Best Headless CMS 2026: API-First Content Platforms Compared
We rank headless CMS platforms — content backends that deliver content to websites and apps through an API — using only facts from their own sites: the monthly price of the cheapest paid plan and the billing period it needs, whether there is a permanent free plan and how many users it includes, GraphQL and REST APIs, webhooks, custom roles, version history, self-hosting, an open-source licence, content storage in the EU, a SOC 2 or ISO 27001 certificate, the uptime in a published SLA, a public status page and the year the company started. Every fact links to an official page with a check date. This ranking is for developers choosing a content backend; tools for building a site without code are in our website builders ranking. We do not use reviews, user scores or our own tests, which we cannot repeat, and paid placements never change the Score.
| # | Company | Who it serves | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Strapi | 78 | $35.00 | No | 0 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | GraphQL Self-host Open source EU data |
| 2 | Sanity | 77 | $15.00 | Yes | 20 | Yes | Not verified | Yes | Yes | Free plan GraphQL EU data |
| 3 | DatoCMS | 74 | $222.46 | Yes | 2 | Yes | Not verified | Yes | Yes | Free plan GraphQL EU data |
| 4 | Directus | 73 | $99.00 | No | 0 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | GraphQL Self-host EU data |
| 5 | Storyblok | 72 | $99.00 | Yes | 1 | Yes | Not verified | Yes | Not verified | Free plan GraphQL EU data |
| 6 | Kontent.ai | 58 | Not verified | No | 0 | Yes | Not verified | Yes | Yes | GraphQL EU data |
| 7 | Agility CMS | 55 | $1425.00 | No | 0 | Yes | Not verified | Yes | Yes | GraphQL EU data |
-
- Cheapest paid plan, per month
- $35.00
- Free plan
- No
- Users on the free plan
- 0
- GraphQL API
- Yes
- Self-hosting
- Yes
- Content stored in the EU
- Yes
- SOC 2 or ISO 27001
- Yes
Pros
- Low price of the entry paid plan
- Can run on your own server
- Content can be stored in the EU
- Audited security: SOC 2 or ISO 27001
Cons
- No permanent free plan
- Free plan for one person or none
Details Visit site ↗ 92% backed by facts
-
- Cheapest paid plan, per month
- $15.00
- Free plan
- Yes
- Users on the free plan
- 20
- GraphQL API
- Yes
- Self-hosting
- Not verified
- Content stored in the EU
- Yes
- SOC 2 or ISO 27001
- Yes
Pros
- Low price of the entry paid plan
- Has a permanent free plan
- Content can be stored in the EU
- Audited security: SOC 2 or ISO 27001
Details Visit site ↗ 77% backed by facts
-
- Cheapest paid plan, per month
- $222.46
- Free plan
- Yes
- Users on the free plan
- 2
- GraphQL API
- Yes
- Self-hosting
- Not verified
- Content stored in the EU
- Yes
- SOC 2 or ISO 27001
- Yes
Pros
- Has a permanent free plan
- Content can be stored in the EU
- Audited security: SOC 2 or ISO 27001
- Custom roles or fine-grained permissions
Cons
- Free plan for one person or none
Details Visit site ↗ 84% backed by facts
-
- Cheapest paid plan, per month
- $99.00
- Free plan
- No
- Users on the free plan
- 0
- GraphQL API
- Yes
- Self-hosting
- Yes
- Content stored in the EU
- Yes
- SOC 2 or ISO 27001
- Yes
Pros
- Low price of the entry paid plan
- Can run on your own server
- Content can be stored in the EU
- Audited security: SOC 2 or ISO 27001
Cons
- No permanent free plan
- Free plan for one person or none
- Not under an open-source licence
Details Visit site ↗ 92% backed by facts
-
- Cheapest paid plan, per month
- $99.00
- Free plan
- Yes
- Users on the free plan
- 1
- GraphQL API
- Yes
- Self-hosting
- Not verified
- Content stored in the EU
- Yes
- SOC 2 or ISO 27001
- Not verified
Pros
- Low price of the entry paid plan
- Has a permanent free plan
- Content can be stored in the EU
- Custom roles or fine-grained permissions
Cons
- Free plan for one person or none
Details Visit site ↗ 80% backed by facts
-
- Cheapest paid plan, per month
- Not verified
- Free plan
- No
- Users on the free plan
- 0
- GraphQL API
- Yes
- Self-hosting
- Not verified
- Content stored in the EU
- Yes
- SOC 2 or ISO 27001
- Yes
Pros
- Content can be stored in the EU
- Audited security: SOC 2 or ISO 27001
- Custom roles or fine-grained permissions
- Version history with restore
Cons
- No permanent free plan
- Free plan for one person or none
Details Visit site ↗ 72% backed by facts
-
- Cheapest paid plan, per month
- $1425.00
- Free plan
- No
- Users on the free plan
- 0
- GraphQL API
- Yes
- Self-hosting
- Not verified
- Content stored in the EU
- Yes
- SOC 2 or ISO 27001
- Yes
Pros
- Content can be stored in the EU
- Audited security: SOC 2 or ISO 27001
- Custom roles or fine-grained permissions
- Version history with restore
Cons
- Expensive entry paid plan
- No permanent free plan
- Free plan for one person or none
Details Visit site ↗ 80% backed by facts
Not ranked yet: not enough verified data
These services are known to us, but we haven't verified enough facts to rank them fairly.
