Hygraph vs Wagtail
Hygraph is a closed-source headless CMS that runs on the vendor's cloud. Wagtail is an open-source traditional CMS that you host yourself. The table below sets them side by side on 28 features. They get a different status on 20.
- Hygraph Headless · Closed source · 13 of 28 built in
- Wagtail Traditional · Open source · 18 of 28 built in
Sources checked: Hygraph on 29 Sept 2026, Wagtail 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
| Platform | |  |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| What it is | Hosted headless CMS run by Hygraph, formerly GraphCMS. Serves content over a GraphQL API and can pull in data from remote REST and GraphQL sources. | Open-source CMS built on Django. Content types are Python models, and you host it yourself on any Python stack. |
| Edition compared The product and release each column describes. | Hygraph SaaS, Hobby, Growth and Enterprise plans SaaS, continuously updated | Wagtail 8, open source Version 8.0, released 25 Aug 2026 |
| Vendor | Hygraph (formerly GraphCMS) hygraph.com | Wagtail core team (created by Torchbox) wagtail.org |
| Licence | Closed source Proprietary | Open source BSD-3-Clause |
| Hosting | No self-hosting Vendor cloud Shared regions on every plan. Dedicated clusters on Enterprise. | Self-hosting No vendor cloud The Wagtail project runs no managed hosting. Deploy it like any Django app. |
| Built with | Hosted SaaS with a GraphQL Content API | Python, Django |
| Database | Managed by Hygraph | PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, SQLite |
| Pricing Public list prices only. Hosting and implementation are extra everywhere. | Free to start Hobby free. Growth from $199 per month. Enterprise on request. | Free to start Free and open source. No licence fee. |
| 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 Management SDK applies schema changes from code. No declarative schema files. 2 | Built in Page and snippet types are Django models. 2 |
| 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 Developers define content types in Python only. |
| Reusable blocks Editors compose pages from reusable, typed components or blocks, and can reorder them. | Built in Components in modular fields: 10 on Hobby, 20 on Growth. 1 | Built in StreamField blocks. 2 |
| Localization Editors translate content per locale inside the CMS, by field or by entry, without a separate site for each language. | Built in Field-level locales: 2 on Hobby, 3 on Growth, up to 80 on Enterprise. 1 | Built in Core i18n with simple_translation. The wagtail-localize package adds a translation workflow. 3 |
| Image transformations The CMS resizes, crops or converts images on request, through URL parameters or generated sizes, with no external service. | Built in Resize, crop and format conversion by URL or GraphQL argument. 4 | Built in Renditions with resize, crop and format filters. 4 |
| APIs and delivery | ||
| REST API A documented REST or JSON HTTP API returns content. | Not available Content API is GraphQL only. 3 | Built in Read-only v2 API. Writable v3 API in preview since 8.0. 51 |
| GraphQL API The vendor or an official module provides a GraphQL API for content. | Built in 3 | Plugin or add-on wagtail-grapple, maintained by Torchbox. 6 |
| Webhooks The CMS can call an external URL when content is created, changed or published. | Built in 5 on Hobby, 10 on Growth. 15 | Not available Django signals such as page_published. No webhook settings. 18 |
| Renders the website The CMS itself renders and serves the public pages through themes or templates. Headless-only products answer no. | Not available | Built in |
| Editorial workflow | ||
| Drafts Editors save changes as a draft and publish them later. The live version stays untouched until then. | Built in DRAFT and PUBLISHED stages on every plan. 1 | Built in |
| Scheduled publishing An editor can set a future date and time for content to publish or unpublish. | Paid tier Scheduled publishing on Enterprise. 17 | Built in Go-live and expiry dates. 7 |
| Version history The CMS keeps earlier versions of an entry, and editors can compare or restore them. | Paid tier 14 days on Growth, up to 365 on Enterprise. None on Hobby. 1 | Built in Editors can compare and revert revisions. 11 |
| Preview Editors can see unpublished content rendered as it will appear on the site before publishing. | Built in 1 | Built in 20 |
| Visual editing Editors can click on the rendered page and edit content in place or in a side panel next to it. | Built in Click to Edit via the Hygraph Preview SDK opens the field in Studio. 6 | Limited Preview panel beside the edit form. No click-to-edit on the page. 20 |
| Approval workflows Content moves through review stages you configure, such as draft, review and approved, with permissions per stage. | Paid tier Custom Workflows, up to 10, on Enterprise. 113 | Built in Moderation workflows with tasks assigned to groups. 8 |
