People look for a Contentful alternative when the quoted pricing above the free tier becomes hard to budget, when they want editors to see the page rather than a form, or when the content must live on servers they run. The choice splits between other headless services, open source systems you host, and traditional suites with built-in page editing.
Sebastiaan SmitsFounderShort answer: The first three alternatives to Contentful in our content management ranking are Storyblok, Payload and Craft CMS. Challengers take places 1 to 3 here. Big brands follow in the order of our category ranking. Choose Storyblok if editors should see the live page while a developer keeps a headless setup. The 11 entries that follow are all ranked in Best CMS Software in 2026; each one explains what sets it apart from Contentful.
Vendors can pay for more visibility on this website, for example a higher place in a ranking or more room on a page. Commercial relationships can also affect which products we feature and how prominently. Every vendor link is marked the same, whatever the arrangement behind it. How that works.
Our category record lists a free tier and quoted plans above it, with cost rising with API calls and users. Contentful's pricing page blocked our automated checks, so we state no plan figures. Teams that want a number before a sales call compare vendors that publish theirs.
Contentful is a headless service: it stores content and serves it over APIs, and a separate front end draws the page. Editors then work in fields and rely on previews. Some alternatives below put visual editing, live preview or a page-building layer on top.
Contentful is a hosted service run from Germany. Organisations that need the database on their own infrastructure, or an open source licence they can audit, look at self-hosted systems where the data sits in a database they control.
| Alternative | Headquarters | Free option | Pricing model | Switch if | Our rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Storyblok | Austria | Yes | Published | editors should see the live page while a developer keeps a headless setup | #2 |
| Payload | United States | Yes | Published | your developers want content modelling in the same repository as the app | #1 |
| Craft CMS | United States | Yes | Published | you prefer a one-off project licence over a subscription that scales with usage | #6 |
| Sanity | Norway | Yes | Published | you want a free plan with many seats and a studio built around your content | #5 |
| Strapi | France | Yes | Published | the data has to stay on infrastructure you run and your team writes JavaScript | #7 |
| Directus | United States | Yes | Published | you have an existing SQL database and want an editor and API on top of it | #9 |
| Umbraco | Denmark | Yes | Published | your developers write C# and your estate already runs on Microsoft technology | #10 |
| dotCMS | United States | Yes | Published | you want a hybrid system that can run on your own premises under a free revenue threshold | #12 |
| TYPO3 | Germany | Yes | Published | you run many sites and languages under one permission model, such as a university | #11 |
| Drupal | United States | Yes | Published | permissions, accessibility and multilingual handling decide the selection | #8 |
| WordPress | United States | Yes | Published | you want the widest pool of developers and ready-made extensions, and will run updates | #4 |
Austria · Published
Storyblok comes from Austria and puts a visual editor in front of a component model, so editors see the page as they type. Starter is free with one seat, up to two. Growth is $99 a month, or $90.75 billed annually, and Growth Plus $349. Premium and Elite are priced on request.
Switch from Contentful if editors should see the live page while a developer keeps a headless setup.
#2 out of 16 content management products: read the Storyblok review →
United States · Published
Payload keeps its whole configuration in TypeScript inside your application repository, so the content model is versioned like any other code. Our category record lists it as MIT licensed and self-hosted, with enterprise terms quoted, and notes that it has joined Figma. We could not confirm hosting or cloud prices on its site.
Switch from Contentful if your developers want content modelling in the same repository as the app.
Payload review, listed at 1 of 16 content management products →
United States · Published
Craft CMS sells a licence per project rather than per month. Team is $279 for up to five accounts and Pro $399 for unlimited accounts, each followed by $99 a year for updates after year one. Solo is free for a single user. Content types, entries and locales are listed as unlimited on all four editions.
Switch from Contentful if you prefer a one-off project licence over a subscription that scales with usage.
Craft CMS holds rank 6 among 16 entries in our content management guide →
Norway · Published
Sanity treats content as structured data and ships an editing studio you shape in code. The Free plan lists up to 20 user seats, 2 public datasets and 250k API requests a month; Growth costs $15 per seat a month. Enterprise is priced on request. Norwegian vendor, so the studio needs a developer to configure.
Switch from Contentful if you want a free plan with many seats and a studio built around your content.
Sanity holds rank 5 among 16 entries in our content management guide →
France · Published
Strapi is a French open source headless CMS you can run on your own servers. Community is free under the MIT licence. Growth costs $45 a month with three users included, then $15 per extra user, and adds live preview and 14 days of content history. Audit logs sit on Enterprise.
Switch from Contentful if the data has to stay on infrastructure you run and your team writes JavaScript.
