Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Strapi VS GraphCMS

Compare Strapi VS GraphCMS and see what are their differences

Strapi logo Strapi

Manage any content. Anywhere. The leading open-source headless CMS. 100% JavaScript / TypeScript and fully customizable.

GraphCMS logo GraphCMS

The GraphQL Headless CMS
  • Strapi
    Image date //
    2024-06-07
  • GraphCMS Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-03-19

Strapi features and specs

  • Open Source
    Strapi is an open-source platform, meaning it's free to use and has an active community contributing to its improvement. This can lead to rapid innovation and a wealth of community-driven resources.
  • Customization
    Strapi offers high levels of customization, allowing developers to tailor the content management system to their specific needs. This is beneficial for unique projects with specific requirements.
  • Headless CMS
    As a headless CMS, Strapi decouples the backend from the frontend, enabling developers to use any frontend technology they prefer, which increases flexibility and scalability.
  • RESTful and GraphQL APIs
    Strapi automatically generates RESTful APIs and also supports GraphQL out of the box. This makes it easier to integrate with various types of applications.
  • User-Friendly Interface
    Strapi provides a user-friendly admin panel that is powerful yet easy to use, making content management less of a chore for non-technical users.
  • Plugin Ecosystem
    Strapi has a growing ecosystem of plugins that can extend its functionality, allowing users to add features without extensive custom development.

Possible disadvantages of Strapi

  • Learning Curve
    Although Strapi is highly customizable, it can have a steep learning curve for new users, especially those who are not familiar with JavaScript and modern web development practices.
  • Performance Issues
    In some cases, users have reported performance issues, particularly when handling large amounts of data or complex queries, which may require optimization.
  • Community Support Variability
    While Strapi has an active community, the level of support and available third-party resources can vary, especially when compared to more mature CMS platforms.
  • Limited Built-in Features
    Out of the box, Strapi might lack some features that come built-in with other CMS platforms, requiring users to implement or configure these features themselves.
  • Self-Hosting Requirement
    Strapi requires self-hosting, which means you need to manage your own servers and infrastructure. This can be a downside for those looking for a fully managed solution.
  • Frequent Updates
    Frequent updates can sometimes introduce breaking changes, requiring developers to continuously adapt their codebase to stay current.

GraphCMS features and specs

  • GraphQL Native
    GraphCMS is designed around GraphQL, allowing for flexible and efficient querying of data and improving developer experience.
  • Headless CMS
    It serves as a headless CMS, separating content management from presentation, providing flexibility in delivering content to multiple channels such as websites, mobile apps, and IoT devices.
  • Scalability
    GraphCMS offers scalable architecture, capable of handling large volumes of content and high traffic, making it suitable for enterprise-level projects.
  • Content Modeling
    It provides advanced content modeling capabilities, allowing users to create complex and custom content structures tailored to their specific needs.
  • API-first Approach
    GraphCMS uses an API-first approach, facilitating easy integration with other tools and services within your digital ecosystem.
  • Extensive Plugins and Integrations
    It supports a wide array of plugins and integrations, enhancing functionality and streamlining workflows.
  • Real-time Updates
    Supports real-time updates, essential for applications that require most updated content without delay.
  • Multilingual Support
    Offers robust multilingual support, allowing content creators to manage and deliver content in multiple languages seamlessly.

Possible disadvantages of GraphCMS

  • Pricing
    Compared to some alternatives, GraphCMS can be relatively expensive, especially for small businesses or individual developers.
  • Learning Curve
    The GraphQL-based approach might have a learning curve for those unfamiliar with GraphQL, potentially increasing the time needed to onboard new developers.
  • Complexity for Simple Projects
    GraphCMS's advanced features and capabilities might be overkill for simpler projects, where a more basic CMS could suffice.
  • Dependency on External Services
    Being a cloud-based service, it requires a reliable internet connection and can be dependent on the service uptime and performance of GraphCMS infrastructure.
  • Limited Built-in Marketing Tools
    It lacks some built-in marketing tools that other CMS platforms might offer, requiring additional integration for comprehensive marketing functionalities.

Strapi videos

Let's Checkout... #Strapi CMS

More videos:

  • Review - Quick Strapi Review
  • Review - Learn Strapi in 12 minutes 🚀

GraphCMS videos

GraphCMS + eCommerce

More videos:

  • Review - GraphCMS x Next.js | Working with getStaticProps, getStaticPaths and GraphQL

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Strapi and GraphCMS)
CMS
86 86%
14% 14
Blogging
85 85%
15% 15
Blogging Platform
80 80%
20% 20
Developer Tools
82 82%
18% 18

