# Directus vs Strapi

> A true data-driven, real-world breakdown of Directus vs Strapi from the implementation experts who build it: 184 criteria in 10 categories, with the reasoning and evidence behind every score.

Source: https://www.dxpscorecard.com/head-to-head/directus-vs-strapi
Scores last reviewed: 2026-10-23
Full reviews: https://www.dxpscorecard.com/platform/directus · https://www.dxpscorecard.com/platform/strapi

## The short answer

Choose Directus if you want an editorial interface and API over a SQL database you already own, with field and row level permissions and stronger built-in AI tools. Choose Strapi if you want an MIT license with no seat caps, a larger community and scheduled releases for editors. Neither offers personalization or testing. The choice mostly depends on whether Directus's new license fits you: free for 3 seats, then $499 a month for SSO and custom permissions.

**Choose Directus if:**

- You already run PostgreSQL or MySQL and want an editorial UI over it
- You need permissions down to individual fields and rows for many roles
- AI agents must edit content as real users, with every action logged
- You qualify for the Open Innovation Grant: under $5M revenue and 50 employees

**Choose Strapi if:**

- You want an MIT license with unlimited users and no license keys
- Your editors need scheduled releases that publish many entries together
- You want the largest community and hiring pool in open-source headless CMS
- You deliver many small client sites, one instance per client

## The differences that matter

| Area | Directus | Strapi |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Licensing | Source-available MSCL license since June 2026: the free tier caps seats, and SSO and custom permissions need the $499 per month Team plan. | The Community edition is MIT licensed and free with unlimited users; SSO costs $150 a month plus $50 per user on Growth. |
| Data model | Wraps existing SQL tables with real foreign keys, including polymorphic relations, so your data stays intact if you remove it. | Defines its own schema in code with components and dynamic zones; since October 2026 renaming a field keeps its data. |
| Permissions | Policy-based permissions reach individual fields and rows, using filters and variables such as the current user. | Community roles control access per content type; field level and condition based rules are Enterprise only. |
| Publishing control | No native scheduling or release bundles; a cron-triggered Flow polls a date field and counts against the plan's Flow cap. | Releases on paid plans bundle entries across content types and locales and publish them together, manually or on a schedule. |
| Collaboration | Shows who is viewing an item, locks fields while someone edits them and supports comments with @mentions. | Core has no presence, comments or co-editing, so concurrent saves are last write wins. |
| AI for editors | A built-in AI Assistant drafts and rewrites copy, and Translate with AI fills every locale using a glossary and style guide. | Strapi AI generates schemas, alt text and translations on save, but offers no native text generation or rewriting. |

## Pricing & total cost

Both vendors publish their prices. Strapi splits the bill in two. The Community edition is free under MIT, a Growth license is $45 a month with 3 users and $15 per extra user, and Strapi Cloud hosting is $35, $90 or $450 per project a month with published overage rates. Directus publishes a ladder: free self-hosted Core, Core Cloud at $99 a month, Team at $499 a month on annual terms or $599 monthly, and Enterprise quote only. Directus limits are hard caps that pause services rather than bill overages.

Both are cheap to host yourself: roughly $10 to $25 a month for Strapi, and $20 to $100 for a typical self-hosted Directus. Developer rates sit near generalist web levels for both. The real multi-year difference is the step from free to paid. A Directus team that outgrows 3 seats or needs SSO jumps to about $6,000 a year, unless it qualifies for the Open Innovation Grant. Strapi teams pay only for the features they add, though Review Workflows, Audit Logs and support with response times are Enterprise and quote only.

**What to ask Directus:**

- Which features stop working if our license key lapses or the 30-day grace period ends?
- What would Enterprise cost for our seat count, and what does it add over Team?
- What happens to our Open Innovation Grant if we pass $5M revenue or 50 employees?

**What to ask Strapi:**

- Which of our requirements, such as Review Workflows or Audit Logs, need Enterprise, and at what price?
- What would Cloud overages for API requests, bandwidth and AI credits cost at our traffic?
- What response times does each support tier commit to in writing?

## Implementation & hosting

Both are Node.js and TypeScript backends on PostgreSQL or MySQL, self-hosted with Docker or run on the vendor's cloud. Directus Cloud provisions in about 90 seconds and Strapi scaffolds locally with one command. Either gets a developer to a working API in under 30 minutes, and one developer can ship a production project on either. Strapi has slightly more familiar concepts and an official starter monorepo covering Next.js, Astro, Nuxt and TanStack Start. Directus has starters for Next.js, Nuxt, Astro and SvelteKit, plus schema snapshot and diff tools for promoting changes between environments.

