Who Will be Triumphant in 2023?: Strapi vs Sanity

There are many perks of having high-quality content on your website and mobile app as it helps in connecting with customers and growing the business. Therefore, it is necessary for an organization to have a comprehensive Content Management System (CMS) that will help them provide a superior digital experience to their customers.

According to a study done by MarketWatch, the CMS industry will be at a whopping number of $11.2 billion, growing at a CAGR of 13.3%. Moreover, 2023 will be a breakthrough year as more and more companies will actively use headless CMS to deliver content quickly and conveniently.

Now in the realm of Headless CMS (which we will discuss in a short while) Strapi Vs Sanity are making a lot of noise, and all for the right reasons. These Real-time open-source CMSs have given business organizations the power to engage their customers for longer durations and provide them more personalised content.

Here, we will see the details about Headless CMS as with a plethora of solutions out there, it sometimes becomes difficult to choose the right options. Furthermore, we will figure out the features of Strapi vs Sanity to understand which real-time open source CMS fares well in 2023 and beyond.

What are Headless CMS?

Logically, the term ‘headless’ means there is no front part. In the same way, Headless CMS doesn’t have a front-end component. It has an API, backend and database that can be called to distribute real-time content.

As a result, while using a headless CMS, we are primarily concerned with content storage and retrieval, NOT content presentation. In other words, a headless CMS gives you the ability to manage content using tools and pull content using an API.

Work Process of Headless CMS

A headless CMS is comparable to a content repository that may be accessed by a REST API or GraphQL API. The content within the CMS is no longer bound to a certain template or delivery layer as a result. Instead, it can be freely transmitted via APIs to any channel or gadget.

The architecture of Headless CMS allows the data to be easily transferred to any part of the network following the request made to the repository through an API. Therefore, it becomes easier for businesses to publish their content across different channels as it primarily focusses on content storage and retrival.

On the other hand, as there is no preview or WYSIWYG editors in headless CMS, marketers and non-tech professionals would find it difficult to present the content to the targeted audience.

Advantages of a Headless CMS

Headless CMS is expanding at a rapid rate. Here are some of its top advantages:

• Flexibility and compatibility: You can deliver your content at any time;
• Security: Using this will stop malware attacks because the content publishing environment can't be accessed from the database;
• Scalable: As the front end and back end are distinct, maintenance does not require additional time. This enables you to alter your website at any time without affecting its performance;
• Quicker time to market: You and your developers can swiftly test different hypotheses; No need to learn particular programming languages.

Disadvantages of a Headless CMS

There are a few roadblocks in Headless CMS, below is its list:

• The business organization would require a team to manage the content infrastructure and all of the frontends they use to distribute content to various channels through DevOps;
• Extra development expenses;
• Restricted capabilities for content producers;
• There are no content previews, and marketing teams find it challenging to alter material.

When to Use Headless CMS (And When Not to)

Headless CMS has its set of advantages and disadvantages, therefore, it is necessary for the business organization to be sure when they have to use the real-time open source CMS and when not. Here are some conditions that would make it clear for you:

1. When Headless CMS is Useful?

Using Headless CMS would be the best option if scalability is one of your primary concerns. Additionally, if your company wants to distribute content across numerous platforms and channels and your business model is based on omnichannel content distribution. Going headless over a regular CMS is thus unquestionably a viable decision if the content is accessible across various devices and platforms.

2. When Headless CMS is Not Useful?

There may not be much you can accomplish with a headless CMS if your business model revolves around a single, small website and you don't have any plans for regular or significant upgrades, such as when you run a single website with static material that is updated infrequently. Also, you shouldn't use a headless CMS if you only need a website and no other channels.

After getting into the details of Headless  CMS, it is time to understand Strapi vs Sanity and why businesses should use them to streamline their real-time Content Management System (CMS).

Strapi CMS

Strapi is an open-source Node.js headless content management system, its whole codebase is accessible on GitHub, and it depends on contributors to survive. Strapi CMS’s main objective is to create a reliable API and provide a simple admin panel. Within minutes after installation, Strapi produces a usable GraphQL or RESTful API for developers. Via a programmable API, information becomes accessible. It's crucial to remember that Strapi is a self-hosted content management system rather than a SaaS. A hosted version will soon be released by the company.

Users have occasionally experienced issues with the drag-and-drop interface and array data types, despite the fact that Strapi CMS has the ability to make managing user sessions and apps easier.

With the ability to specify categories like text, date, media, password, relationship, and number, Strapi enables you to define the content-type structure that you want. In addition, you can change the API code to make it even more unique.

Strapi also has framework integration, auto-generated documentation, and a variety of plugin ecosystems.

TL;DR: With Strapi open source CMS, starting a new project is incredibly simple and quick, and creating APIs is simple and highly configurable.

Content Modelling in Strapi CMS

Strapi CMS offers a variety of constructs for modeling system entities. Two categories of models exist:

Content Types: Conventional representations of entities in your system, such as posts, tags, etc.

Components:This open source CMS represents a unique data collection (e.g., a card component containing an image, a title, and summary fields).

Further categories for the "Content Types" model include two different types:

Collection Type: Enables numerous instances of the type in a collection (e.g., post).

