Astro renders static sites fast. But if you need non-developers editing content, you need a CMS — or at least, something that feels like one. The 2026 landscape splits into four camps: hosted Sanity (dead-simple UI, dead-expensive at scale), self-hosted Strapi (feature-complete, operationally heavy), Tina (Git-based, small teams only), and pure JSON files (no vendor lock, no UI, just discipline).
Each answers a different question: How many editors? How much infrastructure appetite? How much budget? Pick wrong and you're either paying $500/month for a 5-person blog or maintaining a Docker fleet for three staff.
The Four Options
Sanity — The No-Brainer (Until You See the Bill)
Hosted, GraphQL, absurdly polished editor UI. Editors login, see a beautiful form, publish. Zero infrastructure. Your developers write the schema in JavaScript, and Sanity generates the UI automatically.
But here's the catch: the pricing tier that covers "real usage" ($99/month+) scales with API calls. If you have 100 editors or 1M monthly site visits, you're looking at $300–500/month easy. For small teams, unbeatable. For scaling, brutal.
Strapi — The Full-Powered Self-Host
Self-hosted Node.js / PostgreSQL. You get everything: REST and GraphQL APIs, a beautiful admin panel, role-based access, webhooks, media management. The trade-off is operational: you're running a full Node app + database. Docker Compose locally, but production means VPS or Kubernetes.
Strapi shines for large teams and complex workflows (editorial calendar, approval chains, multi-locale content). But if you're a solo operator or small agency, the DevOps tax isn't worth it.
Tina — Git-Based, Small-Team Friendly
Tina lives in your git repo. Editors open a visual interface, make changes, and Tina commits them as JSON files back to git. No database, no backend—just your repo and Tina's managed UI layer. CI/CD picks up the commits, rebuilds Astro, redeploys.
Perfect for 2–10 person teams and technical content (dev blogs, API docs). The catch: Tina's visual editing has limits. Complex content relationships and large media libraries feel awkward. And you're paying Tina Cloud ($20–50/month) for the hosted editor UI.
JSON Files — Velocity X's Path
No CMS. Editors (who must be technical or willing to learn JSON) edit brand.json and category/item JSONs directly in git or via a dead-simple web UI you build yourself.
This scales down to $0/month infrastructure. For Rebuild Relief (3 internal staff, tight scope), JSON + git is unbeatable. The downside: non-technical stakeholders will ask, "Why isn't there a pretty form?" Answer: because you don't have $200/month lying around and you'd rather spend that on product.
Decision Tree
Got 5+ non-technical editors and a $5K annual budget? Sanity. Bite the cost, ship the UI, move on.
Building a multi-brand SaaS with complex workflows? Strapi. You need the features and can afford the DevOps.
Small team, technical, shipping fast? Tina or JSON. Tina if you want a visual editor; JSON if you want zero vendor lock.
Internal tool for a single organization? JSON. Ship a brand.json loader in Astro, done in a day. See our pricing for how we price this kind of simplicity.
The Six FAQs
Can I start with JSON and migrate to Sanity later?
Yes, but it's not free. You'll write a migration script that reads JSON, shapes it into Sanity's schema, and pushes it. Feasible but tedious. Better to pick early and commit.
Does Strapi play nicely with Astro?
Perfectly. Astro fetches from Strapi's API at build time, generates static HTML. No coupling, no performance penalty.
What if my editor updates content while Astro is building?
It'll pick up the next build. If you need real-time updates, you need ISR (Incremental Static Regeneration) or server-side rendering—Astro supports both, but then you're not fully static anymore.
Can I use Sanity's free tier for production?
Technically, yes. But it's 10GB total bandwidth per month and 5 concurrent requests. First traffic spike will throttle your site. Not recommended past hobby projects.
Does Tina work with monorepos?
Yes, but you'll need to configure Tina Cloud to point to the right sub-repo path. It adds complexity if you're managing multiple Astro sites in one repo.
What about Prismic, Contentful, or other headless CMS options?
They exist and work with Astro. Prismic is cheaper than Sanity ($20/month to start); Contentful is enterprise (overkill for most teams). The four above cover 95% of real-world needs.
The Verdict
If you're shipping a portfolio, blog, or internal tool: JSON files. Dead simple, zero cost, zero vendor lock. Build a 20-line JSON validator in your build script and you're golden. See how we wire AI context around brand.json to understand the pattern's power.
For paying customers and scaling teams, Sanity wins on ease but Strapi wins on value. Tina lands in the middle—useful if git-as-backend aligns with your team's workflow. Pick the one that costs least in developer time, not the one with the prettiest logo.