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Statamic vs Contentful
Stop renting your CMS. Start owning it.
Here's an honest Feature Comparison Matrix™
The world's most rigorous comparison of Statamic and Contentful. 😘
OK, now let's actually talk about it.
Scalable architecture. On your infrastructure.
Contentful is a hosted SaaS platform. Your content lives on their infrastructure, behind their API, with their limits and pricing model.
Statamic gives you a scalable architecture you control:
- MySQL / Postgres for large editorial teams and high-volume content operations
- Driver flexibility to adapt storage strategy without rewriting templates or blueprints
- Flat-file workflows when teams want Git-native editorial operations
Enterprise newsrooms like DER SPIEGEL and TV2 run Statamic in production. No vendor lock-in, no API call anxiety, full data sovereignty.
$275 once vs $300+/month forever.
Statamic Pro is a one-time $275 site license with an optional annual renewal for updates and direct support.
Contentful's Team plan starts at $300/month, with usage-based pricing that scales up as your content, users, and API calls grow. Statamic has no per-user limits, no content model caps, and no API call metering.
For agencies managing multiple client sites, the cost difference compounds fast. Ten Contentful sites could easily run $3,000+/month. Ten Statamic sites? $2,750 total — once.
A full CMS, not just an API. Unless that's what you want.
Contentful is API-first. You always need a separate frontend framework and rendering infrastructure to actually build a website.
Statamic gives you three modes from one install:
- Traditional — server-rendered HTML via Antlers or Blade templates
- Headless — content via REST API or GraphQL
- Hybrid — mix server-rendered pages with API-driven sections
Start with templates, add an API for your mobile app later, and never migrate platforms. One CMS, your choice of architecture.
65+ fieldtypes. No platform limits.
Contentful's content modeling is capable but constrained by SaaS platform limits — content type caps, field count limits, and reference depth restrictions that don't exist with self-hosted software.
Statamic ships 65+ fieldtypes covering every content pattern:
- Bard — rich text with custom structured blocks inline
- Replicator — flexible content blocks (like a page builder)
- Grid — tabular data with typed columns
- Relationships, assets, taxonomies, computed values, and much more
Build with Laravel, not around an SDK.
With Contentful, you integrate via SDK wrappers and are limited to webhook-driven workflows and serverless functions for custom logic.
With Statamic, you have the full power of Laravel: Eloquent, Blade, Artisan, queues, events, middleware, broadcasting, testing — the entire framework at your fingertips. Build whatever you want, however you want.
Statamic 6 also ships with a redesigned control panel built on Vue 3, Inertia, and Tailwind 4 — with dark mode, command palette, live preview hot-reload, and a shared UI component library for addon developers.
Justin Jackson Founder, Transistor.fm
“The cool thing about buying from independent makers is your dollars get invested directly in their families.”
Can Statamic really work as a headless CMS?
Absolutely. Statamic has a full REST API and built-in GraphQL. You can use it as a pure headless CMS, a traditional CMS, or both from the same install. Build your frontend in Vue, Nuxt, Next.js, or whatever you prefer.
What about uptime and reliability?
Statamic runs on your hosting infrastructure, which means you control the uptime story. With static caching, most Statamic sites serve requests in single-digit milliseconds. No third-party API dependency means no third-party API outages. We'll be happy to help you figure out the best hosting infra for your needs.
Is self-hosting harder to manage?
Modern Laravel hosting platforms like Laravel Cloud, Forge, Ploi, and Vapor make deploying and managing Statamic sites straightforward. If you can deploy a Laravel app, you can deploy Statamic.
Where is Contentful a better choice?
If your organization wants a fully managed SaaS content platform with zero infrastructure responsibility, Contentful can be a good fit. If you want ownership, flexibility in architecture, and a lower long-term cost, Statamic is really, really hard to beat.