[Head-to-head comparison]

Sanity vs Contentful

Sanity vs Contentful for structured content, editorial customization, localization, governance, APIs, hosting, cost and migration.

Kalle Bertell

By Kalle Bertell

Direct answer

Choose Sanity when schemas, GROQ and the editorial application should live in code your team maintains. Choose Contentful when a managed entry editor, field-level locales and CLI migrations are enough without owning a React Studio. Neither hosts the content backend for you, and both need a funded preview integration.

Choose Sanity when

  • A custom editorial application

    Sanity Studio is an open-source React app you can reshape. That fits when the editing workflow is part of the product you will maintain.

  • Content queries in GROQ

    GROQ can join and reshape documents before they reach the frontend, which suits connected content across channels.

  • Schemas reviewed in code

    JavaScript or TypeScript schemas keep the content model in the repository your developers already review.

Choose Contentful when

  • A hosted entry editor

    Editors use the hosted web app, so your team does not ship and upgrade a custom React editorial application.

  • Built-in field locales

    Locales and per-field localization are product settings, not a localization model you must first design in schema code.

  • Model changes without Studio code

    CLI migrations and the Merge app move content types between environments while the editor stays vendor-operated.

Consider neither when

  • Self-hosted content storage

    You can self-host Sanity Studio, but Content Lake and the Contentful content API both stay vendor-managed.

  • No ongoing engineering budget

    Both need schema decisions, a preview integration and frontend ownership. A simpler CMS may fit a rarely updated brochure site.

  • Unfunded governance requirements

    Grouped releases and custom roles on Sanity, and custom roles plus workflows on Contentful, sit on higher tiers. Confirm the contract.

Criterion-by-criterion comparison

How we evaluate platforms

Marketer autonomy

Autonomy depends on custom Sanity Studio work, and on roles plus Experiences in Contentful.

Sanity

Flexible editing; autonomy depends on setup

Editor independence depends on your implementation: developers define page composition, navigation and guardrails through schemas and code.

View sources (2)
  • Sanity Studio: Supports the open-source React Studio, real-time collaboration, schema configuration and extensive customization.
  • Sanity visual editing architecture: Supports the implementation model based on Content Source Maps, stega metadata, overlays, preview mode and live updates.

Contentful

Entry editing; page assembly is extra

Editors can update structured fields, references and localized values in the web app. Assembling pages from design-system components depends on Studio setup and the role granted to that editor.

Plan considerations: Free spaces include administrator and editor roles. Custom roles that narrow publishing or locales require Premium.

View sources (3)
  • Contentful live preview: Side-by-side preview needs a content preview; live updates and inspector mode need the SDK.
  • Contentful Experiences: Describes the drag-and-drop canvas, registered design-system components and field-level locales.
  • Contentful space roles: Lists default roles and states that custom, translator and freelancer roles require Premium.

Choosing between them

Sanity:

Editors become independent only after you design inputs, navigation and Presentation behavior in Sanity Studio.

Contentful:

Editors can work in the hosted entry form immediately; page-canvas freedom still waits on Experiences and permissions.

Watch a marketer publish one localized page in each product and count how often a developer still has to intervene.

Content modeling

Sanity defines documents in code; Contentful defines content types in the web app and migrations.

Sanity

Schema-as-code structured documents

Reusable models, validation and schema changes are defined in JavaScript or TypeScript using documents, objects, arrays and references.

View sources (1)

Contentful

Content types, fields, references and rich text

Teams model entries with up to 50 fields, rich text and references to other entries. The same model can be edited in the web app or changed with the management API and CLI migrations.

Plan considerations: Premium cross-space references allow three reference fields per type and cap how many entries can be linked.

View sources (3)
  • Contentful data model: Defines spaces, content types and up to 50 fields, including rich text and entry references.
  • Contentful references: Describes one-to-one and one-to-many entry references, including Premium cross-space references.
  • Contentful import and export: CLI export and import cover entries, assets, models and roles. Version history is not migrated.

Choosing between them

Sanity:

Its documents, references and validation in the repository suit a domain model shared across channels.

Contentful:

Content types and reference fields suit structured reuse without making the editor application yours to upgrade.

Model one shared content type in both tools, including a reference and a validation rule, and see where that schema lives.

Workflow and governance

Sanity’s release depth and Contentful’s workflows and custom roles both depend on the paid tier.

Sanity

Collaboration is strong; release depth is tiered

Teams can collaborate in real time with role-based access; Growth supports scheduled single-document drafts, while grouped releases and custom roles require Enterprise.

Plan considerations: Release controls, approvals, SSO, roles and history depend on your plan; check that your requirements are included.

