Contentful vs Sanity: Best Headless CMS for Dev Teams Now
Quick Comparison
| Sanity | Contentful | |
|---|---|---|
| Best For | Engineering-led teams that want full control over the frontend and a content model that can evolve as the product changes. | Large enterprises that need formal governance, multi-locale compliance, and a vendor with established enterprise support. |
| Pricing | Free tier available / $15/seat/mo Growth | Free tier available / $300/mo Lite |
| Winner | Our Pick |
Tool Breakdown
Sanity
Sanity's code-first content modeling, GROQ query language, and a free tier that's actually production-viable give engineering-led teams more flexibility per dollar than Contentful's enterprise-governance approach.
- Free plan supports 20 user seats and 10,000 documents — genuinely usable in production, not just a demo
- Sanity Studio is open-source and MIT-licensed, with an actively maintained GitHub repo
- GROQ query language and code-first schemas give engineers fine-grained control over complex, nested content types
- Free plan datasets must be public — private datasets require the paid Growth plan
- Add-ons like dedicated support or extra datasets carry steep flat fees ($799/mo and $999/mo respectively)
Contentful
Contentful is an enterprise headless CMS with API-first content infrastructure, multi-locale governance, and AI-assisted content actions.
- Free plan supports 10 users and 100,000 API calls/month, permanent and no credit card required
- Multi-locale and multi-role governance built for large organizations with compliance requirements
- Enterprise plan includes a dedicated Customer Success Manager and 24/7 support
- Lite plan jumps straight to $300/month flat — a steep step up from the free tier with no mid-tier option
- Less code-first flexibility than Sanity; content modeling leans more toward configuration than schema-as-code
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Sanity's free plan actually production-ready? +
Yes, more so than most CMS free tiers. It supports 20 user seats and up to 10,000 documents permanently, with no trial expiration. The catch is that free-plan datasets must be public — private datasets require upgrading to the Growth plan at $15/seat/month.
Why does Contentful jump straight to $300/month? +
Contentful's pricing has a wide gap between its free tier (10 users, 100K API calls/month) and its next tier, Lite, which is a flat $300/month regardless of team size. There's no published mid-tier plan between the two, which is part of why it's considered a harder sell for smaller projects.
Which CMS gives developers more control over the content model? +
Sanity. Its schemas are defined in code and queried with GROQ, a purpose-built query language, which suits teams that want to model complex, nested, or evolving content types. Contentful's content modeling is more configuration-driven and oriented toward governance rather than code-first flexibility.