Sanity CMS vs Strapi: Which Headless CMS Should You Choose?

The one-line difference

• Sanity is a hosted content platform with a code-configurable editor UI. You do not run infrastructure.

• Strapi is a self-hosted, open-source Node.js CMS. You run the backend, the database, and the editor UI on your own infrastructure.

That single distinction drives everything else.

Hosting and ops

Sanity hosts the content backend. You get 99.9%+ uptime, global CDN, automated backups, and a real-time API you never think about. Sanity Studio (the editor UI) is a React app you host cheaply on Vercel or Netlify.

Strapi runs on your own Node.js server against your own Postgres or MySQL database. You are responsible for uptime, backups, scaling, security patches, and the database. Strapi Cloud (their managed offering) exists but is newer and less mature than Sanity's platform.

Verdict: If your team does not want to run infrastructure, Sanity wins clearly.

Cost model

Sanity: Free tier for small projects. Growth plan ~$99/project/month covers most growing businesses. Enterprise pricing above.

Strapi: Open source and free to run. Real cost is the infrastructure (hosting, database, monitoring) plus the engineering time to maintain it. Strapi Cloud starts around $99/month but includes less than Sanity's Growth tier.

Verdict: Sanity is more predictable. Strapi is nominally free but has real hidden costs in ops.

Editor experience

Sanity Studio is highly customisable. You define schemas in code, build custom input components, wire live preview panes to your Next.js site, and shape the editor around your content. Non-technical editors get a polished UI.

Strapi's admin panel is functional but less flexible. Customisation is possible but harder. Live preview is a feature you plumb yourself.

Verdict: Sanity has the better editor UX for teams where editors matter.

Developer experience

Sanity uses GROQ, a purpose-built query language for structured content. TypeScript codegen is first-party. Deploy previews work naturally with Next.js.

Strapi exposes REST and GraphQL. Both are standard. Content types can be defined in code (via schemas) or through the admin UI, which is convenient early and painful later when the two drift.

Verdict: Both are strong for developers, with different flavours. Sanity is more integrated; Strapi is more open.

Data ownership

Sanity: Your content lives on Sanity's servers. You can export it any time via their API or CLI. But the day-to-day operational location is theirs.

Strapi: Your content lives in your own database. You own it end to end. For teams with data residency or compliance requirements, this is often the deciding factor.

Verdict: If data residency matters (regulated industries, EU-only data, specific compliance), Strapi has an edge. For most growing businesses, Sanity's export options are enough.

Ecosystem

Sanity has a smaller but active plugin ecosystem. Because the Studio is code, you often build integrations natively rather than installing plugins.

Strapi has a large open-source plugin ecosystem. Quality varies; the best plugins are excellent, the worst are unmaintained.

Verdict: Sanity is easier to extend; Strapi has more off-the-shelf.

When to pick Sanity

• You don't want to run infrastructure

• Editors matter and you want a polished UI

• You're on Next.js and value type safety end to end

• Predictable monthly cost beats a "free but you run it" model

• Real-time collaboration between editors matters

When to pick Strapi

• You have engineering capacity to run a Node.js backend and database

• Data residency or compliance requires content stays on your infrastructure

• You need heavy backend customisation (custom endpoints, complex auth, tight database integration)

• You are already invested in a Node ecosystem you want to extend

• Cost of ops is genuinely lower than $99/month at your scale (rare, but real for some setups)

What we default to at Goodspeed

For UK businesses in the £2M-£25M range, we default to Sanity. The reason is simple: most of these teams don't want to run a CMS backend, and Sanity's editor UX is worth more than the "free" of Strapi once you account for ops time.

We reach for Strapi when a client has a specific data residency requirement or an existing Node.js platform they need the CMS to sit inside.