Best Headless CMS for Agencies in 2026 — Multi-Client, Multi-Brand Delivery Compared

There is no single "best headless CMS for agencies." The right choice depends on your delivery model, client profile, and margin structure. After evaluating ten platforms against agency-specific criteria — multi-client isolation, RBAC depth, workflow maturity, preview architecture, reusability, TCO, and client handoff — here is our 2026 shortlist:

• Best for fast SMB marketing sites at scale: Storyblok
• Best for enterprise clients with strict governance: Contentful or Contentstack
• Best for multi-brand / multi-site portfolios: Sanity
• Best for agencies that hand off to client teams: Storyblok or Prismic
• Best open-source / self-hosted to protect margins: Payload CMS or Strapi

Every platform on this list has meaningful trade-offs. The sections below break down what agencies actually need, the hidden costs most teams miss, and platform-specific strengths and constraints — all verified against official documentation as of February 2026.

Best Headless CMS for Agencies in 2026 — Quick Verdict

This is the best headless cms for agencies 2026 quick-reference. Each pick is expanded in the Shortlist section below.

What Agencies Actually Need From a Headless CMS

Agency requirements differ from product-company requirements. You are not managing one product — you are managing dozens of client environments, each with its own content model, permissions, publishing cadence, and budget. Here is what matters most.

Multi-Client Isolation (Orgs / Spaces / Projects)

Every client needs its own content sandbox. In Contentful, this means separate Spaces within an Organization. In Sanity, separate Projects under an Organization. In Storyblok, separate Spaces. In Strapi or Payload (self-hosted), separate instances or database-per-client deployments. The isolation model directly affects billing, security, and operational overhead. Platforms that charge per-space or per-project multiply costs as your client roster grows.

Reusable Components, Templates, and Design System Governance

Agencies ship faster when they reuse battle-tested components. Storyblok's component blueprints and space-cloning features are purpose-built for this. Sanity's schema-as-code approach lets you version-control and share content models across projects via npm packages. Payload's config-driven model works similarly in a monorepo setup. For visual component reuse, Storyblok and Prismic (Slices) lead.

Permissions, Roles, and Client-Friendly RBAC

Client teams need a simple editing experience with guardrails. Custom roles, field-level permissions, and content-type restrictions prevent accidental damage. Contentful and Contentstack offer the deepest RBAC on paid plans. Sanity's custom roles require the Enterprise plan. Storyblok offers custom roles starting on its Growth Plus tier. Strapi's self-hosted Enterprise edition and Payload's code-level access control both offer granular permissions without per-seat pricing.

Workflows, Approvals, and Scheduled Publishing

Content approval workflows reduce the support burden after handoff. Contentful, Storyblok, Contentstack, and DatoCMS all offer staged workflows on paid plans. Sanity's workflow support is achievable via its document-actions API and the Sanity Workflow plugin but requires configuration. Strapi added a review-workflows feature in its Enterprise edition. Scheduled publishing is available on most paid tiers but varies in granularity.

Preview Architecture Across Environments

Agencies need to show clients how content will look before it goes live. This requires draft/preview APIs, environment management (staging, production, branch deploys), and integration with frontend hosting (Vercel, Netlify, Cloudflare Pages). Contentful provides Preview API endpoints and up to multiple environments depending on plan. Sanity's real-time previews via Presentation tool and Content Source Maps are strong. Storyblok's visual editor is an embedded preview by design. Payload and Strapi require you to build preview routing, but you control the entire flow.

Localization and Multi-Region Delivery

For agencies serving multi-language or multi-market clients, native locale support matters. Contentful, Sanity, DatoCMS, and Storyblok all support field-level localization. Prismic supports locales but caps them by plan tier. Hygraph supports localization natively. Strapi v5 and Payload both support i18n with configurable locale fields. The real cost question: how many locales are included before you pay extra?

Integrations (DAM, Analytics, Forms, CRM)

Agencies need the CMS to connect to client-side tools — Cloudinary or Bynder for assets, HubSpot or Salesforce for CRM, Google Analytics for measurement, and various form and e-commerce platforms. Contentful's app marketplace is the largest. Storyblok's app ecosystem is growing. Sanity and Payload rely more on custom integrations via webhooks and APIs, which is flexible but adds development time.

