If you're evaluating headless CMS platforms, the free plan is usually where the decision starts. You want to build something real, validate your architecture, and make sure the developer experience is solid before committing to a paid tier.
The problem: free plans vary wildly. Some give you a genuinely useful starting point. Others are barely enough to run a demo. This post fixes that. We ranked the best free headless CMS platforms in 2026 by what you actually get on the free tier.
What to look for in a free headless CMS
- Objects / content entries: how much content can you store before hitting a wall?
- API access: can you build a production-ready app, or are you rate-limited out of the gate?
- Team members: can more than one person use the free plan?
- Buckets / workspaces: can you run more than one project?
- Upgrade path: when you outgrow free, does the next tier make sense?
- AI features: does the platform give you any AI tooling on free, or lock it behind enterprise?
1. Cosmic
Free plan includes:
- 1 Bucket (project)
- 2 Team members
- 1,000 Objects
- REST API + JavaScript/TypeScript SDK
- Media storage and imgix image optimization
- 1 AI Agent (draft, publish, and manage content from Slack, WhatsApp, or Telegram)
- Full dashboard access
Cosmic's free plan is the only one in this list that includes an AI Agent out of the box. You can connect a Slack channel and have an AI Agent draft, edit, and publish content without touching the dashboard. The REST API and TypeScript SDK are fully available on free, so you can build a real production app without hitting artificial API rate limits.
When you're ready to grow, the Builder plan ($49/month) gives you 2 Buckets, 3 Team members, 5,000 Objects, and 3 AI Agents.
Start free on Cosmic | See all plans
2. Contentful
Free plan includes: 10 Team members, 2 roles, 2 locales, 25 Content types, 100,000 API calls/month, 10,000 records.
Contentful's free plan is generous on team seats (10 users), which makes it appealing for larger teams just starting out. The bigger limitation: paid plans start at $300/month, which is a significant jump once you need more locales, roles, or API capacity.
3. Sanity
Free plan includes: up to 20 users, unlimited content types, 1M API CDN requests/month, 100GB asset storage, 2 datasets.
Sanity's free tier is genuinely generous on users and API calls. The tradeoff: steeper learning curve, and Sanity Studio requires configuration that's less approachable for non-technical editors.
4. Strapi
Free plan includes: self-hosted (open source), unlimited users, unlimited content types, REST API, community support only.
Strapi is open source, so the software itself is free. But "free" here means you're managing your own hosting, security, backups, and updates. Strapi Cloud (managed) starts at $29/month.
5. Storyblok
Free plan includes: 1 user, 1 locale, 200 components, 100,000 API calls/month, 1TB asset storage.
Storyblok's free plan is limited to a single user, which makes it essentially a solo-developer tier. Even a two-person team needs a paid plan.
6. Prismic
Free plan includes: 1 user, 1 locale, unlimited documents, 4M API calls/month, page builder.
Prismic's free plan has the highest API call limit in the group (4M/month). Like Storyblok, the 1-user cap is the main constraint.
7. Hygraph
Free plan includes: 3 seats, 2 roles, 2 locales, 10 components, 500,000 API calls/month, unlimited asset storage, comments and live preview.
Hygraph's Hobby plan is one of the more collaborative free tiers, with 3 seats, commenting, and live preview included. It's GraphQL-native, which is a strength for developers who want a flexible query layer.
Which free headless CMS is right for you?
- Choose Cosmic if you want AI-native content tooling from day one, a clean REST API and TypeScript SDK, and a free plan that covers real solo or two-person projects.
- Choose Contentful if you have a larger team (up to 10) who need to prototype together.
- Choose Sanity if you're a developer who wants maximum flexibility and is comfortable with a code-first setup.
- Choose Strapi if you want full ownership and have the DevOps resources to self-host.
- Choose Storyblok or Prismic if you're a solo developer and visual editing or high API throughput is your top priority.
- Choose Hygraph if you want collaborative features and GraphQL on a free tier.
Start free on Cosmic, no credit card required | View pricing | Book a demo
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