Our take
Pick Directus if teams who will self-host the public app at $0 while they define a first collection, or start the Cloud Core 14-day trial and land on $89/month yearly (3 seats, 25 collections, 5 flows) when they do not want to run the stack. Pick Sanity if content / product teams who will stay on Free at $0 forever while they open a first Structure list, then buy Growth at $15 / seat / month when they need roles,
Best for
Directus Tables you start at $89 Cloud or $0 self-host
Sanity Documents you edit in Studio at $0
Free plan
Directus $0 · cloud hosting on Core / Team is the add-on above. The page also describes an Open Innovation Grant (under $5M revenue, under 50 employees) for a free self-host license or Cloud at hosting-only $99 / month — confirm eligibility; do not treat it as a fourth public card
Sanity $0 · forever. Get started for free. Quotas for documents, API, assets, and bandwidth on the compare table we fetched
Lowest paid
Directus The FAQ also prints Team at $499 / month annual ($5,988 / year) or $599 monthly. The live cards we fetched say $588 / $698. Cite the cards; confirm checkout. $499
Sanity Growth $15
Next step up
Directus
Sanity Add-ons (Growth) $799
Runs where
Directus Local; you host it
Sanity Local or hosted
Watch out
Directus Core is 3 seats and 25 collections
Sanity Free is quota-capped $0, not unlimited CDN
Last checked
Directus 2026-10-22 · directus.io/pricing
Sanity 2026-10-23 · sanity.io/pricing
teams who will self-host the public app at $0 while they define a first collection, or start the Cloud Core 14-day trial and land on $89/month yearly (3 seats, 25 collections, 5 flows) when they do not want to run the stack.
Read the Directus pagecontent / product teams who will stay on Free at $0 forever while they open a first Structure list, then buy Growth at $15 / seat / month when they need roles, more seats, and paid add-ons.
Read the Sanity page
