Comparing Contentful and Contentstack? Discover which headless CMS best fits your tech stack.
Your choice of content management system will have a big impact on your organization's content strategy. If you're evaluating Contentful vs Contentstack, you need a clear understanding of their differences and use cases.
While both platforms provide powerful solutions, their unique features, pricing structures, and implementation methods suit different needs. This guide offers a detailed comparison to help you decide which platform fits your tech stack best.
In brief:
Contentful and Contentstack are leading headless CMS platforms with distinct approaches to content management.
Contentstack offers integrated front-end hosting and positions itself as both a headless CMS and a composable DXP, suitable for organizations seeking a comprehensive solution.
Contentful emphasizes content flexibility and an API-first architecture, ideal for teams requiring maximum flexibility in content delivery and integration.
When comparing Contentful and Contentstack, we're looking at two distinct approaches to modern content management, each with its own unique market positioning and capabilities.
Contentful CMS, founded in 2013, pioneered the headless CMS movement—an approach that differs significantly from traditional CMS models. Understanding the nuances between headless CMS vs traditional CMS will help you appreciate Contentful's focus on content flexibility and API capabilities, making them particularly strong for organizations needing to manage and deliver content across multiple channels and platforms.
Contentstack, launched in 2018, has quickly established itself as a big player, now powering major brands like Burberry. The platform has earned recognition as a "Strong Performer" in Forrester's Digital Experience Platforms Wave report, highlighting their evolution beyond pure headless CMS.
The key differentiator between these platforms lies in their business approach:
Contentstack positions itself as both a headless CMS and a composable Digital Experience Platform (DXP), offering a more comprehensive solution that includes front-end hosting capabilities, built-in personalization, and full-stack automation through Contentstack Launch. They're also the only platform available across all three major cloud providers—AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud.
Contentful, in contrast, maintains a focused approach as a content platform, emphasizing content modeling flexibility and an API-first architecture. This focus is essential for organizations adopting modular web design principles, and supports supports modern development practices, which is ideal for teams requiring maximum flexibility in content delivery and integration.
Both platforms support modern development practices and composable architecture, but they serve slightly different needs. Contentstack's integrated approach suits organizations looking for a more complete solution with built-in DXP capabilities, while Contentful's specialized content platform approach appeals to teams requiring maximum flexibility in their content architecture and delivery.
Evaluating Contentstack vs Contentful reveals that both rank among the best enterprise CMS platforms. But, they differ in key architectural and feature implementations. Here's a detailed breakdown of their core technical capabilities:
Contentstack operates on a microservices-based architecture compatible with both Microsoft Azure and AWS, providing flexibility in cloud environment choice. Their system includes efficient load balancing and a global content delivery network for performance optimization.
Contentful, on the other hand, leverages a multi-region delivery infrastructure powered exclusively by AWS. The AWS-powered architecture provides reliable content delivery across global regions, though it limits cloud provider options.
Both platforms excel in different aspects of content management:
Contentstack:
Advanced taxonomies for hierarchical content structuring
Branching feature for managing separate content stacks
Dynamic content capabilities with live preview
Built-in localization with workflow management
CLI tooling for developer operations
Contentful:
Studio hub for centralized content operations
Compose app for no-code page building
Real-time collaboration features
Preview-based publishing system
Visual Contentful content modeling tools
For enterprise implementations, both platforms offer comprehensive security and compliance features.
Contentstack provides SOC 2 Type II and ISO 270001 compliance certifications, making it suitable for organizations with strict security requirements.
Contentful focuses on governance features in their Premium tier, including advanced roles and permissions management.
The most significant technical distinction is Contentstack's Launch feature, which provides integrated front-end hosting capabilities. The feature supports common JavaScript frameworks, with specific optimizations for Next.js and Gatsby, eliminating the need for separate hosting solutions.
Contentful takes a different approach by focusing on API-first delivery. This allows developers to use any preferred hosting solution while maintaining strong API documentation and integration capabilities.
