Open-source alternative
Replace Contentful with Payload / Strapi
The best open-source alternative to Contentful is Payload or Strapi, self-hosted on Railway. A headless CMS you host. Payload and Strapi are MIT. Directus is source-available (MSCL) — not the OSI path.
Estimated save $3,600 a year.
Open the stackStart on Railway
How Contentful compares
| Contentful | Payload / Strapi | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Platform plan plus Spaces | Open-source or fair-code license; you pay the host |
| Hosting | Vendor cloud | Self-hosted on Railway or any VPS |
| Rough monthly cost | Lite $300/mo; Free $0 forever (Starter Space) source | Hosting only — no SaaS seat meter in this repo |
- Payload
MIT headless CMS and admin (Node)
- Strapi
MIT self-hosted CMS (Community Edition; Cloud is the vendor)
FAQ
- Is it free?
- The Payload / Strapi licenses are open source or fair-code. You still pay hosting (Railway or any VPS) and any APIs the stack calls. There is no Contentful seat or task bill on this path.
- Can I migrate from Contentful?
- Yes. Start with the workflows or data you actually use, then cut over. The Payload / Strapi stack page has the agent prompt and the cost table; most teams rebuild the slice that matters and leave old Contentful links until they expire.
- How do I deploy it?
- Open the Payload / Strapi stack, copy the agent prompt, and deploy on Railway (one service, PORT, and a volume when the app needs disk). Placeholder: Payload (Node + Postgres) or Strapi Community + a database and a volume for uploads. No one-click template in this repo yet — Start on Railway. Do not deploy Directus and call it open source.
- What does this replace?
- Contentful / Sanity / Strapi Cloud. The published small-team estimate on this stack is $3,600 a year.
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