Pick Strapi if you want an MIT-licensed Community Edition with built-in roles and paid review workflows. Pick Directus if you want an admin studio over an existing SQL database and can accept a source-available licence with a free core tier and paid limits. Neither renders your website, sitemaps or redirects.
The short version
Pick Strapi if the licence matters to you and you want a straightforward MIT Community Edition. It ships Author, Editor and Super Admin roles on the free tier, and review workflows and audit logs are available on the Enterprise plan. Its paid Growth plan starts at $45 per month. One caution: code under Strapi’s ee/ directories is a separate Enterprise licence, so “MIT” covers the Community Edition, not everything in the repository.
Pick Directus if your developers want an admin studio and APIs over a SQL database they already run, and your lawyers are comfortable with a source-available licence. Self-hosting on the free core tier is permitted, but higher limits need a commercial licence, and the licence excludes competing use.
Both are headless, so the website, sitemaps, structured data and redirects stay with your front end. Read the profiles for Strapi and Directus. We have not installed either; this is a documentation review, not legal advice.
At a glance
| Feature | Strapi | Directus |
|---|---|---|
| Licence | MIT Expat (Community Edition); code under ee/ is Enterprise Edition, not MIT |
Monospace Sustainable Core License 1.0, source-available; adds GPL-3.0 on the fourth anniversary |
| Latest version | 5.57.0 (7 October 2026) | 12.5.0 (7 October 2026) |
| Written in | Runs on Node.js | Not documented on pages we cite |
| Hosting | Self-hosted; MySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL, SQLite | Self-hosted Docker image or managed cloud; seven SQL databases |
| Editorial roles/workflow | Author, Editor, Super Admin; Review Workflows Enterprise only | Roles and policies; per-collection versioning with Draft; staged review not documented |
| SEO & structured data | Not documented as built in | Not documented as built in |
| Multilingual | 500+ locales, one at a time | Translations field with languages collection |
| Headless/API | REST and GraphQL on all plans | REST and GraphQL, SDK |
| Typical cost | Community free; Growth $45/month with 3 seats | Core $0 (3 seats, 25 collections, 5 flows); Team $499 to $599/month |
| Best for | Teams wanting an MIT core and built-in roles | Teams with existing SQL data who accept a source-available licence |
What does each licence actually allow?
Strapi’s licence file says the Community Edition is provided under the MIT Expat licence, and that anything residing under an ee/ directory is the Enterprise Edition and not licensed under MIT Expat. So some features sit outside MIT, and the pricing page shows several of them as paid.
Directus is licensed under the Monospace Sustainable Core License 1.0, which its repository describes as source-available and derived from the Fair Core License. The file defines a Permitted Purpose as any purpose other than a Competing Use. A Competing Use means making the software available to a party that competes with the licensor’s commercial offerings of the software itself, where the licensor charges a fee. It also grants an additional GPL-3.0 licence on the fourth anniversary of the date the software is made available.
For a publisher running Directus behind its own site, that reads as ordinary internal use. For an agency or host reselling it, the Competing Use clause needs a lawyer. The commercial terms are separate: a self-hosted instance without a licence runs on the free core tier, higher limits and features need a commercial licence, and organisations with under $5M annual revenue and fewer than 50 employees can use the Open Innovation Grant. Seats count active Studio users; API-only users do not count. See the licence guide.
Editorial workflow
Strapi: three built-in roles, free Draft & Publish, scheduling through Releases (Growth or Enterprise), and four-stage Review Workflows on Enterprise.
Directus: roles carry any number of policies, which group permissions on collections and actions with item-level filters, field restrictions and validation rules. Content versioning is enabled per collection; the published view becomes read-only, editors work in a Draft version, and Publish shows a comparison. Permissions on directus_versions and directus_revisions must be granted separately. The pages we read describe no staged review or scheduled publishing, so we make no claim. The pricing page lists granular RBAC on Team.
What each leaves to the front end
Strapi needs a preview handler and a preview route your developers build. Directus’s Live Preview needs a Preview URL per collection, a CSP frame-src variable on Directus, a frame-ancestors header on your site, and a front end that renders the item page on request and reads the version parameter. A purely static build cannot preview without a dynamic route.
