Headless content systems deliver content through an API and leave the website to your developers, so the page price covers only part of a project.
This guide ranks twelve products on first-ninety-day effort, the invoice once seats, locales and environments are added, how content leaves, and whether you can run it without a partner.
Vendors can pay for visibility on this page. It never changes what an entry
says about a product, including the criticism, and we earn nothing when you click through to a
vendor. How that works.
In short
What headless CMS platforms do
A headless CMS stores structured content and serves it through an API to any website, app or screen, without a built-in front end that renders the pages itself.
In this order: setup effort, what it really costs, how your data comes back out, whether
you can leave, and who each headless CMS platform is built for. One rule sits on top of those tests:
Places 1 to 3 go to challengers, vendors outside the best-known brands in a category, wherever the category has them; the established names follow from place 4 in their ranked order. Why those five, and why there is no
score out of ten, is on the how we work page.
Quoted per organisation through a price calculator; demo offered
—
Organisations with many seats and content types that buy through procurement
Developers who want to compare pricing or sign up with a card
Country is where the vendor is headquartered or contracts from, which is a
different question from where your data is hosted. Where the two tell different stories, the
entry says so.
Milan-based GraphQL CMS with public prices and a hard-capped free plan
Ranked #1 of 12 in Best Headless CMS Platforms in 2026.
Free tierPublished pricingEurope
DatoCMS serves content through a GraphQL Content Delivery API and a REST Management API, each metered separately in the pricing table. Professional includes 100,000 records, one million GraphQL calls and 1TB of bandwidth a month, with stated rates for going over.
Projects, sandboxes and locales are separate line items, so an agency with many sites should price the Agency Partner Program, which starts at 39 euros a month, first.
What stands out
Italian company
GraphQL API
Hard-capped free plan
Where it costs you
Professional caps collaborators at ten per project, and each extra collaborator is billed monthly.
The free plan cannot exceed its limits, so a traffic spike stops API responses instead of billing overage.
Right for
Agencies and product teams building several client sites on GraphQL with predictable overage rates
Wrong for
Teams that must run the CMS on their own servers
ItalyFree plan with hard limits; Professional tier and overage rates published
Paris page builder with slices, priced per repository from a free plan
Ranked #2 of 12 in Best Headless CMS Platforms in 2026.
Free tierPublished pricingEurope
Prismic builds pages from slices, reusable sections modelled in a Type Builder and synced to code with a command-line tool. Documents, types and assets are unlimited on every tier, and a Migration API is included, which eases moving content in.
GraphQL, webhooks and a document API are listed on all tiers, while backups and SSO appear only with Enterprise. Bandwidth above the included amount is billed per gigabyte.
What stands out
Slices
Per repository
Visual page builder
Where it costs you
Users are capped at one on the Free plan and three on Starter, so a growing editorial team moves up a tier quickly.
A development environment is a paid option from the Platinum tier, so safe schema testing costs extra.
Right for
Marketing teams assembling pages from reusable slices on a Next.js front end
Wrong for
Buyers who need several environments or SSO before an enterprise contract
FranceFree plan per repository; paid tiers and bandwidth overage rates published, Enterprise quoted
Code-first Next.js CMS you install and run yourself without a licence fee
Ranked #3 of 12 in Best Headless CMS Platforms in 2026.
Free tierSelf-hostablePublished pricingNorth America
Payload is MIT-licensed and installs with a single create command, then runs wherever Node.js 20.9 or later and a MongoDB, Postgres or SQLite database run, so no vendor stands between you and your content.
The cost is operations, because you supply hosting, file storage and an email provider. SSO, visual editing and dedicated support sit in an enterprise tier whose price is given only through sales.
What stands out
MIT licence
Self-hosted
Next.js
Where it costs you
Young, with a small ecosystem
Config is code, so editors cannot change the model
Right for
A product team that wants the CMS versioned with the application
Wrong for
A non-technical team choosing on its own
United StatesFree to self-host under the MIT licence; enterprise features through sales
Real-time content database with a free tier and per-seat Growth plan
Ranked #4 of 12 in Best Headless CMS Platforms in 2026.
Free tierPublished pricingEurope
Sanity treats content as structured data and hands you the tools to shape both the model and the editing environment, which is itself a React application you configure.
For a team with development capacity that produces exactly the CMS they want, with real-time collaboration and genuinely portable content. Without that capacity it is a toolkit rather than a product, and the studio will sit unconfigured.
