Alternatives to Directus logo

Alternatives to Directus

Contentful, Strapi, Cockpit, Grav, and Ghost are the most popular alternatives and competitors to Directus.
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What is Directus and what are its top alternatives?

Let's say you're planning on managing content for a website, native app, and widget. Instead of using a CMS that's baked into the website client, it makes more sense to decouple your content entirely and access it through an API or SDK. That's a headless CMS. That's Directus.
Directus is a tool in the Self-Hosted Blogging / CMS category of a tech stack.
Directus is an open source tool with 27.3K GitHub stars and 3.8K GitHub forks. Here’s a link to Directus's open source repository on GitHub

Top Alternatives to Directus

  • Contentful
    Contentful

    With Contentful, you can bring your content anywhere using our APIs, completely customize your content structure all while using your preferred programming languages and frameworks. ...

  • Strapi
    Strapi

    Strapi is100% JavaScript, extensible, and fully customizable. It enables developers to build projects faster by providing a customizable API out of the box and giving them the freedom to use the their favorite tools. ...

  • Cockpit
    Cockpit

    An API-driven CMS without forcing you to make compromises in how you implement your site. The CMS for developers. Manage content like collections, regions, forms and galleries which you can reuse anywhere on your website. ...

  • Grav
    Grav

    It is a free, open-source and self-hosted content management system (CMS) based on the PHP programming language and Symfony web application framework. It uses a flat file database for both backend and frontend. It is more widely used, and growing at a faster rate, than other leading flat-file CMS competitors. ...

  • Ghost
    Ghost

    Ghost is a platform dedicated to one thing: Publishing. It's beautifully designed, completely customisable and completely Open Source. Ghost allows you to write and publish your own blog, giving you the tools to make it easy and even fun to do. ...

  • WordPress
    WordPress

    The core software is built by hundreds of community volunteers, and when you’re ready for more there are thousands of plugins and themes available to transform your site into almost anything you can imagine. Over 60 million people have chosen WordPress to power the place on the web they call “home” — we’d love you to join the family. ...

  • Drupal
    Drupal

    Drupal is an open source content management platform powering millions of websites and applications. It’s built, used, and supported by an active and diverse community of people around the world. ...

  • JavaScript
    JavaScript

    JavaScript is most known as the scripting language for Web pages, but used in many non-browser environments as well such as node.js or Apache CouchDB. It is a prototype-based, multi-paradigm scripting language that is dynamic,and supports object-oriented, imperative, and functional programming styles. ...

Directus alternatives & related posts

Contentful logo

Contentful

826
952
70
Contentful is a cloud-based API-first content platform
826
952
+ 1
70
PROS OF CONTENTFUL
  • 30
    API-based cms
  • 17
    Much better than WordPress
  • 11
    Simple and customizable
  • 5
    Images API
  • 3
    Free for small projects
  • 1
    Extensible dashboard UI
  • 1
    Super simple to integrate
  • 1
    Managed Service
  • 1
    Tag Manager like UI
CONS OF CONTENTFUL
  • 5
    No spell check
  • 5
    No repeater Field
  • 4
    No free plan
  • 3
    Slow dashboard
  • 2
    Enterprise targeted
  • 2
    Pricey
  • 2
    Limited content types
  • 1
    Not scalable
  • 1
    No GraphQL API

related Contentful posts

Hi, I went through a comprehensive analysis - of headless/api content management systems - essentially to store content "bits" and publish them where needed (website, 3rd party sites, social media, etc.). I had considered many other solutions but ultimately chose Directus. I believe that was a good choice.

I had strongly considered Contentful, Strapi, Sanity, and hygraph. Hygraph came in #2 and contentful #3.

Ultimately I liked directus for:

(1) time in business

(2) open source

(3) integration with n8n and Pipedream

(4) pricing

(5) extensibility

Thoughts? Was this a good choice? We have many WordPress sites we're not (at least now) looking to replace with Directus, but instead to push to.

I'd love some feedback.

