Tool profile
Headless CMS for structured content, localization, and multi channel publishing through APIs.
Global marketing sites needing structured content and localization
Contentful is a structured content platform with APIs, localization, roles, and optional Studio, Personalization, and AI Actions sold as add-ons on higher paths.
Per contentful.com/pricing (March 2026), Free is $0 forever for exploration: 10 users, 2 roles, 2 locales, 100,000 API calls/month (no overages on Free), 50 GB/month CDN bandwidth for assets, 50 MB max asset upload, and 1 Starter Space with documented record/content-type quotas. Lite is $300/month for single-project businesses, adding 20 users, 3 roles, 3 locales, 1M API calls/month, 100 GB/month CDN bandwidth, collaboration features (comments, tasks, scheduled publishing, live collaboration), 1 Starter Space plus 1 purchasable Lite Space. Premium (enterprise) is custom with unlimited API calls, custom CDN, advanced governance, SLAs up to 99.99% uptime, unlimited spaces, and compatibility with Personalization, Studio, and AI Actions modules.
Compare Sanity and Strapi for developer-led headless stacks; compare Adobe AEM for full enterprise WCM; compare WordPress VIP for editorial-heavy marketing.
Quick fit
Editorial take
Contentful's free plan is good for real evaluation because the included limits are concrete and overages are disabled. The real buyer split is not Free versus Lite; it is Lite versus Premium once governance, uptime commitments, and add-on products enter the conversation.
What it does well
Primary use cases
Fit notes
Compare with
Pressure-test this pick against nearby alternatives.
Pricing snapshot
Contentful's current Platform pricing shows Free at $0 forever with 10 users, 2 roles, 2 locales, 100,000 API calls per month, 50 GB of monthly CDN bandwidth, and 1 Starter Space with no overages. Lite is $300 per month with 20 users, 3 roles, 3 locales, 1 million API calls per month, 100 GB of CDN bandwidth, and 1 Starter Space plus the option to purchase 1 additional Lite Space. Premium is custom.
Ghost
Free planNewsletters and indie publishers owning domain and data
Publishing platform for newsletters, blogs, memberships, and editorial websites with clean tooling.
Substack trades simplicity for less infra ownership—compare fee structure.
