12+ Best Headless CMS Open Source You Must Know in 2024

Increased scalability and performance

Ensure headless CMS open-source has good traffic handling capabilities, supports distributed architecture, caching mechanisms and load balancing features to maintain fast and high-performance content delivery.

Evaluate the level of API management of headless CMS open source, and thoroughly test the ability to handle traffic in case it spikes, ensuring it does not affect the operating speed of the overall system.

Easily customizable and flexible

The nature of the headless CMS open source offers extensive customization options, allowing you to tailor it to your unique content delivery needs and business development goals. Look for platforms that use modules that make it easy to add or remove functionality as needed. Remember to evaluate how easily you can extend the CMS by modifying the core code or developing custom plugins.

In particular, when it comes to content creation and development from headless CMS open source, always ensure that you can systematize your content model, easily define appropriate custom content structures, and have the flexibility to change accordingly business needs, or with content development trends in the market.

Easy integration and migration

The headless CMS open source you choose should ensure seamless integration with the technology stack your business already owns, including web frameworks, mobile apps, and third-party services. The process of CMS migration must be also guaranteed.

Make sure it provides RESTful APIs or GraphQL APIs, allowing for smooth manipulation and easy retrieval of data. Check out SDKs and pre-built plugins to optimize the process using popular languages ​​and platforms like React, JavaScript, Nodejs ecommerce open source or Angular.

Have a diverse support community

Support from the community will be an important foundation for you to confidently use, continuously improve and truly effectively secure headless CMS open source. Investigate the size and frequency of community activity on forums, social media sites, or GitHub repositories. 

Join and ask for access to comprehensive application-related documentation and additional documentation, such as API usage instructions or how to effectively navigate and update content, etc.

The quality of the platform’s user support should also be thoroughly considered, especially when you want to upgrade more complex and advanced features to your business system.

Tina CMS

Tina CMS is an headless CMS open source powered by Git, aimed at creating a seamless collaboration between technology development and content creation. It empowers businesses to freely edit image formats according to website needs, providing an intuitive interface for customers to easily update the website.

Its key features:

• Take advantage of the new unified client (both frontend and backend can utilize), improving the ability to combine and collaborate.
• Use in continuous integration (CI) workflows, enhancing deployment results.
• Seamless integration with ReactJS, allowing the creation of complex content pages by adding React components to the editor.
• Enhance security with read-only token fragments, enhancing access control and security for group assets.
• Set up projects quickly with TinaCMS CLI, simplifying the integration process into existing websites (e.g. Next.js).
• Start the data layer by default, creating a streamlined workflow and ensuring efficiency.

Its pricing:

• Basic: Free
• Team: $29/month
• Business: $599/month
• Enterprise: Custom

Ghost CMS

Ghost CMS is a powerful headless CMS open source platform aimed at implementing unique and beautiful posts. 

This headless CMS open-source offers a simple, user-friendly, straightforward and intuitive setup process, from getting acquainted with the local environment to product development. Support for setting up self-hosted versions on servers also helps Ghost CMS score points with businesses, with claims of a smooth and efficient operating process.

Its key features:

• Custom branding specifically for your business, including content creation and image building.
• Simplify the website navigation process, making it easier and friendlier than ever for end users.
• Multi-language support, allowing access to customers and users globally.
• Seamlessly integrate with external services and further integrate via webhooks, automating and streamlining workflows.
• Provides freedom to use any frontend framework, enhancing compatibility and flexibility during development.

Its pricing:

Based on the number of audiences: from 500 to 400,000+

• Starter: from $11/month
• Creator: from $31/month
• Team: from $63/month
• Business: from $249/month

Strapi

Strapi serves as a leading headless CMS open source, featuring customization capabilities and absolute efficiency in supporting application building. Designed entirely in the JavaScript programming language, Strapi positions itself as a priority for developers looking to create self-hosted API content quickly and easily.

Its key features:

• The design is clear and intuitive, ensuring a smooth and consistent user experience across built content.
• Flexible customization, easily seamless admin panel with API, allowing users to tailor the platform to each specific need.
• Supports the creation and management of a variety of content, with the ability to extend functionality through custom plugins.
• Compatible with a variety of databases, including SQL and NoSQL, giving users the flexibility to choose suitable databases that are highly compatible with current business applications.
• Workflow automation with integration and support for both GraphQL and RESTful APIs.
• Can work across multiple channels and multiple applications, from Vue, Angular, IoT, React and mobile apps.

Its pricing:

• Community: Free
• Developer: $29 per project/month
• Pro: $99 per project/month
• Team: $499 per project/month
• Enterprise: Custom

Directus

Directus plays as a special headless CMS open source platform that helps convert SQL databases into applications without code and APIs. This magical process helps businesses easily control existing databases without having to spend time and effort migrating them to proprietary data auditing models. 

Also a platform built entirely in JavaScript, however, Directus leverages both Node.js and Vue.js 3 to ensure high performance and easy scalability.

Its key features:

• Ensure fast, flexible extensibility and customization with modular codebase.
• Integrate and access data seamlessly with REST APIs and GraphQL APIs, built from your database schema.
• Manage content across a variety of digital platforms, including apps, signage, websites, and kiosks.
• Easily enable project creators with a user-friendly interface using a self-service cloud console.
• High performance using Vue.js 3 and Node.js, ideal for increasing compatibility and increasing performance when chasing trends or growing customer base.

Its pricing:

• Self-hosted: license required
• Professional cloud: $99/month
• Enterprise cloud: flexible pricing

Netlify CMS

Netlify CMS is a powerful open source headless CMS, built as a simple-page on React application. It helps streamline the process of managing and creating multiple versions of content in Git repositories. 

