Sanity

Overview

Sanity is a web-based, API-first content platform for teams publishing structured content to websites, mobile apps, and other digital products. It is best suited to organizations that want developers and editors working in one system, with configurable roles and automation. The principal trade-off is that the free plan uses public-only datasets, so private production content requires a paid tier.

Sanity covers both editorial work and content infrastructure: it supports localized content, previews, transformed assets, revisions, and event-driven functions. That breadth makes it a credible foundation for more than a single marketing site, but its quotas and dataset rules need to fit your delivery volume before you commit.

Key features

GraphQL and GROQ query support gives teams a choice of API styles, while webhooks connect content changes to downstream systems. The platform includes content localization, content preview, and asset transformations, which are practical advantages for multi-market publishing and front ends that need optimized media. Functions can automate content operations and trigger from dataset mutations, extending Sanity into workflow and integration tasks rather than limiting it to manual publishing.

Real-time editing and multiplayer presence are included across plans, so several contributors can work in the same content space with visible activity. Sanity stores revisions for every document, providing a record of changes that is useful when editorial work needs to be reviewed or rolled back. Viewer-role users are free; other user types consume seats, a distinction that can reduce costs for broad read-only participation but makes active collaborators part of the paid-seat calculation.

The MCP Server connects Sanity with Cursor, Claude Code, v0, and other tools. Sanity supports web, mobile, content applications, and customer-facing or internal agents, making it suitable as a shared content layer across varied products. SOC 2, GDPR, and CCPA compliance are included on every plan. Enterprise adds SAML single sign-on, custom roles and access control, dedicated support, an uptime SLA, and custom usage quotas.

Pricing

Free

The Free plan costs nothing, billed $0 forever, with monthly prices. It targets individuals experimenting or shipping smaller projects. You get up to 20 user seats, two permission roles, two public-only datasets, unlimited content types and locales, 10,000 documents, two GROQ-powered webhooks, and 1M API CDN requests per month. That is a generous way to prototype or run a small public project, especially when viewer users do not consume seats. Public-only datasets are the decisive limitation for teams that need private content or production isolation.

Growth

Growth costs $15 a month, with prices billed monthly, and is aimed at teams with scaling projects and increasing collaboration needs. It raises capacity to 50 user seats, five permission roles, two datasets, 25,000 documents, four GROQ-powered webhooks, and 1M API CDN requests per month. The plan can be tried for free, making it the sensible step when the Free plan's public-dataset restriction or smaller document and role allowances become blockers. The CDN request allowance does not increase from Free, so high-traffic delivery still needs careful quota planning.

Enterprise

Enterprise uses custom pricing. It is the appropriate tier for organizations requiring custom roles and access control, SAML single sign-on, dedicated support, an uptime SLA, or bespoke usage quotas. Community support remains included alongside the enterprise support arrangement.

Platforms

Sanity runs on the web and delivers content to web and mobile experiences, content applications, and customer-facing or internal agents. Its GraphQL and GROQ APIs and MCP integrations favor teams building their own front ends and development workflows rather than buyers seeking a fixed, single-channel publishing product.

Who it's for

Choose Sanity for a structured-content team serving several channels, markets, or applications and needing collaborative editing, revisions, and programmable automation. Free is a strong starting point for experiments and smaller public projects with modest document and webhook needs. Growth fits teams that need private datasets, more seats, additional roles, or higher document capacity. Enterprise is for organizations with formal identity, support, availability, and quota requirements.

It is a weaker fit if a public-only free dataset is unacceptable, if your project will quickly exceed 25,000 documents or the 1M monthly API CDN request allowance, or if you want a fully managed, channel-specific authoring experience without developer-led integration.

Pros and cons

Pros

Broad delivery model: APIs, localization, previews, transformations, and webhooks support content across sites, apps, and agents.

Useful collaboration controls: real-time presence, document revisions, custom roles, and free viewer users help coordinate larger editorial groups.

Capable free entry point: 20 seats, unlimited content types and locales, and 10,000 documents give small public projects room to grow.

Automation and tooling: Functions and MCP connections to Cursor, Claude Code, and v0 support developer-driven workflows.

Cons

Free datasets are public-only: private content requires Growth or Enterprise.

Usage ceilings remain material: Free and Growth each include 1M API CDN requests per month, while documents and GROQ-powered webhooks are capped.

Active users consume seats: only viewer roles are free, so collaboration costs rise with contributor count.

Alternatives

Browse the Headless CMS category if you want to compare the wider field. Prismic suits a personal website or proof of concept needing a free repository with four million API calls per month and one user. ButterCMS is aimed at freelancers and developers launching small projects or MVPs across Android, iOS, and web. Storyblok is a simpler free starting point for testing or personal work, with one space and one seat. dotCMS is worth considering when self-hosted, API, Linux, or role-and-environment options matter more than Sanity's hosted workflow. Cloud CMS offers a free developer edition and a $220 a month Starter plan with three projects, five users, and 100GB. DatoCMS fits projects needing three free projects with one collaborator each and 100,000 CDA API calls per month. CrafterCMS is the alternative for an open-source, self-hosted Community edition. Strapi is a self-hosted option with an open-source Community edition, REST and GraphQL APIs, and role-based access control.

Verdict

Sanity is a strong choice for teams building multi-channel, structured-content systems that value collaborative editing, flexible APIs, and automation. Choose it when the Free or Growth quotas fit and your developers want control over delivery. Look elsewhere when you need private datasets without paying, materially higher request capacity, or a self-hosted or more turnkey publishing model.