Headless CMS pricing comparison 2026: Sanity vs Contentful vs Payload vs Strapi
A straight headless CMS pricing comparison for 2026. Free tiers, paid entry points, upgrade triggers, and self-host costs for Sanity, Contentful, Payload, and Strapi.
Tag
Sanity CMS
Deep dives into Sanity CMS — schema design, GROQ queries, Studio customisation, webhook-driven revalidation, and content modelling patterns.
51 posts
6 min read
Sanity vs Strapi in 2026: an honest side-by-side comparison
Sanity vs Strapi 2026: GROQ content lake vs self-hosted SQL, editor UX, image pipelines, pricing, and lock-in trade-offs compared honestly.
How I set up Sanity Studio with live preview in Next.js App Router using Presentation
Step-by-step guide to wiring Sanity Presentation plugin for live preview in Next.js App Router, with overlay clicks, GROQ live queries, and draft mode.
How I set up Sanity document-level permissions with role-based access control
Step-by-step guide to wiring Sanity CMS role-based access control with document-level permissions in a Next.js project. Covers custom roles, GROQ filters, and Studio UI.
Next.js + Sanity CMS for marketing teams: what editors actually get
Wondering if Next.js and Sanity CMS gives marketing teams real editorial control? Here is what the editor experience looks like in practice.
Sanity CMS + Next.js website cost in 2026: a straight breakdown
What does a Sanity CMS Next.js website cost to build in 2026? Real budget ranges by project type, plus hosting, retainer, and what drives cost up.
Next.js vs Astro for content sites and blogs: an honest comparison
Next.js vs Astro for content-heavy sites — rendering models, Sanity CMS integration, bundle size, ISR, and when to pick each for a real project.
How I sync Sanity CMS to Algolia search in a Next.js app
Step-by-step: webhook-driven Sanity-to-Algolia sync, InstantSearch React UI, and handling stale index edge cases in Next.js. Practical and production-tested.
How I build a Sanity Studio custom input component with a colour picker
Step-by-step guide to building a Sanity Studio custom input component using definePlugin, useFormValue, and PatchEvent with a real colour-picker example.
How I wire Sanity CMS multilingual content to Next.js with next-intl
Step-by-step guide to connecting Sanity document internationalisation to next-intl in the App Router, with schema design, GROQ patterns, and slug pitfalls.
How I build a custom Sanity document actions publishing workflow
Step-by-step guide to building custom Sanity document actions: approval gates, Slack notifications on publish, and scheduled releases via the Releases API.
How I write advanced GROQ queries with joins, coalesce, and array flattening in Sanity
Deep dive into advanced GROQ queries in Sanity: inline joins, coalesce, conditional projections, and array flattening with real payload sizes measured.
How I rotate Sanity draft mode secrets at the edge without redeploying Next.js
Step-by-step: Sanity draft mode preview in Next.js App Router with Vercel Edge Config for zero-downtime secret rotation. No content leaks.
How I configure Sanity image URL auto=format with next/image to serve WebP and AVIF
Using Sanity's auto=format with next/image correctly avoids double-encoding and wasted bytes. Here is the exact setup I use in production.
How to evaluate a Sanity CMS development services proposal before you sign
A Sanity CMS development services proposal should show milestones, staging URLs, and scope guardrails. Here is what good looks like.
Sanity CMS Pricing 2026: Free Plan Limits, Growth & Enterprise
Sanity Free plan = 2 datasets, 2 editors, 500k API requests/mo; Growth ~$15/seat. Every limit, the upgrade triggers, and which tier you need in 2026.
Payload CMS vs Sanity for Next.js in 2026: an honest comparison
Payload CMS vs Sanity for Next.js projects in 2026. Hosting, GROQ vs local API, TypeScript DX, pricing, and lock-in compared honestly.
How I set up Sanity draft mode preview with Next.js App Router and Vercel Edge Config
Step-by-step: route handlers, cookie strategy, and Vercel Edge Config secret rotation for Sanity draft mode preview in Next.js. No leaks.
How I wire Mux video into a Next.js + Sanity CMS upload workflow
Step-by-step guide to Mux video in Next.js and Sanity CMS: plugin setup, direct uploads, signed playback URLs, and poster images for fast LCP.
How I serve WebP and AVIF from Sanity without double-encoding in Next.js
Learn when to use Sanity's auto=format image URL API vs next/image formats, how cache keys work, and how to keep payloads small.
What a real Sanity CMS development services proposal looks like
A breakdown of a real Sanity CMS development services proposal — milestones, payment terms, staging promises, and red flags to watch for.
WordPress to Sanity migration cost: does it actually pay back?
A honest breakdown of WordPress to Sanity migration cost, including plugin savings, hosting, editorial gains, and when the switch simply isn't worth it.
Five questions to ask before hiring a Sanity CMS developer
Before you hire a Sanity CMS developer, ask these five questions. Know what a strong answer sounds like — and which answers should worry you.
Sanity vs WordPress headless CMS: when headless actually beats traditional
Sanity vs WordPress headless CMS compared on editor UX, performance, dev experience, and real migration numbers. Honest about where WordPress still wins.
Sanity vs Strapi vs Payload CMS: an honest comparison for 2026
Comparing Sanity, Strapi, and Payload CMS on pricing, DX, lock-in, schema modelling, and image pipelines. No vendor bias, just real trade-offs.