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Strapi and GraphCMS

Strapi Reviews

21 Headless CMS Platforms That You Should Check Out
Strapi is one of the most used headless CMS platforms. Strapi is an open-source headless CMS that is customizable and easy to use. Companies such as Walmart, eBay, Toyota, IBM use this platform.
Source: popupsmart.com
Best Headless CMS in 2022
Strapi is an open-source Node.js headless content management system, which means that the entire codebase is available on GitHub and thrives on contributors. Strapi generates a working RESTful API or uses GraphQL for developers in minutes after installation. Data is made available through a customizable API. It’s important to note that Strapi is a self-hosted, not a SaaS...
Source: flatlogic.com
Best Node.js CMS platforms for 2022
Strapi is a popular, flexible, and open-source headless CMS that enables us to create rich digital experiences. Strapi provides REST and GraphQL APIs developers can use to access the content stored in its repository.
Best Headless CMS for 2020
Valid argument. But what is the alternative? Strapi on a server with a Database? What about doing backups? Isn't it even more complicated? In a git-based CMS you can at least undo all changes, which isn't that easy with a database.
Source: dev.to
11 Headless CMS to Consider for Modern Application
Strapi is an opensource CMS intended to be transparent and striving to be a perfect balance between a CMS, framework, and an automation tool to speed-up back-end development and management.
Source: geekflare.com

GraphCMS Reviews

34 Headless CMS That Should Be On Your Radar
GraphCMS allows you to develop a hosted GraphQL back-end for your application where you can define relations, structures, and permissions of your application data. It also comes with a number of tools to create and manage your content, including text editors, asset management, workflows, user roles, and multi-lingual support.
Source: www.cmswire.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Strapi seems to be a lot more popular than GraphCMS. While we know about 337 links to Strapi, we've tracked only 19 mentions of GraphCMS. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Strapi mentions (337)

  • Strapi Email and Password Authentication with Next.js 15: Part 1
    Strapi offers multiple authentication methods to secure your application:. - Source: dev.to / 3 days ago
  • Build a Strapi 5 Plugin with Medium & Dev.to APIs — Part 1
    One of the features of the Strapi CMS is the ability it gives you to unlock the full potential of content management, thus allowing you to build custom features for yourself and the community. Victor Coisne, the VP of marketing at Strapi, explained this in his article “Building Communities That Drive Growth”. - Source: dev.to / 19 days ago
  • Mastering Next.js 15 Caching: dynamicIO and the 'use cache'
    We'll be using Strapi for our backend API layer. Strapi is a headless, decoupled, API-driven content management system that lets you manage and serve content directly from an admin panel—in just a few minutes. - Source: dev.to / about 2 months ago
  • Building a Customer Support Portal with Strapi, GPT, and Next.js (Part 1)
    In this 3-part series, I will walk you through building a robust customer support portal using Strapi, GPT, and Next.js. You will learn how to set up the backend, integrate AI-driven support using GPT, and implement user authentication to manage customer queries effectively, ensuring a seamless experience that fosters trust and loyalty. For the first part of this series, you will learn how to set up Strapi for the... - Source: dev.to / 2 months ago
  • A Guide to Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) in Strapi
    Familiarity with Strapi CMS(Content Management System). - Source: dev.to / 2 months ago
View more

GraphCMS mentions (19)

  • Build a Task Manager CRUD App with React and Hygraph
    Hygraph, formerly known as GraphCMS, is a backend-only content management system (i.e., a headless CMS) that uses GraphQL to query data and perform mutations (or updates) to the content, making it accessible via a single endpoint (API) for display on any device without a built-in frontend or presentation layer. It allows teams to use a single content repository to deliver content from a single source to endless... - Source: dev.to / about 2 years ago
  • free-for.dev
    GraphCMS - Offers free tier for small projects. GraphQL first API. Move away from legacy solutions to the GraphQL native Headless CMS - and deliver omnichannel content API first. - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
  • Generate Types for Your GraphQL Schemas in 5 Minutes
    I'm building an app using GraphCMS (super awesome, by the way) but the only gotcha is it doesn't offer a plugin to export your schema types. Since I can't function without TypeScript, that was a big problem the second I tried to write mutations or generate static pages using my schemas. - Source: dev.to / almost 3 years ago
  • Serverless blog with 11ty, GraphCMS and Firebase
    In comes GraphCMS, a competitor of the beloved DatoCMS. It lacks some features - like repeatable blocks and the UI is a bit too cluttered, but has a generous free tier. For a blog, this will do just fine. - Source: dev.to / about 3 years ago
  • Using GitHub as a CMS
    I found most people were happy to recommend other headless CMS services like Strapi, Sanity, GraphCMS, etc which did seem to do the job I wanted of providing a platform for me to curate & manage my content without having to redeploy. But most of them had the same issues that I didn't like. - Source: dev.to / over 3 years ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Strapi and GraphCMS, you can also consider the following products

Contentful - You don't need another CMS. You need a better way to manage content — unified, structured, and ready to deploy to any digital channel.

WordPress - WordPress is web software you can use to create a beautiful website or blog. We like to say that WordPress is both free and priceless at the same time.

Prismic - prismic.io is a web software you can use to manage content in any kind of website or app. API-driven.

Sanity.io - Sanity.io a platform for structured content that comes with an open-source editor that you can customize with React.js.

Ghost - Ghost is a fully open source, adaptable platform for building and running a modern online publication. We power blogs, magazines and journalists from Zappos to Sky News.

Storyblok - API-based content management system for multi-device online publishing