Contentful vs. Prismic vs. Contentstack: Choosing the Best Headless CMS

A headless CMS is quickly becoming an essential element in the tech stack at leading enterprises because of its ability to track with ever-evolving consumer demands and ever-faster IT and marketing operations.

When it comes time for those very same IT and marketing professionals to select this critical customer experience tool—they hardly have time to untangle the various features and competing solutions. That’s precisely why we put together this guide to quickly compare the intricacies of a few of the best headless CMS options around.

Let’s start with a brief refresher on headless CMS technology before exploring the features, advantages, disadvantages, and pricing of Contentful vs. Prismic vs. Contentstack so you can make the best use of your time and the best choice when it comes to selecting a game-changing headless CMS for your organization.

A Brief Primer on Headless CMS

With a traditional CMS, the functionality that allows users to create, manage, and publish content is all coupled together in a single platform. Once upon a time, this was the ultimate solution for convenient content management.

But as technology has evolved, people have started consuming content on a variety of digital channels and smart devices. For businesses that want to continue to provide cutting-edge experiences, a traditional CMS that feeds directly into a single, traditional website can hold them back. That’s why headless CMS has become the modern solution for content management.

Headless CMS decouples content from the technology upon which it’s displayed. APIs are typically used to tie together all these various services and content modules so they can still function together flawlessly. Not only does this allow the content and technical changes to be managed simultaneously without disruption—but it also means any new channel written in any coding language can be added (or removed) at any time to meet changing consumer demands.

A decoupled, API-first headless CMS is the cornerstone of modern marketing and business strategy. So, choosing the best one is a big deal!

To get a leg up on the competition and save yourself some time, keep reading for a detailed comparison of the features, advantages, disadvantages, and pricing structure of some of the top headless CMS providers on the market.

Comparing Top Headless CMS: Contentful vs. Prismic vs. Contentstack

Contentful vs. Prismic vs. Contentstack: Let the showdown begin between these leaders in the headless CMS space!

Contentful

Founded in 2011, Contentful’s RESTful API-first headless CMS was built to make content accessible so customers can create it and display it in a variety of use cases. This CMS is popular for its well-rounded features, flexible and wide range of pricing, and resources that help businesses deploy new projects in minutes.

Companies including Spotify and Heineken use Contentful to build digital experiences, and Gartner named the CMS in their Cool Vendors in Content Management report, saying “Contentful is taking an API-first approach to enable ease of out-of-the-box authoring on the one hand, and ease of application development for consumption on the other."

Tech-Friendly Features

• Stateless API with compact JSON payloads allow for full programmatic control over content management; including assets, translations, and versions
• Advanced caching techniques integrate tightly with external CDNs to deliver API payloads in the sub-100 ms range
• Decoupled write and read APIs ensure fault-tolerant microservices architecture that evolves without breaking anything
• Content is fully optimized to deliver excellent performance with selective sync, image auto-compression, and support for offline persistence
• Monitored by engineering and support 24/7/365
• Single sign-on based on SAML 2.0 simplifies managing user accounts
• Powerful, configurable webhooks allow you to integrate Contentful with any API service
• Read and write SDKs for popular languages are available right out of the box
• Host and manage assets in one place to update source files without breaking links
• Libraries and demo apps for popular use cases
• Developers are not restricted to particular guidelines and are free to use whichever languages and frameworks they like
• Various SDKs (client libraries), tutorials, demos, sample apps, and integrations are provided for many languages and platforms such as JavaScript, PHP, .NET, Ruby, iOS, Android, Java, and Python

Features for the Content Folks

• Teams can work with externally-hosted content directly in the web app
• UI extensions allow users to personalize the flow of creating, managing, and consuming content
• Rich editor interfaces are built for authoring all kind of content; including text, location, dates, collections, JSON snippets, and more
• Granular location settings help users flawless launch content in multiple languages
• Roles and access rights keep content accurate and safe
• A singular content infrastructure means content managers can edit anywhere, anytime through any smart device
• Model content with custom content types, individual fields, custom field validation, and flexible hierarchies