Content Migration and Repeated Delivery Playbooks

Agencies migrate content frequently — from WordPress, from another headless CMS, or from spreadsheets. Platforms with strong import APIs (Contentful's Content Management API, Sanity's CLI and mutation API, Strapi's import plugins) reduce migration costs. Having a repeatable project-setup playbook — clone a starter, configure content model, seed sample content, invite client — is critical for delivery speed.

Billing Predictability and Handoff Readiness

Agencies need to know the total cost before quoting a project. Seat-based pricing surprises you when a client adds five editors. Usage-based pricing (API calls, bandwidth) creates margin risk on high-traffic sites. Self-hosted platforms like Strapi and Payload shift cost to infrastructure, which you control. Client handoff readiness — good editor documentation, in-app help, simple role assignment — reduces your post-launch support burden.

The Hidden Costs Agencies Miss (And How to Model TCO)

Most agencies evaluate CMS platforms on features and skip the financial modeling. Here are the cost traps that erode margins.

Seat-based pricing vs. client access needs. Contentful charges per-seat on paid plans. Sanity Growth charges $15/user/month. Storyblok plans include a user cap (5 on Growth, 15 on Growth Plus). When you hand off to a client team of 8 editors plus 3 stakeholders, those seats add up. Strapi self-hosted and Payload have no per-seat licensing on the open-source tier, which is a structural advantage for agencies managing many client accounts.

Environment limits and preview complexity. Contentful's Free plan includes only 2 environments. Sanity Growth includes 2 datasets. Each additional dataset on Sanity costs $999/year. If you need production, staging, and a feature branch environment per client, the per-environment cost multiplies quickly. Storyblok charges per-space, and each space has its own plan — there is no shared environment pool across clients.

Usage-based pricing affecting margins. Sanity Growth includes 250K API requests and 1M API CDN requests per month per project. Contentful Basic includes 2M API calls/month. High-traffic marketing sites can blow through these limits. You either absorb the overage cost or pass it to the client — both carry risk. On Sanity, exceeding quotas on the Free plan blocks public API access entirely.

Plugin and custom field maintenance tax. Custom plugins, field extensions, and integrations require maintenance whenever the CMS ships a major version. Strapi v4 to v5 migration required significant plugin updates. Storyblok's app framework is stable but custom apps need testing against platform updates. Budget 10–20% of initial build cost annually for maintenance.

Vendor lock-in and long-term portability. Content stored in proprietary formats is harder to extract. Contentful's structured JSON is portable via their Management API. Sanity's Content Lake uses GROQ or GraphQL for export. Strapi and Payload store content in standard databases (PostgreSQL, MongoDB) — you own the data directly. Evaluate export capabilities before committing.

Support and SLA needs for enterprise clients. Enterprise clients often require SLAs with uptime guarantees. Contentful's Gold Support starts at $19K/year list price. Sanity and Storyblok offer priority support on Enterprise tiers. If you are reselling the CMS as part of a managed service, factor the support tier cost into your pricing model.

How to model TCO: For each client project, calculate: (base plan cost) + (additional seats × per-seat price) + (additional environments/spaces) + (estimated API/bandwidth overages) + (support tier if required) + (annual maintenance hours × your blended rate). Compare this total against self-hosted alternatives where infrastructure cost replaces licensing cost.

Evaluation Scorecard for Agencies (Weighted)

Use this weighted scorecard to compare platforms against your agency's priorities. Weights reflect the relative importance of each criterion for multi-client agency delivery.

Score each platform 1–5 per criterion, multiply by weight, and sum for a weighted total. Adjust weights based on your agency's specific delivery model — an agency focused on enterprise compliance should increase Governance weight, while a high-volume SMB factory should increase Reusability and TCO weights.

Shortlist — Best Headless CMS Platforms for Agencies (2026)

Storyblok

Overview: A SaaS headless CMS with an integrated visual editor, component-based content modeling, and per-space pricing.

Best-fit agency profile: Agencies building marketing sites for SMB and mid-market clients where editors need visual, drag-and-drop content assembly. Strong for site factories where component reuse and space cloning accelerate delivery.

