Headless CMS 2026: Sanity vs Contentful vs Payload

The Headless CMS Landscape in 2026

The headless CMS market is projected to reach $5.5 billion by 2028, growing at a compound annual rate of approximately 22%. That growth is not speculative. It reflects a fundamental shift in how organizations manage content. Traditional monolithic CMS platforms like WordPress still power a significant share of the web, but the trajectory is clear: teams building new projects in 2026 are choosing headless architectures at an accelerating rate, driven by the need for multi-channel content delivery, superior developer experience, and framework-agnostic flexibility.

The "headless" architecture separates the content management backend from the frontend presentation layer. Content is stored, modeled, and managed through a dedicated CMS interface, then delivered to any frontend — Next.js, Astro, React Native, email templates, digital signage — via API. This decoupling solves the core problem of monolithic CMS platforms: content locked inside a single rendering engine with no clean way to reuse it across channels.

Three platforms dominate the modern headless CMS conversation. Sanity, founded in Oslo in 2017, has grown to power over one million projects with its real-time collaboration engine and GROQ query language. Contentful, launched in Berlin in 2013, serves as the content infrastructure for some of the world's largest brands with over 300,000 developers on its platform. And Payload CMS, the youngest contender, has gained rapid adoption since going fully open-source, offering a TypeScript-native alternative that can run alongside your application code or as a standalone service.

Each platform makes fundamentally different tradeoffs. Sanity prioritizes editorial flexibility and real-time workflows. Contentful prioritizes enterprise reliability and ecosystem breadth. Payload prioritizes developer ownership and zero vendor lock-in. Understanding these tradeoffs is the key to making the right choice for your team, your budget, and your content architecture.

Sanity Deep Dive: Real-Time Collaboration and GROQ

Sanity's core differentiator is treating content as structured data rather than page-shaped blobs. Every piece of content in Sanity is a JSON document with a defined schema, queryable through GROQ (Graph-Relational Object Queries) — Sanity's purpose-built query language that combines the simplicity of SQL with the flexibility of GraphQL. This architecture decision has compounding benefits: content becomes reusable across contexts, queryable from any angle, and composable in ways that page-based CMS platforms cannot match.

GROQ Query Language

GROQ is Sanity's answer to the "how do I fetch content" question. Unlike REST endpoints that return fixed shapes or GraphQL schemas that require explicit type definitions, GROQ lets developers query any content shape with a concise, expressive syntax. A single GROQ query can filter, sort, join references, and project fields — operations that typically require multiple API calls or complex GraphQL queries.

// Fetch the 10 most recent blog posts with author details
*[_type == "post"] | order(publishedAt desc) [0...10] {
  title,
  slug,
  publishedAt,
  "author": author->{name, image},
  "categories": categories[]->title,
  "estimatedReadTime": round(length(body) / 1000)
}

That single query fetches posts, resolves author references, expands category relationships, and computes a derived field — all in one request. The equivalent in a REST-based CMS would require multiple API calls or custom endpoint development. In GraphQL, it would require defining types, writing resolvers, and constructing a nested query with fragments.

Portable Text and Structured Content

Sanity's rich text format, Portable Text, stores content as a JSON array of blocks rather than raw HTML. This means rich text content can be rendered in any format — HTML for the web, native components for mobile apps, plain text for email subjects, or custom markup for any platform. Teams that manage content across multiple channels benefit enormously from this approach because the same content adapts to each context without manual reformatting.

Sanity Studio Customization

Sanity Studio is the open-source, React-based editing interface that ships with every Sanity project. Unlike most CMS admin panels, Studio is fully customizable. Developers can add custom input components, dashboard widgets, workflow tools, and real-time collaboration features. The Studio is deployed as part of your application — it can live at /studio on your domain, giving editors a branded experience that feels like a first-party tool rather than a third-party service.

Sanity Pricing

Sanity's free tier is generous for small projects: up to 3 users, 500K API requests per month, and 20GB of bandwidth. The Growth plan starts at $15 per user per month and adds features like scheduled publishing, custom roles, and higher API limits. Enterprise pricing is custom but typically starts around $1,200/month for teams that need SSO, SLAs, and dedicated support.