See more
Shared insights
on
ContentfulContentfulFirebaseFirebase

Hi. I am gonna build a simple app for a company to ease their work. The company is sending out pdf files to their users' email. The data is a health analysis with a lot of different health values. The app should be an MVP, where users can watch their data instead of opening a pdf file. The company should be able to fill in the data in either Firebase or Contentful database. Is Contentful or Firebase best for this solution? What is your opinion?

See more
Strapi logo

Strapi

689
1.3K
277
The leading open-source Headless-CMS
689
1.3K
+ 1
277
PROS OF STRAPI
  • 58
    Free
  • 39
    Open source
  • 28
    Self-hostable
  • 27
    Rapid development
  • 25
    API-based cms
  • 21
    Headless
  • 18
    Real-time
  • 16
    Easy setup
  • 13
    Large community
  • 13
    JSON
  • 6
    GraphQL
  • 4
    Social Auth
  • 4
    Internationalization
  • 2
    Components
  • 2
    Media Library
  • 1
    Raspberry pi
CONS OF STRAPI
  • 9
    Can be limiting
  • 8
    Internationalisation
  • 6
    A bit buggy
  • 5
    DB Migrations not seemless

related Strapi posts

Hi Stackers, We are planning to build a product information portal that also provides useful articles and blogs. Application Frontend is going to be built on Next.js with Authentication and Product Database helped by Firebase. But for the Blog / Article we are debating between WordPress/GraphQL plug-in or Strapi.

Please share your thoughts.

See more

Hi, I went through a comprehensive analysis - of headless/api content management systems - essentially to store content "bits" and publish them where needed (website, 3rd party sites, social media, etc.). I had considered many other solutions but ultimately chose Directus. I believe that was a good choice.

I had strongly considered Contentful, Strapi, Sanity, and hygraph. Hygraph came in #2 and contentful #3.

Ultimately I liked directus for:

(1) time in business

(2) open source

(3) integration with n8n and Pipedream

(4) pricing

(5) extensibility

Thoughts? Was this a good choice? We have many WordPress sites we're not (at least now) looking to replace with Directus, but instead to push to.

I'd love some feedback.

See more
Cockpit logo

Cockpit

55
234
17
Add content management functionality to any site - plug & play CMS
55
234
+ 1
17
PROS OF COCKPIT
  • 3
    Flexible and plays nicely with any frontend
  • 3
    Easy for Content Managers to understand and use
  • 3
    Open Source
  • 2
    Fast & lightweight
  • 2
    Modular
  • 2
    GraphQL
  • 2
    Self hosted
CONS OF COCKPIT
    Be the first to leave a con

    related Cockpit posts

    Grav logo

    Grav

    111
    156
    16
    A modern open source flat-file CMS
    111
    156
    + 1
    16
    PROS OF GRAV
    • 4
      Easy to Update
    • 3
      No Databases
    • 2
      Fast Performance
    • 2
      Extensive Plugins
    • 2
      Strong Security
    • 2
      Full Control over customisation + functionality
    • 1
      Ligth storage use
    CONS OF GRAV
    • 2
      Not easily to intergrate as an eCommerce (yet)

    related Grav posts

    Ghost logo

    Ghost

    509
    499
    219
    Just a blogging platform
    509
    499
    + 1
    219
    PROS OF GHOST
    • 45
      Beautiful
    • 35
      Fast
    • 29
      Quick/simple post styling
    • 20
      Live Post Preview
    • 20
      Open source
    • 19
      Non-profit
    • 16
      Seamless writing
    • 6
      Node.js
    • 5
      Fast and Performatic
    • 5
      Javascript
    • 4
      Simplest
    • 3
      Wonderful UI
    • 3
      Handlebars
    • 3
      Full Control
    • 2
      Magic
    • 2
      Clean
    • 1
      Headless CMS
    • 1
      Self-hostable
    CONS OF GHOST
      Be the first to leave a con

      related Ghost posts

      Tim Abbott
      Shared insights
      on
      GhostGhostDropboxDropboxMarkdownMarkdown
      at

      We've been using Ghost as the blog software for Zulip since we first needed a blog. I've been pretty happy with using open source software developed by a non-profit, and their editing experience is great. We use Dropbox Paper to draft posts with a nice commenting experience, and then export the Markdown into Ghost when we're ready to publish.