Operations differ more. Directus Cloud runs across multiple availability zones with auto-scaling and a global CDN, while self-hosted Strapi leaves scaling, CDN and monitoring to your team. Directus had a heavy run of security advisories in 2026, removed two endpoints in a minor release, and its v12 upgrade forced licensing and SSO changes. Strapi ships weekly and disclosed five vulnerabilities in May 2026, two of them critical, with none since. Neither offers native application monitoring for self-hosted installs.

## Marketing & personalization

Neither is a marketing platform. Both lack segments, A/B testing, recommendations and visitor profiles, so personalization and experiments must run in outside tools. Editors build pages from structured blocks: Strapi's dynamic zones, or the page model in Directus's official starter with visual editing. On Strapi, new content types and layouts need a developer, and click-to-edit Live Preview requires a paid plan and does not work with GraphQL frontends.

Day to day editing suits different teams. Strapi gives campaign teams Releases that publish many entries together on a schedule. Directus gives editors live presence, field locking and comments, but scheduling needs a developer-built Flow. Strapi has official Shopify and BigCommerce product pickers; Directus has no commerce connector. For several brands, Directus can serve them from one instance using row level rules, as one gaming group does for 3 brands in 5 markets. Strapi recommends a separate instance per brand, with nothing shared between them.

## AI capabilities

Directus has the deeper editor tooling. Its AI Assistant in the Data Studio drafts, rewrites and writes SEO descriptions from reusable prompts, and Translate with AI fills every locale at once with a glossary and style guide. Administrators bring their own OpenAI, Anthropic or Gemini keys on every tier, though self-hosted model endpoints are Enterprise only. Strapi AI focuses on schema generation, alt text, captions and translation on save, billed as credits on Growth. Bringing your own key arrived for Strapi Enterprise in October 2026.

Both ship an MCP (Model Context Protocol) server, so agents such as Claude or Cursor can read and write content. Directus adds OAuth 2.1 consent, so an agent acts as a real user under that user's permissions, and every action lands in the activity log. Strapi's server is free and lets plugins register their own permission-checked tools, which suits developers building custom agent tooling. Strapi records agent actions in Audit Logs, but only on Enterprise.

## Moving between them

These are separate products from separate vendors, not editions of one another, and both keep content in standard SQL databases, so neither traps your data. Moving is still a backend rebuild. Directus maps to your existing tables, while Strapi wants its schema defined as its own content types, so the model has to be recreated and the data imported. Permissions, automation Flows or plugins, webhooks and any agent setup must be rebuilt, and frontends need new queries because filter syntax differs, even though both offer REST and GraphQL.

Since the June 2026 license change, some Directus self-hosters have forked older versions or moved to Strapi or Payload. That move makes sense for teams hitting the seat cap who do not rely on row level permissions. Teams that depend on Directus's permission depth, single-instance multi-brand setups or AI governance should price the Team plan before migrating. Strapi teams rarely gain enough to switch, unless they need an editorial interface over a database they already run.

## Overall

| | Directus | Strapi |
| --- | ---: | ---: |
| Suite capability (0-100) | 53 | 50 |
| Categories won | 3 | 5 |
| Criteria won | 75 | 77 |

2 of 10 categories are within 2 points, which the scorecard treats as level.

## Category Scores

| Category | Directus | Strapi | Leader |
| --- | ---: | ---: | --- |
| Core Content Management | 67 | 63 | Directus |
| Additional Platform Capabilities (DXP Features) | 33 | 34 | Level |
| Technical Architecture | 69 | 66 | Directus |
| Platform Velocity & Health | 68 | 73 | Strapi |
| Total Cost of Ownership | 64 | 74 | Strapi |
| Build Simplicity | 69 | 71 | Strapi |
| Operational Ease | 46 | 51 | Strapi |
| Use-Case Fit | 33 | 31 | Level |
| Regulatory Readiness & Trust | 51 | 55 | Strapi |
| AI Enablement | 48 | 39 | Directus |

## Use-Case Fit

| Use case | Directus | Strapi | Leader |
| --- | ---: | ---: | --- |
| Marketing | 36 | 37 | Level |
| Commerce | 32 | 31 | Level |
| Intranet | 29 | 32 | Strapi |
| Multi-Brand | 34 | 24 | Directus |

