Alternatives to Directus logo

Alternatives to Directus

Contentful, Strapi, Cockpit, Grav, and Ghost are the most popular alternatives and competitors to Directus.
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What is Directus and what are its top alternatives?

Let's say you're planning on managing content for a website, native app, and widget. Instead of using a CMS that's baked into the website client, it makes more sense to decouple your content entirely and access it through an API or SDK. That's a headless CMS. That's Directus.
Directus is a tool in the Self-Hosted Blogging / CMS category of a tech stack.
Directus is an open source tool with 25.1K GitHub stars and 3.5K GitHub forks. Here’s a link to Directus's open source repository on GitHub

Top Alternatives to Directus

  • Contentful
    Contentful

    With Contentful, you can bring your content anywhere using our APIs, completely customize your content structure all while using your preferred programming languages and frameworks. ...

  • Strapi
    Strapi

    Strapi is100% JavaScript, extensible, and fully customizable. It enables developers to build projects faster by providing a customizable API out of the box and giving them the freedom to use the their favorite tools. ...

  • Cockpit
    Cockpit

    An API-driven CMS without forcing you to make compromises in how you implement your site. The CMS for developers. Manage content like collections, regions, forms and galleries which you can reuse anywhere on your website. ...

  • Grav
    Grav

    It is a free, open-source and self-hosted content management system (CMS) based on the PHP programming language and Symfony web application framework. It uses a flat file database for both backend and frontend. It is more widely used, and growing at a faster rate, than other leading flat-file CMS competitors. ...

  • Ghost
    Ghost

    Ghost is a platform dedicated to one thing: Publishing. It's beautifully designed, completely customisable and completely Open Source. Ghost allows you to write and publish your own blog, giving you the tools to make it easy and even fun to do. ...

  • WordPress
    WordPress

    The core software is built by hundreds of community volunteers, and when you’re ready for more there are thousands of plugins and themes available to transform your site into almost anything you can imagine. Over 60 million people have chosen WordPress to power the place on the web they call “home” — we’d love you to join the family. ...

  • Drupal
    Drupal

    Drupal is an open source content management platform powering millions of websites and applications. It’s built, used, and supported by an active and diverse community of people around the world. ...

  • Joomla!
    Joomla!

    Joomla is a simple and powerful web server application and it requires a server with PHP and either MySQL, PostgreSQL, or SQL Server to run it. ...

Directus alternatives & related posts

Contentful logo

Contentful

822
950
70
Contentful is a cloud-based API-first content platform
822
950
+ 1
70
PROS OF CONTENTFUL
  • 30
    API-based cms
  • 17
    Much better than WordPress
  • 11
    Simple and customizable
  • 5
    Images API
  • 3
    Free for small projects
  • 1
    Extensible dashboard UI
  • 1
    Super simple to integrate
  • 1
    Managed Service
  • 1
    Tag Manager like UI
CONS OF CONTENTFUL
  • 5
    No spell check
  • 5
    No repeater Field
  • 4
    No free plan
  • 3
    Slow dashboard
  • 2
    Enterprise targeted
  • 2
    Pricey
  • 2
    Limited content types
  • 1
    Not scalable
  • 1
    No GraphQL API

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Hi, I went through a comprehensive analysis - of headless/api content management systems - essentially to store content "bits" and publish them where needed (website, 3rd party sites, social media, etc.). I had considered many other solutions but ultimately chose Directus. I believe that was a good choice.

I had strongly considered Contentful, Strapi, Sanity, and hygraph. Hygraph came in #2 and contentful #3.

Ultimately I liked directus for:

(1) time in business

(2) open source

(3) integration with n8n and Pipedream

(4) pricing

(5) extensibility

Thoughts? Was this a good choice? We have many WordPress sites we're not (at least now) looking to replace with Directus, but instead to push to.

I'd love some feedback.

See more
Shared insights
on
ContentfulContentfulFirebaseFirebase

Hi. I am gonna build a simple app for a company to ease their work. The company is sending out pdf files to their users' email. The data is a health analysis with a lot of different health values. The app should be an MVP, where users can watch their data instead of opening a pdf file. The company should be able to fill in the data in either Firebase or Contentful database. Is Contentful or Firebase best for this solution? What is your opinion?

See more
Strapi logo

Strapi

669
1.3K
277
The leading open-source Headless-CMS
669
1.3K
+ 1
277
PROS OF STRAPI
  • 58
    Free
  • 39
    Open source
  • 28
    Self-hostable
  • 27
    Rapid development
  • 25
    API-based cms
  • 21
    Headless
  • 18
    Real-time
  • 16
    Easy setup
  • 13
    Large community
  • 13
    JSON
  • 6
    GraphQL
  • 4
    Internationalization
  • 4
    Social Auth
  • 2
    Media Library
  • 2
    Components
  • 1
    Raspberry pi
CONS OF STRAPI
  • 9
    Can be limiting
  • 8
    Internationalisation
  • 6
    A bit buggy
  • 5
    DB Migrations not seemless

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Hi Stackers, We are planning to build a product information portal that also provides useful articles and blogs. Application Frontend is going to be built on Next.js with Authentication and Product Database helped by Firebase. But for the Blog / Article we are debating between WordPress/GraphQL plug-in or Strapi.

Please share your thoughts.

See more

Hi, I went through a comprehensive analysis - of headless/api content management systems - essentially to store content "bits" and publish them where needed (website, 3rd party sites, social media, etc.). I had considered many other solutions but ultimately chose Directus. I believe that was a good choice.

I had strongly considered Contentful, Strapi, Sanity, and hygraph. Hygraph came in #2 and contentful #3.

