Headless CMS8 tools40+ indie alternatives

Headless CMS

Structured content for your apps. Browse the 8 parent tools below — each has a dedicated page with up to 10 indie or bootstrapped alternatives, plus pricing, founders, and where applicable, open-source flags.

WordPress still powers 40% of the web — and remains the wrong choice for a brand-new content site. Headless CMSes (Sanity, Strapi, Contentful, Payload, TinaCMS) decouple content from rendering, which is right if you have a frontend team. For solo founders, the indie hosted picks (Webflow CMS, Framer CMS, Ghost) bundle hosting and editing in one.

What to look for

Real-time preview tied to your actual frontend, not a generic iframe
Per-locale fields if you'll ever ship in two languages
GraphQL or REST API completeness — confirm filtering and sorting before you commit
Editor UX that non-developers will actually use day to day

Common gotchas

Per-API-request billing that surprises you on the first ISR build
Asset/image storage counted separately, often at premium rates
Locale tiers that gate multi-language behind enterprise

Editor's pick

Payload is the open-source headless CMS that finally feels production-ready. Sanity is the polished hosted choice. TinaCMS if you want Git-backed editing.