Contentful and Sanity are the two headless CMSes serious teams shortlist. Both are mature. Both integrate cleanly with Next.js. Both have good editor UX. On the surface the choice looks close. In practice, one is nearly always the right answer for a given team.
Here is how they actually differ, based on shipping both.
The short version
Pick Sanity if your editors want a great editing experience, your engineers want a real developer environment, and your budget is the price of a Growth plan.
Pick Contentful if you're an enterprise with dedicated content ops, you already run on Contentful across other properties, or you need SLAs and procurement paperwork more than you need speed.
For a growing UK business (£2M-£25M revenue), Sanity is usually the answer. Here is why.
Editor experience
Sanity Studio is a React app you configure with schemas. Custom input components, live preview panes, structure builder, real-time collaboration on the same document. Editors get an interface that fits their content model. Non-technical marketers pick it up in an hour.
Contentful ships a hosted editor. It is polished but generic. You cannot restructure the UI. Live preview requires setup on your side. Real-time collaboration exists but is less refined than Sanity's.
If your team edits weekly and cares about UX, Sanity wins on this axis.
Developer experience
Sanity uses GROQ, a query language purpose-built for structured content. It is powerful, terse, and takes an afternoon to learn. Schemas are TypeScript-typed. Generated types flow through to the front end. Deploy previews work naturally with Next.js.
Contentful exposes REST and GraphQL. Both work. Neither is as expressive as GROQ for the kind of nested content queries that come up in real projects. TypeScript support requires third-party code generators.
For a Next.js codebase, Sanity is the more natural fit.
Content modelling
Sanity models are declarative code files. References, arrays, nested objects, custom validation. Changes are versioned in git.
Contentful models are configured in a web UI. Fields are defined by clicking. Version control of the model requires their CLI or Migrate scripts.
For teams that want their schema in git alongside the front-end code, Sanity is the cleaner setup.
Pricing
Rough shape for a growing business with 5-10 editors and moderate traffic:
Sanity Growth: ~$99 per project per month, includes 20 users, 50GB assets, 500k API requests
Contentful Basic: ~$300 per month for a comparable tier, with tighter limits on API requests
Sanity is materially cheaper at every tier below enterprise. Contentful's pricing catches up at scale but rarely undercuts.
Real-time collaboration
Sanity has real-time collaboration as a first-class feature. Two editors in the same document at the same time work without conflict.
Contentful supports concurrent editing but with a lock model. One editor at a time on a field.
For teams where marketing and comms co-author, Sanity's approach is meaningfully better.
Ecosystem and integrations
Contentful has a larger official app marketplace, deeper Salesforce and enterprise integrations, and more third-party consultancy coverage.
Sanity has a smaller marketplace but a more active plugin ecosystem, and the fact that the Studio is code means you can build integrations natively rather than waiting for an app.
If your integration needs are enterprise SaaS-shaped, Contentful has more off-the-shelf. If your integration needs are custom, Sanity is easier to extend.
When to actually pick Contentful
Three scenarios:
You are already on Contentful across other business units and consolidation matters
You need procurement-friendly paperwork (SOC 2, SLAs, dedicated support) more than you need agility
Your content team is 50+ editors with existing Contentful muscle memory
When to pick Sanity
Almost everyone else. Specifically:
A marketing site plus a product, both needing structured content
A team of 2-15 editors
Engineers on Next.js who care about type safety and DX
A budget where an extra £200/month matters
The stack we default to
For a growing UK business, we default to Sanity plus Next.js on Vercel. Real-time collaboration for editors, typed content for engineers, live previews for both. Sanity's pricing leaves budget for the parts that need it more (design, custom features, SEO).
Need a team to build or rebuild your Sanity site? Read our guide to choosing a Sanity CMS development company.
Next step
If you're also considering Strapi or WordPress, we've written those comparisons too — or see Sanity CMS alternatives for the full shortlist.
If you're deciding between Contentful and Sanity for a new build or a migration, talk to Goodspeed Studio. We've shipped both. We'll tell you which one fits your business, not the one that pays higher affiliate.
Frequently asked questions
Which is better, Contentful or Sanity?
Is Sanity cheaper than Contentful?
Does Contentful have a better editor UX than Sanity?
Is Sanity or Contentful better for developers?
Can I migrate from Contentful to Sanity?
Does Contentful support real-time collaboration?
Which CMS scales better?
When is Contentful worth the price premium?
Harish Malhi
Founder of Goodspeed
Harish Malhi is the founder of Goodspeed. He left Google in 2019 to build his own product, and started Goodspeed to give other founders the same head start. Today the studio designs and builds websites and the whole digital experience around them for funded tech companies, at the moments that matter: a raise, a launch, a press cycle. Goodspeed is a Framer Enterprise Expert, was Bubble’s Agency of the Year in 2024, and has shipped 300+ products, including launch pages for an NVIDIA-backed AI lab and a Webby-nominated site for a Boeing-backed aviation company. It holds a 5.0 rating from 46 reviews on Clutch.