Strengths for agency delivery: The visual editor is the strongest client-handoff feature of any platform on this list — editors see exactly what they are building. Component blueprints and space duplication enable fast project setup. Field-level access control and custom roles (Growth Plus and above) provide adequate governance for most client scenarios. Support for all major frontend frameworks (Next.js, Nuxt, Astro, SvelteKit).

Engineering notes: REST API is available on all plans; GraphQL Content Delivery API is gated to Premium and above. Webhook support for build triggers. Environments and content staging pipelines available on higher tiers. The visual editor requires the Storyblok bridge script in your frontend, which adds a small integration requirement but is well-documented.

Constraints / plan gating: Pricing is per-space, meaning each client project is a separate subscription. Growth starts at €99/mo per space (5 users, 4 locales). Growth Plus at €349/mo adds 15 users, scheduling, and more locales. Custom roles, SSO, and the GraphQL API require Premium (custom pricing). API request and traffic limits tightened in the November 2025 pricing update. [Source: storyblok.com/pricing, 2025 Pricing Factsheet]

When NOT to choose it: When you need GraphQL on every project without paying for Premium. When your client portfolio exceeds 20+ spaces and per-space pricing becomes prohibitive. When you need deep programmatic content modeling — Storyblok's component system is visual-first, which can feel limiting for complex data structures.

Sanity

Overview: A developer-centric headless CMS with a real-time Content Lake, customizable React-based Studio, and schema-as-code content modeling.

Best-fit agency profile: Developer-led agencies building complex, multi-brand portfolios where content models vary significantly across clients. Strong for agencies that want to version-control their CMS schema alongside their frontend code.

Strengths for agency delivery: Schema-as-code is shareable via npm packages across projects — excellent for multi-brand agencies with shared component libraries. Real-time collaboration in the Studio. Presentation tool and Content Source Maps provide strong live preview. GROQ query language is powerful and flexible. The Content Lake architecture handles complex relational content well.

Engineering notes: GROQ and GraphQL APIs available. Supports any frontend framework. Sanity's real-time listener enables live-updating previews. Visual Editing (Presentation) works with Next.js, Nuxt, Remix, and SvelteKit. Each project is a separate billing entity under an organization. Private datasets require Growth or higher. Sanity has invested heavily in AI content agents (released 2025).

Constraints / plan gating: Growth plan is $15/user/month. Free plan limited to 1 dataset, 10K documents, 20 users (public datasets only). Growth includes 2 datasets (additional at $999/year each), 25K documents (hard cap — no overage, must upgrade to Enterprise to exceed). SSO and custom roles require Enterprise plan (custom pricing). API CDN requests on Growth: 1M/month — exceeding this on Free blocks public API access. [Source: sanity.io/pricing, sanity.io/docs/platform-management/plans-and-payments]

When NOT to choose it: When your editors are non-technical and need visual editing out of the box (the Studio is powerful but requires React knowledge to customize). When you need more than 25K documents per project without jumping to Enterprise pricing. When per-user pricing compounds across many small client projects.

Contentful

Overview: A mature SaaS content platform (self-described as a composable content platform) with extensive enterprise features, a large app marketplace, and strong multi-space organization support.

Best-fit agency profile: Agencies serving enterprise clients that require SSO, audit logs, advanced RBAC, SLA-backed uptime, and multi-space coordination. Also suitable when clients already have Contentful and need agency delivery support.

Strengths for agency delivery: Most mature RBAC and governance features in the market. Custom roles, embargoed assets, and localized workflows on Premium plans. Contentful Studio (visual assembly) adds no-code page building. Large app ecosystem reduces integration build time. Connected Spaces enable content sharing across organizational boundaries. Strong partner program with agency-specific resources.

Engineering notes: REST and GraphQL APIs. Preview API for draft content. Up to 100+ environments on Premium plans (varies by space type). CLI tools for content migration and environment management. Supports all major frontend frameworks. Contentful's Rich Text field outputs structured JSON, which requires a renderer but provides clean portability.

Constraints / plan gating: Free plan: 10 users, 2 roles, 2 locales. Basic (Lite) plan: $300/month, 20 users, 3 roles, 3 locales. Premium plans start at ~$60K/year (list price, negotiable). Additional spaces, environments, and support tiers are priced separately. Seat costs add up on multi-team projects. Studio (visual page builder) is an add-on. [Source: contentful.com/pricing, contentful.com/help/admin/usage/usage-limit]

When NOT to choose it: When your client base is SMBs and the $300/mo minimum per space makes projects unprofitable. When you need visual editing out of the box without paying for Studio add-ons. When you want to self-host for cost control.