United States · Published
Directus lays an API and an editing app over a SQL database you already own. Its pricing page lists Core at $89 a month billed yearly, and a grant that makes self-hosting free for organisations under $5M revenue and fewer than 50 employees. The page shows two different Team prices, so confirm that tier with the vendor.
Switch from Contentful if you have an existing SQL database and want an editor and API on top of it.
Directus comes 9 of 16 when content management products are ranked here →
Denmark · Published
Umbraco is a Danish CMS built on .NET. Its cloud plans are listed in euros: Starter at 45 a month, Standard at 280 and Professional at 730, with a 14-day trial and no card needed. Enterprise is custom. A team of C# developers works in a familiar language and tooling.
Switch from Contentful if your developers write C# and your estate already runs on Microsoft technology.
Where Umbraco stands: place 10 of 16 in the content management ranking →
United States · Published
dotCMS is Java based and combines content APIs with visual page editing. It states that companies under $5M revenue can use it free with full features, self-hosting included, under the Business Source License. Starter, Professional, Business and Enterprise tiers are quoted by scale, and it can run as SaaS, on premises or managed.
Switch from Contentful if you want a hybrid system that can run on your own premises under a free revenue threshold.
Germany · Published
TYPO3 is developed under the TYPO3 Association, which the vendor page says guides and funds its long-term development, with a company it fully owns offering services. Our category record describes multi-site, multi-language governance under one permission model. That scope suits a group of sites more than a single marketing site.
Switch from Contentful if you run many sites and languages under one permission model, such as a university.
United States · Published
Drupal is distributed under the GNU General Public License and its own site says there are no licensing fees. The Drupal Association supports the project, and modules, themes and distributions extend it. Our category record points to its permission model and multilingual core. Expect to budget for hosting and specialist developers.
Switch from Contentful if permissions, accessibility and multilingual handling decide the selection.
Where Drupal stands: place 8 of 16 in the content management ranking →
United States · Published
WordPress is released under the GPLv2 or later, with four stated freedoms to run, study, redistribute and modify it. The community behind WordPress.org builds it, and plugins extend almost everything. Our category record warns that plugins are the attack surface, so updates and hosting become your job.
Switch from Contentful if you want the widest pool of developers and ready-made extensions, and will run updates.
#4 out of 16 content management products: read the WordPress review →
Storyblok: Starter is free with one seat, up to two, and Growth is $99 a month, or $90.75 billed annually.
Craft CMS: Team is $279 and Pro $399 per project, with $99 a year for updates after the first year.
Sanity: The Free plan lists up to 20 user seats; Growth is $15 per seat a month.
Strapi: Community is free under the MIT licence; live preview and 14 days of content history arrive with Growth at $45 a month.
Umbraco: Cloud plans start at 45 euros a month for Starter, and a 14-day trial needs no card.
Contentful stays the sensible choice when one body of content has to feed a website, an app and in-store screens, and you want a mature, hosted API with a long integration list and multi-locale support, as our category record describes. If the issue is price, ask for a quote at your real volumes before you re-platform.
Contentful stores content types, entries and assets in its own format. Export them through its API, map each type to the target system and rebuild references between entries. Run a sample of your most linked content first.
Websites and apps read from Contentful endpoints. Plan the cut-over per consumer, keep both systems live while each one switches, and retest preview, webhooks and locale fallbacks, which differ by product.
Storyblok publishes Starter at no cost, Growth at $99 a month, or $90.75 billed annually, and Growth Plus at $349. Premium and Elite are quoted. We could not read Contentful's page, so compare against the quote you receive.
Strapi, Directus, Payload, Umbraco, dotCMS, Craft CMS, Drupal, WordPress and TYPO3 can all run on your own infrastructure. Sanity and Storyblok are hosted services. Check the licence terms of each, because Directus and dotCMS use revenue thresholds.
Sanity's Free plan lists up to 20 user seats. Strapi Community is free under the MIT licence, though live preview and content history need the paid Growth plan. Storyblok Starter allows one seat, up to two.
Umbraco is built on .NET and sold from Denmark. Its cloud plans run from 45 euros a month for Starter to 730 for Professional, with an Enterprise tier on request.
Yes for most. Sanity, Payload, Strapi and Craft CMS are configured in code. WordPress is quicker to start but needs update discipline for plugins. Our category records say the same about specialist skills for Drupal and TYPO3.
Craft CMS charges per project: Team $279 and Pro $399, then $99 a year for updates after the first year. Its Solo edition is free for a single user.
Founder of The Knowledge Engineers and of 2 Steps Ahead, an AI search visibility agency. Editorially responsible for every page on this site; research and drafting are AI-assisted.
Sebastiaan Smits wrote and checked this page, most recently on 3 November 2026. See how we review.
