Directus

Directus

Freemium

The flexible backend for all your projects.

CMS
Headless CMS

Published 29 May 2026 · Last updated 27 September 2026

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Scores

Popularity1/5

Growing open-source project with a strong concept; limited mainstream awareness.

Learning Curve3/5

Data Studio and flows are approachable, but permissions and custom extensions take time.

Flexibility5/5

Auto-generated REST and GraphQL; custom extensions, flows, and endpoints cover any need.

Performance4/5

Node.js REST and GraphQL is efficient for typical content workloads; scales horizontally.

Portability4/5

Open source with a standard database underneath; REST and GraphQL APIs ease migration.

About Directus

Directus is a data platform that sits on top of a SQL database and instantly provides REST and GraphQL APIs plus a no-code admin app for managing the data. Unlike CMSs that impose their own schema, it is database-first: it introspects existing tables and wraps them without changing their structure, so it works as a headless CMS, an admin panel for a custom data model, or a backend for internal tools.

It supports PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, SQLite, Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, and CockroachDB. On top of the data it adds authentication, role-based and field-level permissions, file storage with on-the-fly image transformations, real-time updates over WebSockets, and Flows, a visual builder for automations triggered by events, schedules, or webhooks. The admin app is built in Vue and can be extended with custom modules, panels, and interfaces.

Directus is source-available rather than open source. Its licence (the Monospace Sustainable Core License) allows any use except offering Directus as a competing commercial service, a licence key enforces each plan's limits, and every release becomes GPL-3.0 four years after it ships.

Pricing is per plan, not per API call. The free Core plan covers small projects (a few seats, collections, and flows), Team raises those limits and adds SSO, and Enterprise is custom. An Open Innovation Grant gives small organisations full access at no cost. Self-hosting is free on every plan, and Directus Cloud managed hosting is a monthly add-on.

Key Features

  • REST and GraphQL APIs generated over any SQL database
  • Database-first: works with existing tables without migrating them
  • No-code admin app built in Vue, with custom extensions
  • Role-based and field-level permissions
  • Flows: visual automation triggered by events, schedules, or webhooks
  • Real-time updates over WebSockets
  • File storage with on-the-fly image transformations
  • Self-hosted on every plan, or Directus Cloud managed hosting

Pros

  • Wraps existing databases without imposing its own schema
  • Works with every major SQL database, not just PostgreSQL
  • Flows reduce the need for separate automation tools
  • REST, GraphQL, and real-time APIs out of the box
  • Free for small projects and, through the grant, small organisations

Cons

  • Source-available licence, not OSI open source; plan limits are key-enforced
  • Team plan is a large jump in price from the free Core plan
  • Setup and data modelling need a developer
  • Complex permission rules are hard to reason about at scale
  • Editorial experience is lighter than publishing-focused CMSs

Directus Pricing

Freemium
CoreFree
  • · 3 user seats, 25 collections, 5 flows
  • · Self-hosted free; Directus Cloud hosting is a $99/month add-on
  • · No SSO
  • · Community support
Open Innovation GrantFree
  • · For organisations under $5M annual revenue and fewer than 50 employees
  • · Fully permissive access at no cost
  • · Self-hosted free; Cloud hosting $99/month
Directus Cloud$99/monthly
  • · Managed hosting add-on for Core and Team plans
  • · Self-hosting is free on every plan
  • · No per-API or per-bandwidth charge beyond the plan
Team$599/monthly
  • · $499/month billed annually
  • · 10 SSO seats, extra seats $50/month
  • · 50 collections (expandable to 100), 20 flows
  • · Self-hosted free; Cloud hosting $99/month add-on
EnterpriseContact sales
  • · Custom seats and collections, unlimited flows
  • · SAML/OIDC SSO, custom LLM, offline mode
  • · Dedicated support and SLA
  • · Contact sales for pricing

Tech Stacks with Directus

Jamstack with Astro and Headless CMS

Project

Fast, content-driven websites with minimal JavaScript. Astro handles static generation, a headless CMS of your choice (Sanity, Contentful, Strapi, or Directus) provides structured content, and the site deploys straight to a CDN edge host like Netlify or Vercel.

Astro
Astro

Frontend

TypeScript
TypeScript
HTML
HTML
CSS
CSS

Programming

Netlify
Netlify

Hosting

Directus
Directus

CMS

Details Sandbox
CMS:
Deploy on:
CI/CD add-on:
Observability add-on:
Styling add-on:
Interactivity add-on:
Analytics add-on:

Directus Self-Hosted

Infrastructure

Self-host Directus as a headless CMS and data platform that wraps a PostgreSQL database in auto-generated REST and GraphQL APIs. Docker keeps the deployment portable, and Directus can work over an existing database or create its own schema from the admin app.

