Headless CMS platforms are no longer just for enterprise tech teams. They're shaping how modern websites, apps, and digital experiences are built. But with so many choices, which one truly delivers in 2025: Contentful, Sanity, or Strapi?

If you're a developer or agency evaluating headless options, you've probably noticed something frustrating. Each platform markets itself as flexible, fast, and scalable. They all promise API-first architecture, multi-channel delivery, and developer-friendly workflows. But when you actually dig into the details? Their architectures, pricing models, and developer experiences differ drastically.

We've built projects on all three platforms. We've dealt with Contentful's enterprise quirks, explored Sanity's real-time magic, and appreciated Strapi's open-source freedom. And here's what we've learned: there's no universal winner. Each platform excels at different things, and the "best" choice depends entirely on your project's complexity, team structure, and budget.

This guide breaks down the top three headless CMS platforms (Contentful, Sanity, and Strapi) across key categories like setup, customization, API power, pricing, and scalability. By the end, you'll know exactly which one fits your next project. No marketing fluff, just real developer insights.

Getting Started: How Fast Can You Go Live?

Let's start with the reality check every developer needs: how painful is the initial setup? Because no matter how powerful a CMS claims to be, if it takes a week to get "Hello World" running, you've got problems.

Contentful: Enterprise Polish, Enterprise Process

Contentful feels like enterprise software from minute one. The onboarding is slick, the documentation is comprehensive, and everything works exactly as advertised. You'll have a basic content model running in 30-60 minutes.

But here's the catch: the free tier is basically a demo. Want webhooks? That's a paid feature. Need more than one locale? Premium only. Custom roles? Enterprise tier. You can prototype quickly, but actually building something production-ready means hitting paywalls fast.

The developer experience is solid though. Their SDKs cover every major language, the API responses are predictable, and error messages actually help you debug. As we discussed in our Marketer's Playbook guide to API integrations, good documentation matters more than features, and Contentful nails this.

Sanity: The Creative Developer's Playground

Sanity takes a different approach. Setup takes 45-90 minutes, but that's because you're actually building something custom from the start. Their Studio (the content editing interface) isn't just configurable; it's completely programmable.

You write your content schemas in JavaScript. You customize the editing experience with React components. You can even live-code changes while your content team is working. It's powerful, but it's also a commitment. This isn't a CMS you just install and forget.

The real magic? Real-time collaboration is built into everything. Multiple people can edit the same document simultaneously, Google Docs style. For agencies working with clients who want to be involved in content creation, this is a game-changer.

Strapi: Own Everything, Configure Everything

Strapi is the Linux of headless CMSs. It's open-source, self-hosted, and gives you complete control. Setup takes 30-60 minutes if you know Node.js, but unlike the others, you're running this on your own infrastructure.

What makes Strapi special is that nothing's hidden. Want to modify how authentication works? Edit the code. Need a custom plugin? Build it. Hate how the admin panel looks? Redesign it. You own every line of code, every database table, every API endpoint.

The downside? You also own every problem. No support team to call when things break at 2 AM. No automatic scaling when traffic spikes. It's powerful, but with great power comes great responsibility (and DevOps overhead).

The Power Under the Hood: APIs and Custom Control

Setup is one thing, but what about actually building with these platforms? Let's talk about the technical meat: APIs, customization, and developer control.

Contentful: Enterprise-Grade, Enterprise Restrictions

Contentful's API is what enterprise developers expect. GraphQL and REST endpoints, comprehensive filtering, automatic image transformations, and response times measured in milliseconds. It's rock solid.

But flexibility? That's where things get interesting. Content models are defined through the web UI, not code. This is great for non-technical users but frustrating when you want to version control your schema. Want to add a computed field? Not possible. Need conditional validation? Only through apps (which are, surprise, a paid feature).

The integration ecosystem is impressive though. Contentful plays nicely with everything from Gatsby to Next.js to Nuxt. Their webhooks and app framework let you extend functionality, but again, most powerful features require paid plans.

Sanity: GROQ Your World

Sanity took a bold approach: they invented their own query language. GROQ (Graph-Relational Object Queries) sits somewhere between GraphQL and SQL. At first, it seems like unnecessary complexity. Then you write your first projection and realize how powerful it is.

groq

*[_type == "article" && publishedAt < now()] | order(publishedAt desc) [0...10] {

  title,

  "author": author->name,

  "readTime": round(count(body) / 250)

}

That query fetches recent articles, resolves author references, and calculates read time, all server-side. No multiple API calls, no client-side processing. Our Expert Q&A with API architects highlighted this as a major performance advantage.

The real-time API is where Sanity truly shines. Subscribe to changes and get instant updates when content changes. Building a live dashboard or collaborative editor? Sanity makes it almost trivial.

Strapi: Your API, Your Rules

Strapi gives you what the others can't: complete control. Every API endpoint is customizable. Every controller is editable. Every database query is yours to optimize.

Want GraphQL? It's a plugin you can enable or disable. Prefer REST? That's the default. Need something custom? Write your own endpoints. We've built Strapi projects with custom authentication, complex permission systems, and business logic baked right into the CMS. Try doing that with Contentful.

The content-type builder is brilliant for rapid prototyping. Click together your content model, and Strapi generates the entire API, admin UI, and database schema. Make changes? The API updates automatically. It's like having a backend developer in a box.

What It Costs — and What You Actually Own

Let's talk money, because that's often where decisions get made. But it's not just about monthly fees; it's about total cost of ownership and what you're actually getting.

Contentful: Premium Price, Premium Service

Contentful doesn't pretend to be cheap. Their base paid plan starts at $300/month, and that's for small teams. Need more users, API calls, or locales? The price climbs fast. Enterprise pricing? "Contact sales" (which means if you have to ask, you probably can't afford it).

