The only headless CMS born on the edge.
Zero cold starts, anywhere on Earth. 100% MIT open source, every feature free. Built for Cloudflare Workers — and runs on Docker, your VPS, anywhere SQLite runs.
No signup required — instant access to real admin
Your content layer, speaking AI.
In 2026 every CMS claims AI. SonicJS ships it: a native Model Context Protocol (MCP) server your agents connect to directly, RAG-powered semantic search, and an AI-friendly API structure your LLM tools already understand.
- Native MCP server— auto-generated tools let Claude Code, Cursor & VS Code read, create, and publish your content. Secure scoped API keys; respects your existing permissions.
- Semantic search — RAG-powered via Cloudflare Vectorize. Natural language queries, zero extra infra.
- Agent-ready API — structured schema, consistent REST surface, auto-generated docs. LLMs understand it out of the box.
// Point your agent at your CMS
{
"mcpServers": {
"sonicjs": {
"url": "https://your-site.com/api/mcp",
"headers": {
"Authorization": "Bearer <mcp-key>"
}
}
}
}Performance by architecture
Numbers a single region can't match
Every request runs in the city closest to your user. These aren't optimizations — they're what the architecture does by default.
- Cold start
- 0-5ms
- vs 500–2000ms on Node.js CMSs
- API response
- 15-50ms
- vs 1–4s with relations elsewhere
- Edge locations
- 300+
- vs one region, one continent
- To start
- $0
- Cloudflare's free tier covers 100k requests/day
The escape hatch
Why Developers Switch to SonicJS
Migration hell. $99/mo paywalls. Single-region latency. Cold-start lag. You've felt these. Here's the escape.
No More Migration Hell
“Upgrading from Strapi v4 → v5 alone took approximately 40 hours” with 50+ breaking changes documented.
SonicJS: semantic versioning with automatic, versioned migrations — upgrades stay boring.
The Features You Need Are Paywalled
Strapi gates version history, scheduled publishing, Live Preview, audit logs & SSO behind $99+/mo tiers. Contentful's real features start near $300/mo.
SonicJS: every feature in the MIT core. No Growth tier. No Enterprise gate. Ever.
0ms Cold Start, Sub-50ms Worldwide
Single-region Node CMSs charge you twice: 500-2000ms cold boots after idle, then 200-500ms of round-trip for every user an ocean away from your server.
SonicJS: V8 isolates in 300+ edge cities — no boot penalty, responses served near the user.
AI Included, Not Upsold
Strapi and Contentful gate AI behind paid tiers; Payload and Directus don't ship it at all. In 2026 your CMS should talk to your agents.
SonicJS: AI search + a native MCP server in the free core — Claude Code & Cursor connect directly.
Why SonicJS
Fast because it's edge-native. Free because it's truly open.
Speed and freedom are the two things every competitor makes you choose between. SonicJS refuses the trade.
- Edge-native, zero cold start
Runs in 300+ Cloudflare cities. 0–5ms cold start vs 100–2000ms on Node.js. No regions to configure — global by default.
- 100% MIT, every feature free
Version history, SSO, RBAC, workflows — all included, forever. No open-core bait. No per-seat pricing. No Enterprise gate.
- Independent & portable
No VC clock. No license rug-pull. No infra lock-in — run the same code on Cloudflare, Docker, or your own VPS. Not captive to a vendor, including us.
- Code-first DX + AI-native
TypeScript end-to-end, schema-as-code, auto-generated REST API — plus a native MCP server so Claude Code, Cursor & VS Code read and manage your content directly.
Proof, not promises
Honest numbers. No marketing spin.
Real benchmarks, real pricing. We also publish what SonicJS isn't great at yet — because devs who read the fine print are the ones worth earning. Full comparison →
| Metric | SonicJS | Strapi | Payload | Directus |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cold Start Time | 0-5ms | 500-2000ms | 100-300ms | 300-1000ms |
| API Response (with relations) | 15-50ms | 1-4s | 1-6s | 1.5-5s |
| Cross-Region Latency | 30-60ms | 300-800ms | 250-600ms | 300-800ms |
| Edge Locations | 300+ | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Dev Server Startup | 2-5s | 10-30s | 15-60s | 5-15s |
| Cloud Hosting | Free* | $99+/mo | $35+/mo | $99+/mo |
*Cloudflare free tier: 100k requests/day, 5GB D1 storage, 5M reads/day. $5/mo for higher traffic. See comparison posts for sources.
Developer experience
From schema to global API in minutes
Define your content model in TypeScript. SonicJS generates the REST API and the admin UI. Deploy with one command.
// Define your data model
const schema = {
name: 'products',
fields: {
title: { type: 'string', required: true },
price: { type: 'number' },
inStock: { type: 'boolean', default: true },
category: { type: 'reference', table: 'categories' }
}
}GET /api/products GET /api/products/:id POST /api/products PUT /api/products/:id DELETE /api/products/:id // Filtering, sorting, pagination built in GET /api/products?category=electronics&sort=-price&limit=20
3 · npm run deploy — live in 300+ cities in under a minute.
Batteries included
Lightweight core. Powerful plugins.
Everything ships free and MIT — start with a lean runtime and enable exactly what you need.
Plugin Architecture
definePlugin() SDK.Learn more
AI Search
Learn more
Form Builder
Learn more
Flexible Auth
Learn more
Three-Tier Cache
Learn more
Content Workflow
Learn more
Pricing
Stop overpaying for your CMS
Rivals bill you monthly for their cloud. SonicJS isn't a hosting service — you deploy it to your own Cloudflare account (or your own server) and we never see a dollar. All features, no seats, no gates.
- Limitation: 3 roles limit
- Limitation: Preview requires paid
- Limitation: Single region
- Limitation: 13GB RAM dev server
- Limitation: 4s query times
- Limitation: Single region
- Limitation: Usage-based billing
- Limitation: Content type limits
- Limitation: $60k/yr enterprise
- Included:100k req/day free
- Included:All features included
- Included:300+ edge locations
SonicJS is software, not a hosting service — there's no SonicJS cloud and no bill from us, ever. $0–5/mo is what Cloudflare charges for your own account at typical traffic; self-hosting on Docker costs exactly $0 plus your hardware.
No lock-in
Born on the edge. Runs anywhere.
Cloudflare is the flagship — edge-native, zero cold start, the fastest path. But you're never locked in. Same code, your infrastructure, no rewrite.
Cloudflare Workers
Edge-native, zero cold start, 300+ cities. D1 + R2 + KV. The fastest way to run SonicJS — and the default.
Also runs on
docker run sonicjsRuns anywhere SQLite runs. Managed Postgres + S3 for large-scale deploys is on the roadmap.
Community
Built in the open
No sales calls, no gated demos, no VC roadmap. Just an MIT-licensed codebase shipping in public — releases land weekly. View the full changelog →
Ready to go supersonic?
MIT licensed. No credit card. No paywalls. Your first global deploy is minutes away.