Contentful vs Craft CMS

Contentful and Craft CMS are both CMS options. Contentful lists 6 features across 1 platform; Craft CMS lists 7 features across 2 platforms — see the full breakdown below, sourced from each vendor's own site rather than ratings or reviews.

Side-by-side summary

ComparingContentfulCraft CMS
CategoryCMSCMS
Alternatives tracked23
PlatformsWebWeb (Craft Cloud), Self-hosted
Pricing modelFree + paid plansFree + paid plans

Best for Contentful

Contentful positions itself for growth marketing teams, product and developer teams, content teams, and mid-market/enterprise organizations needing centralized, multi-channel content management.

Best for Craft CMS

Agencies and developers building multi-site or e-commerce projects who want flexible content modeling without being locked into a rigid page structure.

Feature comparison

Every feature listed here comes directly from each vendor's own official site.

Contentful

  • Centralized, modular content architecture
  • AI-powered personalization and content generation
  • No-code experimentation and A/B testing
  • Multi-channel, multi-brand content delivery
  • Localization and translation automation
  • Front-end hosting capabilities

Craft CMS

  • Customizable field types and flexible content modeling
  • Multi-site support with unlimited localization, translated into 25 languages in the control panel
  • Twig templating for coupled sites and a self-generating GraphQL API for decoupled apps
  • Extensible plugin framework with a built-in Plugin Store
  • Craft Commerce for e-commerce functionality
  • Third-party integrations including Salesforce, Mailchimp, and HubSpot
  • Craft Cloud managed hosting option

Pros and cons

Contentful

Pros
  • Centralized, modular content architecture
  • AI-powered personalization and content generation
  • No-code experimentation and A/B testing
  • Multi-channel, multi-brand content delivery
  • Localization and translation automation
  • Front-end hosting capabilities
Cons
  • The Free plan uses hard caps: 100,000 API calls and 50 GB of CDN bandwidth per month with no overages.
  • Lite starts at $300/month, and additional Lite Spaces are priced separately; Enterprise pricing is custom.

Craft CMS

Pros
  • Customizable field types and flexible content modeling
  • Multi-site support with unlimited localization, translated into 25 languages in the control panel
  • Twig templating for coupled sites and a self-generating GraphQL API for decoupled apps
  • Extensible plugin framework with a built-in Plugin Store
  • Craft Commerce for e-commerce functionality
  • Third-party integrations including Salesforce, Mailchimp, and HubSpot
  • Craft Cloud managed hosting option
Cons
  • Self-hosted Team and Pro licenses include only one year of updates; continued updates/support cost $99/year per project after that, and commercial plugins can add separate costs.
  • Craft Cloud is a separate recurring hosting expense ($120/month Team or $240/month Pro when paid annually), so a hosted deployment has very different economics from the one-time self-hosted CMS license.

Key differences

  • Contentful lists Centralized, modular content architecture, AI-powered personalization and content generation, No-code experimentation and A/B testing, Multi-channel, multi-brand content delivery, Localization and translation automation, Front-end hosting capabilities that Craft CMS doesn't list.
  • Craft CMS lists Customizable field types and flexible content modeling, Multi-site support with unlimited localization, translated into 25 languages in the control panel, Twig templating for coupled sites and a self-generating GraphQL API for decoupled apps, Extensible plugin framework with a built-in Plugin Store, Craft Commerce for e-commerce functionality, Third-party integrations including Salesforce, Mailchimp, and HubSpot, Craft Cloud managed hosting option that Contentful doesn't list.
  • Contentful supports Web, which Craft CMS doesn't list.
  • Craft CMS supports Web (Craft Cloud), Self-hosted, which Contentful doesn't list.

Choose Contentful if…

Choose Contentful if this fits: Contentful positions itself for growth marketing teams, product and developer teams, content teams, and mid-market/enterprise organizations needing centralized, multi-channel content management. Compared with Craft CMS specifically, Contentful also offers Centralized, modular content architecture, AI-powered personalization and content generation, No-code experimentation and A/B testing, and 3 more features that Craft CMS doesn't list, plus Web support that Craft CMS doesn't list.

Choose Craft CMS if…

Choose Craft CMS if this fits: Agencies and developers building multi-site or e-commerce projects who want flexible content modeling without being locked into a rigid page structure. Compared with Contentful specifically, Craft CMS also offers Customizable field types and flexible content modeling, Multi-site support with unlimited localization, translated into 25 languages in the control panel, Twig templating for coupled sites and a self-generating GraphQL API for decoupled apps, and 4 more features that Contentful doesn't list, plus Web (Craft Cloud), Self-hosted support that Contentful doesn't list.

Facts on this page are sourced from each vendor's official site (linked below), not from ratings or reviews. Products change — verify anything that matters to your decision directly on the vendor's own site before switching. See our Disclaimer and Sources Policy.

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