What you're paying for is reliability. 99.95% uptime SLA, global CDN, automatic scaling, 24/7 support. For large brands where downtime means lost revenue, this is worth every penny. Our guide to choosing enterprise platforms covers when these guarantees matter.

But here's what bothers developers: you're locked in. Your content lives on Contentful's servers. Your workflows depend on their features. Switching platforms means a complete migration. You're renting, not owning.

Sanity: Pay for What You Use

Sanity's pricing model is refreshingly transparent. You pay for what you use: API requests, bandwidth, asset storage. Start free, scale as needed. A typical mid-size project runs $200-500/month, but you can optimize costs by caching aggressively.

The generous free tier is actually useful. Three users, unlimited projects, 500K API requests per month. You can build real projects without immediately hitting limits. Compare that to Contentful's one-locale, basic-features-only free tier.

What's clever is their dataset approach. Each project can have multiple datasets (think development, staging, production). Clone them, export them, move them. You have more control over your data than with Contentful, though you're still on Sanity's infrastructure.

Strapi: Free as in Freedom (and Beer)

Strapi's core is completely free. Download it, run it, use it forever. No API limits, no user restrictions, no feature gates. The only costs are your hosting (figure $20-100/month for a decent VPS) and your time.

The enterprise edition adds SSO, review workflows, and support. But honestly? Most teams don't need it. We've built production Strapi sites handling millions of requests without paying Strapi a dime. That's the power of open source.

The real cost is expertise. You need someone who understands Node.js, databases, and deployment. When something breaks, Stack Overflow is your support team. For agencies with technical depth, this is fine. For marketing teams wanting a turnkey solution? Not so much.

Which Platform Belongs in Your Stack?

After building dozens of projects across these platforms, we've learned that the "best" CMS depends entirely on your situation. Let's get specific about who should use what.

Choose Contentful When:

You're an enterprise team managing global content across multiple brands, languages, and channels. You need rock-solid reliability, comprehensive APIs, and someone to blame when things break. Budget isn't your primary concern; uptime and scalability are.

Contentful excels at structured content at scale. Global retailers, media companies, financial institutions, these are Contentful's sweet spot. Their localization features are unmatched, and their CDN ensures content loads fast worldwide.

But don't choose Contentful if you're a startup watching every dollar or a creative agency wanting maximum flexibility. You'll fight against its opinions and resent its prices.

Choose Sanity When:

You're building something unique that needs custom editorial workflows. Your content team wants real-time collaboration. You need flexibility but don't want to manage infrastructure. Our web design projects often use Sanity for precisely these reasons.

Sanity is perfect for digital agencies, creative studios, and product teams building content-heavy applications. The ability to customize everything while still having it hosted and managed makes it the goldilocks choice for many teams.

Skip Sanity if you want something that works out of the box or if your team isn't comfortable with JavaScript. The flexibility comes at the cost of complexity.

Choose Strapi When:

You want complete control and have the technical skills to handle it. You're building something that needs custom backend logic. Data sovereignty matters. You prefer owning your stack rather than renting it.

Strapi is ideal for technically sophisticated teams building custom applications. SaaS products, internal tools, projects with specific compliance requirements, these scenarios scream for Strapi's flexibility.

Avoid Strapi if you don't have dedicated DevOps resources or if you need hand-holding. The freedom is intoxicating, but you're responsible for everything from security patches to database backups.

The Developer Experience That Matters

Beyond features and pricing, there's something harder to quantify but equally important: how does it feel to work with these platforms daily?

Contentful feels corporate. Everything works, but it's not particularly exciting. You're implementing someone else's vision of content management. The constraints can be frustrating for developers who like to tinker.

Sanity feels creative. There's joy in crafting custom studio configurations, writing GROQ queries, and watching real-time updates flow. It rewards exploration and experimentation. But it also demands attention. You can't just set it and forget it.

Strapi feels empowering. You own everything, control everything, and can modify everything. For developers who've felt constrained by other CMSs, Strapi is liberating. But freedom has a price: you're responsible for everything too.

Making the Choice: A Practical Framework

Here's our framework for choosing between these platforms:

Start with your constraints:

• Budget: Limited? Consider Strapi. Flexible? Sanity. Unlimited? Contentful.

• Technical expertise: Low? Contentful. Medium? Sanity. High? Any of them.

• Infrastructure preferences: Managed? Contentful or Sanity. Self-hosted? Strapi.

Then consider your needs:

• Global scale? Contentful wins.

• Real-time collaboration? Sanity excels.

• Custom backend logic? Strapi only.

• Quick prototype? Sanity or Strapi.

• Enterprise compliance? Contentful.

Finally, think about the future:

• Will you need to migrate? Strapi is easiest to leave.

• Will requirements change? Sanity adapts best.

• Will you scale massively? Contentful handles it.

The Bottom Line

In 2025, the headless CMS landscape isn't about finding the "best" platform. It's about finding the right fit. Contentful brings enterprise stability and global scale. Sanity offers creative flexibility and real-time collaboration. Strapi provides complete control and open-source freedom.

Don't pick a CMS based on hype. Pick it based on your stack, your workflow, and how much control you want. We've seen too many projects fail because teams chose what was popular rather than what was practical.

For most teams, the decision comes down to this: Do you want to own your infrastructure (Strapi), customize your workflows (Sanity), or have everything managed for you (Contentful)? Answer that, and you've got your platform.

Remember, you can always switch later. These are tools, not religions. Start with what makes sense now, and evolve as your needs change. The best CMS is the one that ships your project, not the one with the longest feature list.

Resources and References:

• Contentful Developer Documentation

• Sanity Documentation and Guides

• Strapi Developer Documentation

• Jamstack's CMS Comparison Guide

• Smashing Magazine: Headless CMS Comparison