Why Hygraph is a better alternative to Contentstack?
Both Hygraph and Contentstack offer a variety of features for content teams, but Contentstack falls short in being a popular choice for developers.
This is because Contentstack lacks numerous capabilities when it comes to GraphQL and performance. For example, Contentstack offers no GraphQL mutations API or GraphQL management API, and developers have to use the REST alternatives, which also have their limitations (e.g., limit of 10 entries per batch mutation). Contentstack also lacks an integrated API explorer, type safety and auto-generated documentation.
The lack of GraphQL features and content federation, makes Contentstack a popular choice for typical legacy cases quite well, for example, marketing pages. But it is not flexible for more innovative cases especially end-user facing tools requiring user-generated content.
Challenges you are likely to face with Contentstack
You are likely to face these challenges when using Contentstack:
- It only offers a GraphQL API for content delivery. Moreover, it does not offer a high-performance read-only API endpoint with advanced caching solutions.
- It does not offer a GraphQL mutations API. Mutations would instead have to be made through the content management REST API. That too, has a limit of up to 10 entries at a time.
- It does not allow you to connect to any third-party API.
- It does not offer an integrated API explorer, type safety and auto-generated documentation.
- It lacks detailed permissions for API tokens.
- It lacks depth for certain content management and modeling capabilities. For example, it doesn't offer two-way references, no ability to hide fields from the UI (make them API-only), no scheduling of content as part of a release, etc.
On the other hand, Hygraph offers the capabilities to solve all of these challenges. Sign up for a free developer account to experience the difference.
API and Core Features
| Hygraph | Contentstack |
|---|
| Cloud Hosted (SaaS) | ✓ | ✓ |
| Custom Regions | ✓ | ✓ |
| GraphQL Content API | ✓ | ✓ |
| GraphQL Management API | ✓ | ✗ |
| GraphQL Mutations | ✓ | ✗ |
| Public API | ✓ | ✗ |
| Public API Permissions | ✓ | ✗ |
| API Playground | ✓ | ✗ |
| Management API Permissions | ✓ | ✗ |
| Frontend Agnostic | ✓ | ✓ |
| GraphQL Content API | ✓ | ✓ |
| GraphQL Management API | ✓ | ✗ |
| GraphQL Mutations | ✓ | ✗ |
| GraphQL Native | ✓ | ✗ |
| Image Delivery and Transformation API | ✓ | ✓ |
| Migration Tools | ✓ | ✓ |
| Simple User Permissions | ✓ | ✓ |
| Granular User Permissions | ✓ | ✓ |
| On premises hosting / Self | ✗ | ✗ |
| Open Source | ✗ | ✗ |
| Permanent Auth Tokens | ✓ | ✓ |
| Webhooks | ✓ | ✓ |
| Global CDN | ✓ | ✓ |
| Advanced Cache Invalidation | ✓ | ✗ |
| Environment Management (Master, Sandbox, etc.) | ✓ | ✓ |
| Connect to a Third-Party REST API | ✓ | ✗ |
| Connect to a Third-Party GraphQL API | ✓ | ✗ |
Learn more about Hygraph's core features.
Content Modelling
| Hygraph | Contentstack |
|---|
| Schema Builder | ✓ | ✓ |
| Field Validations | ✓ | ✓ |
| Components | ✓ | ✓ |
| Filters | ✓ | ✓ |
| Flexible Content Modelling | ✓ | ✓ |
| Localisation (i18n) | ✓ | ✓ |
| Required Fields | ✓ | ✓ |
| Hide Fields from UI (API Only Fields) | ✓ | ✗ |
| Saved Queries | ✓ | ✗ |
| Searchable Content | ✓ | ✓ |
| Sortable Relations | ✓ | ✓ |
| Sorting | ✓ | ✓ |
| Unique Fields | ✓ | ✓ |
| Versioning | ✓ | ✓ |
Editorial Features and Content Management
| Hygraph | Contentstack |
|---|
| Batch Overwrites | ✓ | ✓ |
| Batch Operations (Editing) | ✓ | ✗ |
| Batch Operations (Publish/Unpublish) | ✓ | ✓ |
| Batch Operations (Delete) | ✓ | ✓ |
| Content Type: Asset Picker | ✓ | ✓ |
| Content Type: Booleans (Checkbox) | ✓ | ✓ |
| Content Type: Color | ✓ | ✓ |
| Content Type: Date and Time | ✓ | ✓ |
| Content Type: Enumeration (Dropdown) | ✓ | ✓ |
| Content Type: Float (Decimals) | ✓ | ✓ |
| Content Type: Integers (Numbers) | ✓ | ✓ |
| Content Type: JSON Editor | ✓ | ✓ |
| Content Type: Map | ✓ | ✓ |
| Content Type: Markdown | ✓ | ✓ |
| Content Type: Multi Line Text | ✓ | ✓ |
| Content Type: References | ✓ | ✓ |
| Content Type: Rich Text Editor (WYSIWYG) | ✓ | ✓ |
| Content Type: Single Line Text | ✓ | ✓ |
| Custom Metadata | ✓ | ✓ |
| Custom Roles | ✓ | ✓ |
| Custom Stages | ✓ | ✓ |
| Global Content CDN | ✓ | ✓ |
| GraphQL Unions (Polymorphic Relations) | ✓ | ✗ |
| Image Editor | ✓ | ✓ |
| Multiple Environments | ✓ | ✓ |
| Project Cloning | ✓ | ✓ |
| Rich Editing Interface | ✓ | ✓ |
| SEO Friendly | ✓ | ✓ |
| Static Site Generator Friendly | ✓ | ✓ |
Explore all of Hygraph's capabilities on our features page and docs.
