Sanity
Growth
$15.00 × 10 seats$150.00
× 12 months$1,800.00
Per year
$15.00 per person / mo
$1,800
Sanity vs Payload
Compare with for .
Sanity
75%
match · $1,800/yr
Payload
60%
match · quote
Sanity is the better fit.
It publishes its prices; the other needs a sales quote.
How we work out the matchWhat matters most?
Fine-tune
What you'd pay
Entry plan for 10 people, billed yearly where offered. Prices checked Oct 2026.
Payload
Sales quote
No public priceask sales
Per year
Quote
No public price
Sanity
From $15Free plan
G2 4.7 · 926 reviewsDeveloper and content teams that want a flexible, code-defined content model, real visual editing and per-seat pricing that scales gradually.
vs
Payload
From FreeFree plan
G2 4.9 · 59 reviewsDeveloper-led teams on Next.js who want the CMS inside their app, full ownership of data and no vendor seat or API limits.
Side by side
| Sanity | Payload | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free; Growth $15 per seat/month (billed monthly) | Free and open source (self-hosted); Enterprise by quote |
| G2 Rating | 4.7 (926 reviews) | 4.9 (59 reviews) |
| Best For | Developer and content teams that want a flexible, code-defined content model, real visual editing and per-seat pricing that scales gradually. | Developer-led teams on Next.js who want the CMS inside their app, full ownership of data and no vendor seat or API limits. |
Pros and cons
Sanity
Pros
- Generous free plan with 20 seats and 10,000 documents
- Visual Editing and unlimited locales on every plan
- Predictable $15 per seat Growth pricing
- Highly customizable Studio
Cons
- GROQ adds a learning curve
- Free datasets are public only
- Growth raises documents only to 25,000; more costs $299
- Self-serve plans are monthly billing only
Payload
Pros
- No license fees, seat limits or vendor API caps
- Content stays in your own database
- TypeScript code-first config
- Runs in the same codebase as your frontend
Cons
- You run hosting, backups and upgrades
- No managed cloud for new projects right now
- Roadmap under Figma not fully detailed yet
- Editors rely on developers for setup
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Stay with Contentful only if you need its enterprise governance and SLAs. For most teams leaving it, Sanity is the best all-round alternative, with Strapi as the open-source pick.
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