Astro CMS: the best options, and what we use

Astro isn’t a CMS itself. It’s the framework that builds your pages, and it works with almost any CMS, or none. The best CMS for Astro, for most marketing teams, is Sanity: a full editing app with an official Astro integration and a free plan for up to 20 seats, and the one we use on client sites. For a free editor that saves to your Git repository, use Keystatic or TinaCMS. For visual page-building, Storyblok. And if developers or an AI assistant make the changes, you may not need a CMS at all: our own site runs on Astro’s built-in content collections.

If you need	Best pick
A full editing app for a marketing team	Sanity
A free editor that saves to Git	Keystatic, or TinaCMS for visual editing
Visual page-building from blocks	Storyblok
A CMS you host yourself	Payload
Developer or AI edits, no editing app	Astro content collections

Our picks from building our own site and client sites in Astro, October 2026. Prices and free plans are compared below.

Astro’s own docs list more than 40 CMSs with guides (Astro), so the choice can feel open-ended. Here’s how we narrow it down, from building our own site and client sites in Astro.

What we use, and why

Our own site: content collections, no CMS. Every journal post on this site is a Markdown file with checked fields: title, description, topic, dates and cover. Changes are made with Claude and reviewed on a preview before they go live. In August 2026 we trialled Sanity and then Keystatic on our own site, and went back to files both times: for a small studio site where the people writing are the people building, a separate CMS was one more step without a benefit (how we build with Claude Code).

Our journal, built from Markdown files in an Astro content collection: no CMS, and every change checked on a preview first.

Client sites: Sanity, for the content that changes. When a client’s team updates the same kinds of content every week, we model it in Sanity, so editing it is filling in a form. On Generate’s Astro site, the blog and the Summit’s speakers live in Sanity, so the team can add and update speakers from one year’s Summit to the next. For G Plus, we’re building an Astro site with its studios, classes, events, team and FAQs in Sanity. We don’t put everything in the CMS: one-off pages, like the Summit landing page, stay as code, where design changes are quicker and safer.

Everything else, through an AI assistant. For changes outside the CMS, Generate’s team asks an AI assistant, which follows written rules about how pages are built and makes the change on a preview copy. They check it there before it goes live.

Start with who edits

Who makes most changes	What we’d use
A developer, or an AI assistant with a preview of every change	Astro content collections: no CMS
A small team happy to edit structured files, with changes saved to Git	A Git-based CMS: Keystatic, TinaCMS or Decap
A marketing team updating articles, events or listings every week	A headless CMS: Sanity, or Storyblok if visual page-building matters most

A CMS is a second system to set up, pay for and keep in step with the site. It’s worth it when people outside the build will update content often. It isn’t when the people making changes already work in the code.

Astro CMS options, compared

Prices are from each tool’s pricing page on 11 October 2026, in US dollars unless marked.

	Where content lives	Editing	Price
Content collections	Markdown or data files in the repository	Edit files, or ask an AI assistant	Free, built into Astro
Sanity	Sanity’s hosted Content Lake	Sanity Studio, a customisable editing app with visual editing, which Sanity’s Astro integration can embed in your site	Free plan: 20 seats and 10,000 documents (Sanity); Growth US$15 per seat a month
Keystatic	Files in your GitHub repository	An editing app inside your site	Free, open source; Cloud Pro from US$10 a month
TinaCMS	Files in your GitHub repository	An editing app with visual editing	Free for 2 users; Team US$24 a month per project
Decap CMS	Files in your Git repository	An editing app inside your site	Free, open source; hosted Turbo plan free or €19 a month
Storyblok	Storyblok’s hosted service	A visual editor built around page blocks	Free starter; Growth US$99 a month
Contentful	Contentful’s hosted service	Contentful’s web app	Free plan for testing and learning, not commercial use (Contentful); Lite US$300 a month
Payload	Your own database	An admin app you host yourself	Free, open source, self-hosted

Free plans have limits, such as seats, documents or API requests, so check them against your content before you choose.