## Biggest Differences

### Where Directus leads most

- **Real-time collaboration** (72 vs 38 for Directus vs Strapi): Native collaborative editing (since 11.15) shows who is viewing an item and applies smart field-level locking across collections, files and relations, with changes broadcast live; item comments support @mentions that create in-app notifications. Not 80+ because it is field locking rather than simultaneous character-level co-editing, and there is no suggestion or change-request mode.
- **AI governance, safety & audit trails** (72 vs 43 for Directus vs Strapi): Directus governs AI through its existing policy model, strengthened in v12: MCP OAuth 2.1 adds explicit user consent flows and user-scoped permissions, AI agents receive a Directus role with field- and collection-level permissions, and every AI create/update/delete is logged in the native activity log with full attribution — identical to human actions. v12's native draft/publish workflow provides a human-in-the-loop gate (AI writes drafts; publishing is an intentional human action), with submission triggers, review notifications, and conditional approvals in Flows. Keys are encrypted/masked and instance-level kill switches (AI_ENABLED, MCP_ENABLED) exist. Gaps: no IP indemnification, no hallucination detection, and provider data privacy depends on the operator.
- **AI text generation & editing** (55 vs 28 for Directus vs Strapi): Directus ships a native AI Assistant (GA since v11.15, carried into v12.1.x July 2026) embedded in the Data Studio sidebar with reusable Mustache-templated prompts and built-in presets for spelling/grammar, social posts, SEO descriptions, expand/condense, and rewrite. In v12 the Assistant creates content, runs translations, and triggers Flows directly from the Studio. The Marketplace AI Writer Flow operation extends generation to pipelines (OpenAI, Anthropic, Mistral, LLaMA). Brand voice guardrails are still absent for freeform generation and bulk generation requires custom Flows configuration rather than native editorial tooling, capping the score.
- **Cross-functional complexity** (72 vs 46 for Directus vs Strapi): v12 delivers a native editorial workflow that materially reduces post-go-live developer involvement: explicit draft/published states with drafts opening by default, intentional publishing, and a redesigned Studio surfacing draft indicators, version selectors, and publish actions for non-technical users. Combined with collaborative editing, live presence, the Visual Editor, and v11.17 deployment-module RBAC (content teams trigger Vercel/Netlify builds without full admin), editors self-serve far more of the publish workflow. Structural/schema changes still require developer access, and advanced approval workflows rely on custom permission rules that v12 now gates behind a paid license, capping the gain.
- **Brand theming and style isolation** (42 vs 18 for Directus vs Strapi): Directus Data Studio supports full white-labeling: custom logo, primary color, favicon, and module navigation per project instance. AgencyOS demonstrates per-client branded CMS admin experiences. Brand-level theming of the admin experience is solid. However, there are no platform-level mechanisms for enforcing per-brand design tokens in the content delivery layer — theming of published frontend sites is handled entirely by consuming application code, not by Directus.

### Where Strapi leads most

- **Scheduling, releases & publishing control** (42 vs 67 for Directus vs Strapi): Releases (Growth and Enterprise) bundle entries across content types and locales, each marked to publish or unpublish, and publish them together manually or on a schedule with a configurable timezone; release actions are audit logged since v5.53.0. Not higher because there is no calendar view, a release references the latest draft rather than a pinned version, and the free edition has no scheduling without a plugin.
- **Contract flexibility** (57 vs 82 for Directus vs Strapi): Community requires no contract and runs anywhere, so the baseline exit cost is zero. Cloud plans bill monthly or yearly, Growth CMS licenses are monthly card payments with no annual lock, Growth can now be trialled free for 30 days on a self-hosted project with no credit card, and Strapi runs a documented Cloud discount program for qualifying open-source and non-profit organizations. Held flat because Enterprise is sales-led and wire-transfer-only and there is no published startup program.
- **Free / Hobby Tier** (60 vs 82 for Directus vs Strapi): The Strapi Cloud Free plan is gone (closed to new signups July 1 2026, existing free projects deleted September 1 2026), so there is no zero-cost managed option. What remains is the self-hosted Community edition: MIT-licensed, 'Free Forever', commercially unrestricted, unlimited users and unlimited usage, and fully production-capable, which still clears the top band comfortably; the new 30-day Growth trial applies only to self-hosted projects. Held flat because the free on-ramp still requires the buyer to run their own infrastructure.
- **AI developer extensibility & agent APIs** (55 vs 76 for Directus vs Strapi): Strapi now has dedicated agent-extension machinery, not just a usable REST API: strapi.ai.mcp.registerTool() lets any plugin publish custom agent tools with auth policies and resolveInputSchema/resolveOutputSchema callbacks that narrow schemas per request against token permissions, documented at docs.strapi.io/cms/plugins-development/extend-mcp-server. Around it sit a separate Docs MCP server for AI dev tools, a dedicated docs.strapi.io/cms/ai section, the optional OpenAPI spec route (v5.48), REST + GraphQL + webhooks, and official integration guides for Claude Code, n8n agents, and LangChain/Milvus RAG. Clears the 70+ bar for dedicated AI extension points plus official agent integration guides; short of 85+ absent a first-party LangChain/LlamaIndex SDK or RAG-ready delivery endpoint.
- **Commerce platform integration** (28 vs 48 for Directus vs Strapi): Official Shopify and BigCommerce plugins built with VirtusLab add product-picker custom fields, and a Medusa integration syncs products into Strapi. This is picker-level depth, not live API federation or bidirectional sync with commercetools or SAP.

