CMS comparison Contentful vs Sanity

Contentful vs Sanity

Contentful is a closed-source headless CMS that runs on the vendor's cloud. Sanity is a closed-source headless CMS that runs on the vendor's cloud. The table below sets them side by side on 28 features. They get a different status on 10.

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Contentful Headless · Closed source · 14 of 28 built in
Sanity Headless · Closed source · 15 of 28 built in

Sources checked: Contentful on 29 Sept 2026, Sanity on 29 Sept 2026. Plans and releases can change after those dates.

WAYF is an official Payload partner and top contributor. Every platform in the table is classified by the same published definitions, and each answer lists the vendor page it came from.

Feature comparison

Built inPaid tierPlugin or add-onLimitedNot available

Contentful vs Sanity feature comparison. Columns are the two platforms. Rows are features, grouped by area.
Platform	Contentful Headless	Sanity Headless
Overview
What it is	Hosted headless CMS run by Contentful. Contentful stores content in its cloud and delivers it over REST and GraphQL APIs.	Headless CMS with an open-source React editor, Sanity Studio, configured in code. Sanity stores content in its hosted Content Lake.
Edition compared The product and release each column describes.	Contentful Platform SaaS, Free, Lite and Enterprise plans SaaS, continuously updated	Sanity hosted Content Lake with Sanity Studio 6 Version 6.16.0, released 22 Sept 2026
Vendor	Salesforce (acquired Contentful in September 2026) contentful.com	Sanity sanity.io
Licence	Closed source Proprietary	Closed source MIT for Sanity Studio. The Content Lake backend is proprietary.
Hosting	No self-hosting Vendor cloud Runs only in Contentful's cloud. The local MCP server and SDKs are open source.	No self-hosting Vendor cloud You can host the Studio anywhere, but content always lives in Sanity's cloud.
Built with	Hosted SaaS with REST and GraphQL APIs, SDKs for JavaScript and other languages	TypeScript, React for Studio. Hosted Content Lake with GROQ and GraphQL APIs
Database	Managed by Contentful	Hosted Sanity Content Lake
Pricing Public list prices only. Hosting and implementation are extra everywhere.	Free to start Free plan. Lite $300 per month. Extra Lite Space $850 per month. Enterprise on request.	Free to start Free plan. Growth $15 per seat per month. Enterprise on request.
Content modelling
Content model in code You define content types in files in your repository, review them like any other code and apply them from there. Imperative migration scripts alone count as limited.	Limited Migration scripts run by the Contentful CLI change the model. No declarative schema files. 3	Built in 3
Content model in the UI Admins can create and change content types and fields in the admin interface without writing code.	Built in 1	Not available You define schemas only in Studio code. 3
Reusable blocks Editors compose pages from reusable, typed components or blocks, and can reorder them.	Built in Reorderable reference fields to typed entries. Studio page building is Enterprise. 1	Built in Array fields of typed objects act as a page builder. 3
Localization Editors translate content per locale inside the CMS, by field or by entry, without a separate site for each language.	Built in 2 locales on Free, 3 on Lite, custom on Enterprise. 1	Plugin or add-on Official document-level and field-level internationalization plugins. 4
Image transformations The CMS resizes, crops or converts images on request, through URL parameters or generated sizes, with no external service.	Built in Images API resizes, crops and converts by URL parameter. 4	Built in Image pipeline resizes, crops and converts by URL parameter. 5
APIs and delivery
REST API A documented REST or JSON HTTP API returns content.	Built in 1	Built in HTTP API queried with GROQ. 1
GraphQL API The vendor or an official module provides a GraphQL API for content.	Built in 5	Built in The Sanity CLI deploys it from the schema. 1
Webhooks The CMS can call an external URL when content is created, changed or published.	Built in 1	Built in GROQ-powered webhooks: 2 on Free, 4 on Growth. 1 6
Renders the website The CMS itself renders and serves the public pages through themes or templates. Headless-only products answer no.	Not available	Not available
Editorial workflow
Drafts Editors save changes as a draft and publish them later. The live version stays untouched until then.	Built in 1	Built in 1
Scheduled publishing An editor can set a future date and time for content to publish or unpublish.	Paid tier Scheduled publishing on Lite and Enterprise. 1	Paid tier Scheduled drafts on Growth and Enterprise. 1
Version history The CMS keeps earlier versions of an entry, and editors can compare or restore them.	Built in 1	Limited Draft history kept 3 days on Free, 90 on Growth, 365 on Enterprise. 1
Preview Editors can see unpublished content rendered as it will appear on the site before publishing.	Built in 6	Built in 1 7
Visual editing Editors can click on the rendered page and edit content in place or in a side panel next to it.	Built in Live preview inspector mode opens the field next to the page. Needs the live preview SDK. 6	Built in Presentation tool with click-to-edit overlays on every plan. 1 7
Approval workflows Content moves through review stages you configure, such as draft, review and approved, with permissions per stage.	Paid tier Not on the Starter Space. Up to 5 on a Lite Space at $850 a month, custom on Enterprise. 1	Not available Build with document actions or a community plugin such as Workflow Manager. 9 14
Content releases Editors group changes across several entries and publish them together as one release.	Plugin or add-on Launch is available on Lite and Enterprise plan families, but requires Contentful admin support to purchase and install. 7 8	Paid tier Content Releases add-on on Enterprise. 1
Real-time co-editing Two or more editors can work on the same entry at once and see each other's changes live.	Paid tier Live collaboration on Lite and Enterprise, with per-field presence avatars. 1 13	Built in 1
Access and governance
Custom roles Admins define their own roles with granular permissions instead of picking from a fixed set.	Paid tier Premium plans, sold as Enterprise. Free has 2 fixed roles, Lite 3. 1 9	Paid tier Enterprise. Free has 2 fixed roles, Growth 5. 1 8
Field-level permissions Admins can restrict access to single fields, on top of content types and entries.	Paid tier Field and locale rules in custom roles. Premium plans only, sold as Enterprise. 10	Limited API access rules are per document. Studio can hide or lock fields per role. 8
Single sign-on Editors can sign in through SAML or OpenID Connect against a company identity provider.	Paid tier SAML 2.0 SSO on Premium plans, sold as Enterprise. 11	Paid tier SAML SSO on Enterprise. 1
Audit log The CMS logs who changed what and when across the whole installation, and admins can review the log.	Paid tier Audit logs on selected Enterprise plans, by sales agreement. 12	Paid tier Full audit trail and History API on Enterprise. 1
Platform and extensibility
Multiple sites One installation or account can manage several separate websites or brands with shared users.	Paid tier One Starter Space on Free and Lite, plus one paid Lite Space. Multiple spaces on Enterprise. 1	Built in Several projects per organization and Studio workspaces. 11
Extensible admin UI Developers can add their own components, views or fields to the editing interface.	Built in App Framework for custom field, sidebar, entry and page apps. 14	Built in Custom inputs, tools and document actions in the React Studio. 3 9
Plugin marketplace The vendor runs an official directory or marketplace of installable extensions.	Built in Contentful Marketplace. 15	Built in Sanity Exchange. 10
Form builder Editors can build and publish forms and collect submissions without code.	Not available	Not available
Site member accounts The platform handles sign-up and login for public site users or members, separate from editors.	Not available	Not available
AI writing assistant A first-party AI feature in the editing interface generates, rewrites or translates content.	Plugin or add-on Official AI Content Generator app with your own OpenAI key. AI Actions need Enterprise. 1 15	Built in Content Agent on every plan. In-Studio AI Assist on Growth and Enterprise. 1 13
Official MCP server The vendor publishes a Model Context Protocol server so AI agents can read or write content.	Built in Hosted beta server at mcp.contentful.com and an open-source local server. 16	Built in Hosted at mcp.sanity.io with OAuth. 12

