Pick Strapi if you are starting a content project from nothing and want the schema, the endpoints and the custom logic defined in code your team reviews. Pick Directus if the data already exists in a SQL database, or will be shared with other applications, and you want an admin app and an API layered on top of it.
Both are self-hostable Node.js platforms with REST and GraphQL, role based permissions and a hosted cloud option. So the usual “open source vs SaaS” framing does not help. What decides it is who owns the database schema: the CMS, or the database itself.
How do Strapi and Directus differ in architecture?
Strapi owns its schema. You define content types in the Content-Type Builder or in JSON files, and Strapi creates and migrates the tables to match. Components and dynamic zones are stored in join tables Strapi manages, which is why you rarely query a Strapi database directly. Your code runs inside Strapi as controllers, services and Document Service middlewares.
Directus works the other way round. It connects to a SQL database, introspects the tables and relations that are already there, and treats each table as a collection. Its documentation describes collections as database tables with extra metadata. Directus adds its own tables with a directus_ prefix for users, roles, permissions and settings, and your tables stay as they are. Another service can keep writing to the same tables while editors work in the Directus Data Studio.
| Strapi | Directus | |
|---|---|---|
| Who defines the schema | Strapi, from its content types | The database; Directus mirrors it |
| Existing database | Data must be imported | Connects to it directly |
| Databases | PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, SQLite | PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQLite, SQL Server, Oracle, CockroachDB |
| Licence | Community edition MIT | Monospace Sustainable Core License 1.0 |
| Page building | Components and dynamic zones | Relations, many-to-any fields |
| Admin app | Content Manager for editors | Data Studio for content and data, with dashboards |
| Custom logic | Code in the Strapi project | Extensions, plus Flows for no-code automation |
| Managed option | Strapi Cloud | Directus Cloud |
Content modelling: CMS schema vs database schema
A Strapi model is shaped for editors. A landing page is a single type or collection type with a dynamic zone, and editors stack hero, features and pricing components in it. You rarely think about tables. The flip side is that the database layout is Strapi’s business, and reporting tools or other services should go through the API.
A Directus model is a database model. A product table, an order table and a join table look in Directus exactly as they do in SQL, with labels and interfaces layered on top. You can still build pages, using a many-to-any relation that lets a page hold blocks from several tables, but it is more work to set up than a Strapi dynamic zone. The payoff is that analysts, other backends and Directus all read the same rows.
Note the limits in Directus docs: composite primary keys and SQL views are not supported as collections, and relations that exist only in application code must be added in Directus by hand.
Editor and admin experience
Strapi’s admin is built around publishing. Editors get drafts and a published version, a media library, internationalisation in the core since Strapi 5, and on paid plans Releases, Content History and Live Preview.
Directus’s Data Studio is broader and less opinionated. It covers content, files, users and dashboards, and its layouts (table, cards, calendar, map and others) suit operational data as well as articles. Content teams get revisions and can preview, but the experience feels closer to a data tool than a page editor. Operations staff often prefer it for exactly that reason.
APIs and extensibility
Both give you REST and GraphQL without writing code. Strapi generates endpoints per content type and lets you override controllers or add routes. Directus exposes the whole database through its Items API with filters, deep queries and aggregation, and it also supports realtime updates.
Extensibility follows the architecture. In Strapi you write plugins and custom code against the Strapi 5 APIs; when you upgrade Strapi, that code is what you retest. In Directus you write extensions: custom endpoints, hooks, interfaces, displays and panels. Directus also has Flows, a visual automation builder where a trigger such as an item update or a schedule runs a chain of operations, which covers a lot of glue work without code.
Licence and cost drivers
The licences differ more than the feature lists suggest. Strapi Community is MIT, with paid self-hosted plans for extra features: Growth costs $45 a month with three users as of October 2026, and Enterprise adds SSO, audit logs and review workflows.
Directus changed licence. As of October 2026 its repository and licence page use the Monospace Sustainable Core License 1.0. It allows internal use, non-commercial research and education, and professional services such as an agency deploying Directus for a client. It restricts offering the software to others in competition with Directus’s paid products, and each release becomes available under GPL-3.0 on the fourth anniversary of its release. Directus’s pricing page also says organisations under $5M in annual revenue and fewer than 50 employees get fully permissive access at no software cost. Larger companies should confirm terms with Directus before committing.
For managed hosting, Directus Cloud’s Core plan is listed at $99 on monthly billing or $89 a month billed yearly as of October 2026. Strapi Cloud starts at $35 a month per project, with an always-on plan at $90. Self-hosting either one costs the same kind of thing: a Node server, the database, file storage and someone to patch it.
Migrating between Strapi and Directus
Moving from Strapi to Directus can start in an afternoon: point Directus at a copy of the Strapi database and the tables appear. Then the real work begins. Strapi’s component and link tables are not friendly to editors, so we usually design a clean schema, migrate rows into it with SQL, and rewrite Strapi controllers as Directus endpoints or Flows.
Moving from Directus to Strapi means building Strapi content types for each collection, importing rows through the Strapi API or Document Service, and moving files. If other systems were writing to the Directus tables, they now have to call the Strapi API instead, which is the step teams most often underestimate. Our WordPress to headless CMS migration page describes how we keep URLs and redirects intact during any CMS move.
Which one we would pick for whom
- A new marketing site or content hub: Strapi, for its page building model and editor focused admin.
- An internal tool, catalogue or portal on an existing database: Directus, because it uses the tables you already have.
- A company on SQL Server or Oracle: Directus, since Strapi does not support them.
- A team building a hosted product on top of the CMS: Strapi’s MIT licence carries fewer questions; read the Directus licence first.
- Operations and content in one admin: Directus, with Flows doing the automation.
We build on both and will tell you which fits once we have seen your data. To add engineers to your own team, hire a Strapi developer or hire a Directus developer. If you are weighing a third self-hosted option, see Strapi vs Payload. Our headless CMS consulting and development page explains how we run discovery.
