Statamic vs Contentful

Blueprints define schemas in YAML, any field type, nested Replicators, and Bard give complete modeling flexibility.

Strong content types with references. Lacks native union fields, workarounds need multiple reference fields.

Fieldsets allow reusable field groups across blueprints. Replicators handle block sets.

Content types can reference each other for reuse but there's no native block primitive. Rich Text embedded entries help.

Blueprints support required, min/max, regex, and custom validation. Custom validators need PHP rules, developer setup.

Built-in validators for required, range, size, and regex. Custom validators need a UI extension to configure.

The Control Panel is one of the most carefully designed CMS interfaces. Bard and live preview are particularly polished.

The web app is polished and familiar, editors with any CMS background can publish independently without developer help.

Live preview via Preview Target config. Not zero-config but straightforward for developers on Laravel projects.

Live preview requires developer config of the Preview API. No out-of-the-box visual editor available.

Revisions, scheduling, and workflow states built in. Approval chains need the Collaboration addon on the Pro plan.

Draft and published states built in. Tasks and comments need Teams+ plans. Approval chains require external tooling.

Best-in-class for a Laravel CMS, Glide transforms, focal points, alt text, cropping and flexible storage (local, S3, Cloudflare R2, etc).

Media Library handles uploads, tagging, and image API transforms. No native AI cropping or focal points.

No real-time editing. Multi-user access supported but editors can overwrite without live conflict detection.

No simultaneous editing, last save wins. Conflicts between concurrent editors are not surfaced in real time.

Roles and permissions per collection, nav, and assets. Granular for most teams, field-level access needs custom PHP.

Roles support content type and tag-based access. Field-level permissions need Contentful Apps or higher plans.

Multi-site and multi-locale are first-class. Each site has its own locale, content tree, and field-level translations.

Multi-locale is a core feature, every field localizes independently with locale-specific publishing states.

Locale fallback configurable in the sites config, Statamic falls back to default locale when translation is missing.

Fallback is configurable in space settings and honored by the Delivery API when a translation is missing.

REST API and GraphQL are well documented. No frontend SDKs are available.

Comprehensive REST and GraphQL docs with a playground, official SDKs in JS, Python, and PHP, with TypeScript support.

Primarily PHP/Laravel. No official Next.js or Astro starters.

Official Next.js and Astro starters for all major frameworks. The npm package is mature and well-documented.

Full REST API for content management and direct PHP/Eloquent server-side access. The Stache is programmable via Laravel.

The CMA supports migrations, bulk ops, and content type management. contentful-migration CLI is production-grade.

Git-based content means environments are code, branch, test, merge. No CMS env UI but flat files make diffs natural.

Environment branching is a flagship feature. Each space supports multiple environments with full content promotion.

Self-hosted by default. Flat-file storage eliminates DB queries for most reads, speed depends on hosting.

Content via Fastly CDN with sub 100ms API response times. Images via Fastly Image Optimizer.

Requires PHP/Laravel hosting. More setup than SaaS CMS but simpler than Node.js + DB for teams already on Laravel.

Fully managed SaaS with zero infrastructure to configure or maintain. Scales transparently with usage.

Marketplace has addons for e-commerce, and SEO. Quality is high, stricter review process than npm packages.

Largest CMS marketplace, apps for Shopify, Salesforce, Cloudinary, and Imgix. Enterprise integrations are solid.

Tight-knit Discord community with an accessible core team. Fewer developers than some alternatives but high expertise density.

Active forums and a certification program. Less community content than others but strong enterprise support.