View sources (5)
  • Sanity Studio: Supports the open-source React Studio, real-time collaboration, schema configuration and extensive customization.
  • Sanity scheduled drafts: Supports scheduling single documents and documents Growth-plan availability.
  • Sanity Content Releases: Supports grouped document versions, preview, validation, scheduling and publication; documents Enterprise plan availability.
  • Sanity roles: Supports dataset and document access roles, GROQ-defined content resources and Enterprise custom roles.
  • Sanity pricing: Supports current Free, Growth and Enterprise tiers, seat charging, quotas and add-ons.

Contentful

Roles and releases depend on the plan

Workflow count depends on the plan, and a Starter space lists workflows as unavailable. Custom roles are Premium, and Launch lists specific paid plans for grouped releases.

Plan considerations: Confirm current plan names. The Launch page still lists Team and Enterprise alongside Lite and Premium.

View sources (4)
  • Contentful workflows: Says workflows are available only on specific plans and limits one workflow to 20 steps.
  • Contentful space roles: Lists default roles and states that custom, translator and freelancer roles require Premium.
  • Contentful pricing: Free column and Starter quotas include two locales, API caps and no Starter workflows.
  • Contentful Launch app: Groups entries into releases and lists Team, Lite, Enterprise and Premium as eligible plans.

Choosing between them

Sanity:

Use it when Growth scheduled drafts are enough, or when Enterprise releases and custom roles are funded.

Contentful:

Use it when Premium custom roles and the workflow allowance on your space match the process you need.

List approval, scheduling, roles and audit needs, then get each vendor to mark them in or out of the proposed plan.

Localization and multisite

Sanity makes localization a schema choice; Contentful ships field locales and optional separate structures.

Sanity

Flexible schema/plugin-driven localization

Teams choose and maintain their own localization model using field- or document-level patterns and recommended plugins.

View sources (1)
  • Sanity localization: Supports field- and document-level localization modeled in schemas, with recommended plugins for both approaches.

Contentful

Field locales, with other structures optional

Field-level locales are built in. Entry, content-type and space copies support independent publishing, and those separated approaches do not get straightforward fallback.

Plan considerations: The free plan lists two locales. Translator roles require Premium, and locale-based publishing is described as an Enterprise-space feature.

View sources (3)

Choosing between them

Sanity:

Field or document-level models can match the domain, and your team maintains the plugins and editorial experience.

Contentful:

Built-in field locales are a product setting; locale-based publishing and translator roles are higher-tier capabilities.

Decide whether translators edit fields on one entry or whole documents, then check the role and locale limits on your plan.

Developer experience

Sanity gives you the editor codebase; Contentful gives you migrations against a hosted editor.

Sanity

Open React Studio plus schema-as-code

React components and plugins let developers tailor Studio or host it themselves, but the team owns upgrades and maintenance.

View sources (3)
  • Sanity Studio: Supports the open-source React Studio, real-time collaboration, schema configuration and extensive customization.
  • Sanity Studio hosting and deployment: Supports Sanity-hosted or self-hosted Studio while the browser application connects to hosted Content Lake APIs.
  • Introduction to Sanity schemas: Supports code-defined document and field schemas, validation and schema migration tooling.

Contentful

CLI migrations, environments and management APIs

Developers script content-model changes, merge environments and call management APIs. The team still owns the frontend, the Live Preview SDK and any custom editor extensions.

View sources (4)
  • Contentful import and export: CLI export and import cover entries, assets, models and roles. Version history is not migrated.
  • Contentful Merge app: Compares content-type changes between environments and can export a migration script.
  • Contentful API basics: Separates delivery, preview, management, Images and GraphQL APIs, including separate EU hosts.
  • Contentful live preview: Side-by-side preview needs a content preview; live updates and inspector mode need the SDK.

Choosing between them

Sanity:

You own schema code, Studio upgrades and GROQ, which is the control you accept and the maintenance that comes with it.

Contentful:

You script content types and environments, and you do not take on a React editorial application.

Choose Sanity if owning Sanity Studio is acceptable. Choose Contentful if the hosted editor and migration scripts are the workload you want.

APIs and extensibility

GROQ can join and reshape content; Contentful exposes delivery, preview, management and schema-based GraphQL.

Sanity

GROQ, GraphQL, real-time APIs and webhooks

Developers can join and reshape content with GROQ, use schema-derived GraphQL queries, and integrate live updates or filtered webhooks.

View sources (3)
  • GROQ introduction: Supports native querying, joins, projections and transformations against Content Lake.
  • Sanity GraphQL: Supports a schema-derived GraphQL query API and documents GROQ as the recommended native query language.
  • GROQ-powered webhooks: Supports filtered event triggers and projected webhook payloads.

