The best headless CMS for Next.js applications
With so many headless content management systems (CMS) on the market, it can be hard to choose the right one for your Next.js application. This is a simple and straightforward post that highlights some of the best options available out there.
But before we jump into the list, let me highlight something important: the first key decision you should make is whether you want a self-hosted or cloud-based CMS.
On the self-hosted side, platforms like Strapi, DatoCMS, and Payload offer the flexibility to customize the backend through code, but they also place the responsibility for hosting, security, and reliability on you. While cloud hosting providers can simplify some of these tasks, hosting a self-managed CMS is still more complex and expensive than it seems.
In the cloud-based category, platforms like Croct, Contentful, Contentstack, Sanity, and Prismic stand out. These solutions are proprietary and fully cloud-hosted, offering excellent reliability and ease of use, however, they do limit the ability to customize the backend with your own code. While each of these products provides APIs or webhooks to integrate custom external applications, doing so can diminish the convenience and simplicity that SaaS platforms are known for.
Make everyone happy with the tools the growth team loves: dynamic content, personalization, AB testing, and analytics.
List of headless CMS for Next.js
Sanity
Sanity is a headless CMS designed to give developers full control over their content. It offers a flexible, customizable platform for managing structured content that can be distributed across multiple platforms and devices.
Key features
Sanity offers a customizable workspace, allowing you to tailor the content editor to fit your business needs. It facilitates real-time collaboration, enabling multiple users to edit documents simultaneously. Since it provides cloud infrastructure, it ensures robust content delivery through intelligent caching and a global CDN. This platform is versatile, catering to various applications such as marketing, e-commerce, media, and support.
Pros
Sanity excels in content-heavy applications like blogs and e-commerce stores or complex applications like mobile apps, where structured data and content presentation are critical.
Cons
While it is great for managing structured content, it isn't designed for user experience personalization or experimentation at its core and lacks the built-in capabilities to perform these functions seamlessly.
Pricing
Sanity offers a free plan for 3 non-admin users. The Team plan starts at $99 per month for 10 non-admin users, while the Business plan starts at $949 per month for 20 non-admin users. Custom pricing is available for the Enterprise plan based on specific needs.
Storyblok
Storyblok is a headless CMS that empowers both developers and marketers to create better content experiences across any digital channel. It offers a blend of a visual editor for non-technical users and a powerful API-driven approach, allowing flexibility without much limitations.
Key features
Storyblok features a pure headless architecture supported by robust APIs. It includes a visual editor that makes content creation and management simple, even for non-developers.
The live preview function enables real-time content assessment, while its component-based architecture provides complete control and easy customization. Additionally, it integrates seamlessly with Next.js, making it ideal for Jamstack projects.
Pros
Storyblok is ideal for content-rich websites that need flexibility and scalability without being tied to a traditional monolithic CMS structure. They're slightly focused on some industries like retail, SaaS, financial services, and education, but most of their applications are for static content like static websites like corporate, publishing, or editorial websites, e-commerce, mobile apps, and industry-specific virtual and augmented reality applications.
Cons
New users may find it confusing to get started with Storyblok. Also, it has several limitations regarding advanced marketing features such as personalization and AB testing. These features require significant development work since integrating third-party tools for these purposes can be complex and time-consuming, which isn't always feasible for fast-paced marketing teams.
Pricing
Storyblok offers a free plan to start, with the entry plan priced at $99. Custom pricing is available for enterprise users, but there are additional charges for adding new members.
Strapi
Strapi is an open-source headless CMS designed to accelerate backend development for Next.js projects by seamlessly generating RESTful APIs or GraphQL. It combines flexibility with a self-hosted environment, offering developers a blend of CMS, framework, and automation tools for efficient management. With Strapi, developers can use their favorite tools while editors easily manage and distribute content across any digital platform.
Key features
Strapi features a customizable and extensible admin panel, plugin-oriented architecture for easy integration, and compatibility with various frameworks, enhancing its flexibility.
Pros
Its reusable component system simplifies development, making it ideal for custom Next.js applications. Being free and open-source reduces cost barriers while providing limitless customization.
Cons
As a self-hosted solution, Strapi may require additional setup time. Its cloud-based version follows a per-admin-user pricing model, which could increase costs. It also requires complex integrations with external tools for personalization and AB testing.
