Sanity wins for most Next.js projects in 2026. Its generous free tier, React-based customizable Studio, GROQ query language, and real-time collaborative editing make it the clear choice for startups and growing teams. Contentful is better suited for large enterprises with existing workflows and compliance requirements.
Pricing Comparison
This is where Sanity wins most clearly:
Sanity: Free plan — unlimited projects, unlimited admin users, 3 non-admin editors, 10GB assets, 2 datasets, 500K API requests/month. Growth plan: $15/month per project.
Contentful: Free plan — 5 users, 2 environments, 25K API calls/month, 1GB assets. Team plan: $300/month. Enterprise: custom (thousands/month).
For an early-stage startup or solo developer, Contentful’s free tier is extremely limited. Sanity’s free tier covers most pre-revenue content sites entirely.
Developer Experience
Sanity:
- Schema defined in TypeScript code (
defineField,defineType) — version controlled, reviewable - GROQ (Graph-Relational Object Queries) — purpose-built for content, more expressive than GraphQL for content-specific queries
- Auto-generated TypeScript types from your schema (
sanity typegen) - React-based Studio you can customise with custom components
- Portable Text for rich content (better than Contentful’s rich text)
Contentful:
- Schema defined in the Contentful web UI — not version controlled
- REST and GraphQL APIs both available
- Official SDKs well-maintained
- Larger community and more integration options
GROQ vs GraphQL
GROQ is Sanity’s query language. It’s more expressive than GraphQL for content-centric queries:
// Get all published blog posts with their authors, sorted by date
*[_type == "post" && published == true] | order(publishedAt desc) {
title,
slug,
publishedAt,
author->{ name, image }
}
The -> operator follows references inline. Filtering, projections, and ordering are concise. For content queries, GROQ is faster to write and more readable than equivalent GraphQL queries.
Contentful offers GraphQL, which is well-understood and has better tooling for non-content use cases.
The Studio Experience
Sanity Studio is built in React. You can:
- Add custom input components for specific field types
- Create custom desk panes for editorial workflows
- Add sidebar panels, custom badges, and document actions
- Build entirely custom editorial experiences
Contentful’s web app is polished and easy for non-technical editors, but not customisable at the code level.
Real-Time Collaboration
Both platforms support multiple editors. Sanity’s collaboration is real-time — you see other editors’ cursors and changes live. Contentful’s collaboration is less real-time and more workflow-based (draft/publish states, roles).
When to Choose Sanity
- Next.js project with TypeScript — schema-in-code feels natural
- Content-heavy site where GROQ’s expressiveness saves time
- Non-technical editors who need a polished CMS experience
- You want to customise the editorial interface
- Budget matters — Sanity’s free tier is far more generous
When to Choose Contentful
- Your organisation is already standardised on Contentful
- You need enterprise SSO, HIPAA/GDPR compliance controls at the enterprise tier
- Your team prefers GraphQL over GROQ
- You have very large content volumes (millions of entries) where Contentful’s infrastructure is more proven
What We Use at Whipp Studio
Sanity is our default CMS for every new Next.js project. The combination of GROQ, the customisable Studio, and the generous free tier makes it the obvious choice for the types of projects we build.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I migrate from Contentful to Sanity? Yes. Contentful’s export format is JSON. You write a migration script to transform content into Sanity’s format and import it. Expect 1–3 days for a medium-sized content library.
Is Sanity good for e-commerce?
Yes. Sanity’s @sanity/shopify plugin syncs Shopify products into your Sanity dataset, letting you combine product data with editorial content in one API.
Does Sanity work with frameworks other than Next.js? Yes. Sanity works with any JavaScript framework (Astro, SvelteKit, Nuxt, Remix) and any language with HTTP support. Next.js has the best first-party integration.
How hard is Sanity to learn? GROQ takes an afternoon to learn if you know SQL. The schema definition is TypeScript — familiar if you’re a TypeScript developer. The Studio setup takes a day to understand fully.
What’s Portable Text? Portable Text is Sanity’s format for rich text (articles, blog posts). It stores content as structured data (not HTML), which you render with your own components. This means you can render the same content differently on web, mobile, and email without transformations.
Building a content-heavy site or marketing site with Next.js? At Whipp Studio, we build Sanity + Next.js projects that are fast, editable by non-developers, and optimised for SEO. Book a free strategy call →