Contentful sources

Checked 29 Sept 2026. Contentful Platform SaaS, Free, Lite and Enterprise plans.

Sanity sources

Checked 29 Sept 2026. Sanity hosted Content Lake with Sanity Studio 6.

Considering more platforms? Compare Contentful and Sanity with the rest of your shortlist in the CMS comparison tool.

Where they differ

Contentful and Sanity get a different status on 10 of the 28 features and the same status on 18. Contentful has 14 built in on its baseline edition, Sanity has 15. Two matching statuses can still name different paid tiers or limits, so read the notes in the table before treating a row as equal.

Built in on Contentful, a different answer on Sanity 3

Content model in the UI Contentful: Built in. Sanity: Not available.
Localization Contentful: Built in. Sanity: Plugin or add-on.
Version history Contentful: Built in. Sanity: Limited.

Built in on Sanity, a different answer on Contentful 4

Content model in code Contentful: Limited. Sanity: Built in.
Real-time co-editing Contentful: Paid tier. Sanity: Built in.
Multiple sites Contentful: Paid tier. Sanity: Built in.
AI writing assistant Contentful: Plugin or add-on. Sanity: Built in.

Built in on neither, with different answers 3

Approval workflows Contentful: Paid tier. Sanity: Not available.
Content releases Contentful: Plugin or add-on. Sanity: Paid tier.
Field-level permissions Contentful: Paid tier. Sanity: Limited.

More comparisons

Full write-ups with worked examples and costs: Contentful vs Payload and Sanity vs Payload.

Contentful against other platforms

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