# 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**](https://tbw.rangle.io/headless-cms-playbook/contentful-best-for-enterprise#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](https://tbw.rangle.io/headless-cms-playbook/headless-cms-tools/sanity-most-customizable)
* What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) editor → [Stackbit](https://tbw.rangle.io/headless-cms-playbook/headless-cms-tools/stackbit-best-visual-editor)
* Robust CMS data querying → [Sanity](https://tbw.rangle.io/headless-cms-playbook/sanity-most-customizable#cms-data-querying)
* Self-hosting of CMS data → [Stackbit](https://tbw.rangle.io/headless-cms-playbook/stackbit-best-visual-editor#self-hosting-of-cms-data) or [Strapi](https://tbw.rangle.io/headless-cms-playbook/headless-cms-tools/strapi-budget-friendly-self-hosted)

## 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                                                   |