10 Best Cockpit Alternatives & Competitors (2026)

Contentful is a SaaS-first headless CMS known for its robust content infrastructure and strong enterprise integrations. It provides excellent developer experience and scalability but requires ongoing subscription fees and offers limited self-hosting options. Webiny differentiates itself as a free, open-source, self-hosted alternative that adds AI-driven customization and multi-tenancy without recurring SaaS costs or data residency concerns.

Ghost is an open-source publishing platform with built-in membership and newsletter tools. It is excellent for blogs and media sites but offers far less flexibility for custom content models or enterprise multi-tenancy than Webiny. Ghost suits simple publishing needs while Webiny supports complex, AI-extensible content systems at scale.

Sanity provides a real-time headless CMS with a flexible content studio and GROQ querying. Its strength lies in collaborative editing and structured content, yet it remains primarily cloud-hosted. Webiny offers a self-hosted, open-source counterpart with built-in website and file management apps plus AI extensibility, appealing to teams that need full infrastructure control and lower long-term costs.

Directus turns any SQL database into a headless CMS with instant APIs and a no-code admin app. It excels at database-driven projects but does not include Webiny's ready-made Website Builder, multi-tenant architecture, or AI-programmable extension capabilities. Directus suits data-centric use cases while Webiny targets developers building scalable, AI-augmented content platforms.

Payload is a TypeScript-first headless CMS built on Node.js that emphasizes developer control and custom admin panels. It offers solid self-hosting but lacks Webiny's enterprise multi-tenancy, serverless scaling, and AI-driven API generation features. Payload appeals to developers wanting tight code integration, whereas Webiny provides broader out-of-the-box enterprise tooling.

Prismic is a headless CMS focused on marketing teams with slice-based page building and preview capabilities. It is primarily SaaS and does not match Webiny's open-source self-hosted model or AI extensibility. Prismic works well for content-heavy websites, while Webiny serves teams needing deeper customization, multi-tenancy, and infrastructure ownership.

Keystone is an open-source Node.js CMS and GraphQL API generator tightly integrated with databases. It provides strong developer flexibility but lacks Webiny's pre-built multi-tenant apps, serverless backend, and AI workflow automation. Keystone fits custom backend projects; Webiny targets full-featured enterprise CMS deployments.

Apostrophe is an open-source CMS with strong in-context editing and widget-based page building. It provides solid self-hosting but does not include Webiny's AI-programmable capabilities, serverless architecture, or advanced multi-tenant governance. Apostrophe works for traditional websites; Webiny targets modern headless and enterprise-scale deployments.