Strapi is an open-source headless CMS founded in Paris, France in 2015, leading its category with 65,000+ GitHub stars. Its visual content type builder auto-generates REST/GraphQL APIs with self-hosting and Strapi Cloud options.
Storyblok is a visual headless CMS founded in Linz, Austria in 2017, known for component-based content and in-page live editing, with a free Starter and Growth at $90.75/month billed annually.
Sanity is a Norway-based structured content platform founded in 2015 with over $200M in funding. Its single Content Lake supports 3+ distribution channels, making it strong for content platform modernization.
Ghost is an open-source headless CMS focused on publishing and membership, founded in 2013 via Kickstarter, serving over 2 million sites and known for a clean writing experience, built-in membership, and high performance.
Contentful is a headless CMS platform founded in Berlin in 2013, valued at over $3 billion after its 2022 Series F round and serving brands such as Spotify and Audi. It delivers structured content to any channel including Web, App and IoT via REST/GraphQL APIs.
Ghost(Pro) is the official managed hosting for the open-source publishing platform Ghost, starting at $9/month with built-in membership and newsletters, serving over 2 million sites for creators and teams who prefer not to self-host.
Zesty.io is a headless CMS and digital experience platform (DXP) founded in the US in 2014, offering REST and GraphQL dual-API content delivery, visual editing, and AWS-based SaaS hosting for multi-channel content operations.
Wagtail is an open-source Django CMS launched by UK-based Torchbox in 2014, with 20,000+ GitHub stars. Its StreamField structured editing and multilingual workflow suit teams that prioritize content security and extensibility.
Statamic is an open-source flat-file CMS built on Laravel, originating in 2012, known for database-free, Git-friendly content management, with free Core and one-time $349 per-site Pro licensing.
Payload CMS is an open-source headless CMS and application framework built on Next.js and TypeScript, code-first and self-hostable, used in production by Microsoft, ASICS, and Blue Origin, and part of Figma since 2026.
Magnolia is an enterprise digital experience platform (DXP) founded in Basel, Switzerland in 1997. Built on the Java/Spring stack with a modular architecture and REST/GraphQL dual APIs for Headless/CaaS delivery, it includes DAM, AI and enterprise-grade security for large enterprise multi-channel content.
Liferay is an enterprise digital experience platform (DXP) founded in 2004 in Diamond Bar, California, USA. Its open-source community edition is free, and one platform integrates CMS, DAM, Commerce, Search, personalization and AI. Rated 4.6/5.0 on Gartner Peer Insights with a 360+ partner network, it suits large enterprise portals and multisite scenarios.
Drupal CMS is the official out-of-the-box edition of Drupal released in January 2025, with 100+ built-in Recipes and an AI website assistant, sharing the 40k+ module ecosystem on Drupal.org and greatly lowering the barrier to enterprise site building.
dotCMS is an open-source enterprise CMS founded in Miami, US in 2003, built on the Java stack with dual-mode traditional and headless architecture, REST/GraphQL dual APIs and multi-site management, listed as a representative vendor by Gartner.
Directus is an open-source headless CMS and backend-as-a-service platform founded in Los Angeles, US in 2014 that automatically wraps any SQL database into REST/GraphQL APIs, with 25k+ GitHub stars, ideal for data-driven projects.
CoreMedia is an enterprise digital experience platform (DXP) founded in Hamburg, Germany in 1996, focused on content-commerce integration with deep integrations with SAP Commerce and other mainstream e-commerce platforms, supporting hybrid traditional and headless architectures.
Cockpit CMS is an open-source headless content management system released in 2015 under the MIT license, delivering JSON content through a REST API. It is lightweight, self-hostable and flexible for developer-driven, tech-stack-agnostic content backends.
Builder.io is a visual development and headless CMS platform founded in the United States in 2014. Drag-and-drop building generates React/Vue/Svelte component code with A/B testing and personalization, integrated via API into any frontend framework.
Brightspot is an enterprise content management system founded in the United States in 2007, known for flexible content modeling, multi-site management, and built-in DAM, serving large media publishers, education, and government, with headless CMS and AI content enhancement.
Bloomreach is a digital experience platform (DXP) founded in 2009 that unifies headless CMS, AI search and personalization, and a customer data platform (CDP), serving 1500+ enterprise customers. It started as the open source Java CMS (Hippo) and is known for AI-driven e-commerce content and customer experiences.
Agnostic CMS is an open-source headless content management system created by Tom H. in 2020, built around GraphQL API with custom content modeling and multi-environment deployment, self-hostable at zero license cost.
Agility CMS is a Canadian enterprise headless content management system trusted by enterprise teams since 2003, offering REST/GraphQL APIs, multi-site management, AI tool integration, and SOC 2 Type II certification.
Umbraco is an open-source .NET CMS founded in Denmark in 2005 with over 700,000 installations, known for its MIT-licensed core, friendly editing experience and Heartcore headless mode for Microsoft-stack enterprise content sites.
Prismic is an API-first headless CMS founded in Paris, France in 2013, known for its Slice content model, Slice Machine local development and Page Builder visual editing, delivering content through REST and GraphQL APIs with over $40 million in cumulative funding.