Advantages of Contentful

• Tons of documentation and support is available
• Libraries and frameworks cover every major platform

Disadvantages of Contentful

• Requires content models to already be established
• Search-based content management may feel unusual to those used to tree-based structures
• Developers are entirely responsible for functionality beyond what APIs provide

Contentful’s Pricing Structure

• Pricing is based on spaces, users, and a platform fee
• After a free trial, plans range from $39 per month to $879 depending on roles, locales, content types, and records
• Enterprise businesses seeking to use Contentful for organization-wide use and producing content at scale must contact the sales team to set up a package

Prismic

A member of the Bay Area tech scene, since 2013 Prismic has offered a headless CMS that’s used by the likes of Google, eBay, and Deliveroo.

Like many others in its space, Prismic aims to serve both marketing and IT teams with various content management features and technology integrations that can be implemented simultaneously due to the nature of its decoupled architecture. However, unlike many others in the headless CMS community, Prismic’s variety of packages makes it attainable for startups and enterprise organizations alike.

For this and other reasons we’re about to dive into, CMS Wire named Prismic as one of their content management systems to keep an eye on in 2019 and beyond.

Features for the Tech Team

• To aid in quick-starting, caching, previewing, and A/B testing—libraries and tools are provided for languages including JavaScript, PHP, Ruby, Java, and .NET as well as frameworks such as Node.js, React, Vue.js, and Laravel
• Set up webhooks for events such as document publication and edition
• A rich API allows you to display the content the way you want, on any device
• A headless architecture integrates with your existing projects and CMS
• Support highly critical and large scale businesses with redundant, distributed, and elastically scalable infrastructure that’s always available
• Designed to be secure at the forefront with frequent security audit programs
• Development kits for almost any language or framework

Content-Facing Features

• Content components and predefined blocks empower drag-and-drop composition of rich pages—without developer intervention
• Preview and schedule content for accurate and easy publishing
• Revision history helps track every single modification while content versioning allows rollbacks
• Integration fields allow brands to connect to existing catalogs to bring products to websites, apps, and more
• Multi-language enablement empowers localization in foreign markets
• “Content Slices” enable content managers to define reusable custom components and build dynamic layouts for landing pages, micro websites, case studies and testimonials
• Native integrations with ecommerce platforms like Shopify, Magento, and more Project management tool to enable collaboration and workflow management

Prismic’s Advantages

• Responsive navigation
• Complementary features work together seamlessly
• Install and set up are relatively painless
• Experience has been found to be user-friendly

Prismic Pitfalls

• No write API (yet)
• May not be suitable for organizations that need a visual website builder, as Prismic’s text editor is still very basic
• Best for a brand with an in-house development team

Pricing for Prismic

• Customers can spend $0 to $20 per repository, per month for a varying number of users and limited features
• A professional plan offers more users, support, and SLA for $125 to $575 per month
• Enterprise plans that include backups, recovery, white labeling, private clusters, exclusive features, and top-tier support require a custom quote

Contentstack

From San Francisco-based tech veterans Built.io, Contentstack is the latest development in their decades-long commitment to pushing the boundaries of integration and digital transformation.

Contentstack was named a leader in the headless CMS world in Forrester’s report on “The Rise of The Headless Content Management System” as well as a Technology Innovator by Aragon Research.

"Contentstack received an Innovation Award due to their pioneering work in creating the headless CMS, which is now on track to become a must-have feature set for enterprises," said Jim Lundy, founder and CEO of Aragon Research. "No matter what device a user may be on, Contentstack helps to create a seamless website experience, which is an integral part of any enterprise's storytelling and brand."

In addition, Contentstack was also recently named the Best Content Management Platform of 2019 at the SIIA CODiE Awards and received 4.8 out of 5 stars from users in the April 2019 Gartner Peer Insights Customers’ Choice for Web Content Management (WCM).