Strapi

Overview: The leading open-source headless CMS, available as self-hosted (free, MIT-licensed core) or via Strapi Cloud (managed hosting starting at $15/project/month).

Best-fit agency profile: Agencies that want maximum cost control through self-hosting. Strong for WordPress migration projects where the agency controls infrastructure. Good for agencies building recurring revenue through hosting and managed services.

Strengths for agency delivery: Self-hosted model means no per-seat licensing on the Community edition. Full data ownership — content lives in your PostgreSQL or MySQL database. Content-Type Builder makes model setup fast. REST and GraphQL APIs out of the box. Large plugin ecosystem. Strapi Cloud now offers project ownership transfer (ideal for client handoff). 2026 roadmap focuses on developer experience and UX improvements.

Engineering notes: Node.js runtime, supports PostgreSQL (recommended), MySQL, MariaDB, and SQLite. Strapi v5 is the current major version (TypeScript-first). Cloud plans: Free, Essential ($15/mo), Pro ($99/mo), Scale ($159/mo). CMS feature licenses (Growth tier for workflow, SSO, review workflows) are separate from hosting and start at additional cost. Self-hosted Enterprise edition adds RBAC, SSO, audit logs, and review workflows.

Constraints / plan gating: No native multi-tenant architecture — each client is a separate Strapi instance (or database), increasing ops overhead. Cloud Essential plan API limit reduced to 50K requests/month for new subscriptions after December 2025. Growth CMS license for workflow features is a separate monthly charge. Self-hosting requires DevOps capacity. Plugin ecosystem can lag behind major version releases. [Source: strapi.io/pricing-cloud, strapi.io/pricing-cms, strapi.io/blog/introducing-yearly-plans-and-new-limits-for-strapi-cloud]

When NOT to choose it: When you lack DevOps capacity for self-hosting and your Cloud budget is limited. When you need native multi-tenant management from a single dashboard. When enterprise governance (SSO, audit logs) is required but you don't want to pay for the Enterprise edition.

Payload CMS

Overview: An open-source, code-first headless CMS and application framework built on Next.js, TypeScript, and React.

Best-fit agency profile: Agencies with strong Next.js expertise that want full-stack control. Ideal for agencies building custom applications where the CMS is part of a larger platform, not just a content store.

Strengths for agency delivery: Runs inside your Next.js app — no separate CMS server. Code-level access control (field-level, collection-level, document-level) with zero per-seat costs on the open-source tier. Supports PostgreSQL and MongoDB. Local API (server-side, no HTTP overhead) is extremely fast. Admin panel is fully customizable with React components. Versions, drafts, and autosave built in.

Engineering notes: Self-hosted only — deploy on Vercel, AWS, Railway, Cloudflare, or any Node.js host. REST and GraphQL APIs auto-generated from config. Built-in file uploads with S3/Cloudflare R2 adapter support. Live preview support via the Preview feature. Localization built-in. The monorepo model works well for agencies sharing schemas across projects.

Constraints / plan gating: No managed SaaS — you own hosting and ops. Cloud-hosted Payload is available via Payload Cloud (Standard at $35/mo, Pro at $199/mo) but the primary value proposition is self-hosting. Smaller community compared to Strapi or Contentful. Tightly coupled to Next.js — other frameworks (Astro, Nuxt) can consume the API but don't get local-API benefits. Enterprise plan pricing is custom. [Source: payloadcms.com, payloadcms.com/get-started]

When NOT to choose it: When your agency standardizes on Nuxt or Astro and wants the CMS tightly integrated with the framework. When your team lacks Next.js experience. When the client needs a fully managed SaaS CMS with zero infrastructure responsibility.

Hygraph

Overview: A GraphQL-native SaaS headless CMS with Content Federation — the ability to aggregate data from external APIs into a unified GraphQL schema.

Best-fit agency profile: Agencies building data-rich applications that aggregate content from multiple sources (PIM, commerce, DAM). Strong for projects that benefit from a unified GraphQL layer across systems.