A few details that change the decision:

• Git-based tools keep content with the code. Keystatic is an open-source project from Thinkmill, and collaborators need write access to the repository (Keystatic). TinaCMS now uses Astro as its default starter, the one it builds and tests against first (TinaCMS).
• Payload is self-hosted. It’s open source and runs on your own Node.js server and database, and joined Figma in 2025 (Payload).

Keystatic: the free, Git-based option

Keystatic is an open-source CMS from Thinkmill that makes the Markdown, JSON and YAML files in your repository editable through an admin screen inside your own site, with no database. It runs in three ways (Keystatic):

• Local: edits save straight to the files on your computer. Good for trying it out.
• GitHub mode: edits save to your GitHub repository, and every editor needs write access to it (Keystatic).
• Keystatic Cloud: handles the GitHub sign-in for you, so team members can edit without a GitHub account. It’s free for up to 3 users per team; Pro starts at US$10 a month, plus US$5 a month for each user beyond 3 (Keystatic).

It suits a small team whose content sits alongside the code: a blog, case studies or team profiles on a site a developer looks after. We trialled it on our own site in August 2026 and went back to plain files, because the people writing were the people building.

Keystatic vs Sanity

	Keystatic	Sanity
Where content lives	Files in your Git repository	Sanity’s hosted Content Lake
Editing app	An admin screen inside your site	Sanity Studio, customisable, with visual editing
Who can edit	People with access to the repository, or Keystatic Cloud users	Anyone with a Sanity seat
Free plan	Free and open source; Cloud free for 3 users per team	20 seats and 10,000 documents
Best for	A small team, content kept with the code	A marketing team updating structured content every week

From Keystatic’s docs, read 28 October 2026, and Sanity’s pricing, read 11 October 2026.

Pick Keystatic when you want content in Git, versioned with the site and free to run. Pick Sanity when several people outside the build edit often and need an editing app made for them. For the setup we use, see how to use Sanity with Astro.

How to choose

1. List what changes, and how often. Articles weekly and a pricing page twice a year are different jobs. Put the frequent ones in a CMS; leave the rest as code.
2. Decide who edits. Developers and AI assistants are happy with files. Marketing teams usually want an editing app.
3. Check the free plan against your content. Seats, documents and API limits decide the real price.
4. Keep the CMS small. Model the content your team actually updates, not every page.
5. If your team wants to build whole pages itself, compare Webflow vs Astro: a visual platform may suit you better than any CMS.

Questions we get asked

Is Astro a CMS?

No. Astro is a web framework: it builds your pages, and it can load content from files in your repository or from almost any CMS. Its built-in content collections store content as Markdown or data files, which is enough for some sites. For a marketing team editing every week, pair it with a CMS such as Sanity.

What is the best CMS for Astro?

For most marketing teams, Sanity: a full editing app with an official Astro integration and a free plan for up to 20 seats, and what we use on client sites. Keystatic or TinaCMS suit a free, Git-based editor, Storyblok visual page-building, and Astro’s content collections sites edited by developers or AI.

What is the best free CMS for Astro?

Astro’s own content collections are free and built in. For an editing app, Keystatic and Decap CMS are free and open source, TinaCMS is free for two users, and Sanity’s free plan covers up to 20 seats and 10,000 documents. Payload is free if you host it yourself. Prices as of October 2026.

Keystatic vs Sanity: which should I use?

Keystatic, if a small team edits content kept in your Git repository and you want it free. Sanity, if a marketing team updates structured content often and needs a full editing app. Keystatic Cloud is free for 3 users per team; Sanity’s free plan covers 20 seats and 10,000 documents.

Does an Astro site need a CMS?

No. Astro’s content collections store content as Markdown or data files with checked fields, which is enough when developers or an AI assistant make the changes. Content collections can also load from a CMS, so you can start with files and move frequently updated content into one when your team needs it.

If you’d like a site built this way, see our custom website development, or tell us about your project.

Sources

• Astro, Content collections
• Astro, CMS guides
• Sanity, Pricing and Sanity, Astro
• Keystatic, Introduction, GitHub mode and Keystatic Cloud
• TinaCMS, Pricing and TinaCMS, Astro
• Decap CMS and Decap Turbo
• Storyblok, Pricing
• Contentful, Pricing and usage limits
• Payload and Payload is joining Figma