- ButterCMS (57% backed by facts)
- Contentful (site closed to automated checks, )
- Contentstack (53% backed by facts)
- Cosmic (61% backed by facts)
- Ghost (53% backed by facts)
- Hygraph (65% backed by facts)
- Prismic (69% backed by facts)
Sites marked as closed refuse automated reading (403 error, captcha or a robots.txt ban). We don't bypass such protection, so we can't verify their facts and they are not ranked. This says nothing about their quality. A company can send links to its official pages to [email protected].
How we calculate the Score
25%
Price
Monthly price in USD of the cheapest self-serve paid plan in its smallest size (one seat when the plan is priced per seat): $0 scores 100, $500 or more scores 0 (weight 3). We take the price for the billing period the pricing page states: the monthly-billing price when both are shown, otherwise the monthly equivalent of annual billing, marked as such. A price without a stated billing period, a price that only a script shows, or "contact sales" leaves the fact empty; euro prices are converted at the ECB rate of the check date. Also a permanent free hosted plan (weight 2) and how many users it includes, up to 10 (unlimited scores 100; weight 1).
20%
APIs
Whether the vendor documents a GraphQL API (weight 1), a REST API (weight 1) and webhooks that notify other systems when content changes (weight 1). Beta and preview features do not count. A fact means the feature exists on some plan, not necessarily the cheapest one.
15%
Editorial control
Custom roles or fine-grained permissions for editors (weight 1) and a version history of entries that lets you restore earlier versions (weight 1), on any plan.
20%
Control over data
Whether anyone can run the CMS on their own server — as open-source code or a published self-hosted plan, not only under an enterprise contract (weight 2); whether the code is under an OSI-approved open-source licence, while source-available licences do not count (weight 1); and whether content in the vendor's cloud can be stored in the European Union (weight 2).
20%
Trust and reliability
A SOC 2 report or ISO 27001 certificate held by the vendor itself — "compliant", "aligned" or the cloud provider's certificates do not count (weight 2); the highest uptime in a published SLA document or terms, where 99% scores 0 and 100% scores 100 — uptime claims in marketing text do not count (weight 1); a public status page (weight 1); and how long the company has been running, 15 years or more scores 100 (weight 1).
How to choose a headless CMS
Start from your API and framework
Check that the CMS offers the API style your front end uses — GraphQL or REST — and an SDK for your framework. Try a real query on the free plan or a trial before you model all your content.
Read the limits, not only the price
Plans limit users, records, locales, API calls and traffic. Estimate your usage and check whether extra usage is billed or the service stops, and whether the price is per seat or per project.
Decide where your content lives
If you need full control, choose a platform you can self-host and check its licence. If you use the vendor's cloud and handle personal data of people in the EU, choose an EU region and sign the data processing agreement.
Plan your way out
Make sure you can export all content and assets through the API or a tool. Version history and environments make migrations safer; keep your content model documented so you can move it to another platform.
Frequently asked questions
What is a headless CMS?
A content management system without its own website front end: editors manage content in the CMS, and your website, app or other channel fetches it through an API. If you want to build a site without code, a website builder fits better.
Which headless CMS is best?
The platform in first place has the highest Score under our open method, but the Score does not measure the editor's ease of use or the developer experience. Compare the price, the free plan limits, the API you plan to use and where your content is stored.
Why do some prices say annual billing?
Many vendors show only the price for annual billing. We take the price for the billing period the pricing page states, prefer monthly billing when both are shown, and mark prices that require annual billing. If a page gives no billing period, the price stays empty.
Is open source the same as self-hosting?
Not always. Some platforms publish their code under a source-available licence that limits commercial use, so they can be self-hosted but do not count as open source in our method. We score the two facts separately.
What does an empty fact mean?
We could not confirm it on an official page, sometimes because the vendor's site refused automated access. An empty fact scores zero and lowers data completeness; a platform with too little data is not ranked.