      There's a few that could be better, though. My main complaint is they have a 200 character limit for author biographies, which seems arbitrary and unhelpful.

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      WordPress logo

      WordPress

      97.1K
      39.4K
      2.1K
      A semantic personal publishing platform with a focus on aesthetics, web standards, and usability.
      97.1K
      39.4K
      + 1
      2.1K
      PROS OF WORDPRESS
      • 415
        Customizable
      • 366
        Easy to manage
      • 354
        Plugins & themes
      • 258
        Non-tech colleagues can update website content
      • 247
        Really powerful
      • 145
        Rapid website development
      • 78
        Best documentation
      • 51
        Codex
      • 44
        Product feature set
      • 35
        Custom/internal social network
      • 18
        Open source
      • 8
        Great for all types of websites
      • 7
        Huge install and user base
      • 5
        Perfect example of user collaboration
      • 5
        Open Source Community
      • 5
        Most websites make use of it
      • 5
        It's simple and easy to use by any novice
      • 5
        Best
      • 5
        I like it like I like a kick in the groin
      • 4
        Community
      • 4
        API-based CMS
      • 3
        Easy To use
      • 2
        <a href="https://secure.wphackedhel">Easy Beginner</a>
      CONS OF WORDPRESS
      • 13
        Hard to keep up-to-date if you customize things
      • 13
        Plugins are of mixed quality
      • 10
        Not best backend UI
      • 2
        Complex Organization
      • 1
        Do not cover all the basics in the core
      • 1
        Great Security

      related WordPress posts

      Dale Ross
      Independent Contractor at Self Employed · | 22 upvotes · 1.6M views

      I've heard that I have the ability to write well, at times. When it flows, it flows. I decided to start blogging in 2013 on Blogger. I started a company and joined BizPark with the Microsoft Azure allotment. I created a WordPress blog and did a migration at some point. A lot happened in the time after that migration but I stopped coding and changed cities during tumultuous times that taught me many lessons concerning mental health and productivity. I eventually graduated from BizSpark and outgrew the credit allotment. That killed the WordPress blog.

      I blogged about writing again on the existing Blogger blog but it didn't feel right. I looked at a few options where I wouldn't have to worry about hosting cost indefinitely and Jekyll stood out with GitHub Pages. The Importer was fairly straightforward for the existing blog posts.

      Todo * Set up redirects for all posts on blogger. The URI format is different so a complete redirect wouldn't work. Although, there may be something in Jekyll that could manage the redirects. I did notice the old URLs were stored in the front matter. I'm working on a command-line Ruby gem for the current plan. * I did find some of the lost WordPress posts on archive.org that I downloaded with the waybackmachinedownloader. I think I might write an importer for that. * I still have a few Disqus comment threads to map

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      A White
      Front End Web Dev at Burnt Design · | 21 upvotes · 91.1K views

      Below is my own professional history to give some context to my current skill set. I have been a front-end dev for 18 years. My tools of choice are:

      • HTML5
      • CSS 3
      • JavaScript
      • WordPress
      • PHP (but not my strongest skill as I don't write it too often)

      I first of all would like to become a better and more 'full stack' developer, and I have a business idea that will hopefully allow me to move in this direction. The queries I have will result in which approach I take here. One of the most important aspects to me is the system being 'future proof'. If successful I know I will eventually bring additional developers on board, and they will likely be better developers than me! I want to avoid them having to rebuild the system and would like it to be something that they can just expand and improve on.