Thanks to Netlify’s support, various APIs on the Git platform are seamlessly and tightly integrated with each other. This process makes it easy to manage content across different code versions, enables multi-channel publishing, and simplifies the time it takes to update content.

Its key features:

• Friendly and intuitive interface, ensuring the content creation experience is simpler and smoother than ever.
• Promote static site generation to improve performance and security based on building with the Jamstack architecture.
• Supports diverse content structures, enhancing adaptability and flexibility of presentation.
• Create preview versions, helping users carefully observe the content before officially publishing and promptly customize according to each detected issue.
• Instant content management without a GitHub account, easy to handle in any case, especially urgent situations.

Its pricing (Netlify Core):

• Starter: $0
• Pro: $19 per member/month

WebinyJS

WebinyJS is a flexible headless CMS open source solution that quickly expands and flexes the content management process. Designed to serve diverse business needs, it offers truly valuable tools for development and marketing. 

WebinyJS allows for quick and efficient creation of landing pages, as well as comprehensive content management with powerful modeling features and GraphQL support.

Its key features:

• Provides Graph API for powerful content management and seamless integration.
• Manage content across multiple websites, in multiple languages, allowing access to a global audience.
• Leverage serverless technology and infrastructure, parallelize scalability and cost optimization, and handle diverse traffic.
• Release content methodically based on structure, images and style.
• Create content on a no-code framework, allowing any user to create content without much experience or technical expertise.

Its pricing:

• Community: Free
• Business & Enterprise: Custom

Builder.io

Builder.io acts as a flexible drag-and-drop visual editor of headless CMS open-source. It integrates seamlessly with your existing website operations, allowing you to use it simply and easily to create impressive content and visual format even if you are just a newbie.

Its key features:

• Create reusable components, streamlining content creation and maintenance processes.
• Seamlessly integrates with any website and application for content management.
• Ability to personalize content routes and precisely control previously built publishing schedules.
• Customize the CMS according to specific requirements and needs by adding plugins.
• Add and feed external data sources to increase updates and ensure a dynamic content environment.

Its pricing:

• Free: $0/month
• Basic: $24/user/month
• Growth: $49/user/month
• Enterprise: Custom

Plone

Plone stands out as an exceptional headless CMS open source. It possesses many features to thoroughly support businesses in the content production process in particular and improve business efficiency in general, such as diverse topics, integrated multi-language, diverse website content. Plone provides flexible and dynamic solutions for you to freely build a private area for your business.

Its key features:

• Provides customization and out-of-the-box functionality, targeting the success of diverse business needs.
• Excels in high-level security measures, ensuring compliance and protecting all critical data.
• Provides granular control, allowing precise management and tracking of user behavioral trends.
• Share rich resources, easily deploy and troubleshoot when problems arise.

Its pricing: Free

Flextype

Flextype is an open source headless CMS content management system that emphasizes unprecedented flexibility, speed, and productivity. It possesses smart cache and elegant architecture, ensuring full optimal functionality for your projects and business development.

Its key features:

• Provides a simple yet powerful APIs system, supporting seamless content management.
• Allows users to use any content editor of their choice.
• Provides full control over the CMS via REST API and compact JSON payload.
• Ensure effective management of content versions through Git, or other version control systems.
• Integrate many different types of content, across a variety of platforms, from SaaS, websites, native applications, to ecommerce.

Its pricing: Free

Squidex

Squidex powerfully manages content with seamless integration with many versatile tools, helping to implement a structured content management process. The solutions that Squidex provides are said to be extremely modern and bring great efficiency to businesses’ content distribution activities.

Its key features:

• Track, compare, and edit different versions of content with ease.
• Seamless integration with other systems, allowing for engaging dynamic content updates and cross-platform publishing.
• Ideal code base.
• Flexibility to expand and customize as needed.
• Ensure high standards of security, suitable for applications that need to ensure high safety for businesses.

Its pricing:

• Starter: Free
• Basic: $19/month
• Professional: $49/month
• Business: $99/month

Payload CMS

Payload is a promising solution when it comes to headless CMS open source. Built entirely on TypeScript, it stands out as a scalable and user-centric CMS source.

Its key features:

• Flexibility in the content creation process, helping writers easily edit content and images that can attract customers.
• Multi-language support, breaking down communication barriers for customers from many countries around the world.
• Enhance organization and increase document accessibility to streamline content processing processes.
• Provides a robust system to manage all content revisions, allowing easy tracking and reverting changes made when needed.
• Seamlessly streamline workflows and publish content efficiently and systematically.

Its pricing:

• Self-hosted: Free
• Standard: $35
• Pro: $199
• Enterprise: Custom

KeystoneJS

KeystoneJS is a headless CMS open source platform with outstanding extensibility. It allows your business to easily apply effective content creation and production models. By simply describing your existing schema, KeystoneJS will elevate and build it into a great and powerful interface to manage content, and ensure data integrity at the same time.

Its key features:

• Proactively create relevant data to meet specific needs.
• Improve code quality and content page development speed with integration with TypeScript.
• Streamline the process to increase development productivity and quality with automated CRUD operations.
• Rich text editor with customizable, React components for flexible content creation.
• Advantages in advanced management of complex data structures.

Its pricing: Free

SanityIO

SanityIO offers a powerful open source headless CMS called Sanity. Sanity is built with React,js, providing free customization and quick configuration through Sanity Studio. With Sanity, you can easily create custom workflows and manage content efficiently, using a flexible set of available tools and plugins.

Its key features:

• The content interface is easily customized and managed.
• Instantly update changes from the system, ensuring real-time content management.
• Organize and manage content seamlessly with structured approaches.
• Process images effectively, attractively and with the ability to impress users.
• Ability to review all changes and easily revert to previous versions if necessary.

Its pricing:

• Free: $0
• Growth: $15 per seat/month
• Enterprise: Custom pricing