Sanity

sanity.io
Content Management System
Weekend Project

The Content Operating System

How to Replace Sanity

Overview

Sanity is a fully customizable all-code backend platform for content applications and AI workflows. It empowers developers and creators to deliver content faster at scale with AI, combining a flexible headless CMS, content database, and automation capabilities.

Features

47 features across 18 categories

AI(5)

Agent ActionsAI

AI-powered actions including document analysis, content creation, web searches, and GROQ queries

AI AssistAIPremium

AI-powered assistance for content creation and editing

AI Credits SystemAI

Usage-based AI credit system for Content Agent and AI actions

Content AgentAI

AI agent that knows your content - query, audit, and edit at scale through natural language. Turn hours of work into minutes.

Embeddings Index APIAIPremium

API for managing content embeddings for AI applications

Also in: monday.com, Notion, Airtable

Automation(2)

Compute

Serverless compute for automating content workflows

Functions + Agent ActionsAI

Deploy serverless functions triggered on any content change. Use AI to automate, adapt, and transform content.

Also in: monday.com, Notion, Airtable

CMS(1)

Sanity Studio

The most flexible headless CMS - configurable with TypeScript, customizable with React. Real-time content workspace with visual editing capabilities.

Collaboration(2)

Comments and TasksPremium

Built-in commenting and task management for team collaboration

Real-time Editing

Real-time collaborative editing with multiplayer presence

Also in: Notion, Airtable, Obsidian

Compliance(3)

GDPR & CCPA Compliance

GDPR and CCPA compliance features

PCI DSS Compliance

PCI DSS compliance certification

SOC 2 Compliance

SOC 2 Type II compliance certification

Also in: Insider CDP, Airtable, 1Password

Content Management(6)

Advanced Dataset ManagementPremium

Advanced features for managing multiple datasets

Change History & RollbackPremium

Comprehensive change history with 365-day retention and rollback capabilities

Content Source Maps

Track and map content sources

Cross-dataset ReferencesPremium

Reference content across multiple datasets

Mutations & Patching

Ability to mutate and patch content through APIs

Portable Text

Rich text format for flexible content structuring

Also in: Juro, Notion, WordPress.com

Data Management(2)

Cloud CloningPremium

Clone datasets to the cloud

Dataset Hot SwapPremium

Swap datasets without downtime

Also in: monday.com, Notion, Airtable

Database(1)

Content Lake

Database optimized for content queries, authoring and delivery. Store content as JSON from any source, query with GROQ, serve fast from real-time content backend.

Also in: Microsoft 365, Lacework, Airtable

Delivery(3)

Custom CDN DomainsPremium

Configure custom domains for CDN delivery

High Frequency CDNPremium

Premium CDN for high-frequency content delivery

Live CDN

Global content delivery network for fast content serving

Developer Tools(5)

APP SDK + APIs

Create custom applications with dashboards, tables, grids, and complex apps that power exactly the workflows your team needs.

CI & Deployment Integrations

Integrations with continuous integration and deployment systems

GraphQL Support

GraphQL API support for content queries

GROQ Query Language

Powerful query language for content retrieval and manipulation

Request LogsPremium

Advanced request logging and monitoring

Editing(3)

Interactive Visual Editing

Visual drag-and-drop editing without compromising on content reusability

Live Previews

Live preview functionality for content changes

Presentation Tool

Page-building and presentation capabilities

Integration(1)

Webhooks

GROQ-powered webhooks for triggering actions on content changes

Media Management(2)

Image Pipeline

Automated image optimization and transformation

Media LibraryPremium

Media management and browser plugin for organizing and managing digital assets

Monitoring(1)

Activity FeedPremium

Track content changes and events with activity feed

Publishing(2)

Content ReleasesPremium

Manage content releases with rollback capabilities, preview overlapping releases, and review changes

Scheduled DraftsPremium

Schedule content publication at specific times

Reliability(1)

Uptime SLAPremium

Service level agreement guaranteeing uptime

Security(5)

Audit LogsPremium

Complete audit trail of content changes and events with History API

BackupsPremium

Automated backup and restore capabilities

Custom Access ControlPremium

Fine-grained custom access control and permissions

Private DatasetsPremium

Create and manage private datasets for sensitive content

Single Sign-On (SSO)Premium

SAML-based single sign-on with third-party identity providers

Support(2)

