Geekflare
Open coreMITTested by Geekflare

Strapi review

Open source headless CMS built on Node.js

Website GitHub Docs r/Strapi
Data refreshedMethodologyHow we tested
Founder of Geekflare

Chandan Kumar is a founder of Geekflare. He is a technology enthusiast and entrepreneur who loves to help businesses and people around the world. Chandan has worked at BNP Paribas, Citibank, Deutsche Bank, Motorola, and HP. He’s got an in-depth understanding of business software and IT infrastructure.

Verdict

The most complete open source headless CMS for JavaScript and TypeScript teams. You model content in the admin, and Strapi generates REST and GraphQL APIs from it. Budget for a paid plan if you need SSO, audit logs or approval workflows, which the free edition doesn't include.

Best for

JavaScript and TypeScript teams building content APIs for websites and apps, with editors working in the admin

Not for

Teams that need SSO, audit logs or approval workflows without paying

Pros

  • Content types built in the admin, no code needed
  • REST API in core, GraphQL through an official free plugin
  • Roles and permissions in the free edition
  • Supports PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB and SQLite

Cons

  • SSO, audit logs and review workflows are paid
  • No official Docker image; you build your own
  • Strapi asks for 2 GB of RAM at minimum
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At a glance

Type
Headless
Stack
Node.js 20–26 / TypeScript
Databases
PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, SQLite
Licence terms
The Community Edition is MIT. Code in the ee/ folders needs a paid Strapi licence.
SSO
Paid only
Roles and permissions
Free edition
Audit logs
Paid only

Free vs paid editions

What you get when you self-host, and what needs a paid plan.

The self-hosted Community Edition is free and includes roles and permissions. The Growth plan is $45 a month for 3 users which adds Releases, Live Preview and 14 days of content history, with SSO as a $150-a-month add-on. Audit logs and review workflows need the Enterprise plan, priced on request. Strapi Cloud hosting is separate, from $35 a month per project.

Self-hosting Strapi

Strapi's docs ask for at least 1 CPU core, 2 GB of RAM and 8 GB of disk (2+ cores and 4 GB recommended), Node.js 20–26, and PostgreSQL 14+, MySQL 8.0+, MariaDB 10.3+ or SQLite.

New cloud server to first screen

4 min 41 s

Memory in use at idle

178 MB of 4 GB

Version tested

5.58.0 · Oct 16, 2026

  • Strapi has no official Docker image, so we followed its docs in a Node.js 22 container on a cloud Ubuntu 24.04 server (2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM) - create a project with the CLI, build the admin, start in production mode with SQLite.
  • Creating and building took about 4.5 minutes, including downloading the Node.js image. Building the admin panel alone took 36 seconds.
  • The non-interactive CLI wrote an empty DATABASE_FILENAME to .env, so the first production start failed with "unable to open database file". Setting it to .tmp/data.db fixed it, and Strapi then started in 8 seconds.
  • At idle, Strapi used about 180 MB of RAM with SQLite. Production setups usually add PostgreSQL, which needs its own memory.
Commands we ran, in a Node.js 22 container
npx create-strapi@latest my-project --skip-cloud --no-example --typescript \
  --use-npm --install --no-git-init --dbclient=sqlite --no-run
cd my-project
# The non-interactive CLI left this empty, which breaks the first start
sed -i 's|^DATABASE_FILENAME=$|DATABASE_FILENAME=.tmp/data.db|' .env
npm run build
NODE_ENV=production npm run start
Strapi 5.58.0 admin setup screen

Strapi 5.58.0 admin setup screen

Strapi 5.58.0 admin setup screen

What you can build with Strapi

Content API for web and mobile apps

One backend serves the same content to a Next.js site and to iOS and Android apps over REST or GraphQL.

Landing pages from components

Developers define components and dynamic zones once, and editors assemble new pages from them.

Multilingual content

Internationalization is built into Strapi 5, so each entry can have a version per locale.

Product catalogue

Structured entries with relations, such as products, categories and specs, feed a website and a sales app at the same time.

Back office for company data

The admin panel, with roles and permissions, works as an internal tool for structured data your team edits.

Content for headless commerce

Keep rich product content in Strapi next to a commerce engine such as Shopify or Medusa.

Strapi alternatives

WordPressPHP CMS for blogs, marketing sites and online storesPayloadCode-first headless CMS that runs inside your Next.js appDrupalEnterprise PHP CMS backed by the non-profit Drupal AssociationGhostPublishing platform for blogs, newsletters and paid membershipsEmDashTypeScript CMS from Cloudflare, built on AstroWagtailPython CMS built on Django