Strengths for agency delivery: Content Federation is unique — query your CMS, Shopify catalog, and PIM data through a single GraphQL endpoint. Native GraphQL means strong typing and efficient queries. Localization, webhooks, and asset management built in. Supports granular permissions on Enterprise plans.

Engineering notes: GraphQL-only (no REST API). Management SDK and MCP server for programmatic schema management. Environments and content stages available. Works with any frontend framework that supports GraphQL.

Constraints / plan gating: Free plan: 3 users, 500K API calls/month. Growth plan starts at $199/month for 10 users, 1M API calls. SSO, custom roles, and audit logs require Scale or Enterprise pricing. The GraphQL-only approach increases onboarding time for teams unfamiliar with GraphQL. Community is smaller than Contentful or Sanity. [Source: hygraph.com/pricing]

When NOT to choose it: When your team prefers REST APIs. When project budgets don't support the $199/mo entry point. When you don't need Content Federation and a simpler CMS would suffice.

DatoCMS

Overview: A SaaS headless CMS with GraphQL API, strong media handling, real-time preview, and polished editor experience.

Best-fit agency profile: Mid-market agencies that value clean editor UX, strong localization, and integrated media pipelines. Good for content-heavy marketing sites and editorial projects.

Strengths for agency delivery: Image API with on-the-fly transformations. Built-in video streaming and processing. GraphQL API with real-time subscriptions. Modular content blocks for page building. Field-level localization. Environments for content staging. Role-based permissions with custom roles on higher tiers.

Engineering notes: GraphQL API (primary), with a REST-like Content Management API for writes. Environments for staging/branching. Webhooks for build triggers. Supports Next.js, Nuxt, Gatsby, Astro, and others. Strong static site generation support with incremental build capabilities.

Constraints / plan gating: Professional plan from €199/month. Enterprise plan (SSO, SLAs, audit logs, custom workflows) is custom pricing. The jump from Professional to Enterprise is steep for agencies managing many small projects. Per-project pricing means costs scale with client count. [Source: datocms.com/pricing]

When NOT to choose it: When you need self-hosting for cost control. When your budget per project is under €200/month. When you need the deepest enterprise governance features (Contentful or Contentstack have more depth here).

Prismic

Overview: A SaaS headless CMS built around "Slices" — reusable, composable content sections that editors assemble into pages.

Best-fit agency profile: Agencies building marketing websites where content editors need to compose pages from pre-built sections without developer involvement. Strong for agencies that value editorial autonomy post-handoff.

Strengths for agency delivery: Slice Machine (local development tool) integrates with Next.js and Nuxt to generate slice components. Editors assemble pages from slices in a visual interface. Generous free tier (unlimited documents, 4M API calls/month, 1 user). AI-powered tools for generating slice code from designs (2025 addition). Per-repository pricing keeps costs contained for focused projects.

Engineering notes: REST and GraphQL APIs. Slice Machine generates TypeScript types from content models. Built-in preview. Integration with Next.js and Nuxt is first-class. Supports scheduling on paid plans. A/B testing integration available.

Constraints / plan gating: Free plan limited to 1 user. Medium plan ($150/mo) includes 25 users and 5 locales. Platinum ($675/mo) adds unlimited users, 8 locales, and development environment. Custom roles, audit logs, and backups are Enterprise-only. RBAC depth is limited compared to Contentful or Contentstack on non-Enterprise plans. [Source: prismic.io/pricing]

When NOT to choose it: When you need deep governance, multi-space coordination, or audit logs without Enterprise pricing. When your content model is complex and relational (Prismic's document-centric model can feel limiting compared to Sanity's Content Lake). When you need more than 8 locales without Enterprise.

Contentstack

Overview: An enterprise-grade headless CMS and Digital Experience Platform (DXP) with deep workflow, localization, and multi-stack management.

Best-fit agency profile: Agencies serving Fortune 500 or large enterprise clients with strict compliance, governance, and multi-brand requirements. Contentstack's "Stacks" model supports multi-brand portfolios natively.

Strengths for agency delivery: Each "Stack" is a fully isolated content environment with its own content types, assets, and publishing pipeline. Advanced workflows with approval chains, scheduled publishing, and release management. Deep RBAC with custom roles and field-level permissions. Built-in SSO (SAML). Audit logs. Launch (visual page builder) for marketing teams. Automation Hub for workflow automation.

