Sanity vs Strapi
Sanity and Strapi are both developer-first headless systems, and the dividing line is where the software runs. Strapi is open source and self-hostable, so content stays on infrastructure you control. Sanity is a service with a configurable studio and real-time collaboration, billed per seat. Teams with a data-location requirement choose Strapi; teams optimising the editing experience choose Sanity.
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Choose Sanity ifthe priority is a finely tuned editing studio with real-time collaboration and a flexible structured content model, and you would rather pay per seat than run servers yourself.
Choose Strapi ifthe content has to live on infrastructure you control, your team already writes JavaScript and can operate a Node.js application, and a plain admin panel is good enough.
Sanity and Strapi side by side
| Sanity | Strapi | |
|---|---|---|
| Our content management rank | #4 of 14 | #6 of 14 |
| Established in | Norway | France |
| Pricing | Free tier; paid per seat per month, published | Free self-hosted Community edition; paid self-hosted and cloud plans published |
| List price, 30 September 2026 | $15 per seat per month (Growth); free plan available | Self-hosted Community edition free; Strapi Cloud from $35 per project per month (Starter) |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | — | Yes |
| Self-hostable | — | Yes |
| Built for | A team that wants content modelled as structured data | A JavaScript team that must keep the data on its own infrastructure |
| Not for | A marketing team that has to be self-sufficient on day one | A team without server operations |
Both are reviewed in full in our content management ranking: Sanity and Strapi.
Where they differ
Sanity 1 · Strapi 1 · open 3- 01
Where the content lives
Strapi's Community edition is MIT-licensed and free to self-host, which is its main argument: the data stays on servers you choose, and Strapi Cloud is optional. Sanity's editing studio is open source and can be hosted anywhere, but it always connects to the Content Lake, the database Sanity hosts. If control over where content is stored is a hard requirement, Strapi is the answer.
Edge: Strapi
- 02
The editor's daily workspace
Sanity's studio is a React application the team shapes around its editors, with real-time collaboration built in. Strapi's admin panel is functional but plainer than the commercial options, which matters when non-technical editors use it every day. If writers will spend hours a day in the tool, Sanity offers considerably more to work with.
Edge: Sanity
- 03
The work you sign up for
Both demand developer time, in different places. Sanity's effort goes into configuring the studio, which is a project of its own. Strapi's goes into server operations and upgrades: moves between major versions have historically needed real migration work. One is an up-front build cost, the other a recurring operational one, so neither is clearly lighter.
Depends on the buyer
- 04
What you pay for
Sanity's free plan allows 20 seats and 10,000 documents; Growth costs 15 dollars per seat per month for up to 50 seats. Strapi Community is free to self-host, the self-hosted Growth plan is 45 dollars a month including three seats, and Strapi Cloud runs from 35 dollars per project per month. Seats drive Sanity's bill, projects and hosting drive Strapi's.
Depends on the buyer
- 05
Editorial controls and which plan has them
On Strapi, role-based access control, unlimited locales and both REST and GraphQL APIs are in the free Community edition. Live preview, releases and 14 days of content history need the Growth plan, and review workflows, audit logs and included single sign-on sit in Enterprise. Sanity includes its hosted real-time database on every plan, the free one included. Compare the features your editors need.
Depends on the buyer
When neither fits
If there is no developer available at all, both will stall: one is a toolkit, the other needs server operations. Storyblok gives editors a visual editor showing the real page, and WordPress renders the whole site itself with a very large pool of people who know it.
Sanity or Strapi: questions
4 answersCan Sanity be self-hosted like Strapi?
Only in part. Sanity's documentation says the studio is static HTML, CSS and JavaScript and can be hosted anywhere, but it connects to Sanity's hosted APIs and Content Lake, where the content is stored.
Strapi's Community edition can be run entirely on your own infrastructure under the MIT licence.
Is Strapi really free compared with Sanity?
The Strapi Community edition costs nothing to license when you host it yourself, but hosting, security patching and major-version migrations cost time and money.
Sanity's free plan covers 20 seats and 10,000 documents, then Growth charges 15 dollars per seat per month. Compare a maintenance salary line against a seat count.
Which is easier for content editors, Sanity or Strapi?
Sanity, once it is set up. Its studio is configurable to the team and supports real-time collaboration. Strapi's admin panel works but is functional more than pleasant. The caveat is that Sanity's studio needs a developer to configure it before editors see any benefit.
What does Strapi Cloud cost?
Strapi lists three Cloud plans priced per project per month: Starter at 35 dollars, Pro at 90 dollars and Business at 450 dollars, with up to 17 per cent off for yearly payment.
Each has a monthly allowance of API requests, storage and bandwidth, and usage beyond it is charged extra.
Sources
Checked 30 September 2026- Sanity pricing page: free plan limits, Growth price per seat, hosted Content Lake on all plans.
- Sanity documentation: Studio deployment: studio can be hosted anywhere but connects to Sanity's hosted Content Lake.
- Strapi self-hosted pricing page: Community edition free under MIT, Growth price and seats, features per plan.
- Strapi Cloud pricing page: Cloud plan prices per project, yearly discount, usage allowances.