      The business which I'd like to create is the following (in a nutshell), I have ideas for many more features, but this is how I'd like to begin:

      Web-based system for gym management & marketing. Specifically a class-based gym

      1. One-stop shop for a class-based gym owner
      2. Sell memberships
      3. Manage class bookings
      4. Reporting
      5. Automatically generated website
      6. Choose a pre-designed template and amend the content through their dashboard
      7. Marketing
      8. Easily send a newsletter to members
      9. Book a free trial form on the website linked directly to the booking system

      Important requirements

      1. One system, one dashboard. I would like the gym owner to have one place to control everything. Members, marketing, and website amendments.
      2. Future proof. These features are the bare minimum and I'd like to keep expanding on the features as time goes on. Things like uploading programming for members, messaging between members and admin, and selling merchandise via the website.
      3. Fast to load & secure. I live in the WordPress world right now, which isn't the fastest or most secure environment. I appreciate there are better ways to develop a system like this, but I'm a little clueless about where to start.
      4. Mobile. The data created should easily communicate with a mobile app that customers will download to manage their memberships and class bookings.

      TIA to anybody that can provide some guidance on where to start here.

      See more
      Drupal logo

      Drupal

      10.9K
      3.9K
      359
      Free, Open, Modular CMS written in PHP
      10.9K
      3.9K
      + 1
      359
      PROS OF DRUPAL
      • 75
        Stable, highly functional cms
      • 60
        Great community
      • 44
        Easy cms to make websites
      • 43
        Highly customizable
      • 22
        Digital customer experience delivery platform
      • 17
        Really powerful
      • 16
        Customizable
      • 11
        Flexible
      • 10
        Good tool for prototyping
      • 9
        Enterprise proven over many years when others failed
      • 8
        Headless adds even more power/flexibility
      • 8
        Open source
      • 7
        Each version becomes more intuitive for clients to use
      • 7
        Well documented
      • 6
        Lego blocks methodology
      • 4
        Caching and performance
      • 3
        Powerful
      • 3
        Built on Symfony
      • 3
        Can build anything
      • 2
        Views
      • 1
        API-based CMS
      CONS OF DRUPAL
      • 1
        Steep learning curve
      • 1
        DJango

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      Hi. I’m a lead developer in charge of designing the build for version 2.0 of our startup SaaS website which is currently a traditional Drupal 7 site. I’m just looking for some peer advice that I am headed down an ok path now the product has grown & changed. tl;dr; 1) Is building a decoupled/headless Drupal 10 site with a JavaScript framework a dumb idea? 2) Should I look to a different headless CMS? 3) React or Vue.js or (other) in 2022?

      Our requirements for our new site include

      • White labeling / multisite spawning (will need separate databases for each)
      • Complex permissions and several user roles
      • Robust security
      • Mobile app capability for iOS (for now - Android in the future)
      • Multilingual capability
      • Easy user management/creation by non-devs
      • Reporting capabilities
      • Some basic “marketing” pages (but this could be separate from the web app I suppose)
      • A large amount of hosted video/image assets on AWS or similar
      • Weekly/daily CRON jobs to send out emails & reports

      Being that I am experienced in Drupal & PHP, my thought was to build a headless site with a Vue.js or React as the front end in Drupal 10. I've only got minimal experience in either JS framework so I'm not sure which I should choose to skill up. Does this seem reasonable or am I barking up the wrong tree?