| Content releases Editors group changes across several entries and publish them together as one release. | Paid tier Releases on Enterprise. 7 | Not available |
| Real-time co-editing Two or more editors can work on the same entry at once and see each other's changes live. | Not available Collaborator View shows who else is in an entry. 9 | Not available Concurrent editing notifications warn editors. No live co-editing. 12 |
| Access and governance | ||
| Custom roles Admins define their own roles with granular permissions instead of picking from a fixed set. | Paid tier Up to 30 custom roles on Enterprise. Hobby has 2 standard roles, Growth 4. 1 | Built in Groups with page, collection and model permissions. 9 |
| Field-level permissions Admins can restrict access to single fields, on top of content types and entries. | Not available Permissions scope by model, locale, stage, environment and condition. 8 | Built in Set in code with the permission argument on panels. 10 |
| Single sign-on Editors can sign in through SAML or OpenID Connect against a company identity provider. | Paid tier Enterprise. 1 | Plugin or add-on django-allauth supports SAML and OpenID Connect. 19 |
| Audit log The CMS logs who changed what and when across the whole installation, and admins can review the log. | Paid tier Enterprise, 90-day retention. 1 | Built in Site-wide history report of logged actions. 11 |
| Platform and extensibility | ||
| Multiple sites One installation or account can manage several separate websites or brands with shared users. | Paid tier Multitenancy on Enterprise. 1 | Built in Several sites in one installation with shared users. 9 |
| Extensible admin UI Developers can add their own components, views or fields to the editing interface. | Built in App Framework for custom fields, sidebars and pages. 12 | Built in Hooks, viewsets and custom panels. |
| Plugin marketplace The vendor runs an official directory or marketplace of installable extensions. | Built in Hygraph Marketplace. 12 | Built in Wagtail packages directory on wagtail.org. 17 |
| Form builder Editors can build and publish forms and collect submissions without code. | Not available | Built in wagtail.contrib.forms form builder. 13 |
| Site member accounts The platform handles sign-up and login for public site users or members, separate from editors. | Not available | Limited Login for private pages is built in. Public sign-up needs a package such as django-allauth. 14 |
| AI writing assistant A first-party AI feature in the editing interface generates, rewrites or translates content. | Built in AI Assist on every plan, with a monthly AI token allowance. 110 | Plugin or add-on Wagtail AI, an officially supported package. 15 |
| Official MCP server The vendor publishes a Model Context Protocol server so AI agents can read or write content. | Built in Global endpoint at mcp.hygraph.com and per-project endpoints. Also a Claude connector. 111415 | Limited Experimental wagtail-mcp package, announced September 2026. 16 |
Hygraph sources
Checked 29 Sept 2026. Hygraph SaaS, Hobby, Growth and Enterprise plans.
- Hygraph pricing
- Hygraph docs: Management SDK overview
- Hygraph docs: API reference overview
- Hygraph docs: Asset transformations
- Hygraph docs: Webhooks
- Hygraph docs: Click to Edit setup
- Hygraph docs: Content releases
- Hygraph docs: Content permissions
- Hygraph blog: Introducing Collaborator View
- Hygraph blog: AI Assist is now generally available
- Hygraph docs: MCP server
- Hygraph Marketplace: Apps
- Hygraph docs: Content workflows
- Hygraph docs: Set up the MCP server
- Hygraph blog: MCP Connector for Claude (September 2026)
Wagtail sources
Checked 29 Sept 2026. Wagtail 8, open source.
- Wagtail 8.0 release notes
- How to use StreamField for mixed content
- Wagtail docs: Internationalization
- Wagtail docs: Images
- Wagtail API v2 usage guide
- wagtail-grapple on GitHub
- Wagtail guide: Scheduled publishing
- Wagtail guide: Configure workflows for moderation
- Wagtail docs: Permissions
- Wagtail docs: Panels reference
- Wagtail docs: Audit log
- Wagtail 6.2: content metrics and concurrent editing
- Wagtail docs: Form builder
- Wagtail docs: Private pages
- Wagtail AI
- Experiments with MCP in Wagtail
- Wagtail docs: Packages
- Wagtail docs: Signals
- django-allauth: SAML provider
- Wagtail 4.0 release notes: live preview panel
Considering more platforms? Compare Hygraph and Wagtail with the rest of your shortlist in the CMS comparison tool.
Where they differ
Hygraph and Wagtail get a different status on 20 of the 28 features and the same status on 8. Hygraph has 13 built in on its baseline edition, Wagtail has 18. Two matching statuses can still name different paid tiers or limits, so read the notes in the table before treating a row as equal.
- Licence
- Hygraph is closed source (Proprietary). Wagtail is open source (BSD-3-Clause).
- Self-hosting
- Hygraph cannot be self-hosted. Wagtail can be self-hosted.