What stands out
Per-seat pricing
GROQ and GraphQL
Portable Text
Where it costs you
Without a developer it is a toolkit, not a CMS
Studio configuration is a project
Right for
A team that wants content modelled as structured data
Wrong for
A marketing team that has to be self-sufficient on day one
NorwayFree tier; Growth per seat per month; add-ons and usage rates published
MIT-licensed Node.js CMS from Paris, self-hosted or on Strapi Cloud
Ranked #5 of 12 in Best Headless CMS Platforms in 2026.
Open sourceSelf-hostablePublished pricingEurope
Strapi is the pragmatic answer when the requirement is a headless CMS on infrastructure you control, and your team already writes JavaScript. Self-hosting is straightforward and the API generation is quick.
Two warnings from experience: major-version upgrades have historically required real migration work, and the admin panel is functional rather than pleasant, which matters if non-technical editors will use it daily.
What stands out
Open source
Self-host or Cloud
Per project
Where it costs you
Major-version upgrades have been painful
Live preview, content history and review workflows sit on paid plans
Right for
A JavaScript team that must keep the data on its own infrastructure
Wrong for
A team without server operations
FranceSelf-host the open source edition; Cloud tiers per project published
Berlin GraphQL-native CMS that federates content from remote sources
Ranked #6 of 12 in Best Headless CMS Platforms in 2026.
Free tierPublished pricingEurope
Hygraph's pricing table limits Hobby and Growth by entries, API calls, models, locales and seats, and lists one remote source on Growth against up to ten on Enterprise.
Data centres are shared in the EU, US and APAC on both smaller tiers. Rate limits for uncached requests are 5 per second on Hobby and 25 on Growth. A 30-day Enterprise trial can be started from a Hobby project without a credit card.
What stands out
GraphQL-native
Content federation
Hobby plan
Where it costs you
Scheduled publishing, SSO and audit logs sit only in the Enterprise tier, which is priced individually.
Version history lasts 14 days on Growth and is not listed for the Hobby plan.
Right for
Teams that want content and remote data sources queried together through GraphQL
Wrong for
Buyers who need audit logs or SSO below enterprise pricing
Visual editor CMS from Linz with a free tier and published tiers
Ranked #7 of 12 in Best Headless CMS Platforms in 2026.
Free tierPublished pricingEurope
Storyblok solves the problem that makes most headless projects fail: editors could not see what they were editing. The visual editor renders your actual front end and lets people click into components, which means marketing stops filing tickets.
That requires modelling components properly at the start, and the plan steps are large, so a small site can find itself paying for a tier it barely uses.
What stands out
Visual editor
Per-seat extras
Linz, Austria
Where it costs you
Component modelling takes discipline up front
Plan jumps are large
Right for
A marketing team that must edit pages without a developer
Wrong for
A one-page site with no ongoing content
AustriaFree tier; Growth and Growth Plus published; Premium and Elite quoted; 45-day trial
Database-first CMS with source-available code, self-hosted on any tier
Ranked #8 of 12 in Best Headless CMS Platforms in 2026.
Open sourceSelf-hostablePublished pricingNorth America
Directus is unusual in this list because your content stays in a normal Postgres or MySQL schema that you could query without it. That reframes the lock-in question entirely: the exit is a database you already have.
It suits teams whose content is really structured data — products, locations, specifications. It suits editorial teams less well, because the workflow, versioning and preview tooling that a magazine needs are present but junior compared with the specialists.
What stands out
Source-available
SQL databases
Seat limits
Where it costs you
Editorial workflow is thinner than content-first tools
You own the database operations
Right for
A team that already has a database and wants an API and an editor on it
Wrong for
An editorial team that needs review and publishing workflow first
United StatesSelf-host on every tier; Core and Team prices published; 14-day Cloud trial
Object-based CMS with metered usage and a free plan for one bucket
Ranked #9 of 12 in Best Headless CMS Platforms in 2026.
Free tierPublished pricingElsewhere
Cosmic organises content in Buckets holding Objects, and every plan includes comments, an audit log, four user roles and cached global delivery. Allowances run from 1,000 Objects on Free to 50,000 on Business, with 10 dollars per further 10,000 on the paid tiers.
Workspaces pool several projects, starting at 999 dollars a month for Small with a 30-day trial. AI tokens, agents and workflows are metered per tier.
What stands out
Buckets and Objects
Metered overage
AI agents
Where it costs you
Webhooks, localization, revision history and backups are each a 99 dollar monthly add-on, or 199 dollars as a bundle.
Extra team members cost 29 dollars each per month on every plan.
Right for
Small teams wanting AI agents and a content API on a metered bill
Wrong for
Teams needing localization or backups included in the base tier
Not stated by the vendorFree plan; Builder, Team and Business tiers published; usage billed above allowances
Canadian CMS with a fixed Essentials tier and custom proof of concept
Ranked #10 of 12 in Best Headless CMS Platforms in 2026.
