# What to consider when choosing a headless CMS When choosing a headless CMS, these three questions can help you narrow your search: 1. **Do you need** [**SOC 2 compliance**](/headless-cms-playbook/headless-cms-tools/contentful-best-for-enterprise.md#regulatory-and-compliance)**?** * SOC 2 compliance applies to the cloud provider that is storing the content being entered into the CMS. * When choosing a CMS that hosts data for you, your only option is Contentful. * If SOC 2 Type 1 compliance is sufficient, that broadens your options to Sanity and Contentful. * Alternatively, you can set up a SOC 2 compliant self-hosted CMS (e.g., Stackbit, Strapi, Directus, Tina, other git-based CMS tools). 2. **How many people will be using your CMS?** * Smaller teams and organizations may prefer Sanity, Stackbit, and Strapi’s developer-driven community support. Like with React, there’s a lot of passionate people writing blogs and content that's not officially supported. * Large teams and organizations may prefer Contentful's dedicated customer support and enterprise features. 3. **What is your budget?** * Strapi's self-hosted plans start at $9 per month * Sanity and Stackbit's paid plans start at $99 per month * Contentful’s paid plans starts at $300 per month * We’ve also found Strapi and Sanity's free plans to be generous and great for small teams getting started. #### Looking for any of these key features? * Customizable UI or content modelling → [Sanity](/headless-cms-playbook/headless-cms-tools/sanity-most-customizable.md) * What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) editor → [Stackbit](/headless-cms-playbook/headless-cms-tools/stackbit-best-visual-editor.md) * Robust CMS data querying → [Sanity](/headless-cms-playbook/headless-cms-tools/sanity-most-customizable.md#cms-data-querying) * Self-hosting of CMS data → [Stackbit](/headless-cms-playbook/headless-cms-tools/stackbit-best-visual-editor.md#self-hosting-of-cms-data) or [Strapi](/headless-cms-playbook/headless-cms-tools/strapi-budget-friendly-self-hosted.md) ## Detailed comparison of features that really matter | Feature | Sanity | Contentful | Stackbit (git-based) | Strapi (self-hosted) | | ------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Pricing** | Starts at $99/mo | Starts at $300/mo | Starts at $99/mo | Starts at $9/mo | | **Free** **plan** | No content type limit; unlimited users, but no role permissioning; can integrate Cloudinary | Limited to 25 content types; 5 users and 4 roles; can integrate Cloudinary | No content type limitations; 1 user only; can't integrate Cloudinary; sleeps after 30 min inactivity | No content type, user, role, or Cloudinary integration restrictions | | **Customizability** | Best-in-class | ✅ | Limited | ✅ | | **Dedicated customer support** | Enterprise only | Best-in-class | Enterprise only | Enterprise only | | **SOC 2 compliance** | Yes - Type 1 | Yes - Type 2 | Yes - with compliant cloud provider | Yes - with compliant cloud provider | | **WYSIWYG editor** | ❌ | ❌ | Best-in-class | ❌ | | **Self-hosting of CMS data** | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ | | **Un-opinionated content model** | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | | **Learning curve** | Steep | Steep | Steep | Low | | **Multi-language & localization** | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | | **Role-based permissioning** | Limited | Best-in-class | Limited | ✅ | | - User activity audit log | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ | In beta | | - Visual interface for access control | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | | **Authentication** | Limited | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | | - Single-sign on (SSO) | Manual configuration | SAML 2.0 | Manual configuration | Passport.js | | **GUI for content modelling** | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | | **Rich-text editor** | ✅ | Limited | ✅ | Limited | | **Built-in digital asset management (DAM)** | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | | **Community support** | ✅ | Limited | ✅ | ✅ | | **Auto-save** | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | | **Real-time collaboration** | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | | **Version control** | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | | **Third-party plugins/extensions** | Extensive | Extensive | Limited | ✅ | | - UI enhancements | ✅ | Limited | ❌ | ✅ | | - E-commerce | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | Limited | | - Digital asset management | Cloudinary, Bynder | Cloudinary, Bynder | Cloudinary | Cloudinary | | **CMS data querying** | GraphQL, REST API, GROQ | GraphQL, REST API | Manual configuration | GraphQL, REST API | --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. 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