Pricing
Strapi offers a free community version for self-hosting, while paid plans start at $99 per month for Pro, with the Team plan at $499 per month and custom pricing for enterprise solutions.
Ghost
Ghost is a popular open-source headless CMS, widely recognized as one of the best platforms for blogging in 2024. Designed for simplicity and user-friendliness, it provides an intuitive interface for effortless article creation and publishing. Ghost empowers content creators to build websites, send newsletters, and grow their audience, making it ideal for new creators and bloggers.
Key features
Ghost is optimized for blogging and features a simple and user-friendly interface. It offers a variety of plugins and themes for customization and allows developers to interact with content through a RESTful API. Detailed documentation ensures smooth development and platform use.
Pros
Ghost is perfect for bloggers and content creators seeking a straightforward, user-friendly platform. It's lightweight and efficient, with solid documentation to guide users in building on the Ghost platform.
Cons
Self-hosting Ghost can be complex and importing content from other platforms may pose challenges. Like most traditional CMS, it also requires complex integrations with external tools for personalization and AB testing.
Pricing
Ghost offers a Starter plan at $11 per month for up to 500 members, with higher-tier plans like Creator at $31, Team at $63, and Business at $249 per month, each providing additional features and staff user allowances.
Hygraph
Hygraph is a cutting-edge headless CMS that leverages the power of GraphQL. It offers a standout feature called content federation, which allows seamless integration and aggregation of content from various sources. This approach provides a unified content experience through a single CMS interface, enabling users to distribute content from anywhere to anywhere using a powerful GraphQL API.
Key features
Hygraph’s Schema Builder allows easy customization of data structures to fit specific project needs. The scheduled publishing feature automates content release for smooth workflows, while detailed permission settings ensure precise content access control. The platform also supports rich text editing, webhook integration with external services, and UI Extensions to tailor the CMS interface for productivity.
Pros
Hygraph is ideal for developers seeking a GraphQL-native, API-first CMS and teams that need unified content management across multiple sources. Its content federation integrates content from multiple sources into a single interface, with flexible schema customization and scheduled publishing to streamline content management.
Cons
Hygraph may have a steep learning curve for those unfamiliar with GraphQL or API-driven platforms. Comprehensive documentation is available but may require additional exploration for beginners. It also requires complex integrations with external tools for personalization and AB testing.
Pricing
Hygraph offers a free Community plan for small projects. The Professional plan starts at $299 per month and provides up to 20 users and content versioning. The Scale plan is priced at $799 per month and has no API or asset traffic limits, and custom Enterprise plans are available for large applications.
Contentful
Contentful is a headless CMS that allows developers and content teams to manage and deliver digital content across multiple platforms. Its API-first approach makes it flexible for building modern websites and applications.
Key features
Contentful allows users to manage content using their preferred languages and frameworks through APIs. Its intuitive web app makes content creation and management easy, with instant access to new features. Developers can work with their preferred tools while editing content from any device, anytime, and integrating with services like Dropbox.
Pros
Contentful is usually cost-effective, making it suitable for small and medium-scale businesses. Its flexible, decoupled API architecture allows efficient content management and makes it easy to deliver content to applications such as static websites, such as corporate, publishing, or editorial websites, mobile applications, e-commerce, knowledge base and documentation sites, and industry-specific applications.
Cons
The extensive features might present a learning curve for new users. It also requires complex integrations with external tools for personalization and AB testing.
Pricing
Contentful offers a free plan for individual projects and a Basic plan priced at $300 per month for team projects. Premium plans are customizable for larger organizations and offer advanced features with tailored pricing.
Prismic
Prismic CMS is a popular headless content management system that allows developers and content creators to build websites and pages with a flexible content structure. Known for its customizable content modeling capabilities and easy integration with various frameworks like Next.js and Gatsby, Prismic empowers teams to manage their content effectively while enabling the creation of engaging user experiences.
Key features
Prismic supports content delivery in multiple languages and frameworks, enhancing website functionality with easy integration of resources. It provides a smooth workflow with content planning and preview capabilities before publishing, along with a quick installation process. Its user-friendly interface simplifies content management, allowing developers and marketers to create and optimize content for SEO using drag-and-drop rich text editors.
Pros
Prismic offers flexibility in choosing frameworks and technologies, backed by excellent API documentation, especially for Next.js. The Slices feature allows the creation of modular and reusable content.