Published pricingNorth America
Agility models pages, sitemaps and reusable modules next to content, with REST and GraphQL APIs, webhooks, workflows and scheduled publishing on its feature list.
Its SDKs for JavaScript and .NET are open source on GitHub, and a Content Sync SDK keeps a local copy so the API is called only when content changes. Backups are point-in-time for 30 days, and the vendor states that content and APIs sit behind Fastly's CDN.
What stands out
Canadian
Pages and modules
Fixed monthly tier
Where it costs you
Only the Enterprise column lists data centres outside the USA.
Essentials caps users at five and entries at 25,000, counting pages and assets.
Right for
Marketing teams needing page and sitemap management at a fixed monthly price
Wrong for
Buyers who need content stored in Europe on a small tier
CanadaEssentials tier published; Enterprise quoted; custom proof of concept offered
Non-profit publishing platform with a read-only Content API on every plan
Ranked #11 of 12 in Best Headless CMS Platforms in 2026.
Self-hostablePublished pricingAsia-Pacific
Ghost answers the exit test better than any hosted-only rival, because the code is MIT licensed and member import and export are listed on the plans, so a publication can leave Ghost(Pro) for its own server.
The first ninety days are cheap on the entry tier, but paid subscriptions start on Publisher, with no Ghost transaction fee on top of the processor. Check the member slider at your list size, because the price follows it.
What stands out
Non-profit
MIT licence
Posts and pages
Where it costs you
Not a general site builder
Marketing pages beyond the basics need a developer
Right for
A publication with paid subscriptions
Wrong for
A company website with services, cases and forms
SingaporeGhost(Pro) tiers published by audience size; self-host under the MIT licence
Brno-based enterprise CMS priced through a seats and content calculator
Ranked #12 of 12 in Best Headless CMS Platforms in 2026.
Pricing on requestElsewhere
The calculator on the pricing page takes user seats, content types and content items in ranges, for example 21 to 50 seats, 51 to 100 types and 26,000 to 100,000 items, plus an additional volume discount of 10 percent.
The FAQ says all plans can be customised and switched later. The terms name Kontent CZ s.r.o. in Brno as the provider, or another company from its group.
What stands out
Quote-based
Content types
Enterprise
Where it costs you
No amount appears on the pricing page, so budgets cannot be compared before a sales conversation.
Content is irrecoverably deleted 30 days after the subscription ends.
Right for
Organisations with many seats and content types that buy through procurement
Wrong for
Developers who want to compare pricing or sign up with a card
Czech RepublicQuoted per organisation through a price calculator; demo offered
A headless CMS stores structured content and serves it through an API to any website, app or screen, without a built-in front end that renders the pages itself. The differences that matter are rarely in the feature list, so this is
the order we would work through them.
01
Decide whether you need a published price
11 of the 12 tools here publish what they cost; the other 1 quote per organisation. The ones you can compare without a sales call: DatoCMS, Prismic, Payload, Sanity, Strapi, Hygraph, Storyblok, Directus, Cosmic, Agility CMS, Ghost.
02
Decide how much the jurisdiction matters
These 12 vendors are established in 10 countries across 4 regions (Europe 6, North America 3, Elsewhere 2, Asia-Pacific 1). That decides whose disclosure law applies to what the vendor holds, wherever the servers are.
03
Consider whether you want the source
2 of these are open source: Strapi, Directus. Hosting one yourself trades a subscription for maintenance.
What the first ninety days of a headless CMS cost
A headless CMS ships without a front end, so the first ninety days go on building one, and the licence is the smaller line. Read the limits of the entry tier before you model content, because they behave differently. The DatoCMS free plan stops responding when a monthly limit is reached, the Prismic free plan lists no overages on API calls or bandwidth, and Cosmic meters every allowance and bills above it instead of blocking.
Payload asks for the most setup, since you provision Node.js, a database, file storage and email, but it needs no contract. A hosted tier trades that work for limits and for a vendor you depend on, so decide which of the two costs you can carry before the first prototype is built.
Which limits stop service on the entry tier and which bill overage
Which components you must host yourself, such as database, file storage and email
Whether a trial or free plan allows the real content model, not a demo
Real price once seats, locales and environments are added
The advertised monthly figure rarely includes the things a team needs by week twelve. Sanity charges per seat on Growth and sells extra datasets and larger document quotas as add-ons. Storyblok bills each extra seat monthly and reserves taxonomies, environments and SSO for Premium and Elite. Directus has no SSO on Core, which is limited to three seats, and its Team price appears as two figures on one page.