Ultimately I liked directus for:

(1) time in business

(2) open source

(3) integration with n8n and Pipedream

(4) pricing

(5) extensibility

Thoughts? Was this a good choice? We have many WordPress sites we're not (at least now) looking to replace with Directus, but instead to push to.

I'd love some feedback.

See more
Cockpit logo

Cockpit

56
234
17
Add content management functionality to any site - plug & play CMS
56
234
+ 1
17
PROS OF COCKPIT
  • 3
    Flexible and plays nicely with any frontend
  • 3
    Easy for Content Managers to understand and use
  • 3
    Open Source
  • 2
    Fast & lightweight
  • 2
    Modular
  • 2
    GraphQL
  • 2
    Self hosted
CONS OF COCKPIT
    Be the first to leave a con

    related Cockpit posts

    Grav logo

    Grav

    107
    149
    16
    A modern open source flat-file CMS
    107
    149
    + 1
    16
    PROS OF GRAV
    • 4
      Easy to Update
    • 3
      No Databases
    • 2
      Fast Performance
    • 2
      Extensive Plugins
    • 2
      Strong Security
    • 2
      Full Control over customisation + functionality
    • 1
      Ligth storage use
    CONS OF GRAV
    • 2
      Not easily to intergrate as an eCommerce (yet)

    related Grav posts

    Ghost logo

    Ghost

    503
    499
    219
    Just a blogging platform
    503
    499
    + 1
    219
    PROS OF GHOST
    • 45
      Beautiful
    • 35
      Fast
    • 29
      Quick/simple post styling
    • 20
      Live Post Preview
    • 20
      Open source
    • 19
      Non-profit
    • 16
      Seamless writing
    • 6
      Node.js
    • 5
      Fast and Performatic
    • 5
      Javascript
    • 4
      Simplest
    • 3
      Wonderful UI
    • 3
      Handlebars
    • 3
      Full Control
    • 2
      Magic
    • 2
      Clean
    • 1
      Headless CMS
    • 1
      Self-hostable
    CONS OF GHOST
      Be the first to leave a con

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      WordPress logo

      WordPress

      95.9K
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      A semantic personal publishing platform with a focus on aesthetics, web standards, and usability.
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      PROS OF WORDPRESS
      • 415
        Customizable
      • 366
        Easy to manage
      • 354
        Plugins & themes
      • 258
        Non-tech colleagues can update website content
      • 247
        Really powerful
      • 145
        Rapid website development
      • 78
        Best documentation
      • 51
        Codex
      • 44
        Product feature set
      • 35
        Custom/internal social network
      • 18
        Open source
      • 8
        Great for all types of websites
      • 7
        Huge install and user base
      • 5
        Perfect example of user collaboration
      • 5
        Open Source Community
      • 5
        Most websites make use of it
      • 5
        It's simple and easy to use by any novice
      • 5
        Best
      • 5
        I like it like I like a kick in the groin
      • 4
        Community
      • 4
        API-based CMS
      • 3
        Easy To use
      • 2
        <a href="https://secure.wphackedhel">Easy Beginner</a>
      CONS OF WORDPRESS
      • 13
        Hard to keep up-to-date if you customize things
      • 13
        Plugins are of mixed quality
      • 10
        Not best backend UI
      • 2
        Complex Organization
      • 1
        Do not cover all the basics in the core
      • 1
        Great Security

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      Independent Contractor at Self Employed · | 22 upvotes · 1.5M views

      I've heard that I have the ability to write well, at times. When it flows, it flows. I decided to start blogging in 2013 on Blogger. I started a company and joined BizPark with the Microsoft Azure allotment. I created a WordPress blog and did a migration at some point. A lot happened in the time after that migration but I stopped coding and changed cities during tumultuous times that taught me many lessons concerning mental health and productivity. I eventually graduated from BizSpark and outgrew the credit allotment. That killed the WordPress blog.

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      WordPress Magento PHP Java Swift JavaScript

      Back in the days, we started looking for a date on different matrimonial websites as there were no Dating Applications. We used to create different profiles. It all changed in 2012 when Tinder, an Online Dating application came into India Market.

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      Drupal logo

      Drupal

      10.8K
      3.8K
      359
      Free, Open, Modular CMS written in PHP
      10.8K
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      359
      PROS OF DRUPAL
      • 75
        Stable, highly functional cms
      • 60
        Great community
      • 44
        Easy cms to make websites
      • 43
        Highly customizable
      • 22
        Digital customer experience delivery platform
      • 17
        Really powerful
      • 16
        Customizable
      • 11
        Flexible
      • 10
        Good tool for prototyping
      • 9
        Enterprise proven over many years when others failed
      • 8
        Headless adds even more power/flexibility
      • 8
        Open source
      • 7
        Each version becomes more intuitive for clients to use
      • 7
        Well documented
      • 6
        Lego blocks methodology
      • 4
        Caching and performance
      • 3
        Powerful
      • 3
        Built on Symfony
      • 3
        Can build anything
      • 2
        Views
      • 1
        API-based CMS
      CONS OF DRUPAL
      • 1
        Steep learning curve
      • 1
        DJango

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      Jan Vlnas
      Developer Advocate at Superface · | 4 upvotes · 42.2K views

      Depends on what options and technologies you have available, and how do you deploy your website.

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      Joomla! logo

      Joomla!

      1.5K
      334
      37
      A content management system helping both novice users and expert developers to create powerful websites and applications
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      334
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      PROS OF JOOMLA!
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        Powerful extension architecture
      • 6
        Powerfull CMS
      • 5
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      • 4
        Highly customizable
      • 2
        Vast repository of free and paid extensions
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        Extensions & Templates
      • 1
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      CONS OF JOOMLA!
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        Depleting dev community

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