Contentful

Delivery, preview, management, GraphQL and webhooks

Published content uses the delivery and GraphQL APIs, drafts use the preview API, and the management API plus webhooks cover writes and events. EU customers have separate API hosts.

View sources (2)
  • Contentful API basics: Separates delivery, preview, management, Images and GraphQL APIs, including separate EU hosts.
  • Contentful webhooks: Webhooks call a public endpoint for selected content events from the web app or management API.

Choosing between them

Sanity:

Prefer it when joins, projections and filtered webhooks need to happen in the content API.

Contentful:

Prefer it when generated GraphQL plus a distinct preview API matches how the frontend already queries content.

Draft two queries this website cannot live without, then run each one against both APIs and also include unpublished content.

Hosting and operations

Content Lake and Contentful are both managed; only Sanity Studio can be hosted by you.

Sanity

Managed Content Lake; flexible Studio hosting

Sanity runs the content backend and APIs; Studio hosting is flexible, while frontend hosting and application operations remain your responsibility.

View sources (2)

Contentful

Managed AWS platform; frontend stays with you

Contentful runs the content APIs, editor and CDN on AWS, with US or EU residency options. Your team still hosts the website, builds and application runtime.

View sources (1)

Choosing between them

Sanity:

Self-hosting Sanity Studio does not self-host documents. It does let you control the editorial application runtime.

Contentful:

The editor and content API stay on Contentful’s AWS footprint, with a documented EU residency option.

Treat self-hosted content storage as out of scope for both, then compare residency, CDN and who patches the editorial UI.

Security and governance

Both publish current assurance programs; identity, roles and SLA terms still depend on the contract.

Sanity

SOC 2 Type 2 baseline; advanced access is tiered

Documented protections include SOC 2 Type 2, GDPR and encryption on GCP; SAML SSO, custom access controls, quotas and support depend on your plan or add-ons.

View sources (3)
  • Sanity security and compliance: Supports SOC 2 Type 2, GDPR, GCP hosting, encryption, access control and business-continuity claims.
  • Sanity roles: Supports dataset and document access roles, GROQ-defined content resources and Enterprise custom roles.
  • Sanity pricing: Supports current Free, Growth and Enterprise tiers, seat charging, quotas and add-ons.

Contentful

ISO 27001 and SOC 2; controls vary by plan

Documented assurance includes ISO/IEC 27001:2022, SOC 2 Type 2, encryption and daily backups on AWS. Confirm SSO, SCIM, embargoed assets and the uptime SLA on the plan you will buy.

Plan considerations: Custom roles are Premium. EU residency is a documented customer option with separate API hosts, not the default US regions.

View sources (3)

Choosing between them

Sanity:

SOC 2 Type 2 and GCP controls are documented; SAML SSO and custom roles are not on every tier.

Contentful:

ISO 27001 and SOC 2 Type 2 are documented; custom roles are Premium and other identity controls need the contract.

Ask both vendors to map residency, SSO, audit logs, backups and the uptime SLA onto the plan in the proposal.

Pricing and cost drivers

Sanity’s meter is seats and usage; Contentful’s meter is spaces, users and products such as Contentful Studio.

Sanity

Per-seat plan + usage quotas and add-ons

Budget for seats and content, API, bandwidth and asset limits; Growth add-ons and Enterprise terms can materially change total cost.

Plan considerations: Check the quotas, overage charges, add-ons and datasets you need, plus any Enterprise contract terms.

View sources (2)
  • Sanity pricing: Supports current Free, Growth and Enterprise tiers, seat charging, quotas and add-ons.
  • Sanity technical limits: Supports current document, attribute, request, mutation and query limits.

Contentful

Spaces, users, API calls and add-on products

Free includes one Starter space, 10 users and hard API and bandwidth caps. Lite raises the user cap and can add one space; Premium prices spaces and users by contract, and Studio is licensed separately.

Plan considerations: Starter spaces list 25 content types, two environments, 10,000 records, two locales and no workflows. Confirm current overages before you budget.

View sources (3)

Choosing between them

Sanity:

Seats, datasets, documents, API and CDN usage, assets and Enterprise terms can all move the bill.

Contentful:

Users, API calls, bandwidth, locales and a separate Experiences license can all move the bill.

Build a two-year price model that includes seats or users, overages, preview work and the people who maintain the editor.

Migration and exit

Dataset export and space export both help; Portable Text and rich text still need a mapping.

Sanity

Dataset export/import; custom code still migrates

CLI tools export datasets and assets, but queries, references, Portable Text, image handling and custom Studio code still need adapting to the new system.

