head to head · open source
Directus vs sanity
Directus has 38,799 GitHub stars, 4,991 forks, 402 open issues and last shipped yesterday. sanity has 6,383 stars, 558 forks, 221 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Directus leads on adoption by 508% (38,799 vs 6,383 stars). Directus is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; sanity is written in TypeScript under MIT. Directus has attracted 13% as many forks as stars, sanity 9%. sanity was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (cms), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| Directus | sanity | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 39K | ★ 6.4K |
| License | Custom / other | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.0K | ⑂ 558 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Directus if
- You weight community size — 39K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick sanity if
- You want the sanity feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and sanity fits your workflow better
About Directus
The Collaborative Backend for Builders & AI Connect any SQL database and get instant REST and GraphQL APIs, a visual management Studio, and a native MCP server for AI agents. 45M+ downloads · 500K+ projects deployed [!NOTE] Free for most organizations. Under $5M annual revenue and 50 employees? Directus is completely free. Apply for an Open Innovation Grant license and get a key in minutes. Learn more about our license. 🐇 Introduction Directus wraps any SQL database with a REST and GraphQL API layer and a visual Studio. Engineers control schema and access. Non technical teammates and AI agents work directly…
read the full Directus overview →
About sanity
Sanity Get Started Docs Website Build powerful production ready content workspaces The Sanity Composable Content Cloud lets teams create remarkable digital experiences at scale. Sanity Studio is an open source, single page application that is fast to set up and quick to configure. The Studio comes with a complete studio customization framework that lets you tailor the workspace as your needs grow. Sanity hosts your content in a real time, hosted data store called Content Lake. Get started with the free plan with generous bandwidth and hosting included and pay as you go for overages. Quickstart Initiate a new…
read the full sanity overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Directus or sanity more popular?
Directus has 38,799 GitHub stars and sanity has 6,383. Directus has the larger community by that measure.
Are Directus and sanity free?
Both are open source. Directus has no licence declared in this registry, and sanity is licensed under MIT. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Directus and sanity?
Directus is written in TypeScript and sanity in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Directus or sanity?
Choose Directus if you want the larger community (38,799 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose sanity if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.