Sanity CMS Alternatives: When to Use Something Else

We ship on Sanity often. We also ship on the others when the project calls for it.

The alternatives worth considering

• Contentful — the enterprise incumbent

• Payload CMS — the code-first, self-hosted, TypeScript-native option

• Strapi — the open-source, self-hosted, Node.js option

• Storyblok — the visual-editor-first headless CMS

• Directus — the "database-as-CMS" option for existing data

Contentful — pick if you're enterprise or already on it

Contentful is the mature incumbent. Deeper enterprise features (SLAs, procurement paperwork, SOC 2 out of the box), a larger app marketplace, more consulting coverage. (Full breakdown: Contentful vs Sanity.)

Pick Contentful over Sanity when: - You're already running Contentful across other business units - You have a 50+ editor team with existing Contentful muscle memory - You need procurement-friendly enterprise paperwork

Sanity beats it for editor UX customisation, developer experience, and price. For a growing business, Sanity is nearly always the better call.

Payload CMS — pick if you want a code-first, self-hosted TypeScript CMS

Payload is the fastest-growing option in the headless space. Fully self-hosted, fully open source, TypeScript-native from day one. Schemas are TypeScript config files. Editor UI is a React admin panel.

Pick Payload over Sanity when: - You want to own the entire stack (no third-party content hosting) - Your team is deep in TypeScript and values a code-first setup - Data residency requires content stays on your infrastructure - You want to combine CMS and application backend in one Node.js codebase

Sanity beats it for editor real-time collaboration (Payload does not have proper CRDT collab yet), zero-ops hosting, and mature Studio customisation.

Strapi — pick if you want open-source and self-hosted, Node.js

Strapi is the older open-source, self-hosted headless CMS. Runs on your Node.js server against your database. Free to run; you pay in infrastructure and ops time. (Full breakdown: Sanity CMS vs Strapi.)

Pick Strapi over Sanity when: - You want no vendor lock-in and content on your own database - You have engineering capacity to run the backend - You need heavy backend customisation

Sanity beats it for editor UX, hosted reliability, and predictable cost.

Storyblok — pick if visual editing is non-negotiable

Storyblok's differentiator is the visual editor. Editors see a live preview of the page they are editing, click a section, edit in place. If your marketing team wants that experience and refuses to compromise, Storyblok wins on this axis.

Pick Storyblok over Sanity when: - Visual page-editing is required by the team (not just live preview) - Marketing owns page layout and does not want to go through engineering - Non-technical editors edit weekly at scale

Sanity beats it for structured content, developer experience, and API power. Sanity supports live preview panes; it does not support drag-a-section visual editing.

Directus — pick if the content already lives in a database

Directus wraps an existing SQL database with a CMS-shaped UI. If your content already sits in Postgres or MySQL and you want a CMS UI on top of it without migrating, Directus is the tool.

Pick Directus over Sanity when: - Content already lives in an existing database - You're building an internal tool as much as a CMS - Data model is dictated by existing systems

Sanity beats it for editorial workflows, content modelling, and marketing-team UX.

The decision framework

Cut the shortlist with three questions:

1. Do you need to run infrastructure? - Yes → Payload, Strapi, or Directus - No → Sanity, Contentful, or Storyblok

2. Does your team need drag-and-drop visual page editing? - Yes → Storyblok, or stay on Webflow/Framer (Sanity does not do this) - No → Sanity, Contentful, or Payload

3. What is your budget for content ops (per month)? - Under $100 → Sanity, Strapi, or self-hosted Payload - $100-$500 → Sanity Growth or Storyblok - Enterprise → Contentful

What we default to (and why)

Goodspeed's default for a growing UK business is Sanity plus Next.js. It sits in the sweet spot of editor UX, developer experience, hosted reliability, and price. When a client's situation pushes them off that default (data residency, visual editing, existing database), we recommend the alternative that actually fits.