Both leave templates, sitemaps, Article or NewsArticle JSON-LD, canonical tags, feeds and redirects to your code. Neither profile found a built-in SEO module.
Search, structured data and feeds
Model author, dates, image and meta fields as content on either, then render the markup, sitemaps and redirect rules in your framework or CDN. Keep draft routes authenticated and out of search indexes. For Google News, use Google’s own documentation.
Hosting, performance and security
Strapi needs a supported Node.js LTS (v22, v24 or v26) and one of four SQL databases. Directus is distributed as a Docker image, supports the LTS versions of seven databases, and recommends Redis for caching, which is required for horizontal scaling. Its self-hosting documentation says you need Docker, server, database and backup experience; a managed cloud option exists. Both mean you own patching and backups when self-hosted.
Cost of ownership
Strapi: Community free; Growth $45 per month with three seats, $15 per extra seat; Enterprise custom. Directus: Core $0 with 3 seats, 25 collections and 5 flows; Team $499 per month billed annually or $599 monthly, with 10 SSO seats and 50 collections; SSO is not on Core. Neither page states a currency beside the figures, so confirm it. Add hosting, database, Redis for Directus, and front-end development. See the cost guide.
Migrating between them
We found no official Strapi-to-Directus migration tool. Both use SQL databases, but their schemas differ, so expect an API export, remodelled collections and redirects at the front end.
Which should you choose?
- Your policy requires an MIT or OSI-style licence for the core: Strapi, noting the
ee/code. - You have an existing SQL database you want to wrap: Directus.
- Built-in editor roles on the free tier: Strapi.
- Fine-grained item-level permissions: Directus, with configuration work.
- You resell or host for clients: read both licences with a lawyer first.
- Fewer than 50 staff and under $5M revenue: Directus’s grant may cover commercial use.
Related: Strapi vs Payload, Strapi vs Sanity and the comparison hub.
Questions people ask
Is Directus open source like Strapi?
Not in the same way. Strapi's Community Edition is MIT-licensed, though code under an ee/ directory is a separate Enterprise licence. Directus describes its Monospace Sustainable Core License as source-available. Self-hosting is allowed, but a Competing Use is excluded, and the licence adds GPL-3.0 after four years.
Can a publisher self-host Directus for free?
Per the licensing documentation, self-hosted instances without a licence run on the free core tier. The pricing page lists Core with 3 seats, 25 collections and 5 flows. Organisations under $5M revenue with fewer than 50 employees can apply for the Open Innovation Grant.
Can an agency resell a hosted Directus or Strapi?
Directus's licence excludes a Competing Use, meaning making the software available to parties that compete with the licensor's paid offering of the software itself. Ask a lawyer and the vendor first. Strapi's Community Edition is MIT, but code under ee/ is not.
Which one has better editorial workflow?
Strapi has built-in roles, Draft & Publish and, on Enterprise, four-stage Review Workflows. Directus has roles and policies with item-level permissions and per-collection content versioning. The Directus pages we read describe no staged review or scheduled publishing, so we make no claim either way.
Which supports more databases?
Directus. It supports PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQLite, MS SQL Server, MariaDB, CockroachDB and OracleDB. Strapi supports MySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL and SQLite, and not MongoDB or other NoSQL databases.
Sources
- Strapi's Community Edition is provided under the MIT Expat licence; any component residing under an ee/ directory is the Enterprise Edition and is not licensed under MIT Expat. — source, checked 10 October 2026.
- The latest Strapi release on GitHub is v5.57.0, published 7 October 2026. — source, checked 10 October 2026.
- Supported databases are MySQL (minimum 8.0), MariaDB (minimum 10.3), PostgreSQL (minimum 14.0) and SQLite 3; Strapi does not support MongoDB or other NoSQL databases. — source, checked 10 October 2026.
- The self-hosted pricing page lists Community as free, Growth at $45 per month including 3 seats (+$15 per month per extra seat), and Enterprise at custom pricing. — source, checked 10 October 2026.