- Vendor cloud
- Hygraph has a vendor-run cloud. Wagtail has no vendor-run cloud.
Built in on Hygraph, a different answer on Wagtail 6
- Content model in the UI Hygraph: Built in. Wagtail: Not available.
- GraphQL API Hygraph: Built in. Wagtail: Plugin or add-on.
- Webhooks Hygraph: Built in. Wagtail: Not available.
- Visual editing Hygraph: Built in. Wagtail: Limited.
- AI writing assistant Hygraph: Built in. Wagtail: Plugin or add-on.
- Official MCP server Hygraph: Built in. Wagtail: Limited.
Built in on Wagtail, a different answer on Hygraph 11
- Content model in code Hygraph: Limited. Wagtail: Built in.
- REST API Hygraph: Not available. Wagtail: Built in.
- Renders the website Hygraph: Not available. Wagtail: Built in.
- Scheduled publishing Hygraph: Paid tier. Wagtail: Built in.
- Version history Hygraph: Paid tier. Wagtail: Built in.
- Approval workflows Hygraph: Paid tier. Wagtail: Built in.
- Custom roles Hygraph: Paid tier. Wagtail: Built in.
- Field-level permissions Hygraph: Not available. Wagtail: Built in.
- Audit log Hygraph: Paid tier. Wagtail: Built in.
- Multiple sites Hygraph: Paid tier. Wagtail: Built in.
- Form builder Hygraph: Not available. Wagtail: Built in.
Built in on neither, with different answers 3
- Content releases Hygraph: Paid tier. Wagtail: Not available.
- Single sign-on Hygraph: Paid tier. Wagtail: Plugin or add-on.
- Site member accounts Hygraph: Not available. Wagtail: Limited.
More comparisons
Full write-ups with worked examples and costs: Hygraph vs Payload.
Hygraph against other platforms
- Adobe Experience Manager vs Hygraph
- Contentful vs Hygraph
- Contentstack vs Hygraph
- CoreMedia Content Cloud vs Hygraph
- Craft CMS vs Hygraph
- DatoCMS vs Hygraph
- Decap CMS vs Hygraph
- Directus vs Hygraph
- Drupal vs Hygraph
- EmDash vs Hygraph
- FirstSpirit vs Hygraph
- Framer vs Hygraph
- Ghost vs Hygraph
- HubSpot CMS vs Hygraph
- Hygraph vs Instatic
- Hygraph vs Joomla
- Hygraph vs Keystone
- Hygraph vs Kirby
- Hygraph vs Liferay DXP
- Hygraph vs Optimizely CMS
- Hygraph vs Payload
- Hygraph vs Prismic
- Hygraph vs Progress Sitefinity
- Hygraph vs Sanity
- Hygraph vs Sitecore
- Hygraph vs Squarespace
- Hygraph vs Statamic
- Hygraph vs Storyblok
- Hygraph vs Strapi
- Hygraph vs TYPO3
- Hygraph vs Umbraco
- Hygraph vs Webflow
- Hygraph vs Wix
- Hygraph vs WordPress
- Hygraph vs Xperience by Kentico
Wagtail against other platforms
- Adobe Experience Manager vs Wagtail
- Contentful vs Wagtail
- Contentstack vs Wagtail
- CoreMedia Content Cloud vs Wagtail
- Craft CMS vs Wagtail
- DatoCMS vs Wagtail
- Decap CMS vs Wagtail
- Directus vs Wagtail
- Drupal vs Wagtail
- EmDash vs Wagtail
- FirstSpirit vs Wagtail
- Framer vs Wagtail
- Ghost vs Wagtail
- HubSpot CMS vs Wagtail
- Instatic vs Wagtail
- Joomla vs Wagtail
- Keystone vs Wagtail
- Kirby vs Wagtail
- Liferay DXP vs Wagtail
- Optimizely CMS vs Wagtail
- Wagtail vs Payload
- Prismic vs Wagtail
- Progress Sitefinity vs Wagtail
- Sanity vs Wagtail
- Sitecore vs Wagtail
- Squarespace vs Wagtail
- Statamic vs Wagtail
- Storyblok vs Wagtail
- Strapi vs Wagtail
- TYPO3 vs Wagtail
- Umbraco vs Wagtail
- Wagtail vs Webflow
- Wagtail vs Wix
- Wagtail vs WordPress
- Xperience by Kentico vs Wagtail
Open the CMS comparison tool to put up to six platforms in one table.
We're booking content platform
engagements for 2026.
Twenty-five minutes to walk through the work and decide if we're the right team for it. Scoping and a fixed price come after.