Both platforms offer AI-powered features, with Contentstack's AI assistant focusing on operational automation and content development, while Contentful's AI tools emphasize content and image generation for a productivity boost.
When implementing a headless CMS, the two platforms offer distinct approaches to migration, support, and developer resources.
Contentful provides comprehensive documentation and migration guides, along with client libraries and SDKs in various programming languages to facilitate integration with your existing tech stack. Their import/export functionalities streamline content transfer, while tiered SLAs provide support coverage based on your needs.
Contentstack takes a more hands-on approach with 24/7 customer support via email, chat, and phone. Their dedicated migration tool is specifically designed for importing content from legacy systems, supporting various data formats with built-in mapping capabilities. You'll also have access to a developer portal with extensive documentation and tutorials.
However, it's important to note that Contentful does come with some implementation challenges.
Developers often face a steep learning curve when first working with their content modeling structure and API. Managing complex content models with multiple content types and relationships can become challenging, especially in team collaborations. Could this hinder your team's productivity?
On the other hand, a real-world implementation case demonstrates Contentstack's effectiveness: a community platform successfully migrated from Contentful in less than one month, achieving impressive results. The migration led to a 75% improvement in publishing velocity and 40% more content refreshes, with content output increasing by 50%.
Both platforms maintain active community ecosystems with user forums, meetups, and conferences where developers can network and share best practices.
Regular platform updates and dedicated engineering teams provide ongoing improvements and security maintenance, though your choice might depend on whether you prefer Contentful's self-service approach or Contentstack's more guided implementation support.
When comparing Contentful and Contentstack's pricing models, there are significant differences in their approach to market segments:
Contentful offers a more flexible entry point with a free tier for smaller projects, while their professional plans start at $300/month. See Contentful's pricing here.
Contentstack takes a different approach, focusing primarily on enterprise clients with no free tier available. Their base pricing requires custom quotes, and many features that are standard in other platforms, like live preview, are locked behind higher tiers or available as add-ons. While this approach might seem restrictive, Contentstack offers flexibility through custom pricing where you can add or remove specific entitlements to align with your budget and needs. Learn more about Contentstack's pricing.
When considering total cost of ownership, both platforms require careful evaluation of hidden costs. You can extend Contentful's capabilities through marketplace apps and integrations, but this may incur additional fees. Contentstack builds many enterprise features into higher tiers, potentially requiring significant investment to access full platform capabilities.
However, both systems offer powerful scalability features, including:
Multi-environment support
Advanced workflows
Content delivery networks (CDN)
Versioning and analytics
Digital asset management (DAM)
For enterprise deployments, both platforms provide custom solutions with dedicated support and advanced features, though Contentstack's enterprise focus means more features are reserved for top-tier customers.
When choosing between Contentstack and Contentful, your decision should be guided by your specific use cases rather than feature comparisons alone. Here's a breakdown of the scenarios where each platform excels.
Contentstack is your better choice if:
You're engaged in enterprise web development and need a full-stack environment while maintaining MACH architecture principles.
Your team requires extensive customer support and hands-on guidance.
You manage multilingual content with complex localization needs.
You need transparent pricing without unexpected costs.
Your content team prioritizes ease of use over technical flexibility.
Contentful should be your pick if:
You're a medium to large enterprise focusing on omnichannel content delivery.
Your development team values comprehensive API documentation and technical flexibility.
You need robust content modeling capabilities for complex projects.
You want access to an extensive marketplace of integrations.
Your team has the technical expertise to implement advanced customization options.
While we're done comparing Contentful and Contentstack, understanding how Contentful vs AEM stack up can also inform your decision, depending on your specific requirements.
Both Contentful and Contentstack offer powerful headless CMS solutions with distinct advantages.
Your choice should consider factors like technical requirements, team expertise, and scalability goals.
As you prep for the migration, download our headless CMS implementation checklist to ensure you don’t miss a key step.