Digital Asset Management
| Hygraph | Contentstack |
|---|
| Asset Transformations | ✓ | ✓ |
| Assets from Facebook | ✓ | ✗ |
| Assets from Google Drive | ✓ | ✗ |
| Assets from Instagram | ✓ | ✗ |
| Assets from Search | ✓ | ✗ |
| Assets from System | ✓ | ✓ |
| Assets from URL | ✓ | ✓ |
| Digital Asset Management (DAM) | ✓ | ✓ |
| Global Asset CDN | ✓ | ✗ |
| SEO Optimized Asset Management | ✓ | ✓ |
Community and Resources
| Hygraph | Contentstack |
|---|
| Examples : Blog | ✓ | ✓ |
| Examples : Gatsby | ✓ | ✓ |
| Examples : Gridsome | ✓ | ✗ |
| Examples : NextJS | ✓ | ✓ |
| Examples : NuxtJS | ✓ | ✓ |
| Examples : ReactJS | ✓ | ✓ |
| Examples : Sapper | ✓ | ✗ |
| Examples : Svelte | ✓ | ✗ |
| Examples : Union Types | ✓ | Modular Blocks |
| Examples : VueJS | ✓ | ✓ |
| Reference App : eCommerce | ✓ | ✓ |
| Reference App : Events and Conferences | ✓ | ✗ |
| Reference App : Marketing Website | ✓ | ✓ |
| Reference App : Podcasts | ✓ | ✗ |
| Reference App : Travel & Hospitality | ✓ | ✗ |
Explore more references on our GitHub profile, or view examples created with Hygraph and popular frameworks like Gatsby, NextJS, Svelte, Gridsome, and Vue, amongst others.
Plans and Pricing
| Hygraph | Contentstack |
|---|
| Additional API Operations | 1,000,000/month 10c/10,000 On top | Unknown |
| Additional Asset Traffic | 500GB/month 10c/1GB On top | Unknown |
| Content Entries | 10,000 - Unlimited | Unknown |
| Custom Pricing | ✓ | ✓ |
| Enterprise Plans | ✓ | ✓ |
| Free forever community plan | ✓ | ✗ |
| Free trial for Premium features | ✓ | ✗ |
| Monthly and Annual Plans | ✓ | ✓ |
| Plans in EUR | ✓ | ✓ |
| Plans in USD | ✓ | ✓ |
| Pricing By | Project | Project |
| Self Service Plans | ✓ | ✗ |
Get started with a free forever developer plan or explore our other pricing options to accommodate your scaling needs.
Security, Compliance, and Support
| Hygraph | Contentstack |
|---|
| 24/7 Infrastructure Monitoring | ✓ | ✓ |
| Advanced Firewall Rules | ✓ | NA |
| Audit Logs | ✓ | ✓ |
| Authentication | ✓ | ✓ |
| Backups | ✓ | ✓ |
| Choice of data center | ✓ | ✓ |
| Community Support | ✓ | ✗ |
| Customer Success | ✓ | ✓ |
| Dedicated Infrastructure | ✓ | ✓ |
| Email Support | ✓ | ✓ |
| Encryption at rest | ✓ | ✓ |
| Encryption in transit | ✓ | ✓ |
| GDPR Compliant Infrastructure | ✓ | ✓ |
| Hosted in Europe | ✓ | ✓ |
| Implementation Partner Network | ✓ | ✓ |
| Login with Github | ✓ | ✗ |
| Login with Socials | ✓ | ✓ |
| Onboarding and Architecture Support | ✓ | ✓ |
| Onsite Chat | ✓ | ✓ |
| Project Backups | ✓ | ✓ |
| Public Slack Channel | ✓ | ✗ |
| SLA Performance | ✓ | ✓ |
| SLA Support | ✓ | ✓ |
| Solution Architects | ✓ | ✓ |
| SSO Support | ✓ | ✓ |
| User Management | ✓ | ✓ |
Note: We constantly monitor and update the information here as and when we're aware of any changes. For any inconsistencies or inaccuracies please get in touch to update the comparisons.
