1
Developer-first headless CMS with code-defined editing studio
Developer-led product and engineering teams on React/Next.js stacks who want the editing UI defined in code, plus freelancers and small agencies exploiting the 20-seat free tier with full AI features.
View profileCompareOfficial site ↗$15 per seat/month (Growth) · free tier: Free forever: up to 20 user seats plus free viewers, 2 public-only datasets, 10k documents, 1m API CDN requests/mo, 250k API requests/mo, 100GB assets and bandwidth, 1000 AI credits/mo, 500K function invocations/mo, community support only, no overage purchasingHigh confidence 2
Open-source headless CMS with self-hosted and managed cloud options
Engineering-led teams with Node.js/JavaScript competence that need a customizable multi-channel content API, want self-hosting or data residency, and can absorb major-version migration work — agencies and product teams especially, given the free tier plus $35–$90/month hosting.
View profileCompareOfficial site ↗CMS Growth $45/month (3 seats included, +$15/month/seat); Cloud Starter $35/project/month · free tier: Community edition free forever under MIT licence: RBAC, REST & GraphQL API, unlimited entries and API calls, unlimited content-types/locales/roles/components, community support; 30-day free trial of Growth features on self-hosted projects, no credit card requiredHigh confidence 3
Headless CMS with visual editing for marketers and developers
Single-brand, single-site product or marketing teams of roughly 5-20 people who want marketers editing visually without developer tickets, and teams migrating off Contentful on cost and usability grounds.
View profileCompareOfficial site ↗USD $99.00/month (Growth, monthly) or $90.75/month billed annually · free tier: Starter: free forever with 1 space, 1 seat included (max 2), 100GB traffic/month, 100k API requests/month with no top-up, 2 locales, 25k AI credits, 1-day retention, no uptime SLA; plus a 45-day free trial of Growth PlusHigh confidence 4
Headless CMS grown into an enterprise digital experience platform
Mid-market and enterprise teams with dedicated in-house developers, multi-brand or multi-channel content, high API volumes and an actual content-governance function — especially those wanting personalization and experimentation native to the CMS.
View profileCompareOfficial site ↗$300/month (Lite) · free tier: Free $0/forever: 10 users, 2 roles (Admin, Editor), 2 locales, 100,000 API calls/month, 50 GB CDN bandwidth/month, 1 Starter Space, 50 MB asset uploads, community support only, hard usage caps instead of overagesHigh confidence 5
Source-available collaborative backend over your own SQL database
Developer-led teams with an existing SQL database who want an admin UI and auto-generated APIs over data they keep — especially orgs under $5M revenue and 50 employees, who get the entire uncapped product including SSO free when self-hosting.
View profileCompareOfficial site ↗$499/mo on annual commitment ($5,988/year); $599/mo rolling monthly · free tier: Core — $0/mo: 3 user seats (hard limit), 25 collections, 5 flows, AI Assistant, advanced RBAC, community support, 30-day activity log and revision history; no SSO and SSO cannot be purchased as an add-on. Separately, the Open Innovation Grant gives the full uncapped software free (self-hosted) to orgs under $5M revenue and under 50 employees, plus individuals, hobbyists and non-profits.Medium confidence 6
Headless CMS with slice-based visual page building
A single marketing or corporate website on a Next.js/React front end, with an in-house developer maintaining slices, a marketing team publishing campaign pages frequently, 1–5 languages and predictable traffic; teams of 3–25 fit the $10–$150 rungs, and PoCs or small production sites fit the Free tier.
View profileCompareOfficial site ↗$10/mo per repository (Starter, annual billing rate) · free tier: Free $0/mo per repository: 1 user, 4M API calls/mo, 100 GB CDN/mo, 2 locales, Visual Page Builder, unlimited documents/types/assets, image optimization, Migration API — no overages allowed (exceeding limits locks the repository)Medium confidence 7
Enterprise API-first headless CMS with AI agent layer
Enterprises with dedicated engineering capacity, a real budget and multi-brand, multi-region omnichannel content operations — retail, travel, financial services and manufacturing — that value 24/7 support and formal onboarding over self-serve speed.
View profileCompareOfficial site ↗Not published · free tier: Unverified — G2 listing shows a free "Explorer" account and the vendor advertises "Start free" via an "Enterprise Fast Track" trial, but Capterra records no free version and no trial duration or usage limits are publishedHigh confidence 8
AI-native hosted headless CMS for JavaScript teams
Small-to-mid developer-led product or marketing teams on Next.js/React that want a zero-ops hosted CMS with AI agents doing content and code work, and agencies running a handful of client sites who can absorb the $199 add-on bundle in a retainer.
View profileCompareOfficial site ↗$49/month (Builder) · free tier: Free $0/month, permanent, no credit card: 1 Project, 1 Bucket, 2 team members, 50 object types, 1,000 Objects, 300k in/300k out AI tokens, 1 Agent + 1 Workflow, 10k non-cached + 100k cached API requests, 1GB storage, community (Discord) supportMedium confidence 9
Enterprise headless CMS with a built-in visual page builder
Mid-market and enterprise organisations with multiple brands or regions, a marketing team that must publish without developer tickets, a Next.js/Nuxt/Astro/.NET front end, a SOC 2 or GovRAMP procurement checklist, and tolerance for annual enterprise contracting — particularly North American buyers migrating off WordPress, Sitecore or AEM.
View profileCompareOfficial site ↗Not published · free tier: None confirmed on the current vendor site; only a demo request path and a free trial claimed by third-party aggregatorsMedium confidence 10
Open-source .NET CMS with managed headless and hybrid delivery
.NET/C# teams and agencies already on Azure who need a managed headless or hybrid CMS where content editors are the primary daily users and hosting, CDN, forms and SLA on one invoice matter.
View profileCompareOfficial site ↗Heartcore Starter €60 EUR/month; Umbraco Cloud Starter €45 EUR/month · free tier: Vendor page meta description states a 14-day free trial for Heartcore (not confirmed in page body); self-hosted Umbraco CMS is widely described as free but the licence page was not verifiedMedium confidence 11
Open-source Next.js headless CMS and application framework
Engineering-led teams already on Next.js/React/TypeScript who want to own their data and infrastructure, need CMS plus custom application logic in one codebase, and have DevOps capacity to self-host — plus agencies standardising a repeatable client stack.
View profileCompareOfficial site ↗Not published · free tier: Core product is open source and self-hostable at zero licence cost; specific open-source licence not verified this sessionMedium confidence How this category is scored
Every platform here is scored against the same five components. The Expert Assessment component uses a rubric written specifically for headless cms.
Developer Experience
How quickly a competent engineer gets to production.
Reliability
Uptime record, incident history and how failures are communicated.
Performance
Latency, throughput and behaviour under load.
Pricing & Predictability
Cost at real usage, and whether the bill can surprise you.
Ecosystem & Portability
Integrations, standards, and how hard it is to leave.
Security & Compliance
Access control, certifications and data handling.
Support
Response quality when production is broken.
Sources currently active: Product Hunt, Apple App Store, Google Play, Vendor Documentation, TOP10 Editorial Research, TOP10 AI Visibility Panel, TOP10 Citation Discovery, TOP10 Ratings Refresh, VIZS AI Visibility, TCS Citation Intelligence, G2, Trustpilot, Capterra, TrustRadius, Software Advice. How sources are weighted.