PostgreSQL
PostgreSQL

Databases

Hetzner
Hetzner

Hosting

Docker
Docker

DevOps

Directus
Directus

CMS

Details Sandbox
Deploy on:
Reverse Proxy:
Self-Hosted PaaS:
Tunnel add-on:

Next.js + Headless CMS

Project

Fast, content-driven Next.js sites with minimal custom backend code. Next.js handles rendering via SSR or ISR, and your choice of headless CMS (Sanity, Contentful, Strapi, or Directus) provides structured content.

Next.js
Next.js
React
React

Frontend

TypeScript
TypeScript

Programming

Vercel
Vercel

Hosting

Directus
Directus

CMS

Details Sandbox
CMS:
Deploy on:
CI/CD add-on:
Containerization add-on:
Observability add-on:
Styling add-on:
Analytics add-on:

Tools Related to Directus

Integrates with Directus(5)

PostgreSQL

PostgreSQL

PostgreSQL is a free, open-source object-relational database known for reliability, standards compliance, and extensibility, with rich data types, JSONB, and a large ecosystem of extensions such as PostGIS and pgvector.

Open Source
Databases
5/5

Directus connects to an existing PostgreSQL database and turns its tables into a REST and GraphQL API with an admin app, without taking over the schema.

MySQL

MySQL

MySQL is the world's most popular open-source relational database, powering the majority of web applications. It offers a proven, high-performance SQL engine with broad ecosystem support across every major language and platform.

Freemium
Databases
4/5

Directus supports MySQL as its database, introspecting existing tables into its REST and GraphQL APIs and admin app.

SQLite

SQLite

SQLite is a self-contained, serverless SQL database engine that stores the entire database as a single file on disk. It is the most widely deployed database in the world, used in every smartphone and countless applications.

Open Source
Databases
3/5

Directus supports SQLite as its database, the zero-setup choice for local or small self-hosted Directus instances.

MariaDB

MariaDB

MariaDB is an open-source relational database forked from MySQL by its original creators, offering a fully GPL-licensed community server with an improved query optimizer, additional storage engines, and Galera Cluster for synchronous multi-master replication.

Open Source
Databases
3/5

Directus supports MariaDB as its database, wrapping existing tables in its REST and GraphQL APIs and admin app.

Railway

Railway

Modern PaaS for deploying apps, databases, and workers. Git-based deployment with infrastructure as code approach.

Usage Based
Hosting & Cloud
4/5

Directus publishes official one-click Railway templates (blank instance or CMS starter) bundling PostgreSQL, Redis, and S3-compatible storage.

Alternatives to Directus(6)

Strapi

Strapi

Open-source headless CMS that gives developers the freedom to use their favorite tools and frameworks.

Freemium
CMS
5/5

Both open-source self-hostable headless CMS; Strapi focuses on REST/GraphQL content APIs, Directus is more of a data platform and admin panel for any database.

Payload CMS

Payload CMS

Payload is an open-source, TypeScript-native headless CMS and full-stack framework that installs directly into any Next.js app, giving you a backend, admin panel, and content API with zero vendor lock-in.

Freemium
CMS
4/5

Directus and Payload are both open-source self-hostable headless CMS tools; Directus wraps existing databases while Payload defines content models as TypeScript code.

Contentful

Contentful

Contentful is a leading cloud-based headless CMS that decouples content from presentation, delivering structured content via REST and GraphQL APIs to any frontend or channel.

Freemium
CMS
4/5

Contentful is SaaS headless CMS; Directus is open-source and self-hostable as a data platform — similar API-first approach, different deployment models.

Sanity

Sanity

Headless CMS with a code-configured React editing studio, the GROQ query language, and a hosted real-time content store for structured content delivered through APIs.

Freemium
CMS
4/5

Sanity is content-first with GROQ query language; Directus is a database-agnostic data platform — Directus is closer to an admin panel than a pure CMS.

WordPress

WordPress

The most widely used CMS, running about 40% of all websites. Open-source PHP platform with a block editor, themes, and a plugin ecosystem, self-hosted or managed on WordPress.com.

Open Source
CMS
3/5

Directus is an open-source API-first data platform; WordPress is a traditional full-stack CMS — Directus is headless, WordPress bundles everything.

Ghost

Ghost

Ghost is an open-source publishing platform and headless CMS purpose-built for independent creators, newsletters, and membership-based content businesses.

Freemium
CMS
3/5

Directus is an open-source data platform with CMS features; Ghost is a publishing-focused platform — different primary audiences.

Links

Website Docs GitHub

Vendor

Directus

Tags

SQLOpen SourceSelf-hostableFree TierAPI DevelopmentContent Management

Details

Maintained
Yes
Type
Headless
API support
REST, GraphQL
Git-based
No
Hosting
Cloud & Self-hosted
GitHub stars
37.9k
Stars updated
2026-09-23