Hire a Sanity developer vs agency: five honest trade-offs
Deciding whether to hire a Sanity developer or an agency? Five honest trade-offs covering cost, speed, accountability, and risk to help you choose right.
Sanity CMS website cost in 2026: what founders actually pay
A plain-English breakdown of Sanity CMS website cost in 2026, from small marketing sites to complex multi-locale builds. Real ranges, real drivers.
How I derive sizes, width, and height from Sanity metadata to kill CLS
Kill CLS on Sanity images for good. Pull metadata.dimensions into next/image sizes and aspect-ratio boxes — exact GROQ and component code.
How I wire next/image to Sanity hotspot focal point data for pixel-perfect crops
Stop letting next/image crop faces out of your hero. Wire Sanity hotspot + crop coordinates into next/image objectPosition — with code and the exact GROQ.
How I build Sanity Portable Text custom components in Next.js
Learn how to build Sanity Portable Text custom components in Next.js — code blocks, callouts, embedded forms, and captioned images with full TypeScript types.
Signs your WordPress site needs a headless CMS rebuild
Slow pages, locked content, and plugin chaos are warning signs your WordPress site has hit its ceiling. Here's how to know when a headless rebuild makes sense.
Best headless CMS for Next.js in 2026: Sanity vs Contentful vs Payload vs Storyblok
Sanity vs Contentful vs Payload vs Storyblok for Next.js in 2026 — honest trade-offs on GROQ, App Router support, pricing, and editor UX, with a clear pick by team type.
How I set up Sanity TypeGen for fully typed GROQ queries in TypeScript
A step-by-step guide to Sanity TypeGen: CLI config, generating TypeScript types from GROQ queries, CI integration, and handling schema evolution gotchas.
Sanity CMS + Next.js App Router: a practical getting started guide
A step-by-step sanity cms nextjs tutorial for developers setting up schemas, GROQ queries, and Sanity Studio with the App Router for the first time.
How I wire Sanity webhooks to Next.js ISR revalidation with HMAC verification
Step-by-step guide to connecting Sanity webhooks to Next.js route handlers for on-demand ISR revalidation, with HMAC signing and error handling.
Sanity CMS vs Contentful for Next.js projects: an honest comparison
Sanity CMS or Contentful for your next Next.js build? Honest comparison — pricing, GROQ vs GraphQL, editor DX, lock-in, and which one wins where.
How I reduced Sanity webhook fanout by batching revalidation tags in a single route handler
A pattern for consolidating dozens of per-document Next.js revalidations into one tagged endpoint, cutting webhook noise and deploy times by 70%.
How I Eliminated Sanity Image Hot-Spot Reflows by Pre-Calculating Focal Crops
How I pre-calculate Sanity image hot-spot crops at build time to eliminate layout shift and guarantee stable LCP under 2.5s on editorial pages.
How I replaced Sanity's default slug generator with a custom validation hook to catch duplicate slugs before publish
A pattern for enforcing unique slugs across Sanity document types using a custom validation function and GROQ query, preventing duplicate URL conflicts at schema level.
How I Handle Sanity Content Versioning Without Breaking Client Pages
A production pattern for rolling schema changes in Sanity without throwing runtime errors or requiring a full site rebuild.
How I audit and prune unused Sanity document types to reclaim Studio performance
A step-by-step approach to identifying orphaned schemas, measuring Studio bundle impact, and safely removing dead document types without breaking production.
How I use Sanity's structure builder to hide draft noise and speed up editor workflow
Sanity Studio ships with every draft visible by default. I use structure builder filters and custom panes to cut editor cognitive load by 70%.
How I Handle Conditional GROQ Projections to Cut Query Payload by 60%
A pattern for projecting only the fields your Next.js components actually render, using GROQ coalesce and select operators to prune unused blocks.
How I Model Sanity References to Avoid N+1 Queries in Next.js RSC
A pattern for structuring Sanity references and GROQ projections that eliminates query waterfalls in server components, cutting fetch latency by 200–400 ms.
How I keep Sanity image pipelines under 50 kB using LQIP hashes and blur overlays
Cut LQIP overhead on Sanity + Next.js sites from 48 kB to under 5 kB. The production pattern, with the exact GROQ and Image component code.
How I Model Multi-Locale Navigation in Sanity Without Bloating Page Queries
A singleton pattern for i18n navigation that keeps GROQ queries fast and avoids embedding nav arrays in every document fetch.
How I Structure Sanity Schemas to Avoid Query Waterfalls in Next.js
Denormalising references and embedding common fields in Sanity schemas cuts server component render time by 40–60%. Here's the pattern I ship.
How I Ship Sub-200ms TTFB on Sanity-Powered Pages with PPR and Edge
Combining Next.js Partial Prerendering, edge runtime, and selective Sanity queries to hit sub-200ms TTFB on content-heavy pages without stale data.
How I Shaved 140 kB Off a Next.js Bundle by Lazy-Loading Sanity Portable Text
Portable Text blocks can bloat client bundles. Here's how I defer serializers with dynamic imports and RSC boundaries to keep marketing pages under 80 kB.
How I Handle Sanity Draft Mode Without Sacrificing Edge Performance
A production pattern for Sanity draft previews in Next.js that keeps published pages on the edge while editors see real-time changes.
Why I Use Next.js + Sanity for Content Sites
A practical breakdown of when Next.js + Sanity is the right stack, what it buys you for SEO and velocity, and the trade-offs to watch.