Compare 7 Contentful competitors for better content control

Highlights

You’ll learn about the major advantages of Contentful alternatives, like:

• Flexibility and integrations: Seamless integration with CRM, inventory management and DAM, allowing developers to use any front-end framework
• Enhanced localization: Manage multiple language variants effortlessly
• API support: Other CMSs offer flexible APIs tailored to your customers’ requirements to provide a smoother workflow
• Higher security: The decoupled front end and back end enhance security and provide multiple layers of protection against cyberattacks
• Performance: Maintains performance during high loads
• Affordable: As Contentful lacks flexible pricing, you need an alternative with balanced setup and maintenance costs

Explore the best Contentful alternatives to improve your productivity and security.

Keep reading to learn more!

Over the past few years, the headless content management system (CMS) space has ballooned because of its increasing popularity. As a headless CMS brings efficiency and increases your workforce’s productivity, choosing the right CMS matters and goes a long way in deciding how your website performs. One such popular CMS is Contentful.

Though Contentful offers an array of features, you may have to invest in using developer resources and you’re limited by the number of features—forcing users to look for a Contentful alternative. To help you choose the best Contentful alternative, we provide a list of headless CMS for 2024.

Top Contentful alternatives in 2024

Contentstack

Contentstack is the premier headless CMS tailored for enterprise-scale applications, offering unmatched flexibility. Here are some features that make Contentstack the best alternative to Contentful:

Flexibility

Contentstack is the only CMS suitable for businesses with especially complex content needs. With features like modular content blocks, users can create and manage content. This platform supports complex content structures, version control and high-volume digital experiences, making it perfect for large organizations.

Advanced rich-text editing

Contentstack’s rich-text editing capabilities allow users to effortlessly produce high-quality content. Incorporating various media types and formatting options ensures that your content is engaging and professional.

Real-time live preview

Another feature of Contentstack is the availability of live previews. Your teams can see real-time changes in their edits, giving them an understanding of how the final product appears across multiple platforms. The real-time preview feature enhances your workplace collaboration and content accuracy.

Integrated automation

Contentstack provides you with numerous integrated automation hubs and customization options. From ready-made extensions and one-click integrations to end-to-end automation with Contentstack Launch, the platform simplifies cross-stack integrations and manual routines, enhancing efficiency.

Case study: Why did a community platform prefer Contenstack over Contentful?

A community platform vendor faced issues with Contentful’s CMS and sought a headless CMS with good support. They narrowed down a few different systems and decided to go with Contentstack because of its intuitive design and easy integration. The onboarding process allowed the community platform to switch to Contentstack in less than one month.

They improved the publishing velocity by over 75% and conducted nearly 40% more content refreshes using Contentstack. The content output also increased by 50%.

After using Contentstack, the director of content said: 

“The versioning feature has been beneficial. ... I like how fluid it is when switching over to Spanish and then plugging everything in. Because we’re a bilingual site, the language capability is critical, and Contentstack shines in that regard.”

Read the full case study here.

Storyblok

Storyblok is another headless CMS with a visual editor that you can use to create any content. Due to Storyblok’s modular approach and granular access control, you can reuse elements. While Storyblok offers a headless architecture, Contentstack provides an advanced headless framework, ideal for modern content management.

The advanced framework makes content delivery versatile. With these elements, you can share the right content on the right platform in the right way on the right channel, helping you deal with fluctuating market conditions.

Sitecore

Sitecore merges content management capabilities with marketing automation and personalization tools. This makes Sitecore a compelling option for large enterprises looking to optimize their digital strategies. However, the platform’s complexity and high costs can limit its use, especially for small teams.

Conversely, Contentstack’s user-friendly interface and simplified content management process make it an excellent choice. The modular approach streamlines operations and reduces overall costs. With Contentstack, you can manage and deliver content across various touchpoints, allowing your teams to focus on creativity and strategy rather than technical intricacies. 

Adobe Experience Manager (AEM)

Adobe Experience Manager integrates with other Adobe products, providing advanced analytics and personalized content delivery. Its complexity often overwhelms smaller teams. Many businesses use Contentstack because it delivers a more user-friendly interface. In addition, a lower learning curve ensures faster adoption and implementation.

