Top 9 Headless CMS for React You Should Try Out

The integration of headless CMS for React has unlocked new possibilities for web development, facilitating a more agile, content-focused approach that enhances both developer productivity and the end-user experience. 

React is a front end framework that manages the visual aspects of your web app. However, unlike WordPress, Wix and Squarespace, React doesn’t have a default CMS. In order to use it, you need to pair it with a compatible CMS to handle the back end and database operations. 

Also read: How To Use WordPress As A Headless CMS With React

To achieve this, we need to use a headless CMS for react. A headless CMS divides the website into a head and body — the head being the presentation or the front end layer of the website and body is the database or operation layer. The benefit of this approach is that you can set how to display your content across different devices. 

Here are some of the best headless CMS for React. 

The Top 9 Headless CMS for React You Should Try Out

1. Storyblok

Storyblok brings a unique proposition for developers and content creators with its real-time visual editor and customizable content blocks. Its standout features include:

• Visual Editing Experience: Enables non-technical users to visually interact with the content as it will appear on the website.
• Flexible Content Blocks: Allows for the creation of custom content structures, adaptable to any design.
• API-Driven: Offers seamless integration with React and other modern frameworks through a robust API.
• Extensive Plugin Ecosystem: Enhances functionality with plugins for everything from SEO to custom integrations.

Price Details:

Free Plan: Suitable for small projects, offering 10k monthly API requests and 1 user.

Basic Plan: Priced at $9 per month, including 50k monthly API requests and up to 5 users, ideal for growing businesses.

Advanced Plans: Customizable options available for larger needs, featuring unlimited API requests and dedicated support.

Verdict:

Storyblok is an optimal choice for blending content management ease and developer flexibility in React projects.

2. Sanity 

Sanity is a highly flexible, open-source headless CMS for React designed for structured content that can be delivered across any channel. Its strengths lie in:

Real-Time Collaboration: Offers a collaborative editing experience, allowing multiple team members to work on the same document simultaneously.

Customizable Content Studio: The Sanity Studio can be fully customized and extended to fit your project’s needs, enabling a bespoke content management environment.

Portable Text: Sanity uses Portable Text for rich text fields, making it easy to render content across platforms without losing formatting.

Powerful Query Language: Features GROQ, a powerful and intuitive query language, for fetching data, which is particularly beneficial for developers wanting precise control over their content retrieval.

Price Details:

Free Plan: Includes generous limits suitable for small projects, with 100k API requests per month and 3 users.

Standard Plan: Begins at $99 per month, targeting medium-sized businesses with increased API requests, custom plugins, and advanced security features.

Custom Plans: For enterprises requiring high volumes of content management, Sanity offers tailored solutions with priority support and training sessions.

Verdict:

Sanity excels in collaborative content creation and developer control, ideal for teams prioritizing flexibility.

3. Butter

ButterCMS is marketed as a “Content API” that integrates smoothly with React and other modern frameworks, offering a blend of marketing-friendly features and developer ease of use. Its key offerings include:

Marketing Integration: Designed with marketers in mind, ButterCMS provides SEO management tools, webhooks, and a simple interface for content creation.

Full CMS Capabilities: Beyond blogs, ButterCMS can handle any content type, including landing pages, customer stories, and documentation.

Fast Content Delivery: Utilizes a CDN for global content delivery, ensuring fast load times for international audiences.

Easy Migration: Offers tools and support for easy migration from other CMS platforms, making it a good choice for those looking to switch to a headless CMS.

Price Details:

Starter Plan: Priced at $49 per month, ideal for small projects and startups, including basic features and support.

Pro Plan: At $149 per month, this plan caters to medium-sized businesses, offering enhanced performance and more user seats.

Enterprise Plan: ButterCMS provides custom pricing for large organizations needing advanced features, such as SSO, audit logs, and dedicated support.

Verdict:

ButterCMS is a perfect match for marketers and developers seeking a straightforward, fast CMS for diverse content needs.

4. Dato

DatoCMS is a fully-featured, headless CMS for React designed for the modern web. It is favored for its ease of integration with static site generators and modern frameworks like React. Key aspects include:

Modular Content Blocks: Enables the creation of dynamic, reusable content structures, offering great flexibility for web projects.

Real-Time API: Provides instant updates to content across platforms, ensuring a seamless user experience.

Asset Management: Comes equipped with advanced asset management capabilities, supporting images, videos, and other media files with automatic optimization.

Multilingual Support: Facilitates content creation in multiple languages, making it suitable for international projects.

Plugins and Integrations: Extensive ecosystem of plugins and integrations, enhancing functionality and connectivity with other tools.

Price Details:

Free Plan: Offers a solid starting point for small projects, including 1 user, 50k monthly API calls, and basic features.

Professional Plan: Begins at $89 per month, providing more resources such as increased API calls, additional users, and advanced features for growing businesses.

Enterprise Plan: Custom pricing for large-scale projects, offering unlimited API calls, dedicated infrastructure, and personalized support.

Verdict:

DatoCMS stands out for its modular approach and real-time capabilities, ideal for dynamic, multilingual projects.

5. Strapi 

Strapi is an open-source, headless CMS for React that prioritizes developer freedom and customizability. It’s built on Node.js and supports React out of the box, making it a popular choice for custom web applications. Key features include:

Customizable Content Structure: Strapi allows developers to define their content structure through a flexible and intuitive admin interface, making it easy to tailor to specific project needs.

Self-Hosting Capabilities: Offers the ability to self-host your CMS, giving full control over data and infrastructure for enhanced security and customization.

RESTful or GraphQL APIs: Supports both RESTful and GraphQL APIs, providing flexibility in how data is fetched and manipulated.

