Overview

Sanity is a content platform for teams building and maintaining digital products across several channels. It is best suited to groups that need shared editing and developer-facing APIs, with room to automate content workflows. Its free plan is a credible way to start, but public-only datasets and defined usage caps may make Growth a better fit for active team projects.

Key features

Sanity supports both GraphQL and GROQ, alongside localization, content previews, asset transformations, and webhooks. That breadth gives developers options for querying and delivering content, while localization and previews help editorial teams manage content for different markets and review it in context. Real-time editing and multiplayer presence are included across plans, as are revisions for every document—useful for teams that need to coordinate changes and revisit earlier versions.

Functions automate content operations and can run when a dataset changes, extending Sanity beyond a publishing workflow. Its MCP Server connects to Cursor, Claude Code, v0, and more. The platform supports web and mobile experiences, content applications, and customer-facing or internal agents. SOC 2, GDPR, and CCPA compliance apply across plans.

Seat accounting is more nuanced than a simple user count: viewers are free, while other user types consume seats. That can help teams include people who only need to view content, but active collaborators still count against the plan’s seat limit.

Pricing

Sanity is freemium, with paid plans from $15/user/mo. The Free plan costs 0.00 USD per free and is billed at $0 forever. It includes 20 user seats, 2 permission roles, 2 public-only datasets, 10k documents, 2 GROQ-powered webhooks, and 1M API CDN requests per month. Unlimited content types and locales make it flexible for experimentation, but public-only datasets are a meaningful constraint for teams that need private content environments.

Growth costs 15.00 USD per month, with prices billed per month. It raises the allowances to 50 user seats, 5 permission roles, 2 datasets, 25k documents, 4 GROQ-powered webhooks, and 1M API CDN requests per month. It is aimed at teams with growing projects and collaboration needs; the larger seat, role, document, and webhook allowances make it the more practical tier for scaling beyond a small project, though the listed CDN request allowance is unchanged. The Growth plan can be tried for free.

Enterprise has custom pricing. It adds custom roles and access control, SAML single sign-on, dedicated support, an uptime SLA, and custom usage quotas. It is the relevant step up for organizations that need those controls or support commitments, rather than teams that can work within Growth’s defined allowances. Community support is included on Free, Growth, and Enterprise.

Platforms

Sanity is web-based and supports content delivery to web, mobile, content applications, and customer-facing or internal agents. That makes it relevant to teams managing content for more than a conventional website, though it is not a desktop-platform offering.

Who it's for

Sanity suits product and editorial teams that want developers and content creators working against shared, structured content, especially when they need localization, multiple query options, or automated content operations. Smaller teams can begin on Free if public-only datasets and the included quotas fit. Teams that need private datasets, more capacity, or Enterprise-level access controls should consider a paid plan; those who want a simpler or self-hosted alternative may prefer another platform.

Pros and cons

Pros: Free includes up to 20 seats, unlimited content types and locales, and real-time collaboration, giving smaller teams substantial room to start.
Pros: GraphQL and GROQ, previews, localization, webhooks, and asset transformations cover several common content delivery needs.
Pros: Every document has revisions, and Functions can automate operations triggered by dataset changes.
Cons: Free datasets are public-only, which can rule out that tier for projects requiring private datasets.
Cons: Both Free and Growth include 1M API CDN requests per month, so Growth’s higher seat and document allowances do not raise that listed request quota.
Cons: Enterprise pricing is custom, and SAML SSO, dedicated support, an uptime SLA, and custom quotas require that tier.

Alternatives

For a broader category comparison, browse Headless CMS.

Choose Prismic if its free plan’s per-repository billing and 4 million API calls per month better suit a personal site or proof of concept. Choose Strapi if self-hosting and an open-source Community edition with REST and GraphQL APIs and unlimited usage matter more. Storyblok is another freemium option for testing and personal projects, with a free Starter plan limited to one space and one user seat. Consider ButterCMS if you want an alternative with Android and iOS platforms alongside web.

CrafterCMS is another option. Directus is another option. dotCMS is another option. DatoCMS is another option.

Verdict

Choose Sanity if your team needs collaborative, API-driven content with flexible querying and automation across multiple product surfaces. Its generous Free seat allowance and shared editing make it a strong starting point, but public-only datasets and capped requests can be decisive limitations; teams that need private datasets or higher usage should weigh Growth, while organizations needing SAML SSO and a support SLA will need custom-priced Enterprise.

	Cosmic	Sanity
Free plan	Yes	Yes
Free trial	Yes	No
Paid from	$99/mo	$15/mo
Open source	No	No
Platforms	Web, iOS, Android	Web
Free plan	Yes	Yes
Paid from	$99/mo	$15/mo
API types	rest	both
Content localization	Yes	Yes
Role permissions	advanced	custom
Webhooks	Yes	Yes
Content preview	Yes	Yes
Asset transformations	Yes	Yes

Cosmic vs Sanity

Cosmic

Sanity