Headless CMS Explained: When to Choose Sanity, Statamic or Payload

A headless CMS manages your content but doesn't render your website: the frontend, built in something like Next.js or Laravel, fetches that content through an API and decides how it looks. That's headless CMS explained in one sentence, and it's the right setup when developers own the frontend and editors need to publish without touching code. My default picks: Sanity for Next.js sites with several editors, Statamic when the project already runs on Laravel, and Payload when you want the backend and database fully in your own hands.

A quick disclosure: I build websites and web apps in Laravel and Next.js for a living, so I have a stake in you choosing a coded setup. That's why there's a section below on when headless is the wrong call.

The short answer

The rule of thumb: pick the CMS that fits the stack you're building in anyway, then check that it fits your editors. Choosing a CMS is one part of a bigger build-or-buy decision, which I cover in my guide on how to build your own platform.

What "headless" actually means

In a traditional CMS like WordPress, editing and presentation are bundled. The same system stores your text, runs the theme and generates the pages. A headless CMS drops the "head", meaning the presentation layer. It serves content as structured data, and a developer builds the frontend (the part visitors see) with whatever tool suits the project.

What you gain:

• No theme constraints, so design and page speed are fully under your control.
• The same content can feed your website, a mobile app, newsletters or an in-store screen.
• Editors get fields that match your content instead of one big text box where anything goes.
• You can rebuild the frontend without migrating the content.

What you give up: every layout change or new content type needs a developer. There's no theme marketplace and no plugin that drops in a new section. That's why I only recommend headless when someone will be developing the site on an ongoing basis anyway.

One nuance: Statamic isn't purely headless. It can render pages itself with templates and also serve content through an API, a mix usually called hybrid. In practice that's an advantage, because you can start traditional and open the API later. If you're still deciding whether to leave WordPress at all, start with my honest comparison of WordPress and a custom-coded website.

Sanity vs Statamic vs Payload from an editor's point of view

Most comparisons are written for developers. On paper all three can do most things. The difference shows up in daily work: how an editor previews a change, how many people can work at once, and who cleans up when something breaks.

Sanity: best when many people edit at once

The editing interface, Sanity Studio, is configured in code. That sounds technical, but for editors it means the fields can match your content exactly: a product page has the fields a product page needs and nothing else. Several people can work in the same document and see each other's changes as they happen, much like a shared Google Doc.

Content lives in Sanity's cloud, so there's no server or database to look after. For EU companies, data location is the obvious question. Sanity says its backend runs in a single EU region (Belgium), but also that uploaded content may be stored in the EU, the US or other regions where it operates (Sanity's security page). If you have strict data residency requirements, read the data processing agreement before you commit.

The free plan covers up to 20 users and 10,000 documents, but only two roles: administrator and viewer. If editors need restricted permissions, you move to the Growth plan at $15 (roughly €13) per seat per month (Sanity pricing). For a small marketing team that's modest. For an organization with 40 writers it becomes a real line in the budget.

Statamic: the natural choice for Laravel projects

Statamic is built on Laravel and can be installed into an existing Laravel project. By default, content is stored as Markdown and YAML files in your repository, so it's version-controlled alongside the code. When the content grows, you can move it to a database without rewriting templates.

Editors get a clean Control Panel, and live preview is included even in the free version. Core is limited to one admin user and one form, though. Multiple users, revisions, multi-site and multilingual setups, and the REST and GraphQL APIs all require Pro: $349 (roughly €300) per site including a year of updates, then $99 a year for continued updates (Statamic pricing).

If you already have a Laravel app, or the website needs to tie closely into one (logins, bookings, customer data), Statamic is in my view the simplest option. Everything sits in one codebase and one developer can look after both. The trade-off is a smaller ecosystem than WordPress and fewer developers who know it well.

Payload: most control, most responsibility

Payload is an open source CMS written in TypeScript that installs directly into a Next.js app. You describe your content types in a config file, and Payload generates the admin panel and API from it. Data sits in your own database, with MongoDB, Postgres and SQLite officially supported (Payload docs).

That makes Payload strong when content and business data belong together. A course page can reference the course's bookings in the same database, with no syncing between two systems. And since you choose the hosting, keeping everything on EU infrastructure is straightforward. The admin panel feels more like a data tool than a writing tool, so editors who write long-form content daily may need time to adjust. You're also on the hook for hosting, backups, security updates and scaling. There's no vendor to call.

The Payload team joined Figma in June 2025, and Figma says Payload will remain open source (Figma's announcement). I don't see that as a risk today, but I'm keeping an eye on where the product goes.