Contentful Deep Dive: Enterprise-Grade Content Platform

Contentful occupies the enterprise tier of the headless CMS market. With over 300,000 developers on its platform and customers including Spotify, Vodafone, and Urban Outfitters, Contentful has proven it can handle content operations at massive scale. Its core value proposition is reliability, maturity, and ecosystem breadth — the kind of infrastructure that enterprise procurement teams can approve confidently.

Content Model and API Architecture

Contentful's content model is built around Content Types, Entries, and Assets. Content Types define the schema — fields, validations, and relationships. Entries are instances of those types. Assets are files (images, PDFs, videos) managed through Contentful's built-in asset pipeline with automatic image optimization and CDN delivery. The model is clean, predictable, and well-documented, which makes onboarding new developers straightforward.

Contentful offers both REST and GraphQL APIs. The GraphQL API is auto-generated from your content model, which means you get type-safe queries and code generation out of the box. Combined with tools like graphql-codegen, developers can generate TypeScript types directly from the Contentful schema — eliminating an entire class of runtime errors and providing IDE autocompletion for every content field.

# Contentful GraphQL query with type-safe fragments
query BlogPostCollection($limit: Int = 10) {
  blogPostCollection(limit: $limit, order: publishedAt_DESC) {
    items {
      title
      slug
      publishedAt
      author {
        name
        avatar {
          url(transform: { width: 64, height: 64, format: WEBP })
        }
      }
      categoriesCollection {
        items { title }
      }
      body { json }
    }
  }
}

Compose and Launch Products

Contentful has expanded beyond its core CMS with two purpose-built products. Compose provides a page-building experience for marketers who want to assemble pages from existing content components without developer involvement. Launch manages release workflows — scheduling, previewing, and coordinating content deployments across teams and markets. These products address the most common enterprise complaint about headless CMS: that editors need developer help for every content change.

App Marketplace

Contentful's App Marketplace is one of its strongest competitive advantages. Over 100 integrations connect Contentful to tools like Shopify, Cloudinary, Algolia, Smartling, and Bynder. For enterprise teams, these pre-built integrations significantly reduce custom development time. A marketing team that uses Contentful + Shopify + Algolia + Cloudinary can build a full content commerce stack with minimal custom code.

Contentful Pricing

Contentful's pricing reflects its enterprise positioning. The free tier is suitable for prototyping and personal projects. The Team plan at $300/month is where most growing companies start, providing the roles, environments, and support needed for production use. Enterprise pricing varies widely based on API volume, number of spaces, and add-on products like Compose and Launch.

Payload CMS Deep Dive: Open-Source and TypeScript-Native

Payload CMS represents a fundamentally different approach to content management. Rather than being a hosted SaaS service that developers interact with through APIs, Payload is an open-source Node.js application that runs inside your project. It ships as an npm package. Your content configuration lives in TypeScript files alongside your application code. The admin panel, API endpoints, and database queries are all part of your codebase — version-controlled, type-checked, and deployable on any Node.js hosting provider.

Code-First Configuration

Payload's configuration is entirely code-first. Content types, fields, hooks, access control, and custom endpoints are all defined in TypeScript. This means content models get the same treatment as application code: code review, version control, branching, and automated testing. There is no GUI for schema design because the schema is code.

// Payload collection config — fully type-safe
import type { CollectionConfig } from "payload";

export const Posts: CollectionConfig = {
  slug: "posts",
  admin: {
    useAsTitle: "title",
    defaultColumns: ["title", "status", "publishedAt"],
  },
  access: {
    read: () => true,
    create: ({ req: { user } }) => Boolean(user),
    update: ({ req: { user } }) => Boolean(user),
    delete: ({ req: { user } }) => user?.role === "admin",
  },
  fields: [
    { name: "title", type: "text", required: true },
    { name: "slug", type: "text", unique: true, required: true },
    { name: "status", type: "select",
      options: ["draft", "published"],
      defaultValue: "draft",
    },
    { name: "content", type: "richText" },
    { name: "author", type: "relationship", relationTo: "users" },
    { name: "publishedAt", type: "date" },
  ],
};

That configuration file is everything Payload needs to generate a full admin panel with forms, validation, list views, and search — plus REST and GraphQL API endpoints, database migrations, and TypeScript types for your frontend code. Nothing is hidden behind a web interface. Every piece of the CMS is visible, testable, and version-controlled.

