Cheapest CMS as monthly API requests grow
Bandwidth and seats held at your current inputs β only monthly API requests change per row. Watch how Contentful and Strapi hit hard tier walls (shown as "Custom") while Sanity's metered add-on keeps scaling further before it also needs an Enterprise quote.
| Requests / mo | Contentful | Sanity | Strapi Cloud | Cheapest |
|---|
Why hard-capped tiers, per-seat overage and flat pricing all lead to different winners
Contentful is a step function with no overage: Free is $0/month for up to 100,000 API calls, 50GB CDN bandwidth and 10 users; Lite is a flat $300/month for up to 1,000,000 calls, 100GB bandwidth and 20 users; cross any one of those three caps and you need a custom Enterprise contract β there's no way to just pay more for the extra 50,000 calls. Sanity bills per seat ($15/user/month on Growth, billed for a minimum of 2 seats) with a pooled quota of 1,000,000 API requests and 100GB bandwidth included, then meters bandwidth overage at roughly $0.30/GB beyond that; a $299/month Increased Quota add-on extends the ceiling to about 5,000,000 requests and 500GB bandwidth before Enterprise is required. Strapi Cloud takes the simplest shape: a flat $15/month Essential plan with no per-seat charge, covering up to 500,000 API requests, 50GB bandwidth and 50GB storage β cheap and predictable for small teams, but with no metered path past that cap either.
These are representative pricing shapes based on each vendor's publicly documented plan structure as of August 2026, not live quotes β Contentful, Sanity and Strapi all revise tier limits and prices periodically, Sanity's bandwidth-overage rate in particular has changed before (from $0.20/GB to $0.30/GB), and all three offer negotiated Enterprise pricing above their published self-serve tiers. Always confirm current numbers on each vendor's pricing page before budgeting a production project.
How this calculator works
The Contentful vs Sanity vs Strapi Cloud Cost Calculator compares three headless CMS billing shapes at your monthly API requests, CDN bandwidth and editor count. Contentful checks your usage against two hard-capped step tiers in order (Free: β€100K requests, β€50GB bandwidth, β€10 seats β $0; Lite: β€1M requests, β€100GB bandwidth, β€20 seats β $300) and returns "Custom" the moment any single metric exceeds the highest tier. Sanity checks a narrower free tier (β€100K requests, β€10GB bandwidth, β€3 seats β $0), then a per-seat Growth tier (β€1M requests β seats Γ $15, minimum 2 seats, plus $0.30/GB for bandwidth over 100GB), then a Growth-plus-add-on tier (β€5M requests, β€500GB bandwidth β seats Γ $15 + $299) before also returning "Custom". Strapi Cloud is the simplest: a single flat tier (β€500K requests, β€50GB bandwidth β $15 flat, no seat multiplier) with no metered path beyond it. The calculator shows all three totals side by side, then a second table sweeps monthly API requests from 50K to 10M at your current bandwidth and seat count so you can see exactly where each vendor's tier walls and overage curves cross.
These are representative pricing shapes based on each vendor's publicly documented plan structure as of August 2026 (Contentful Free/Lite tier caps and $300 Lite price; Sanity Free tier caps, $15/seat Growth plan, ~$0.30/GB bandwidth overage and $299/month Increased Quota add-on; Strapi Cloud's $15/month flat Essential tier), not live vendor quotes β tier limits, prices and overage rates change periodically, and all three vendors offer negotiated Enterprise pricing above their published self-serve tiers. Always confirm current pricing directly with the vendor before budgeting a production project.
Frequently asked questions
Which headless CMS is cheapest for a small marketing site?
For low-traffic sites under roughly 100,000 API calls, 50GB bandwidth and 10 editors a month, Contentful's Free plan is $0 β the cheapest option outright. Once you cross that (very easy on a site with any real traffic, since 50GB of CDN bandwidth is not much), Strapi Cloud's Essential tier at a flat $15/month typically wins for mid-size sites up to about 500,000 requests and 50GB bandwidth, because it doesn't charge per seat. Sanity only pulls ahead once your team is small (2-3 editors keeps its per-seat Growth plan cheap) or your usage pattern is bandwidth-heavy rather than request-heavy, since its overage is metered per GB instead of forcing a hard tier jump.
Why does Contentful force an upgrade to Enterprise so quickly?
Contentful's Free and Lite plans are hard-capped β there is no pay-as-you-go overage on API calls, users or CDN bandwidth. Free tops out at 100,000 API calls, 50GB bandwidth and 10 users; Lite ($300/month) raises that to 1,000,000 calls, 100GB bandwidth and 20 users. The moment any single metric crosses its cap, Contentful requires you to move to a custom Enterprise contract rather than billing you for the extra usage, which is very different from Sanity's metered-overage model or Strapi's higher fixed tiers.
How does Sanity's pay-as-you-go pricing compare to Strapi's flat rate?
Strapi Cloud's Essential tier is a single flat $15/month regardless of team size, as long as you stay under about 500,000 API requests and 50GB bandwidth β simple, but it hits a wall with no built-in overage path beyond that. Sanity instead charges per seat ($15/user/month on Growth, 2-seat minimum) plus metered bandwidth overage (roughly $0.30/GB beyond the included 100GB), and offers a $299/month Increased Quota add-on that extends the ceiling to about 5,000,000 requests and 500GB bandwidth before Enterprise is needed. So Strapi is cheaper and simpler for small teams with moderate usage, while Sanity scales further before you're forced into a custom quote β at the cost of per-seat pricing that grows with headcount.
What happens to my content if I exceed the free tier?
It depends on the vendor. Contentful and Strapi's free/entry tiers are hard caps β once you exceed the included API calls, bandwidth or storage, you typically can't create new content or serve requests until you upgrade to the next paid tier (Contentful requires a plan change; Strapi's higher tiers or Enterprise). Sanity's Free plan also blocks new document creation once the document quota is hit, but its paid Growth plan switches to pay-as-you-go overage on bandwidth rather than a hard block, so a temporary traffic spike adds a metered charge instead of taking your site down. Always check the current vendor docs before launch β overage behavior is a common source of surprise bills or outages.