How to choose a CMS in 6 steps

1. Start with your editors, not the technology. Write down who edits, how often and what. Five marketers publishing daily have different needs from one managing director updating opening hours twice a year.
2. Start from the stack you have. If the backend is Laravel, look at Statamic first. If the frontend is Next.js, the choice is usually between Sanity and Payload. If you haven't picked a stack yet, read my Laravel vs Next.js comparison first.
3. Model your content before you choose. List page types, content blocks and relationships: "a team member belongs to a department", "a case study links to three services". The more relationships you have, the more it matters how well the CMS handles them.
4. Test preview with real content. Ask your developer to show how an editor sees a page before it goes live. Preview needs setting up in all three systems, and skipping it is the quickest way to frustrate editors.
5. Budget for three years, not the license. Add up seats, license fees, hosting and developer hours over three years. The software is rarely the big number. Setup, content modeling and ongoing changes are.
6. Check ownership and your exit route. Where does the data live, can you export all of it, and who has access? With Statamic and Payload, the data is yours on your own hosting. With Sanity, it's on theirs, but you can export it.

What a headless CMS really costs

The license fees are the easy part. Sanity is free until you need more roles, more documents or private datasets, and then you pay per seat. Statamic Core is free with one admin, while Pro is a one-off fee per site plus a yearly update fee. Payload costs nothing as software, but you pay to host the Next.js app and its database, ideally with a provider that keeps everything in the EU if that matters to you.

The bigger costs sit elsewhere:

• Content modeling. Which page types, fields and blocks do you need, and how do they connect?
• The editing experience. Field labels, help text, permissions and preview, so editors can work without calling the developer.
• Connecting the frontend. Every page type and block has to render properly, including on mobile.
• Migrating existing content. On a site with hundreds of pages, migration can be a project of its own.
• Hosting and updates. Most noticeable with Statamic and Payload, where you host it yourself.

So "which CMS is cheapest?" is rarely the right question. A free CMS with a muddled content model ends up costing more than a paid one with a good model.

When headless is the wrong choice

Headless isn't an upgrade for every site. These are the situations where I'd advise against it:

• You have one editor, a handful of pages and rare changes. A headless CMS plus a separate frontend means two things to maintain for a need a simple site builder or static files would cover.
• Nobody will be developing the site after launch. With headless, every new section or layout change needs code. If you want to build new pages yourself, Webflow or WordPress is the more honest choice, and my Wix vs Squarespace vs Webflow comparison can help you pick.
• You rely on off-the-shelf plugins. WordPress has a huge ecosystem for forms, multilingual sites and SEO. In a headless setup, much of that has to be built or integrated.
• The budget is tight. Then the money is better spent on good copy and photos than on architecture. It may be smarter to first decide if you should build the website yourself or hire a developer.

And if you want one partner for design, copywriting and ads as well, a freelance developer like me isn't the whole answer. An agency, or a developer working alongside a designer, is a better fit.

Next steps

If you can tick most of these, you're ready to talk to a developer. I build websites on Laravel and Next.js with a CMS your editors will actually like using, and you own the code from day one.

Frequently asked questions

Is WordPress a headless CMS?+

Not by default, but it can be used as one. WordPress has a built-in REST API, so a Next.js frontend can pull content from it. That can be a sensible route if your editors already know WordPress well. The downside is that you still have to host and update WordPress, and many plugins assume WordPress renders the pages itself.

Is a headless CMS GDPR compliant?+

A CMS isn't compliant or non-compliant on its own; what matters is where data is stored and who processes it. If the CMS holds personal data, such as form submissions or staff profiles, you need a data processing agreement with the vendor. Sanity offers one, and with Statamic or Payload on EU hosting you control the location yourself. This isn't legal advice, so check with your DPO or a lawyer.

Is a headless CMS better for SEO?+

Not by itself. Google sees the finished page, not the CMS behind it. Headless can give you faster pages and full control over technical SEO, but only if the developer builds in titles, metadata, a sitemap and redirects from the start. In WordPress, a plugin handles much of that for you.

Do editors need to know how to code?+

No. Code is only needed to set up the fields and page types. Editors work in a normal editing interface with fields, images and buttons to save and publish. What they can't do is invent new layouts on their own. That needs a developer, and it's a deliberate part of the model: it keeps the design consistent.

What about Strapi, Contentful or Storyblok?+

All three are serious alternatives. Contentful and Storyblok are hosted, like Sanity, while Strapi is open source and self-hosted, like Payload. I've focused on Sanity, Statamic and Payload because they fit Laravel and Next.js best, which is what I build with. Use the same six steps to assess any other system.