- On the pricing page, Live Preview and Releases are marked for Growth and Enterprise, Content History is 14 days on Growth, and Review Workflows and Audit Logs are marked for Enterprise only; all plans include REST and GraphQL APIs and role-based access control. — source, checked 10 October 2026.
- Review Workflows are available exclusively on the Enterprise plan; the default workflow has four stages (To do, In progress, Ready to review, Reviewed) and each stage has configurable roles allowed to move content into and out of it. — source, checked 10 October 2026.
- Draft & Publish is a free feature; entries are Draft, Modified or Published, and scheduled publication is done by including an entry in a Release, which requires the Growth or Enterprise plan. — source, checked 10 October 2026.
- Preview needs a preview handler configured in /config/admin.ts and a front-end preview route that the front-end developer builds; the free plan has full-screen preview only, while Live Preview with side-by-side and inline editing is on Growth and Enterprise. — source, checked 10 October 2026.
- Strapi provides three built-in admin roles (Author, Editor, Super Admin) and role-based access control is a free feature. — source, checked 10 October 2026.
- Strapi's internationalization is a free feature with a pre-created list of 500+ locales; content is managed one locale at a time, and AI translation needs the Growth or Enterprise plan. — source, checked 10 October 2026.
- Directus is licensed under the Monospace Sustainable Core License (MSCL) 1.0, described in the repository as a source-available licence derived from the Fair Core License. — source, checked 10 October 2026.
- The licence file defines a Permitted Purpose as any purpose other than a Competing Use, and defines Competing Use as making the Software available to any party, on its own or with your products or services, that competes with the licensor's commercial offerings of the Software itself where the licensor charges a fee for exercise of any rights to the Software. — source, checked 10 October 2026.
- The licence file grants an additional GNU GPL version 3 licence effective on the fourth anniversary of the date the software is made available, and carries the line 'Copyright 2026 Monospace Inc.' — source, checked 10 October 2026.
- The latest Directus release on GitHub is v12.5.0, published 7 October 2026. — source, checked 10 October 2026.
- Self-hosted instances without a licence run on the free core tier; higher limits and additional features require a commercial licence; free commercial use is available through the Open Innovation Grant for entities with less than $5M in annual revenue and fewer than 50 employees. — source, checked 10 October 2026.
- A seat is consumed by each active Studio user, meaning a user with at least one policy with App Access or Admin Access; API-only users do not count toward the seat limit. — source, checked 10 October 2026.
- Directus's pricing page lists Core at $0 per month (3 user seats, 25 collections, 5 flows), Team at $499 per month billed annually or $599 per month billed monthly (10 SSO seats, 50 collections, granular RBAC) and Enterprise at custom pricing; SSO is not available on Core. — source, checked 10 October 2026.
- Directus supports the Long-Term Support versions of PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQLite, MS SQL Server, MariaDB, CockroachDB and OracleDB, is distributed as a Docker image, and recommends Redis for caching, which is required for horizontal scaling. — source, checked 10 October 2026.
- Directus connects to your database, asset storage and external services and provides REST and GraphQL APIs, an SDK, real-time capabilities, authentication, file management, automations and a web app for data management. — source, checked 10 October 2026.
- With content versioning enabled per collection, the published view is read-only, editors switch to a reserved Draft version, and Publish opens a comparison modal; permissions on directus_versions and directus_revisions must be granted separately. — source, checked 10 October 2026.
- Live Preview needs a Preview URL per collection, a CSP frame-src environment variable on Directus, a frame-ancestors header on the website, and a front end that renders the item page on load rather than only at build time and can read the version query parameter. — source, checked 10 October 2026.
- Directus access control uses roles, which can have any number of policies; policies group permissions on collections and actions, with item-level filters, field restrictions, validation rules and presets. — source, checked 10 October 2026.
- Content translations use a translations field backed by a languages collection and a junction collection, with an optional Translate with AI button and automatic right-to-left rendering in the studio. — source, checked 10 October 2026.