview
- Quick setup with pre-configured integrations for Next.js, Gatsby, and Nuxt.js
Cons:
- No custom roles, stages, or workflows
- Lacks UI customizations
- No direct control over the underlying database
Prismic use cases
✅ Marketing websites and landing pages: Using the Slices feature, you can easily create, rearrange, and publish landing pages without help from developers. The visual editor lets you preview content changes before publishing.
✅ Editorial sites with high content volume: For example, an online magazine that publishes daily articles across multiple categories can use Prismic to draft and schedule content for release. GraphQL API allows developers to fetch and display content on a statically generated Gatsby frontend, which ensures fast load times and SEO optimization.
✅ Campaign-based content ops: Creating and managing dynamic, time-sensitive content is easy with Prismic. For example, an online retailer can use Prismic to build new pages using pre-configured Slices, schedule launches in advance, and make adjustments on the go.
#7. Contentstack
Contentstack is a headless CMS built for enterprise-scale projects, that offers a clean separation between content and presentation. Developers can use Contentstack to build front-ends with any framework while editors get a user-friendly interface to manage content. With features like modular content blocks, built-in workflows, and localization support, Contentstack is ideal for large organizations with complex content operations.
Pros:
- Reusable content blocks
- Omnichannel delivery via REST and GraphQL APIs
- Custom roles, approval workflows, versioning, and scheduling
- Enterprise-ready architecture with SLAs, CDN, and secure API access
Cons:
- Expensive - custom pricing which is often too high for startups and small teams
- Setting up API and custom content modeling requires technical skills
- Less suitable for projects that need a lightweight, agile CMS
- Compared to CMSs like Hygraph or Sanity, there are fewer options to create user workflows and custom editing experiences
Contentstack use cases
✅ Complex content workflows: Large teams that manage content across departments and regions benefit from advanced roles, approval workflows, versioning, and scheduling options. For example, a multinational pharmaceutical company may use Contentstack's workflow management tools to provide granular control and ensure the content is vetted and published according to strict guidelines.
✅ Mission-critical applications: Organizations like financial institutions, large eCommerce platforms, or news media companies, where uptime and SLAs are non-negotiable. For example, a large eCommerce platform can use Contentstack to manage its product catalogs, promotional banners, and blog content, ensuring data availability and performance during seasonal sales, as well as role-based access to prevent unauthorized changes to product data.
#Strapi vs. Hygraph
Hygraph stands out as a Strapi alternative not just in simple use cases, but especially those that require complex content interactions and user-generated content.
Speaking of performance, Hygraph's advanced GraphQL capabilities, queries, and mutations outperform Strapi's GraphQL, which requires additional setup and comes with a query limit.
Also, compared to Strapi, which needs more setup and misses built-in validations, flexible content modeling makes even the most ambitious projects easy to kick off and scale.
Strapi offers some flexibility with its Dynamic Zones, which make it easier to include components into different content types, but requires more manual setup when facing highly nested content.
Thanks to the visual schema editor, Hygraph excels at creating complex content relationships, which is ideal for enterprise-size projects with granular data structures.
Hygraph has a rich interface with bulk operations and custom roles. Strapi's editorial options are much more limited, which in return, can limit large scale deployment.
Finally, while Strapi depends on external services for globally distributed delivery, Hygraph's integrated CDN and SEO features help you distribute optimized content efficiently.
Compare Strapi vs. Hygraph in detail to learn more.
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