Engineering notes: REST and GraphQL APIs. Edge delivery for personalization. Supports all major frontend frameworks. Branches for content versioning. Content type comparison and migration tools. Marketplace for extensions.

Constraints / plan gating: Pricing is custom and starts high — typically $30K+/year for a meaningful implementation (unverified exact figure; contact sales). This makes it unsuitable for SMB projects. The feature set is deep but complex — onboarding takes longer than simpler platforms. Overkill for basic marketing sites. [Source: contentstack.com/pricing — contact sales for quotes]

When NOT to choose it: When project budgets are under $30K/year for CMS licensing. When your clients are SMBs who need simplicity over governance. When the agency's delivery team is small and doesn't need the DXP feature set.

Builder.io

Overview: A visual headless CMS with built-in A/B testing, personalization, and drag-and-drop page building that integrates with existing codebases.

Best-fit agency profile: Agencies focused on conversion optimization, e-commerce, and experimentation-driven marketing sites. Strong when marketing teams want to run experiments without developer involvement.

Strengths for agency delivery: Visual drag-and-drop editor works with React, Vue, Angular, and Qwik components. Built-in A/B testing and personalization. Marketing teams can compose and experiment independently. SDK integrations with major frameworks and e-commerce platforms (Shopify, BigCommerce).

Engineering notes: REST API. SDK-based rendering in React/Vue/Angular. Components are code-based but visually composable. Targeting and scheduling built in. Integration with analytics platforms for experiment analysis.

Constraints / plan gating: SaaS-only — no self-hosted option. Pricing is usage and experimentation-volume based (contact sales for specifics). The experimentation and personalization layer is core to the value proposition — if you don't need it, you are paying for unused features. Content modeling is simpler than Sanity or Contentful. [Source: builder.io/pricing — contact sales]

When NOT to choose it: When you need complex structured content models. When experimentation is not a priority and you want a leaner CMS. When you want self-hosting capability.

Platform Comparison Table

Best Digital Agencies Headless CMS Architecture (Reference Blueprint)

Designing a best digital agencies headless cms architecture requires balancing developer efficiency, client autonomy, and operational sustainability. Here is a pragmatic reference blueprint for agencies running multiple client projects on headless CMS platforms.

CMS + Frontend Framework

Choose one primary frontend framework and standardize. Most agencies in 2026 standardize on Next.js (App Router, React Server Components) or Nuxt 3 (Vue). Astro is gaining traction for content-heavy sites with minimal interactivity. The CMS serves as the content API layer; the frontend handles rendering (SSG for static pages, SSR for dynamic, ISR for a hybrid).

Hosting and Preview Approach

Deploy frontends on Vercel, Netlify, or Cloudflare Pages. Use branch deploys for per-PR preview URLs. For CMS preview, connect the CMS's draft/preview API to a preview deployment (typically a password-protected branch or a /api/preview route in Next.js). Storyblok and Sanity have the strongest out-of-the-box preview integrations. For Strapi and Payload, you build the preview route yourself.

Webhooks and Build Pipelines

Configure the CMS to fire webhooks on content publish events. These trigger rebuilds or ISR revalidation on your hosting platform. Keep webhook payloads minimal and use a build queue (e.g., Vercel's on-demand revalidation API) to avoid unnecessary full rebuilds.

Asset Strategy

For simple projects, use the CMS's built-in asset management (Contentful's Assets API, Sanity's Asset pipeline, Storyblok's Asset Manager). For clients with large media libraries or brand-governance requirements, integrate a dedicated DAM (Cloudinary, Bynder, or Frontify) and reference assets by URL in the CMS.

Localization Strategy

Use the CMS's built-in locale support for field-level translations when the number of locales is under 10. For larger-scale translation projects, integrate a translation management system (Lokalise, Phrase, Crowdin) that syncs with the CMS via API. Some platforms (Storyblok, Hygraph, DatoCMS) have native integrations with translation tools.

Observability and Incident Response

Monitor build times, webhook delivery, API latency, and error rates. Use the CMS's built-in usage dashboards plus your hosting platform's analytics (Vercel Analytics, Cloudflare Web Analytics). Set up alerts for API quota warnings — especially on usage-based platforms (Sanity, Contentful) where exceeding limits can break production.

