Making the Ultimate CMS Choice: Sanity vs Contentful

A headless CMS is like having a content powerhouse that works behind the scenes. Unlike traditional systems like WordPress, where content and design are glued together, a headless CMS separates the backend from the frontend.

This means you can push your content anywhere—websites, apps, smartwatches, even AR/VR experiences—without rebuilding everything from scratch.  

I believe making a choice between Sanity and Contentful isn’t about finding the “best” CMS—it’s about finding the right fit for your team’s DNA.

Let’s say you’re a startup with a lean dev squad: Sanity’s self-hosting and code-first approach lets you build custom workflows without breaking the bank. But if you’re a global brand managing 20 regional websites? Contentful’s AI-driven workflows and enterprise-grade structure keep chaos at bay.

The stakes are high. Pick wrong, and you’ll waste months (and money) migrating later. For example, a marketing-heavy team choosing Sanity might drown in GROQ’s complexity. Whereas, a tech startup picking Contentful could hit paywalls as their traffic grows.

Your CMS is the backbone of your digital strategy. It shapes how fast you innovate, how easily you scale, and how well your team collaborates. The right choice? It depends on who’s driving your content bus—and where you’re headed.

The hosting approach, content modeling philosophy, and collaboration features represent critical differentiators that can make or break your implementation. Let’s break down our two headless CMS heavyweights.

Sanity

Sanity is the developer’s playground. Its open-source Studio lets you customize workflows, while GROQ (its supercharged query language) slices through data like a hot knife through butter. Perfect for teams craving control, like startups or tech-first agencies.

Contentful

Contentful is polished, packed with AI tools, and designed for global brands. Imagine managing a dozen regional websites from one dashboard, with built-in workflows to keep everyone on-brand. Ideal for enterprises juggling complex projects.

Comparing Platform Architectures and Core Features  

1. Hosting and Deployment
   1. Sanity gives you choices. Need full control? Self-host Sanity Studio on your servers. Prefer hands-off? Their Google Cloud-powered hosting scales smoothly, even for regulated industries like healthcare.
   2. Contentful keeps it simple—everything’s in their AWS cloud. Is it reliable for global teams, but if you’re a bank or hospital needing on-premise hosting? You’ll hit a wall. Users complain about missing hybrid options.
      So basically. Sanity = flexibility. Contentful = convenience.
       
2. Content Modeling: Code vs Click 
   1. With Sanity, you’re in the driver’s seat. Define content structures using code (schema-as-config) and query data with GROQ. For example, pulling related product reviews and user profiles in one API call? Easy. Developers love this, but marketers might find it intimidating.
   2. Contentful keeps it visual. Drag-and-drop fields to build content types, no coding needed. But complex queries (like filtering by multiple tags) often require workarounds.
   3. The Tradeoff? Sanity’s power demands learning GROQ. Contentful’s simplicity limits customization.
       
3. Real-Time Collaboration
   1. Sanity’s live editing is a game-changer. Imagine your team tweaking a landing page together, seeing changes instantly—no “refresh” button needed. It’s like Slack for content, cutting approval times in half.
   2. Contentful plays it safe. You draft, someone reviews, and then it’s published. Great for strict compliance, but could be a little frustrating for fast-paced teams.

When I evaluate a CMS, I look at how easily it can adapt to my team’s unique needs and not the other way around.

Customization Capabilities: Building Your Ideal Workflow

Sanity stands out here because its open-source Studio isn’t just a tool—it’s a foundation. Built on React, the Studio lets developers reconstruct the entire content interface. For instance, if I need a custom dashboard to track content performance or a specialized input field for 3D product previews, I can build it directly into the CMS.

So what’s missing? Sanity’s flexibility comes at a cost: teams must build common features (like blog templates) from scratch. Meanwhile, Contentful’s marketplace lacks depth for highly specialized use cases, forcing enterprises to rely on custom development anyway.

The Learning Curve

SDKs and Integrations

A CMS doesn’t exist in a vacuum—it needs to play nicely with your existing tools.

Sanity focuses on modern development stacks:

• JavaScript/TypeScript: First-class SDK support with robust documentation.
• Rust/PHP: Experimental libraries for niche use cases.
• REST and GraphQL APIs: Flexible enough for custom integrations, like pulling data into a React Native app.

Contentful casts a wider net. Its SDKs cover:

• Ruby, Python, .NET: Ideal for enterprises with legacy systems.
• Java: A favorite for financial institutions and large-scale platforms.
• Mobile SDKs: Out-of-the-box support for iOS and Android.

The way your team manages content—whether crafting blog posts, localizing product descriptions, or coordinating global campaigns—can make or break your digital strategy.

Editor Interface: Structured Flexibility vs. Visual Simplicity

For example, a "product feature" block can appear on your website, mobile app, and email campaigns without duplication. Developers love this flexibility, but content editors might find it less intuitive until they grasp the modular approach.