Self-Hosted or Cloud

Payload gives teams a genuine choice between self-hosting and managed cloud. The self-hosted option runs on any Node.js environment — Vercel, Railway, Fly.io, a VPS, or bare metal. The database can be MongoDB or PostgreSQL. There are zero licensing costs. The managed Payload Cloud handles hosting, databases, file storage, and email for teams that prefer not to manage infrastructure. This dual option is unique among the three platforms — neither Sanity nor Contentful offer self-hosting.

Access Control and Authentication

Payload's access control system is function-based. Each collection and field can define access functions that receive the full request context — including the authenticated user, the document being accessed, and any custom data — and return a boolean or query constraint. This approach handles everything from simple role-based access to complex multi-tenant permissions without plugins or external services.

Payload Pricing

Head-to-Head Comparison: Pricing, Features, and DX

Numbers and feature lists only tell part of the story. The following comparison evaluates Sanity, Contentful, and Payload across the dimensions that most directly affect day-to-day development and content operations: pricing trajectory, feature completeness, developer experience, content editor experience, and performance characteristics.

Feature Matrix

Pricing Comparison at Scale

Pricing is where the three platforms diverge most dramatically. At the hobby and small project level, all three are comparable with generous free tiers. At scale — 10+ editors, hundreds of thousands of API calls, multi-environment workflows — the cost differences become significant.

Developer Experience Comparison

Developer experience (DX) is the most subjective comparison dimension, but patterns emerge clearly from community feedback and real-world project usage. Sanity's DX is rated highest by developers who value query flexibility and studio customization. GROQ has a learning curve but rewards investment with concise, powerful queries. The Studio is a joy to extend for React developers. The documentation is comprehensive with a strong community.

Contentful's DX prioritizes predictability. The REST and GraphQL APIs are well-documented, the SDKs cover every major language, and the content model is straightforward. Developers who value stability and wide ecosystem support rate Contentful highly. The downside is that customizing the editorial experience requires building Contentful Apps, which has a steeper learning curve than extending Sanity Studio.

Payload's DX resonates most with TypeScript-first developers. The code-first approach means there is no context-switching between a web interface and code. The Local API — which lets you query content directly in server-side code without HTTP overhead — is a significant DX advantage for Next.js developers. Type safety is native, not bolted on through code generation. For developers who live in their IDE, Payload provides the most seamless experience.

// Payload Local API — query content without HTTP
// No API key, no network call, full type safety
import { getPayload } from "payload";
import config from "@payload-config";

const payload = await getPayload({ config });

const posts = await payload.find({
  collection: "posts",
  where: { status: { equals: "published" } },
  sort: "-publishedAt",
  limit: 10,
});
// posts.docs is fully typed based on your collection config

Content Editor Experience

For non-technical editors — the marketers, copywriters, and content managers who use the CMS daily — the experience differs significantly. Contentful provides the most polished out-of-the-box editorial experience. The interface is clean, the content model is intuitive, and features like Compose provide page-building capabilities that editors expect. Sanity's Studio is powerful but requires initial customization to match the editorial workflow of each team. Payload's admin panel is functional and improving rapidly, but its code-first nature means the editorial interface is shaped by developer decisions rather than pre-built editorial patterns.

The bottom line: if editorial experience is the top priority and your editors are non-technical, Contentful leads. If editorial experience needs to be highly customized to a specific workflow, Sanity wins. If your editors are technically comfortable and value simplicity over polish, Payload is a strong choice.

Integration and Framework Support

A headless CMS is only as useful as its integration with your frontend framework. In 2026, the four dominant frontend frameworks for content-driven sites are Next.js, Astro, Remix, and Nuxt. All three CMS platforms support all four frameworks, but the depth and quality of integration varies meaningfully.