Role-Based Access Control: Advanced security features including role-based access control (RBAC) for managing user permissions in a granular way.

Price Details:

Community Edition: Free and open-source, suitable for developers and small teams looking to explore Strapi’s capabilities.

Enterprise Edition: Offers custom pricing based on the scale and specific requirements of the project, including premium support, advanced security features, and custom plugins.

Verdict:

Strapi is the go-to choice for those seeking extensive customization and control over their CMS infrastructure.

6. Netlify

Netlify CMS is an open-source content management system designed to be simple and lightweight, ideal for static site generators and React applications. It integrates seamlessly with Netlify’s ecosystem, offering a developer-friendly approach to content management. Key aspects include:

Git-Based Workflow: Content is stored in your Git repository, offering version control and collaboration directly within your project’s workflow.

Simple, Extensible UI: Provides a clean and intuitive user interface, which can be customized and extended with React components.

Markdown Support: Emphasizes markdown for content editing, catering to developers and those familiar with Git workflows.

Integration with Netlify: Takes full advantage of the Netlify platform, including continuous deployment, hosting, and serverless functions for a comprehensive web development experience.

Price Details:

Free to Use: Being open-source, Netlify CMS is free to use, relying on the Netlify platform for hosting and deployment, which also offers free and paid plans based on usage.

Verdict:

Netlify CMS is ideal for developers looking for a straightforward, Git-based CMS that leverages the Netlify ecosystem.

7. Agility 

Agility CMS is a cloud-based, headless CMS for React designed to offer speed, flexibility, and scalability. It supports omnichannel content delivery and is built to integrate seamlessly with modern frameworks, including React. Key features include:

JAMstack Optimized: Agility CMS is built for the JAMstack, offering developers and marketers a platform that is fast, secure, and scalable.

Content Modelling: Provides tools for creating and managing custom content models without requiring development resources.

Multi-Language Support: Supports multilingual content management out of the box, facilitating global content strategies.

Preview Environment: Offers a preview environment that integrates with your development workflow, allowing for content previews before publishing.

Price Details:

Free Plan: Includes 1 user, 2k content items, and basic support, suitable for small projects and personal use.

Standard Plan: Starts at $47 per month, offering additional users, more content items, and premium features for small to medium-sized businesses.

Enterprise Plan: Custom pricing for larger organizations that require advanced features, such as workflow customization, higher limits on content and users, and dedicated support.

Verdict:

Agility CMS excels in offering a scalable, JAMstack-optimized solution for modern web projects.

8. Flotiq

Flotiq is an API-first headless CMS for React  designed with developers in mind, focusing on simplicity and integration capabilities. It’s particularly well-suited for projects that require seamless integration with various services and platforms. Key highlights include:

API-First Design: Flotiq offers a clean and straightforward RESTful API, making it easy for developers to integrate content into React applications or any other platform.

Content Type Definitions: Allows for the easy definition of content types with a user-friendly interface, enabling custom content models that suit any project’s needs.

SDKs and Libraries: Provides a range of SDKs and libraries for popular programming languages and frameworks, ensuring quick and efficient development.

Webhooks and Integrations: Supports webhooks for real-time content updates and offers integrations with popular tools and platforms for extended functionalities.

Price Details:

Free Plan: Aimed at individual developers and small projects, offering 1 million API calls per month, 100 content types, and 1GB of storage.

Starter Plan: Priced at $29 per month, increasing API calls, storage, and content types, suitable for small to medium businesses.

Professional Plan: Custom pricing for larger needs, offering unlimited API calls, extensive storage, and dedicated support.

Verdict:

Flotiq is perfect for projects that prioritize API flexibility and ease of integration.

9. Cosmic

Cosmic is a cloud-based headless CMS that offers a blend of simplicity and power, making it ideal for building React applications that require a scalable content management solution. Its main features include:

Intuitive Content Editing: Cosmic provides a user-friendly dashboard that makes content creation and management simple for non-technical users.

Flexible Content Modeling: Enables the creation of custom content types to fit the unique requirements of your application.

Powerful APIs: Offers robust RESTful and GraphQL APIs for retrieving and manipulating content, ensuring seamless integration with React and other frameworks.

Localization: Supports localization features, allowing you to manage content for multiple languages and regions easily.

Extensions and Integrations: Comes with a wide range of integrations and extensions, enhancing its functionality to meet diverse project needs.

Price Details:

Starter Plan: Free, designed for personal projects and small teams, offering basic features, limited content objects, and API requests.

Pro Plan: Begins at $99 per month, providing more extensive features, increased limits on content objects and API requests, and additional user roles.

Enterprise Plan: Cosmic offers custom pricing for enterprises, including unlimited content objects, API requests, and premium support.

Verdict:

Cosmic is an excellent choice for developers seeking a feature-rich CMS that balances ease of use with comprehensive content management capabilities.

Final Word

There are many options when it comes to choosing headless CMS for React for your next project. it’s clear that the fusion of technology with digital craftsmanship opens up a world of possibilities for web development. This path, while complex, is paved with opportunities to tailor solutions that not only meet but exceed the demands of the modern online experience.

Our mission at Codup is rooted in a commitment to excellence, transparency, and the pursuit of results that you can see and measure. With a seasoned team ready to deploy their expertise, we specialize in web development services that align seamlessly with React, ensuring your web project is not just functional but thriving.

Elevate Your Web Development Experience

If you’re ready to unlock the full potential of your online platform designed around your unique needs, we’re here to guide you every step of the way. Reach out to discover how Codup can transform your web development project, preparing it to navigate the dynamic digital landscape with confidence and agility. Let’s work together to create an online presence that stands out today and is ready for the challenges of tomorrow.