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 Strapi if content / app teams who will stay on Community self-host $0 while they publish a first article, or start Cloud Starter at $35/project/month (100k API requests, 50
Best for
Directus Tables you start at $89 Cloud or $0 self-host
Strapi Entries you start at $35 Cloud or OSS $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
Strapi $0 · you run it
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
Strapi Usage $1.50/mo
Next step up
Directus
Strapi Starter $35/mo
Runs where
Directus Local; you host it
Strapi Local; you host it
Watch out
Directus Core is 3 seats and 25 collections
Strapi Cloud Starter is 100k API requests
Last checked
Directus 2026-10-22 · directus.io/pricing
Strapi 2026-10-22 · strapi.io/pricing-cloud
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 / app teams who will stay on Community self-host $0 while they publish a first article, or start Cloud Starter at $35/project/month (100k API requests, 50 GB assets) when they do not want to run Node themselves.
Read the Strapi page
