Directus vs DreamFactory

Directus is a web-based content platform supporting both API types, with localization, custom role permissions, webhooks, content preview, and asset transformations. Its free Core plan provides 3 user seats, 25 collections, and 5 flows. Team costs $499 a month with an annual commitment and includes 10 SSO seats, 50 collections, and 20 flows. Enterprise has custom SSO seats and collections with unlimited flows, but no listed price. The Open Innovation Grant offers qualifying teams full access at no software cost and free self-hosting. Directus uses a freemium model and includes a 14-day trial. Teams can choose browser-based access, then match a plan to their required seats, collections, and flows.

DreamFactory is a self-hosted data access platform and AI data gateway that provides governed API access to data sources. It generates documented REST APIs with CRUD operations and query options such as filtering, pagination, and sorting. The company says it supports more than 30 databases, including SQL Server, Oracle, Snowflake, MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, and SAP HANA. Role-based controls can limit access by endpoint, table, field, operation, or row, while authentication options include OAuth, Active Directory, LDAP, OpenID, Okta, Auth0, and SAML. API calls are logged with user identity, with an ELK stack for traffic reporting. Server-side scripts can run before or after endpoints in Node.js, PHP, or Python. A built-in MCP server exposes databases, file stores, and stored procedures as tools, and its LLM gateway can route application traffic to several named model providers. Deployment options include Linux servers, virtual machines, Docker, and Kubernetes, including air-gapped environments. A free open-source plan includes a PostgreSQL connector; paid plans start at $1,500 a month billed annually. The company describes the platform as intended for seasoned developers and data architects.