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?

   • 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

• What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) editor → Stackbit

• Robust CMS data querying → Sanity

• Self-hosting of CMS data → Stackbit or Strapi

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