A first-choice for enterprises including SAP, Cisco, and Dell; Contentstack headless CMS specializes in enterprise-ready content management and IT features with an emphasis on an ever-growing library of turnkey sales and marketing integrations.

Features IT Will Love

• Powerful integrations, including full-cloud integration platform, mean you never need to work with another static, non-customizable, or fragile integration or plugin
• Security measures include access controls, SSO with SAML 2.0, a 256-bit encrypted content store, secure APIs, and Webhook and two-factor authentication
• Code faster with a choice of many SDKs, migration scripts, web framework, static site generator and APIs
• Auto-scaling in the cloud requires no database administration, ensuring site uptime during traffic spikes
• Lightweight JSON architecture and CDN-backed APIs ensure you’re able to build the best digital experience for web, mobile, IoT, AR, AI and VR
• Code in your choice of language (SDK), framework, and IDE and keep up with the latest technology without a CMS that limits your options
• Reliable sites, apps, and other experiences thanks to a resilient cloud CMS, premium SLAs, world-class DevOps services, and 24x7 support

Features for Enterprise Marketers

• “Plug and play” with hundreds of turnkey sales, marketing, and other tools
• Manage your own content without having to wait on permission or help from IT
• Publish content to unlimited environments; including development, testing, staging, and production
• Content and graphics are delivered and presented in the best way possible for each mobile form factor
• Publish content across all digital channels—web, mobile, smartwatch, jumbotron, and more—instantly and with the push of a button
• Instant access to content and guarantee performance, anywhere and anytime
• Decoupled architecture and numerous safeguards ensure self-service with quality control
• Control all media files from a single admin panel with the built-in digital asset manager, which includes versioning and rollback.svg
• Set up workflows and create roles that map to your business processes for collaborating on publishing content, including approvals
• Drag-and-drop modular development allows content editors to build and edit dynamic pages without a developer
• Enable global sites and applications with easy deployment across multiple languages and locales
• Schedule time-sensitive content pushes ahead of time for completely hands-free updates
• No training needed thanks to an intuitive interface optimized for no-code and low-code business user

Advantages of Contentstack

• A handy ROI calculator helps interested parties calculate content management system costs and possible savings
• Users can usually ramp up within a day of training
• Support for a range of platforms and languages has proven responsive and helpful
• Plenty of free documentation, resources, and examples to study

Downsides of Working with Contentstack

• With a focus on enterprise organizations, it may be too much tool for smaller businesses
• Use cases for apps and websites are well covered, but lacking examples of projects including emerging tech like voice-assisted devices, VR headsets, and more

Pricing and Availability

• Free trial available
• Business plans start at $3,500 USD per month
• Contact the company for details on their enterprise plan that features unlimited scalability, security, and white glove support

Which Headless CMS Will You Choose?

While comparing the technology, capabilities, and pricing of the leading headless CMS solutions on the market will undoubtedly help you whittle down your choices—at the end of the day, one of the most important deciding factors should be how comfortable your team is when using it.

After all, what good is saving a few thousand bucks a year on a CMS if you and your team can’t even use it?

At Contentstack, balancing ease of use with enterprise-ready functionality (plus white-glove customer service) is our sweet spot.

Contentstack makes creating new experiences as easy as 1, 2, 3. A developer creates the layout, the content team builds content models and creates the copy, and marketers optimize and frictionlessly publish it to every channel at once. Users can even employ personalization at scale and select the publishing environment in real-time—which is key for content updates at the enterprise level.

Contentstack comes with everything enterprise IT and marketing teams need to plug and play, and we don’t nickel and dime you over additional users or our world-class customer support.

Going headless won’t be the easiest element of your digital transformation, but with Contentstack it may be the most rewarding. Check out our detailed development documentation, explore our ever-evolving list of marketing features, or get in touch to start building out a free proof of concept and find out if Contentstack is the best headless CMS for you.