Skip to content
Sanity
Get started
  • Sanity Studio - Flexible editing environment
  • Content Lake - Real-time database
  • Developer experience - Tooling you love
  • Structured content - The philosophy behind Sanity
  • Review changes - View edits & rollback instantly
  • Image pipeline - On-demand transformations
  • E-commerce - Better shopping experiences
  • Marketing sites - Control your story
  • Products & services - Innovate and automate
  • Mobile apps - Content backend for every OS
  • Aether - Unique digital shopping experience
  • Morning Brew - Omnichannel media distribution
  • InVision - Delivering exceptional customer experiences
  • DataStax - Personalization for global audience
  • React
  • Gatsby
  • Next
  • Nuxt
  • Eleventy
  • Netlify
  • Vercel
  • Algolia
  • Documentation
  • Reference
  • Guides
  • Resource library
  • Headless CMS
  • Tools & plugins
  • Project showcase
  • Schemas & snippets
  • Agency partners
  • Technology partners
  • Get support
  • Share your work
  • 5 Disadvantages Of Wordpress That Are Holding You Back
EnterprisePricing
Contact salesLog inGet started

#1 Open Source Headless CMS for Jamstack

Jamstack CMS: what, how, & why you need one

Learn how Jamstack web development is making websites faster and more secure. And why Sanity, the Jamstack-friendly Headless CMS is rated #1 for content management workflows.

Get started with a template
Jamstack architecture company logos: Sanity, Vue, Netlify Nuxt, Vercel, React, Gatsby, Eleventy Next.JS

What is the Jamstack?

Jamstack is a modern approach to developing websites and more. The "Jam" in Jamstack stands for:

  • Javascript: which handles dynamic functionality during runtime from the client. Popular frameworks include Gatsby, 11ty, and Next, but you can use any framework or library you like including non Javascript.
  • APIs: short for Application Programming Interface. APIs let you access content and data in a way that is easy to use across a range of software and rendering solutions.
  • Markup: is pre-rendered to a static site before deployment so that the client doesn't have to query a server every time they load a page.

The term "Jamstack" was coined by Mathias Billmann, founder of Jamstack hosting platform Netlify.

The benefits of Jamstack architecture

  • Better developer experience

    Jamstack devs choose their own frontend tooling. Build static Jamstack sites in, Vue/Gridsome, React/Gatsby or React/Next, and more. You can change frontends at any time without impacting your CMS.

  • Faster performance

    Everything you serve to the client is pre-built and delivered over a CDN. You get faster page loads because you don't have to wait for server responses every time you load a page. They’re already built for you.

  • More secure

    With Jamstack architecture the risk of code injection and hacks is significantly reduced. Attack surfaces are smaller and, hackers can’t access as much from any single entry point.

  • Cheaper to operate

    With Jamstack hosting, serving static files is cheaper and sometimes free. You don't need to pay for expensive caching services that often come with popular monolithic LAMP and MAMP websites.

  • Easier to scale

    Because your assets are available as static files and available over CDN, if your app or website gets a traffic spike or goes viral it won't slow down, and you won't have to stand up extra servers.

For the past year, I've been obsessed with digging through and testing out different headless CMS for the Jamstack comparing feature sets for editors, DX, extendibility, etc. Honestly, by far I think Sanity stands WAY out and I can't believe how mature the product is!

Kevin Mcaloon, Frontend Developer

How Jamstack & Headless CMS relate

A traditional, or "monolithic" CMS couples your content to a particular output, like a web page. That coupled output is the head.

A headless CMS gives editors an interface for managing content, then provides that content over APIs for developers to build websites and apps with. This is why headless CMSes are a perfect fit for Jamstack content management: they’re one of the the many "A's" that you can query in your J.A.M. stack.

The point of a headless CMS isn't that you don't want or need a head, it's that you get to pick and choose which heads (outputs) you send your content to. And you don't have to settle for a single one:

7 reasons why you should choose a Jamstack Headless CMS

  1. It’s easier to build fast and secure websites that scale
  2. Enjoy a better developer experience with modern tools and frameworks
  3. Access content in a variety of ways including REST, GraphQL, and GROQ​
  4. Store content as data in flexible Portable Text
  5. Preview anything within your CMS
  6. Deploy scalable Jamstack sites in minutes with Netlify and Vercel
  7. A headless CMS will let your content travel further and do more things (not just the Jamstack!)

I tried many different headless CMS options and I landed on Sanity because it's the perfect mix of ease-of-use paired with the ability to customize almost anything you want.

Wes Bos, Full Stack Developer & Educator

Why Sanity is the best CMS choice for Jamstack websites

At Sanity we see today’s headless CMS systems as an evolutionary step that leads to an even better way of managing content – where structure is truly flexible, content is treated like data, and editors work in tailored real-time collaboration environments.

Sanity’s features go beyond the offerings of other headless CMSes, here’s why:

An editing environment you can make your own

Create your best content with an editing interface that actually relates to what you do.

You have the freedom to structure Sanity Studio however you like. Group content types in meaningful ways, hide the stuff you don’t use every day, combine rich document list-views from any field, and style the studio in your own image.