Client Handoff Model

At project completion, transfer CMS access (not ownership of the agency's org). Create a client-specific role with editing permissions and no access to schema or settings. Provide a short recorded walkthrough and a 1-page content editing guide. For Strapi Cloud, use the project ownership transfer feature. For Sanity and Contentful, add the client's team members to the project/space with editor roles.

Reference Architecture (Text Diagram)

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ AGENCY SIDE │
│ │
│ ┌─────────────┐ ┌──────────────┐ │
│ │ Shared │ │ Starter │ │
│ │ Component │───▶│ Template │ │
│ │ Library │ │ (clone per │ │
│ │ (npm / git) │ │ client) │ │
│ └─────────────┘ └──────┬───────┘ │
│ │ │
├────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────┤
│ PER CLIENT │ │
│ ▼ │
│ ┌──────────────┐ ┌──────────────┐ ┌─────────┐ │
│ │ Headless CMS │──▶│ Frontend │──▶│ CDN / │ │
│ │ (Space / │ │ (Next.js / │ │ Edge │ │
│ │ Project) │ │ Nuxt / Astro│ │ Hosting │ │
│ └──────┬───────┘ └──────┬───────┘ └─────────┘ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ Webhooks │ Branch Deploys │
│ ▼ ▼ │
│ ┌──────────────┐ ┌──────────────┐ │
│ │ Build Queue │ │ Preview Env │ │
│ │ (revalidate) │ │ (staging) │ │
│ └──────────────┘ └──────────────┘ │
│ │
│ ┌──────────────┐ ┌──────────────┐ │
│ │ DAM / Assets │ │ Analytics / │ │
│ │ (Cloudinary) │ │ Monitoring │ │
│ └──────────────┘ └──────────────┘ │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Recommendations by Agency Scenario

High-Volume Marketing Site Factory

You are building 10–30 SMB marketing sites per year using a standardized component library. Speed and cost predictability matter most.

Recommended: Storyblok (visual editor + space cloning) or Strapi self-hosted (zero per-site licensing). Use a shared component library and clone the starter project for each client. Storyblok's visual editor reduces handoff friction. Strapi's self-hosted model eliminates per-project CMS cost — your only cost is infrastructure (~$10–30/month per project on Railway or Render).

Multi-Brand Portfolio With Shared Components

You manage 5–15 brands for a single parent company, sharing design system tokens, components, and content governance across brands.

Recommended: Sanity (schema-as-code sharing via npm packages, Content Lake supports relational content across datasets) or Storyblok (component blueprints, space cloning, shared component definitions). Sanity gives you code-level control; Storyblok gives you visual consistency.

Enterprise Client With Compliance / Governance Needs

Your client requires SSO, audit logs, custom approval workflows, SLA-backed uptime, and field-level permissions.

Recommended: Contentful Premium or Contentstack. Both offer the deepest governance features in the market. Contentful has the larger ecosystem; Contentstack has stronger built-in multi-stack management. Budget $40K–100K+/year for CMS licensing depending on scope.

Agency That Wants Minimal Vendor Lock-In

You want to own your data, avoid proprietary query languages, and maintain the ability to switch platforms.

Recommended: Payload CMS or Strapi. Both are open-source, store content in standard databases (PostgreSQL, MongoDB), and give you full data ownership. Payload is the better choice if your team is Next.js-native. Strapi is more mature and supports a broader range of databases and deployment options.

Agency Offering Managed Services and Recurring Revenue

You want to bundle CMS hosting, maintenance, and content support as a monthly retainer service.

Recommended: Strapi self-hosted or Payload CMS on infrastructure you control. You mark up hosting costs and bundle maintenance. Alternatively, use Storyblok or DatoCMS and resell with a management layer — but be transparent about the underlying SaaS cost to clients.

Agency Migrating Many WordPress Sites to Headless

You have a portfolio of WordPress clients and want to migrate them to a modern headless stack incrementally.

Recommended: Strapi (familiar content-modeling UX for WordPress users, strong import tooling) or Payload CMS (Next.js integration means you can migrate page-by-page using Next.js routing). Both allow you to replicate WordPress's content model (posts, pages, categories, custom fields) with modern APIs. For clients who need visual editing, consider Storyblok or Prismic as the target CMS.