## Questions Buyers Ask

### Is Directus still open source after the v12 license change?

Not in the MIT sense. Since June 2026 Directus uses the source-available MSCL license with active key enforcement. Self-hosted Core stays free for commercial use but is capped at 3 seats, has no SSO and ignores custom permission rules. Each version later converts to GPLv3. Strapi's Community edition remains MIT licensed with unlimited users.

### Can Directus or Strapi run several brands from one installation?

Directus can. Row level rules on a tenant field let one instance serve several brands with shared and brand-specific content, and one gaming group runs 3 brands in 5 markets this way. Strapi recommends one instance per brand or client, so users, content models and governance stay separate and shared content needs custom syncing.

### Is Directus or Strapi suitable for a regulated industry?

Neither clears strict procurement on its own. Both clouds hold SOC 2 Type II reports, but neither has its own ISO 27001, a HIPAA business associate agreement or an accessibility conformance report for the admin interface. Strapi publishes a GDPR data processing addendum, while Directus offers one only on Enterprise Cloud. Regulated buyers usually self-host and carry compliance themselves.

### Is there a free version of Directus or Strapi for small teams?

Yes. Strapi Community is free under MIT with unlimited users and usage, though the free Strapi Cloud plan closed in 2026. Directus Core is free to self-host for up to 3 seats, and organizations under $5M revenue and 50 employees get the full platform, including SSO, free through the Open Innovation Grant.

### Can I put Directus or Strapi on top of an existing database?

Directus is built for it. It reads existing PostgreSQL, MySQL or SQLite tables and exposes them over REST and GraphQL without migration, and removing it leaves the tables intact. Strapi creates and manages its own schema from the content types you define, so existing data is normally imported rather than wrapped.

### Which is better, Directus or Strapi?

Directus scores higher on overall suite capability (53 vs 50). Directus wins 3 of the 10 scoring categories and Strapi wins 5, with 2 too close to call. Choose Directus if you want an editorial interface and API over a SQL database you already own, with field and row level permissions and stronger built-in AI tools. Choose Strapi if you want an MIT license with no seat caps, a larger community and scheduled releases for editors. Neither offers personalization or testing. The choice mostly depends on whether Directus's new license fits you: free for 3 seats, then $499 a month for SSO and custom permissions.

### Which costs less to own, Directus or Strapi?

Strapi scores higher on total cost of ownership (74 vs 64), which weighs licensing, implementation cost and running cost; a higher score means lower cost for what you get. Confirm current pricing with each vendor.

### Which is easier to implement and run, Directus or Strapi?

Strapi scores higher on build simplicity (71 vs 69), which covers the learning curve, implementation complexity and how easy it is to hire for. Strapi scores higher on operational ease (51 vs 46), which covers upgrades, day to day overhead and vendor support.

### Which is better for marketing teams, Directus or Strapi?

Directus and Strapi are level on fit for marketing sites (36 vs 37), which looks at how well each platform serves campaign pages, landing pages and editor self-service.

### Which has stronger AI features, Directus or Strapi?

Directus scores higher on AI enablement (48 vs 39), which covers AI content creation, workflow automation, AI search and personalization, and how open the platform is to your own AI tools.

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Scores follow public evidence only. Platform inclusion and scorecards are unsponsored. Interactive version with every criterion's reasoning and evidence: https://www.dxpscorecard.com/head-to-head/directus-vs-strapi