Single Type: Only one instance of a single type is permitted (e.g., homepage).

Notable Perks of Strapi CMS

The high-flying advantages of Strapi CMS are as follows:

• Integrated support for GraphQL and RESTful APIs.
• The open-source CMS and front-end are both entirely JavaScript.
• A good, completely customizable admin panel for content editors  Excellent ecosystem for plugins.

Drawbacks of Strapi CMS

• The cost structure of Strapi is its main flaw. The Enterprise edition appears to be the more expensive version that will enable wider support because the free version only supports a small number of users and roles.
• The database's relationships still don't function as they should, which is another issue. Data migration tools are not integrated. 2FA does not exist. The database's unneeded tables and columns are not automatically deleted by it.

A Few Add Ons

• For models, Strapi CMS offers lifespan hooks. If you wish to carry out unique business logic before returning results, this can be quite useful.
• Policies in Strapi make it simple to implement cross-cutting issues.
• Small-scale document processing Just the "Draft" and "Publish" workflows are supported at this time.
• Not all kinds of content can be easily deleted. Model and API files had to be manually deleted, and the server had to be restarted.

Sanity

Another well-liked headless CMS is Sanity. Sanity CMS oversees the storage layer and offers the open-source, customized GROQ query language for looking up content. Working with content is done through Sanity Studio.

The support for open-source software, the abundance of plug-ins, and the capability to design unique components as required allow for extensive customization. With JavaScript and React, engineers may modify the editing interface while integrating the backend with ease because of their strong APIs and comprehensive data modeling tools.

Live previews, real-time collaboration, and complete version history are all included with the product right out of the box. TL;DR – Although there is far greater freedom in Sanity CMS, this takes more technical skill.

Content Modelling in Sanity CMS

Sanity's manual model creation procedure necessitates the creation of JavaScript files that describe the models in your system. A variety of schema types are supported by Sanity. The two crucial sorts that we'll employ are:

Document: A conventional paradigm for representing system things like posts, tags, etc.

Object: Represents a unique collection of information (e.g. card component containing an image, title and summary fields).

Notable Perks of Sanity CMS

Sanity has a high share of advantages, let us have a look:

• Extensive customizability;
• Support for a variety of technologies, that includes React as well ;
• Extensive customizability; support for a variety of technologies.

Drawback of Sanity CMS

To use Sanity to its full potential, deep technical knowledge is needed to set up the product initially.

A Few Add Ons

• Sanity CMS is an easily extensible React app.
• Sanity CMS is adaptable for sophisticated layouts in Structure Builder.
• A personalized document workflow can be used.
• Under the enterprise plan, custom access control is available.
• Field or document-level localization is an option. It does, however, take some work to set up.
• Sanity offers a number of endpoints that are CDN-backed for content retrieval (i.e. API CDN,Asset CDN). This strengthens your backend. The drawback is that you have limited options for backend customization.

Strapi vs Sanity: A Quick Recap

Here is a quick anecdote that will help you to understand Strapi vs Sanity in brief.

Concluding Thoughts

As both the real-time content management systems (CMS) Strapi Vs Sanity—get better, the battle for supremacy in 2023 will be even bigger. Prior to selecting between Strapi vs Sanity, it is crucial for organizations to understand their needs. Depending on the exact project needs, one may choose from a variety of alternatives. Below are a few specifications and recommendations for CMSes that would be appropriate.

Complete command: Strapi CMS

With bespoke business logic, handle API requests: Strapi CMS

Content management interfaces that are simple to customize: Strapi and Sanity

Creating custom types is simple: Strapi CMS

Out-of-the-Box Support for CDN for API endpoints: Sanity CMS

Localization: None of them

Market: Sanity CMS

FAQs:

1.What are Strapi and Sanity?

Ans: Strapi is a strong and adaptable content management system that enables the creation, management, and archiving of any kind of material, including files and images. Strapi comes with an admin interface that offers a variety of media management and visualization options.

Sanity is a headless, open-source CMS that enables you to modify the user experience using JavaScript and React. A headless CMS doesn't have to worry about content editing and rendering like typical open-source CMS architectures do because it doesn't need to. Sanity additionally permits in-context collaboration, document versioning, and previewing.

2.Which CMS is better for developers, Strapi or Sanity?

Ans: Sanity is less flexible than Strapi, which does not enable microservices. Strapi is a well-liked option for businesses that use a headless CMS solution and advanced frontend technologies because of its versatility. Strapi's features make for an excellent development experience and give developers the ability to thoroughly modify and improve their data.

Strapi is the best choice, especially for web developers. It is an expandable content management system that makes use of TypeScript and progressive JavaScript to offer a programming interface for processing streams, displaying digital media files, and automating documents.

3.Which CMS is more scalable and performant, Strapi or Sanity?

Ans: Both Strapi and Sanity are scalable CMS, but which one is more scalable depends on the specific use case, infrastructure setup, and traffic requirements. For instance, Strapi may be more suitable for simple to complex applications that require quick setup and configuration, while Sanity may be more suitable for large and complex projects that require a flexible and structured data model and real-time collaboration features.