Cons
There’s a possibility of vendor lock-in, which may not fit all use cases. It also requires complex third-party integrations for personalization and AB testing.
Pricing
Prismic offers a free plan for personal websites or PoCs. The Starter plan is $9 per month, scaling up to the Medium plan at $125 per month for SMBs. The Platinum plan is $575 per month for unlimited users and 1 TB of CDN, with custom pricing for Enterprise-level support.
DatoCMS
DatoCMS is a self-hosted CMS with transparent pricing. It uses GraphQL for precise API operations, providing everything in one centralized hub for easy content editing and instant publishing.
Key features
DatoCMS includes a visual content schema builder, webhooks, multilingual content support, and image optimization. Users can create and manage content in multiple languages and preview edits before publishing.
Pros
The platform offers transparent pricing and seamless GraphQL integration, along with visual content modeling. It is ideal for users seeking a self-hosted CMS with a fair pricing model.
Cons
It may lack some features compared to other CMS options, and being self-hosted can require additional setup time. It also requires complex integrations with extra tools to personalize content.
Pricing
The Professional plan starts at €149 per month, with custom pricing available for enterprises.
Payload
Payload is an open-source, developer-focused, TypeScript-based headless CMS built to give developers complete control. It uses a code-first approach, supporting GraphQL, REST, and Local APIs, and features a customizable admin panel. Payload also supports self-hosting, version history, field-based localization, and advanced security measures, making it a powerful choice for developer-driven projects.
Key features
Payload offers a code-first setup, allowing developers to define their CMS using JavaScript or TypeScript. It supports multiple APIs (GraphQL, REST, Local), offers full control over the Admin panel, and ensures fast performance with robust security features like CSRF protection.
Pros
Payload is highly developer-centric, offering flexibility and customization. It's open-source and free, and it supports various APIs for easy integration. It is ideal for developers seeking a code-first CMS with full control over customization and structure.
Cons
As an early-stage CMS, some features may lack stability. Personalization and AB testing also require complex integrations with external tools.
Pricing
Payload is completely free and open-source. Cloud pricing is available for deploying your stack in one place with Payload Cloud.
Oustatic
Outstatic CMS is an open-source platform utilizing GitHub as its backend for content, images, and documents. With a simple admin panel, users can create custom collections and manage content effortlessly. This static site CMS integrates seamlessly with Next.js, removing the need for databases and complex setups. Content is created, edited, and saved directly in the repository, with automatic deployment to live websites.
Key features
Outstatic comes with a full-featured dashboard for managing content and collections effectively. It offers a fast, 5-minute setup and functions without a traditional database. Users can host their content for free, making it a cost-effective solution.
Pros
Outstatic's 5-minute setup requires minimal effort to get started, allowing users to start managing content quickly. It provides free hosting, integrates well with Next.js, and offers customizable fields for personalized content management. Due to its free hosting and lack of infrastructure requirements, Outstatic is ideal for cost-conscious projects and is perfect for users seeking a simple and efficient content management solution.
Cons
The reliance on GitHub as the backend may limit options for users preferring alternative platforms. It doesn't support personalization or AB testing.
Pricing
Outstatic is completely free and open-source.
Croct
Croct is a cloud-based headless CMS with built-in real-time personalization and AB testing. It was specifically built for developers who want to offer tailored experiences without managing complex infrastructure. It integrates seamlessly with Next.js and other modern frameworks, enabling teams to deliver personalized content efficiently.
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Key features
Croct offers a built-in real-time personalization engine, allowing teams to create dynamic content based on user behavior, preferences, and context. Its dynamic content API functions like fetch but comes with built-in AB testing and analytics, making it easy to optimize content without requiring complex third-party integrations. Additionally, Croct supports a component-based architecture and ensures fast performance with a global CDN.
Pros
Croct is perfect for growth and product teams focused on personalization, experimentation, and AB testing. It allows marketers and developers to collaborate without bottlenecks excels at delivering personalized user experiences quickly and scales well with application growth.
Cons
Since Croct is fully cloud-hosted, it limits backend customization options compared to self-hosted platforms. While the API provides flexibility, teams looking for complete control over the backend may find it less suitable.
Pricing
Croct offers a forever-free plan for startups, with paid plans starting at $700 per month. Custom pricing is available for enterprise users based on usage and specific needs.