Next.js Integration

Next.js is the most common pairing for all three CMS platforms. Sanity provides next-sanity — a first-party package that handles client configuration, preview mode, visual editing, and image optimization. The Presentation tool enables in-context visual editing where editors click directly on the rendered page to edit content in real time. Contentful provides a well-maintained SDK and official starter templates for both the Pages Router and App Router. Payload takes a unique approach: since it runs as a Node.js application, it can be embedded directly inside a Next.js app — the CMS admin panel lives at /admin alongside your frontend routes, sharing the same deployment.

Astro, Remix, and Nuxt

Astro has become the preferred framework for content-heavy marketing sites due to its island architecture and zero-JS defaults. Sanity and Contentful both provide official Astro integrations with content layer support. Payload works with Astro through its REST or GraphQL APIs, though the tight Next.js integration (embedded admin, Local API) is not available in Astro projects.

Remix and Nuxt have growing CMS integration stories. All three platforms provide REST and GraphQL APIs that work with any framework. The differentiator is the level of first-party tooling: official loaders, preview utilities, and image components that reduce boilerplate. For Remix and Nuxt projects, Contentful's broad SDK support and Sanity's framework-agnostic client provide the smoothest integration paths.

Preview, Draft Mode, and ISR

Draft mode — the ability for editors to preview unpublished content changes on the live site — is a critical workflow for content teams. Sanity leads here with its Presentation tool, which provides real-time visual editing directly on the rendered page. Editors can click on text, images, and components to edit them in place, with changes reflected instantly. Contentful supports draft mode through its Preview API, which returns unpublished content via a separate API endpoint that the frontend queries during preview sessions. Payload supports draft mode through its versions and drafts system, where each document can have a published version and an in-progress draft that editors can preview before publishing.

For incremental static regeneration (ISR), all three platforms support webhook-triggered revalidation. When content changes in the CMS, a webhook fires to your hosting provider (Vercel, Netlify, etc.) and triggers a rebuild of the affected pages. Sanity's real-time listener can also trigger immediate revalidation without waiting for webhook delivery, providing near-instant content updates on static sites.

Decision Framework: Which CMS for Your Project

After evaluating features, pricing, developer experience, and integration depth, the right CMS choice ultimately comes down to your project context. No single platform is objectively "best." Each excels in specific scenarios and makes tradeoffs that work better for certain teams, budgets, and content strategies. The following framework maps common project types to the CMS that best serves each one.

A practical approach for teams that are undecided: build a proof of concept with your actual content model. Define three or four content types that represent your real data, create ten sample entries, and build two or three pages that consume that content through your frontend. This exercise takes one to two days per CMS and reveals DX friction, editorial workflow gaps, and integration rough edges that no feature matrix can capture.

The headless CMS market will continue to evolve rapidly. New entrants, pricing changes, and feature releases will shift the competitive landscape. But the core question remains the same: does this platform serve your content team's needs today while providing the flexibility to adapt as those needs change? If you answer that question honestly — based on a proof of concept rather than marketing pages — you will make the right choice.

Choosing the Right Headless CMS in 2026

Sanity, Contentful, and Payload CMS each represent a distinct philosophy about how content should be managed and delivered. Sanity treats content as real-time structured data, optimized for editorial collaboration and developer flexibility. Contentful treats content as enterprise infrastructure, optimized for reliability, ecosystem breadth, and non-technical editors. Payload treats content as code-adjacent, optimized for developer ownership, type safety, and zero vendor dependency.

None of these philosophies is wrong. The right choice depends on your team composition, budget trajectory, content complexity, and how much control you need over the underlying platform. A venture-backed startup building a content commerce platform has different needs than a digital agency spinning up a new client site every month, and both have different needs than an enterprise migrating from a legacy CMS. The platform that serves one of these scenarios perfectly may frustrate the other.

The headless CMS market is healthier than it has ever been. All three platforms are actively developing, well-funded, and responsive to developer feedback. Whichever you choose, you are selecting a platform with a strong roadmap and growing community. The most important decision is not which CMS to pick. It is to invest the one to two days building a proof of concept with your real content so that your decision is based on experience rather than marketing material.

Frequently Asked Questions