  • Custom desk structures
  • Show data from 3rd party APIs
  • Get content insights in real-time
  • Benefit from the React plugin ecosystem

Real-time collaboration

With Sanity you can collaborate at the speed of thought no matter where in the world you are.

Our editing environment is fully real-time; every keystroke is stored and shared in an instant.

You don’t have to worry about losing changes; we keep a detailed history with one-click restores so you can find your flow and wind back the clock whenever you need.

Powering exceptional digital experiences everywhere

NetlifyNikeFigmaCloudflareSonosFlexMovemberreMarkableCondé NastSkimsBrex

Flexible, powerful APIs

Sanity has a rich set of REST APIs that can integrate with a variety of frameworks, libraries, and tools to bring dynamic functionality to your JAMstack website. There’s also GraphQL support and Sanity’s own innovative tool — Graph Oriented Query Language (GROQ). There’s no API limitations when it comes to providing content and functionality for your JAMStack websites.

Static Site Generator Integrations

Sanity has flexible support for static site generators. The platform, for example, can integrate with GatsbyJS to enable live previews of static sites before publishing. Sanity is lightweight and can work with Hugo, Jekyll, and any other tool as well. That means you can build a compelling JAMstack React app without any additional effort.

Developers love managing Jamstack content with Sanity

Kim Maida

Developer Content Group Manager @ Okta

I chose Sanity Studio because I wanted to learn a new headless CMS, and liked the docs. I like it because it's flexible and intuitive to learn, customize, and build with JavaScript, so it fits into the JAMstack so seamlessly!

Read Tweet

Artem Artemov

Staff Product Designer @ Twitter

Since I started dev/design with the JAMstack I think I have played around with every headless CMS. Sanity has so far been the quickest to understand, set up, and get any kind of support on from the community. Lots of fun to have when things just... work.

Read tweet

Rolando Barbella

@rolandobarbella

I'm writing my first blog post about JAMstack in Spanish with the help of Sanity. It's been a great and smooth experience, I really feel comfortable writing inside the full screen, uploading images, changing text, etc. Great experience!

Full tweet

Daniel Van Cuylenburg

Senior Front-end Developer

After 6 months of use, I'm very happy to say that It's still a real pleasure to use Sanity. With the continual updates, it keeps gets better and better. And for anyone starting out, they've now made it so much simpler with Sanity templates.

Read article

Rob Blake

@treb0r

Okay, it's official, Sanity is completely, totally, eye-poppingly awesome. Flexibility, power and a very generous pricing structure. Whoever conceived of this is a downright genius. #JamStack

Full tweet

Jamie Bradley

Co-Founder & CTO @StackUpDigital

Today is a great day because I get to work with Sanity! I'm using the new Sanity Connect app with Shopify and the seamless synchronisation of product data between the two is bliss

#jamstack #ecommerce #shopifystore

Full tweet

Build your first Jamstack project in minutes

Generous pricing included. Pay-as-you-go for additional users, usage and features on all plans.

Blog with Built-in Content Editing

A Sanity-powered blog with built-in content editing and instant previews.

  • Vercel
  • Next.js

Personal Website with Built-in Content Editing

A Sanity-powered personal website with built-in content editing and instant previews.

  • Vercel
  • Next.js

Clean Next.js site with Sanity Studio

A clean example of Next.js with embedded Sanity ready for recomposition.

  • Next.js
  • Vercel
Browse all templates

Last updated February 1, 2023

Platform

Structured ContentDeveloper experienceContent LakeSanity StudioSecurity & Compliance
  • Sanity vs Contentful
  • Sanity vs Strapi
  • Sanity vs Wordpress
  • Sanity vs Adobe Experience Manager
  • Sanity vs Hygraph
  • Sanity vs Sitecore
  • Sanity vs Storyblok
  • Sanity vs Contentstack
  • Sanity vs Prismic
  • Sanity vs Drupal
  • Sanity vs ButterCMS

Resources

Documentation
  • React Blog
  • Gatsby Blog
  • Next.js Landing Pages
  • Progressive Web Application
  • Single Page Application
  • Svelte & Typescript App
  • Vue & Tailwind Blog
  • Developer Portfolio Templates
  • Form validation with Yup
  • Live Preview with Next.js and Sanity.io
Resource library
  • Agency partners
  • Technology partners
  • Blog Template
  • Personal Website Template
  • Developer Portfolio Templates
  • All Templates
Case Studies
  • Headless CMS
  • What is an API CMS
  • Static Sites 101
  • Headless SEO
  • Localization
  • GraphQL vs REST
  • What is a DXP?
  • Typescript 101
  • Content as a Service
  • Ecommerce SEO
  • React CMS
  • Next.JS CMS
  • CMS for Shopify
  • Content platform
  • Multilingual CMS
  • Static Site CMS
  • Gatsby CMS
  • Node CMS
  • E-commerce CMS
  • Vue CMS
  • Angular CMS
  • GraphQL CMS
  • Newspaper CMS
  • Magazine CMS
  • CMS for apps
  • Remix CMS

Company

Contact SalesEnterpriseCareersTerms of ServiceAccessibility Statement

Stay connected

  • GitHub
  • Slack
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Stack Overflow
  • Blog RSS
  • Newsletter
©Sanity 2023