This simplicity speeds up onboarding for non-technical teams, but it risks locking content into rigid structures. For instance, repurposing a blog post for a mobile app might require manual adjustments.

Localization: Precision vs. Convenience

Sanity offers field-level localization, letting you translate individual components (e.g., a headline or button text) without duplicating entire pages. This granularity is ideal for brands that might need to tweak product descriptions regionally while keeping imagery consistent.

Contentful uses locale management, bundling all translations for a page or entry into a single interface. It’s efficient for global teams managing 20+ languages, but overkill for minor regional tweaks.

Workflow Tools: Speed vs. Control

Sanity excels in real-time collaboration and versioning. Imagine multiple editors refining a product launch page simultaneously, with changes syncing instantly—no “content freeze” periods. Version history lets you roll back to any draft, a lifesaver for fast-moving teams.

Contentful prioritizes structured workflows. Use its approval chains to route drafts from writers → editors → legal teams → publishers. Scheduled publishing ensures time-sensitive campaigns (like holiday sales) go live precisely at midnight. However, real-time co-editing isn’t supported, which can bottleneck urgent updates.

When it comes to performance, I recommend that everyone focus on two main criteria: speed and reliability.

API Performance: Real-Time Agility vs. Global Reach

Contentful relies on CDN-backed delivery via Fastly and CloudFront, which caches content globally. This ensures sub-100ms response times even during traffic spikes, perfect for e-commerce sites serving millions of users worldwide. However, cached content updates can lag by minutes, which might frustrate teams needing instant publishing.

Scalability Challenges: Cost vs. Flexibility

Contentful’s tiered pricing starts simple but escalates sharply. For example, scaling from 1M to 10M API calls/month can push costs from $300 to over $15,000/month. Enterprises often face sticker shock when adding locales or user seats, which are billed separately.

Certifications

Contentful checks every enterprise box:

• SOC 2, ISO 27001, and PCI DSS compliance.
• Advanced threat detection via AWS GuardDuty.

• GDPR and CCPA compliance out-of-the-box.
• Lacks SOC 2, which some regulated industries (like finance) require.

Data Hosting

Contentful runs on AWS, leveraging its battle-tested infrastructure. Think of it as a fortress—secure, but rigid. Features like static IPs for webhooks are locked behind enterprise plans.

Over the years, I’ve seen teams get burned by underestimating the true cost of CMS ownership. Here’s how Sanity and Contentful stack up—and where hidden fees might ambush your budget.

Contentful: Predictable Scaling with Premium Price Tags

1. Free Tier: Great for tinkering—you get 1M API calls/month and basic tools. But hit 5 users or need multilingual support? You’ll outgrow it fast.
    
2. Basic Plan ($300/month): A common starting point for small teams. But watch out for overages:
   1. API calls: $5 per extra 1M requests.
   2. Asset bandwidth: $65 per TB overage.
       
3. Enterprise Plans: Here’s where costs balloon. The average enterprise deal hovers around $81k/year, but I’ve seen contracts hit $120k+ for global brands needing multi-region CDNs and custom security (PCI DSS, dedicated infrastructure).
    
4. The Hidden Costs:
   1. Contentful Studio: Drag-and-drop features? That’s a paid add-on (custom pricing).
   2. Ninetailed personalization: Starts at ~$15k/year for AI-driven content variants.
   3. Spaces: Need separate environments for dev/staging/prod? Each space adds $$$.

Sanity: Transparent Base Pricing, Sneaky Add-Ons

1. Free Tier: Surprisingly generous—unlimited content types, 20 users, and real-time collaboration. Perfect for MVPs, but datasets are public-only.
    
2. Growth Plan ($15/user/month): The sweet spot for startups. But beware:
   1. API overages: $0.50 per 1k extra API calls.
   2. Datasets: Need private data? $999/month per extra dataset.
       
3. Enterprise Plans: Custom pricing, but median contracts land around $80k/year for SAML SSO, dedicated support, and unlimited scalability.
    
4. The Hidden Costs:
   1. SSO: A must for enterprises? That’s $1,399/month.
   2. Dedicated support: Another $799/month.
   3. Usage spikes: Viral campaigns can trigger unpredictable API bills.

Side-by-Side Pricing Comparison

The Total Cost of Ownership  

Contentful suits teams valuing predictability. You’re paying for turnkey scalability, but premium features add up fast.

Sanity rewards technical teams who can self-manage. Just don’t overlook those add-ons; they’ll nickel-and-dime you.

Need Help Budgeting?

• Use Sanity’s usage calculator to model API spikes.
• Negotiate Contentful’s enterprise deals—median savings hit 11% with strategic haggling.

The Bottom Line

After spending years working with both platforms—and hearing from countless teams about their wins and struggles—I can confidently say there’s no universal "best" CMS. The right choice depends entirely on how your team operates and what you’re trying to build.