Sanity vs Contentful vs SonicJS: Premium CMS Showdown

Sanity and Contentful are two leading SaaS headless CMS platforms with overlapping enterprise focus but different strengths. SonicJS offers a fundamentally different approach with edge-first architecture.

Quick Comparison

Feature	Sanity	Contentful	SonicJS
Hosting	Cloud SaaS	Cloud SaaS	Edge (Cloudflare Workers)
Pricing Model	Usage-based	Tiered enterprise	Predictable flat rate
Real-time Collab	Best-in-class	Basic	Roadmap
Query Language	GROQ	REST/GraphQL	REST API
Data Storage	Proprietary	Proprietary	D1 (you own it)
Cold starts	N/A (SaaS)	N/A (SaaS)	0-5ms
Global latency	CDN-cached	CDN-cached	Under 50ms (edge-native)
Custom Roles (free)	No	No	Yes
Open Source	Studio only	No	Yes (MIT)

The Real Problems

Sanity: Pricing Surprises and Learning Curves

Sanity's usage-based model catches teams off guard:

"Started at $99/month, ended up at $400+ with document growth and API calls we didn't anticipate."

GROQ learning curve:

"GROQ is its own thing. Your team needs to learn yet another query syntax that's useful nowhere else."

Common Sanity frustrations:

• Custom roles require enterprise plan ($949/month)
• Studio keystroke lag with large documents (GitHub Issue #7456)
• Preview integration complexity with Next.js
• Proprietary data format creates lock-in
• Slow builds reported (10+ minutes)

Real-world example: Cursor.com famously spent $260 and developer time migrating away from Sanity to markdown files.

Contentful: Enterprise Everything

Contentful is built for enterprise budgets:

"Premium starts at $60,000/year. Space add-ons can reach $75,000+ each."

Common Contentful frustrations:

• 45% of users report slow performance during peak usage
• Content type limits on non-enterprise plans
• No true relational models
• Heavy developer dependency
• 40% faced integration challenges
• Publishing affects all environments at once

SonicJS: Honest Limitations

SonicJS is newer and building rapidly:

• Real-time collaboration on roadmap (not shipped)
• Smaller plugin ecosystem
• D1 database only
• Fewer enterprise integrations currently

Architecture Comparison

Sanity: Real-Time First

Sanity's architecture prioritizes collaboration:

// Sanity Studio configuration
export default defineConfig({
  projectId: 'your-project',
  dataset: 'production',
  schema: { types: schemaTypes },
})

Strengths:

• Multiple editors, same document, real-time
• Live presence indicators
• Instant sync across clients

Trade-offs:

• GROQ query language lock-in
• Proprietary data storage
• Usage-based pricing unpredictability

Contentful: Enterprise SaaS

Enterprise-grade with enterprise complexity:

const client = createClient({
  space: 'space_id',
  accessToken: 'access_token',
})

Strengths:

• Robust governance and workflows
• Extensive integration marketplace
• Enterprise compliance features

Trade-offs:

• Significant pricing
• Content type limitations
• Performance issues reported

SonicJS: Edge-First

Runs globally on Cloudflare Workers:

import { createSonicJS } from '@sonicjs-cms/core'

const cms = createSonicJS({
  database: env.DB,
  cache: env.CACHE,
  storage: env.STORAGE,
})

export default cms.app

Strengths:

• Under 50ms response worldwide
• Zero cold starts
• Your data, full ownership
• Predictable pricing

Performance Analysis

Sanity

• Good performance via CDN caching
• Studio can lag with large documents
• Build times can extend to 10+ minutes
• GROQ queries optimized for their backend

Contentful

• CDN-cached for reads
• 45% report peak-time slowdowns
• API rate limits can throttle high-volume apps
• Dynamic queries hit origin servers

SonicJS

• Under 50ms globally (edge-native)
• Zero cold starts
• Three-tier caching (memory → KV → D1)
• Consistent performance regardless of load

Key difference: Sanity and Contentful cache content at the edge. SonicJS runs the entire CMS at the edge—no origin round-trips for API calls.

Pricing Deep Dive

Sanity Pricing

Published tiers:

• Free: 100k API requests/month, 500k documents
• Growth: $15/user/month + usage
• Enterprise: $949/month minimum

Watch out for:

• Document count limits
• API request overages
• Asset bandwidth charges
• Custom roles only on enterprise

Real-world example: A mid-size marketing site easily hits $300-500/month with moderate traffic.

