Strapi

Strapi is the leading open-source headless CMS — a Node.js + TypeScript content platform that auto-generates REST and GraphQL APIs from your content models, ships with a polished editing UI for non-developers, and runs anywhere from a $5 VPS to its managed Strapi Cloud. We rate it 84/100 — the safest open-source default for teams that want a customizable headless CMS without committing to a SaaS like Contentful or Sanity.

What is Strapi?

Strapi was created in 2015 by Pierre Burgy, Aurélien Georget and Jim Laurie, and is developed today by a Paris-based company of the same name. It is the most popular open-source headless CMS on GitHub, with 72,000+ stars, 9,600+ forks, and an MIT-licensed core. The latest stable release is v5.43.0, shipped on April 22, 2026, and the project ships a steady cadence of minor releases roughly every two weeks.

The core idea is simple: define your content types visually in the Content-Type Builder, and Strapi instantly generates a REST and GraphQL API around them, plus an admin UI that editors can use without writing a line of code. You self-host the open-source Community Edition for free, or pay for Strapi Cloud — the official managed hosting — when you do not want to babysit Node processes, databases and CDN configuration.

Key Features of Strapi

• Visual Content-Type Builder: Define collections, single types, components and dynamic zones in a click-through UI; Strapi generates the database schema and TypeScript types automatically.
• Auto-generated REST and GraphQL APIs: Every content type ships with a documented REST endpoint and an optional GraphQL plugin — no controllers to write for the 80% case.
• Strapi 5 Document Service API: A unified API across draft and published versions, with first-class support for content history, locales and the new releases workflow shipped in Strapi 5.
• Granular roles and permissions: The Users & Permissions plugin gives you per-collection, per-action ACLs out of the box; the Enterprise tier adds SSO and audit logs.
• First-class TypeScript and Vite: Strapi 5 is 100% TypeScript and uses Vite for the admin bundling, which dropped admin build times from minutes to seconds for large projects.
• Pluggable storage and S3-compatible providers: The official AWS S3 provider now supports Cloudflare R2, MinIO, Backblaze B2 and DigitalOcean Spaces with the same configuration surface.
• Database freedom: SQLite for local dev; PostgreSQL, MySQL and MariaDB in production. No proprietary lock-in.
• Strapi AI: A built-in AI layer for content modeling assistance, automatic media alt-text and translations — opt-in, with bring-your-own-key support.

What Users Say About Strapi

On G2 and Capterra, Strapi consistently scores 4.5+ across thousands of reviews, with users praising the auto-generated APIs, the polished admin UI and the freedom of being able to self-host. On Reddit's r/webdev and r/node, the most upvoted threads call out the speed of prototyping — "I had a working blog API in twenty minutes" is a recurring quote — and the community plugin ecosystem on the Strapi Marketplace.

The recurring complaints are equally consistent: deployment is harder than it should be (you have to bring your own Dockerfile and database), and major version upgrades — particularly the v3-to-v4 and v4-to-v5 jumps — required serious refactoring for projects that leaned on custom plugins. Several Hacker News threads also flag that the admin panel becomes sluggish on very large content sets, and that some advanced customizations still require dropping into core source.

Strapi Pricing

Strapi's Community Edition is free and MIT-licensed — you can run it forever on your own infrastructure with no telemetry and no feature gates beyond the Enterprise extras (SSO, SLA support, audit logs). Strapi Cloud is the official managed offering and replaced per-seat billing in 2025 with a usage-based model focused on hosting limits.

Plan	Price	Key Limits
Community (self-hosted)	$0/month	Full CMS, MIT-licensed. You bring the server and database.
Cloud Free (non-commercial)	$0/month	2,500 API requests/month, cold starts, sandbox use.
Cloud Essential	$18/month (or $15/mo annual)	Hosting-only plan, increased API requests, storage and bandwidth.
Cloud Pro	$90/month	Higher limits, daily backups, custom domain, log retention.
Cloud Scale	$450/month	10 seats, 1M CMS entries, audit logs, review workflows, releases, 99% uptime SLA.
Enterprise (self-hosted)	Contact sales	SSO, advanced audit logs, dedicated CSM, technical SLAs.

Who Should Use Strapi?

Best for: Front-end and full-stack teams building Next.js, Nuxt, Astro or React Native apps that need a content backend their non-developer colleagues can actually use; agencies running many client projects on the same stack; and any team that wants to keep the option to migrate hosting providers without a migration nightmare.

Not ideal for: Teams without anyone comfortable operating a Node.js process, a database and a reverse proxy — Strapi Cloud helps, but real production deploys still demand DevOps muscle. Also a poor fit if you need WYSIWYG page-builder features out of the box; Strapi is structured-content-first, and the admin is not a Webflow-style visual builder.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

• Genuinely free and MIT-licensed at the core; no "source-available" tricks.
• Auto-generated REST and GraphQL APIs cover the common cases without controller boilerplate.
• 72k+ GitHub stars and an active marketplace mean a plugin almost always exists for what you need.
• Strapi 5's TypeScript-first rewrite and Vite-powered admin meaningfully sped up developer ergonomics.
• Strong database portability — SQLite, Postgres, MySQL, MariaDB — and S3-compatible storage providers including R2 and MinIO.

Cons:

• Self-hosting still requires a Dockerfile, a managed database and a reverse proxy; not turnkey.
• Major version upgrades historically required significant work, especially for projects with custom plugins.
• Admin panel can feel slow on very large content sets according to G2 reviewers.
• No native page-builder; structured content only.

Alternatives to Strapi

Payload CMS is the closest open-source competitor, code-first instead of click-through, with a reputation for tighter TypeScript ergonomics. Directus wraps your existing SQL database directly and is a great fit when the schema already exists. Sanity and Contentful are SaaS-only, more polished out of the box, but lock you into their hosting and pricing.

Verdict: Is Strapi Worth It?

Strapi remains the safest open-source default for any team that wants a serious headless CMS without writing the admin panel themselves. It is not the prettiest editor on the market, and it is not the easiest to deploy, but the combination of MIT licensing, mature plugin ecosystem, REST + GraphQL out of the box, and a managed Cloud option for when self-hosting gets old makes it the option that most projects will not regret picking. The 84/100 reflects how strong the core product is, with a few points held back for the deployment friction and the admin performance complaints. If you can stand up a Postgres database, you can ship Strapi.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Strapi free?

Yes — the Strapi Community Edition is free, open source and MIT-licensed, and you can self-host it forever. Strapi Cloud, the official managed hosting, has a non-commercial free tier and paid plans starting at $18/month.

Is Strapi open source?

Yes. The Strapi core is MIT-licensed and developed in public on github.com/strapi/strapi. As of April 2026 it has more than 72,000 GitHub stars.

What databases does Strapi support?

SQLite (default for local development), PostgreSQL, MySQL and MariaDB in production. PostgreSQL is the recommended choice for serious deployments.

How does Strapi compare to Payload CMS?

Strapi is configuration-and-UI first — you build content types in a visual builder. Payload is code-first — you define content types in TypeScript files. Both are open-source, both auto-generate REST and GraphQL APIs, and Strapi has a much larger plugin ecosystem and community in 2026.

Does Strapi support TypeScript?

Yes. Strapi 5 is 100% TypeScript, generates types for every content type automatically, and ships first-class TypeScript project templates via npx create-strapi@latest.

Where is Strapi hosted on Strapi Cloud?

Strapi Cloud runs on AWS infrastructure with a managed PostgreSQL database, a built-in CDN, automatic backups on Pro and Scale plans, and a 99% uptime SLA on the Scale tier.