Sanity

Sanity outperforms many other CMSs in custom content models and real-time collaboration, making it the first choice for agile development teams. Creating special content structures depending on your project requirements is easy with Sanity. Working with Sanity takes a lot of effort from developers, including time and effort, which can be a limitation for some teams.

With Contentstack, you do not face such issues because the platform offers a more out-of-the-box experience with easy integration options. Unlike Sanity, Contentstack focuses on rapid content delivery, making it ideal for teams aiming to launch and iterate on their content strategies quickly.

Optimizely

Optimizely is a CMS platform that helps you experiment with and optimize your content. It also helps your teams test and personalize your content. Thanks to its powerful features, you can run A/B tests, multivariate tests and more, making it easier to make data-driven decisions that boost user engagement. 

If you're part of a small team or don't have a tech background, the depth of Optimizely's capabilities is overwhelming. That's where Contentstack comes in. It makes the setup process straightforward. With Contentstack, you focus on creating high-quality, customized content without getting lost in complicated configurations or steep learning curves. 

Acquia-Drupal

Acquia-Drupal is another content management system for those who require a flexible and customized option. Though the platform offers strong content management features, learning and maintaining them are challenging. Acquia-Drupal’s versatility means a steep learning curve and maintenance issues requiring dedicated resources and expertise.

On the other hand, Contentstack makes content management a breeze with its headless approach. It lets your team adapt to changing needs. Contentstack is easy because it does not have complex setups or require constant maintenance.

Key features to look for in a Contentful alternative

Flexible integrations

Look for Contentful alternatives that offer seamless integration with other tools. Easy integration is a boon for developers and marketers, helping them use CMS with other platforms like CRM, inventory management and digital asset management (DAM). Using any front-end framework of your choice gives your developers freedom.

Content localization

For international companies, content localization helps manage multiple language variants of the same site. With a localized authoring interface, your content team can choose their preferred language to share content. 

Flexible APIs

Developers who adopt a headless architecture need API versatility to produce applications or web pages to clients’ specifications. Strong and stable API support enables efficient work with fewer disruptions and the opportunity to unlock extra tools and functions.

Security

Another benefit of using a Contentstack content management system is that it’s hosted entirely on a different platform and infrastructure, away from the front end. Decoupling the front end and back end brings in more security because criminals will have to attack multiple systems and infrastructure to gain control of your website.

Cyberattacks become minimal because each actor has a security protection layer, and breaking into each is extremely time-consuming. 

Performance and scalable nature

Performance and scalability are key factors in designing any system or application. Performance is about how well a system can carry out tasks under different conditions, while scalability measures the CMS’s ability to manage increased loads or grow when needed. A well-optimized system responds quickly while maintaining performance even when more users or transactions occur. 

ROI considerations

Consider the initial setup and ongoing maintenance expenses when choosing a headless CMS. Your CMS should balance out these costs while delivering superior content creation, management and distribution. When choosing alternatives to Contentful, know the following costs:

• Initial setup cost, including annual and monthly software licensing, hardware cost and implementation cost
• User limits
• Monthly API calls
• Specifications for ongoing hosting and support

Ease of use and developer-friendliness

How easy a tool is to use and how friendly it is for developers increases workplace productivity and sparks creativity. A user-friendly interface, clear documentation and intuitive design help your developers create custom software. Plus, streamlined workflows and strong support communities can enhance the development experience. A developer-friendly CMS helps your developers concentrate on creating innovative solutions instead of worrying about complicated processes.

FAQs

Who does Contentful compete with?

Contentful is a competitor of headless CMS platforms like Contentstack, Storyblok and Sanity, along with traditional CMS solutions like WordPress and Sitecore.

What is the difference between Contentstack and Contentful?

Contentstack offers better workflows, a cloud-native headless CMS, better multi-cloud support and more customization than Contentful. These features make Contentstack a preferred choice for enterprises seeking a CMS with scalable and secure features. 

What type of CMS is Contentful?

Contentful is a headless CMS. It decouples your content management layer from the content presentation layer. The headless architecture provides flexibility in delivering content across various digital platforms.

Learn more

While many Contentful alternatives are available, Contentstack stands out and differs from others. The best CMS ultimately will be the one that meets the specific needs of the business.

If you’re searching for a flexible, scalable or affordable CMS, there is a Contentful alternative for you. Understand all the choices, try out the functions available and discuss them with your team members to make an informed decision. To learn why Contentstack is the best Contentful alternative, talk to us.