Contentful Pricing

Enterprise tiers:

• Premium: $60,000/year list
• Premium Plus: $140,000/year list
• Space add-ons: $8,000-75,000+ each

Negotiated rates:

• 40-45% discounts common on large deals
• Still $35,000-80,000/year typical

SonicJS Pricing

Cloudflare-based:

• Free tier: 100,000 requests/day, 10GB D1
• Workers Paid: $5/month flat
• Typical production site: $5-20/month

No surprises:

• No per-seat charges
• No usage overages
• No feature gating

Query Languages

Sanity: GROQ

Powerful but proprietary:

*[_type == "post" && publishedAt < now()]{
  title,
  "author": author->name,
  categories[]->
}

Pros: Powerful, flexible Cons: Learning curve, only useful in Sanity

Contentful: REST/GraphQL

Standard approaches:

query {
  postCollection {
    items {
      title
      author { name }
    }
  }
}

SonicJS: REST API

Clean, intuitive:

curl https://your-site.workers.dev/api/content/posts?status=published

Philosophy: Standard patterns that transfer to any system.

Real-Time Collaboration

Sanity: Best-in-Class

Genuinely excellent real-time collaboration:

• Multiple editors, same document
• Live presence indicators
• Instant sync
• No conflict resolution needed

If real-time collaboration is your primary requirement, Sanity excels.

Contentful: Basic

• Draft/publish workflow
• Content locking
• No real-time co-editing

SonicJS: Roadmap

• Optimistic locking current
• Real-time collaboration planned
• Clear conflict resolution

Data Ownership & Lock-in

Sanity

• Proprietary data format
• GROQ creates query lock-in
• Export available but transformation required
• Cursor.com's migration cost: $260 + developer time

Contentful

• Proprietary format
• Content type limits create artificial constraints
• Export requires significant transformation
• Space structure doesn't map to other systems

SonicJS

• Standard SQLite in D1
• Export anytime
• No proprietary formats
• MIT licensed, truly open source

When to Choose Each

Choose Sanity If:

• Real-time collaboration is essential
• Budget can handle usage-based pricing
• Team can learn GROQ
• Lock-in is acceptable

Choose Contentful If:

• Enterprise budget available ($60k+/year)
• Extensive compliance requirements
• Large integration ecosystem needed
• Enterprise governance essential

Choose SonicJS If:

• Global performance is critical
• Predictable costs matter
• Data ownership is required
• Edge-first architecture appeals

FAQ

Is Sanity's real-time collaboration worth the pricing?

For content teams that heavily collaborate in real-time, yes. For API-first usage or solo content creators, probably not worth the complexity.

Can SonicJS match Contentful's enterprise features?

Core CMS features, yes. Contentful has more compliance certifications and enterprise integrations. SonicJS offers edge performance neither can match.

Why did Cursor.com leave Sanity?

They switched to markdown files for simplicity and control. Their experience highlighted the migration cost from proprietary platforms.

What about preview functionality?

• Sanity: Powerful but complex to configure
• Contentful: Built-in preview environments
• SonicJS: Live preview with simple setup

Conclusion

Three SaaS approaches:

• Sanity: Real-time collaboration leader with usage-based pricing risk
• Contentful: Enterprise fortress with enterprise pricing
• SonicJS: Edge-first performance with data ownership

For teams prioritizing global performance, predictable costs, and avoiding vendor lock-in, SonicJS provides a modern alternative.

Key Takeaways

• Sanity's custom roles require $949/month enterprise plan
• Contentful Premium starts at $60,000/year
• Both use usage-based pricing that can escalate unexpectedly
• SonicJS delivers under 50ms global latency for $5-20/month
• Edge-first architecture provides performance neither SaaS can match

Ready to try edge-first CMS? Get started with SonicJS in under 5 minutes.

---

Sources & References

Sanity

• Sanity Studio Performance Issues (GitHub #7456)
• Sanity Pricing Page
• Cursor.com Migration

Contentful

• Contentful Pricing (G2)
• Contentful Disadvantages (Contentstack)
• Common Contentful Challenges (Net Solutions)