Hygraph keeps scheduled publishing, SSO and audit logs for Enterprise. Cosmic sells revision history, localization, webhooks and backups as separate monthly add-ons. Price the tier that contains every feature you listed, not the one in the headline, and ask what happens to the bill when editors, markets or sites double.
Which tier first contains SSO, environments and scheduled publishing
What each extra seat, locale, project or environment costs per month
Whether the price you were shown is a monthly or an annual figure
Exit: how content leaves a headless CMS
Content is the asset, so test the way out before you sign. Sanity documents a command-line export of a dataset, Strapi provides a command-line tool to export, import and transfer data, and Ghost offers an import and export area in its admin. Payload and the self-hosted editions keep content in a database you own.
Hosted vendors differ in what happens at cancellation: DatoCMS deletes content within four days of termination and does not promise a backup, and Kontent.ai keeps it for 30 days before irrecoverable deletion. Export a complete copy, with assets and references, before giving notice, and keep the export format documented so a later migration does not depend on one person's memory.
Whether a documented export covers content, assets and references
How long content remains available after the subscription ends
Whether you can restore the export into another system in a test
Independence: buying and running a headless CMS without a partner
Some products need no intermediary at any stage. Payload and Strapi can be installed from public packages under the MIT licence, Directus can be self-hosted on every tier under a source-available licence, and Ghost publishes MIT code beside its hosted plans. Prismic, DatoCMS, Hygraph and Kontent.ai are hosted by the vendor, and Agility CMS stores Essentials content in a USA data centre.
Kontent.ai starts with a sales conversation, whereas DatoCMS, Prismic and Cosmic publish prices you can act on alone. Count the vendor, an agency and a hosting provider as separate dependencies, and write down which of them you could replace within a quarter if one stopped serving you well.
Whether you can sign up and pay without speaking to sales
Whether the code can run on your own infrastructure under its licence
Where hosted content is stored on the tier you would buy
What goes wrong most often when buying headless CMS platforms
Choosing on the free plan, then discovering that private datasets, SSO or a second environment sit two tiers higher.
Assuming a source-available licence such as Directus gives the same freedom as an MIT licence such as Payload or Strapi.
Pricing the CMS but not the front-end build, the hosting and the developer hours that a headless setup needs.
Cancelling a hosted plan before exporting content, assets and references, then finding the vendor deletes data within days.
07
Frequently asked questions
8 answers
What are the best headless CMS platforms in 2026?
DatoCMS leads our ranking of 12. DatoCMS is provided by Dato srl in Milan and lists every limit and overage rate on one page.
The free plan stops responding when its monthly limits are reached, while Professional adds soft limits you pay to exceed, and each extra project, sandbox or locale carries its own monthly charge. The terms delete content within four days of termination, so export before you cancel.
Which headless CMS platforms publish their pricing?
11 of the 12, with the pricing model each one publishes:
DatoCMS: Free plan with hard limits; Professional tier and overage rates published.
Prismic: Free plan per repository; paid tiers and bandwidth overage rates published, Enterprise quoted.
Payload: Free to self-host under the MIT licence; enterprise features through sales.
Sanity: Free tier; Growth per seat per month; add-ons and usage rates published.
Strapi: Self-host the open source edition; Cloud tiers per project published.
Ghost: Ghost(Pro) tiers published by audience size; self-host under the MIT licence.
The other 1 quote per organisation.
Is there a free headless CMS platform?
DatoCMS, Prismic, Payload, Sanity, Hygraph, Storyblok, Cosmic offer a free tier or a free self-hosted edition.
Where are these headless CMS platform vendors established?
In 10 countries across 4 regions: Europe 6, North America 3, Elsewhere 2, Asia-Pacific 1.
DatoCMS: Italy.
Prismic: France.
Payload: United States.
Sanity: Norway.
Strapi: France.
Hygraph: Germany.
Storyblok: Austria.
Directus: United States.
Cosmic: Not stated by the vendor.
Agility CMS: Canada.
Ghost: Singapore.
Kontent.ai: Czech Republic.
Which headless CMS platforms are open source?
Strapi, Directus.
Which headless CMS platforms can you host yourself?
Payload, Strapi, Directus, Ghost. The other 8 are hosted by the vendor only.
What should you use instead of DatoCMS?
Prismic and Payload are the next two on this page. Prismic is for Marketing teams assembling pages from reusable slices on a Next.js front end; Payload is for a product team that wants the CMS versioned with the application.
Who should not buy DatoCMS?
Teams that must run the CMS on their own servers. Professional caps collaborators at ten per project, and each extra collaborator is billed monthly..
If your headless CMS platforms product belongs among these 12, tell us what it does and who it is for. Inclusion is an editorial call; what a listing is and is not is set out under software advice.