Dedicated SupportPremium

Direct access to Sanity support engineers

Onboarding ProgramPremium

Dedicated onboarding assistance for enterprise customers

Pricing

Free

Free
  • Up to 20 user seats
  • 2 permission roles
  • 2 datasets (public only)
  • Unlimited content types and locales
  • Content Agent
  • Compute and Agent Actions
  • Hosted real-time content database
  • Live previews and visual editing tools
  • 10k documents
  • 2k unique attributes per dataset
  • 1m API CDN requests per month
  • 250k API requests per month
  • 100GB assets
  • 100GB bandwidth per month
  • 2 GROQ-powered webhooks
  • 1k live connections per dataset
  • 15 min live retention
  • Free hosting
  • Visual editing
  • Real-time editing
  • Multiplayer presence
  • 100 AI credits per month
  • 500k function invocations per month
  • 20k GB-seconds compute per month
  • Unlimited content types
  • Unlimited locales
  • GraphQL & GROQ support
  • Portable Text
  • Mutations & patching
  • Content Source Maps
  • SOC 2, GDPR, CCPA compliance
  • PCI DSS compliance
  • Community support
  • Open source editor built with React.js
  • Global CDN
  • Image pipeline
  • Pay with card

Growth

Popular
$15 per seat/month
  • Up to 50 user seats
  • 5 permission roles
  • 2 datasets (private or public)
  • Pay-as-you-go for higher usage
  • Comments and Tasks
  • Scheduled drafts
  • AI Assist
  • Compute and Agent Actions
  • 25k documents
  • 10k unique attributes per dataset
  • 4 GROQ-powered webhooks
  • Private datasets
  • Embeddings Index API
  • 100 AI credits per month
  • 500k function invocations per month
  • 20k GB-seconds compute per month
  • All Free plan features
  • Advanced dataset management
  • 90 day change history
  • 90 day activity feed
  • Community support

Enterprise

Custom
  • Custom number of user seats
  • Custom roles and access control
  • Custom number of datasets
  • Media Library add-on
  • Single sign-on with SAML
  • Dedicated support and uptime SLA
  • Onboarding program
  • Custom historical retention
  • Custom usage quota
  • Custom documents
  • Custom unique attributes per dataset
  • Custom API CDN requests
  • Custom API requests
  • Custom assets
  • Custom bandwidth
  • Custom datasets
  • Custom AI credits per month
  • 500k function invocations per month
  • 20k GB-seconds compute per month
  • Content releases
  • Rollback releases
  • Preview overlapping releases
  • 365 day change history
  • Full audit trail & History API
  • Cloud cloning
  • Dataset hot swap
  • Cross-dataset references
  • Custom access control
  • Enterprise SSO
  • High Frequency CDN
  • Custom CDN domains
  • Advanced request logs
  • Content Operations Specialists
  • Invoicing
  • Organization-level billing
  • Annual payment option
  • All Growth plan features

Cost Calculator

Keep Paying Sanity

Monthly$15/mo
Yearly$180/yr
5-Year Total$900

Build It Yourself

Est. Build Time~4 hrs
Hosting$20/mo
DifficultyVery Easy

Total Cost Comparison

1 Year
SaaS
$180
DIY
$240
3 Years
SaaS
$540
DIY
$720
5 Years
SaaS
$900
DIY
$1.2k

DIY hosting estimate based on Vercel + Supabase free/pro tiers (~$20/mo). Build time estimated from 47 features at very easy complexity.

Build vs Buy

Should you build a Sanity alternative or buy the subscription? Estimate based on 47 features.

Buy Sanity

Better Value
Monthly cost$150/mo
3-year total$5,400
Time to deployDays

Build Your Own

Development cost$24,000
Maintenance$360/mo
3-year total$36,960
Dev time~2 months

Buying Sanity saves ~$31,560 over 3 years vs building.

Estimates based on 47 features and a BuildScore of 5/5. Actual costs vary.

Integrations

42 known integrations

.NETAngularAstroAWSAzureAzure Active DirectoryBunCloudflareDeno DeployElectronEleventyEmberExpressForgeFreshGatsbyGoogleGoogle CloudhtmxHydrogenjQueryLaravelMeteorNestNetlifyNext.jsNodeNuxtOktaReactReact NativeReact RouterRedwoodRemixSolidSvelteSvelteKitTanstack StartTypeScriptVercelViteVue