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Strapi review

Best open-source all-rounder

Reviewed by Eugene SuslovUpdated August 2026No affiliate links

Strapi is the default answer when someone asks for an open-source headless CMS, and the install base shows it. You define content types through the admin UI rather than in code, and Strapi generates REST and GraphQL endpoints for them automatically. It runs on Node against Postgres, MySQL or SQLite.

The licence is open core rather than plain MIT. The repository is MIT Expat except for anything under an ee/ directory, which falls under the Strapi Enterprise Edition licence. In practice that means SSO, audit logs, content approval workflows and advanced roles sit on the paid side, and the free edition is still a complete CMS without them.

Who Strapi is for

Teams that want an open-source CMS a non-developer can extend, and a front end in whatever framework they like. Particularly good for agencies running many similar client sites, because the content-type builder means a new model does not need a deploy.

Less good if you want your schema version-controlled, since modelling through a UI means the source of truth lives in the database rather than in git.

Strengths and limits

What it does well

  • The content-type builder means a marketer or a project manager can add a field without waiting for a developer or a deployment.
  • REST and GraphQL are both generated with no extra work, so the front end is genuinely framework-agnostic.
  • Very large plugin ecosystem, which is the practical difference between Strapi and the newer open-source options.
  • A real choice between self-hosting for free and buying the managed cloud later, without changing the code.

Where it falls short

  • Open core, not open source end to end. SSO, audit logs and approval workflows live under the Enterprise licence in ee/, and the boundary is not always obvious until you need something on the other side of it.
  • Schema changes made in the admin UI write to the database, so keeping environments in sync is a known source of friction on larger teams.
  • Strapi Cloud bills per project rather than per organisation, which gets expensive fast for an agency running twenty client sites.
  • Major version upgrades have historically been substantial migrations rather than a version bump.

Strapi pricing

Self-hosted Community is free under the MIT licence for everything outside ee/. Strapi Cloud is priced per project: Starter at $35 a month for 100,000 API requests, 50GB of asset storage and 50GB of bandwidth; Pro at $90 for 1,000,000 requests, 250GB storage and 500GB bandwidth; Business at $450 for 10,000,000 requests, 1,000GB storage and 1,000GB bandwidth.

Overage is $1.50 per 25,000 API requests, $0.60 per GB of storage and $30 per 100GB of bandwidth on every tier. Additional environments cost $60 a month on Pro and $300 on Business, which matters if you want a staging environment per client.

Check current Strapi pricing

Verdict

Still the safest open-source pick for a team that wants to move fast without a developer in every loop, and the plugin ecosystem is the real moat. The open-core boundary is the thing to check before committing: work out whether you need SSO or approval workflows on day one, because that decides whether this is a free CMS or a licensed one.

If your stack is Next.js and TypeScript specifically, Payload is a tighter fit. If you want the schema in git, so is Sanity.

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Strapi FAQ

  • Is Strapi really open source?
    The core is MIT Expat, which is genuinely open source. Anything under an ee/ directory is not: it falls under the Strapi Enterprise Edition licence and covers SSO, audit logs, content approval workflows and advanced roles. Open core is the accurate description.
  • How much does Strapi Cloud cost?
    Per project, per month: $35 Starter, $90 Pro, $450 Business, plus quote-only Enterprise. Overage runs $1.50 per 25,000 API requests, $0.60 per GB of storage and $30 per 100GB of bandwidth. Extra environments are $60 or $300 a month depending on tier.
  • Can I self-host Strapi for free?
    Yes. The Community edition is free under MIT and is a complete CMS. You provide Node hosting and a database, and you give up SSO, audit logs and approval workflows unless you buy an Enterprise licence.

This is an independent review. We have no affiliate relationship with Strapi, earn nothing if you sign up, and no vendor pays for placement in the directory. Prices were read from the vendor's own pages in August 2026 and change without notice.