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      JavaScript logo

      JavaScript

      358.4K
      272.5K
      8.1K
      Lightweight, interpreted, object-oriented language with first-class functions
      358.4K
      272.5K
      + 1
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      PROS OF JAVASCRIPT
      • 1.7K
        Can be used on frontend/backend
      • 1.5K
        It's everywhere
      • 1.2K
        Lots of great frameworks
      • 898
        Fast
      • 745
        Light weight
      • 425
        Flexible
      • 392
        You can't get a device today that doesn't run js
      • 286
        Non-blocking i/o
      • 237
        Ubiquitousness
      • 191
        Expressive
      • 55
        Extended functionality to web pages
      • 49
        Relatively easy language
      • 46
        Executed on the client side
      • 30
        Relatively fast to the end user
      • 25
        Pure Javascript
      • 21
        Functional programming
      • 15
        Async
      • 13
        Full-stack
      • 12
        Setup is easy
      • 12
        Future Language of The Web
      • 12
        Its everywhere
      • 11
        Because I love functions
      • 11
        JavaScript is the New PHP
      • 10
        Like it or not, JS is part of the web standard
      • 9
        Expansive community
      • 9
        Everyone use it
      • 9
        Can be used in backend, frontend and DB
      • 9
        Easy
      • 8
        Most Popular Language in the World
      • 8
        Powerful
      • 8
        Can be used both as frontend and backend as well
      • 8
        For the good parts
      • 8
        No need to use PHP
      • 8
        Easy to hire developers
      • 7
        Agile, packages simple to use
      • 7
        Love-hate relationship
      • 7
        Photoshop has 3 JS runtimes built in
      • 7
        Evolution of C
      • 7
        It's fun
      • 7
        Hard not to use
      • 7
        Versitile
      • 7
        Its fun and fast
      • 7
        Nice
      • 7
        Popularized Class-Less Architecture & Lambdas
      • 7
        Supports lambdas and closures
      • 6
        It let's me use Babel & Typescript
      • 6
        Can be used on frontend/backend/Mobile/create PRO Ui
      • 6
        1.6K Can be used on frontend/backend
      • 6
        Client side JS uses the visitors CPU to save Server Res
      • 6
        Easy to make something
      • 5
        Clojurescript
      • 5
        Promise relationship
      • 5
        Stockholm Syndrome
      • 5
        Function expressions are useful for callbacks
      • 5
        Scope manipulation
      • 5
        Everywhere
      • 5
        Client processing
      • 5
        What to add
      • 4
        Because it is so simple and lightweight
      • 4
        Only Programming language on browser
      • 1
        Test
      • 1
        Hard to learn
      • 1
        Test2
      • 1
        Not the best
      • 1
        Easy to understand
      • 1
        Subskill #4
      • 1
        Easy to learn
      • 0
        Hard 彤
      CONS OF JAVASCRIPT
      • 22
        A constant moving target, too much churn
      • 20
        Horribly inconsistent
      • 15
        Javascript is the New PHP
      • 9
        No ability to monitor memory utilitization
      • 8
        Shows Zero output in case of ANY error
      • 7
        Thinks strange results are better than errors
      • 6
        Can be ugly
      • 3
        No GitHub
      • 2
        Slow
      • 0
        HORRIBLE DOCUMENTS, faulty code, repo has bugs

      related JavaScript posts

      Zach Holman

      Oof. I have truly hated JavaScript for a long time. Like, for over twenty years now. Like, since the Clinton administration. It's always been a nightmare to deal with all of the aspects of that silly language.

      But wowza, things have changed. Tooling is just way, way better. I'm primarily web-oriented, and using React and Apollo together the past few years really opened my eyes to building rich apps. And I deeply apologize for using the phrase rich apps; I don't think I've ever said such Enterprisey words before.

      But yeah, things are different now. I still love Rails, and still use it for a lot of apps I build. But it's that silly rich apps phrase that's the problem. Users have way more comprehensive expectations than they did even five years ago, and the JS community does a good job at building tools and tech that tackle the problems of making heavy, complicated UI and frontend work.

      Obviously there's a lot of things happening here, so just saying "JavaScript isn't terrible" might encompass a huge amount of libraries and frameworks. But if you're like me, yeah, give things another shot- I'm somehow not hating on JavaScript anymore and... gulp... I kinda love it.

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      Conor Myhrvold
      Tech Brand Mgr, Office of CTO at Uber · | 44 upvotes · 12.5M views

      How Uber developed the open source, end-to-end distributed tracing Jaeger , now a CNCF project:

      Distributed tracing is quickly becoming a must-have component in the tools that organizations use to monitor their complex, microservice-based architectures. At Uber, our open source distributed tracing system Jaeger saw large-scale internal adoption throughout 2016, integrated into hundreds of microservices and now recording thousands of traces every second.

      Here is the story of how we got here, from investigating off-the-shelf solutions like Zipkin, to why we switched from pull to push architecture, and how distributed tracing will continue to evolve:

      https://eng.uber.com/distributed-tracing/

      (GitHub Pages : https://www.jaegertracing.io/, GitHub: https://github.com/jaegertracing/jaeger)

      Bindings/Operator: Python Java Node.js Go C++ Kubernetes JavaScript OpenShift C# Apache Spark

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