View sources (2)
  • Sanity dataset CLI: Supports dataset export and import, including assets, drafts and document-type filters.
  • Sanity backups: Supports Enterprise managed backups and documents manual dataset export for plans without that feature.

Contentful

CLI export and import; history is not copied

The CLI can export entries, assets, content types, roles, tags and webhooks, then import them into another space. Version history starts fresh, and your frontend, URLs and preview code still need a separate plan.

Plan considerations: Drafts are excluded unless include-drafts is set. Embargoed assets need the download and upload options.

View sources (1)

Choosing between them

Sanity:

Export includes assets and drafts when you ask for them, but GROQ and Sanity Studio code do not travel with the dataset.

Contentful:

Export includes types, entries and assets; version history does not, and drafts are off unless requested.

Run a trial export of localized entries and assets from each, and budget the rich-text and reference mapping before you switch.

Marketing website fit

Neither is a finished page builder. Sanity funds a custom editor; Contentful funds preview and maybe Experiences.

Sanity

Strong when the team funds a tailored editor

A good marketer experience requires well-designed schemas, Studio navigation and preview integration, plus ongoing ownership of that setup.

View sources (3)
  • Sanity visual editing: Supports live preview, click-to-edit and visual editing capabilities for content creators.
  • Sanity Studio: Supports the open-source React Studio, real-time collaboration, schema configuration and extensive customization.
  • Sanity visual editing architecture: Supports the implementation model based on Content Source Maps, stega metadata, overlays, preview mode and live updates.

Contentful

Fits structured sites when preview is funded

Marketing pages work when entries, references and a preview URL match the design system. Visual composition is practical only after Studio components and roles are set up.

View sources (3)
  • Contentful data model: Defines spaces, content types and up to 50 fields, including rich text and entry references.
  • Contentful live preview: Side-by-side preview needs a content preview; live updates and inspector mode need the SDK.
  • Contentful Experiences: Describes the drag-and-drop canvas, registered design-system components and field-level locales.

Choosing between them

Sanity:

A marketing site fits when the team will design Sanity Studio and Presentation around the pages editors publish.

Contentful:

A marketing site fits when structured entries and a preview URL are enough, or when Experiences is in the budget.

If the editor must be unique, shortlist Sanity. If a hosted entry form is acceptable, shortlist Contentful and price Experiences separately.

Visual editing and preview

Both can preview in context; both require frontend integration rather than one built-in page model.

Sanity

Live preview and click-to-edit via Presentation

Editors can work in context once the frontend and Studio are integrated; source maps, overlays and live updates power the experience.

View sources (2)

Contentful

Live preview; visual canvas needs Studio

Side-by-side preview works after a preview URL is configured. Live updates, click-to-field editing and drag-and-drop Experiences need the relevant SDK, and Experiences also need a Studio license.

Plan considerations: A Studio license enables Experiences in up to three spaces unless additional spaces are purchased.

View sources (3)

Choosing between them

Sanity:

Presentation and source maps fit when visual editing is part of the Sanity Studio you already maintain.

Contentful:

Side-by-side preview is the nearer default; drag-and-drop Experiences need a Contentful Studio license and SDK.

Implement the same preview task in both and compare the code you must keep, not the screenshot of the editor.

Recommendations by use case

[Marketing website]

Depends on the editor you will own

Choose Sanity to build the editorial UI in Sanity Studio. Choose Contentful to stay in the hosted entry form, and add Experiences only if visual layout is required.

[Structured content platform]

Split on query versus hosted editor

Sanity fits when GROQ and code-defined documents are the product. Contentful fits when content types, references and a hosted editor are enough.

[Multilingual multisite]

Start from the locale model

Contentful field locales are a built-in setting. Sanity fits when each translation is a document your team will model and maintain in the schema.

[Ecommerce]

Favor the model you can query

Sanity fits connected product content when GROQ joins matter. Contentful fits linked product and campaign entries delivered through its content APIs.

[Enterprise governance]

Validate enterprise requirements

Match releases, SSO, custom roles, backups and SLAs to the proposal. Sanity custom roles and grouped releases are Enterprise; Contentful custom roles are Premium.

[Small team]

Choose the editor you can maintain

Sanity suits a team that will keep Sanity Studio in the codebase. Contentful suits a team that wants the hosted editor and will skip Experiences. A simpler CMS may still be the better fit.

Related resources

Sanity logo

[Platform]

Sanity

Structured content with a customizable editing environment.

Read more
Contentful logo

[Platform]

Contentful

Structured entries with plan-dependent visual page composition.

Read more