head to head · open source
Directus vs sanity
Directus has 37,952 GitHub stars, 4,946 forks, 402 open issues and last shipped yesterday. sanity has 6,324 stars, 553 forks, 221 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Directus leads on adoption by 500% (37,952 vs 6,324 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%. Directus 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 | ★ 38K | ★ 6.3K |
| License | Custom / other | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.9K | ⑂ 553 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Directus if
- You weight community size — 38K 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
Directus is an open source data platform that wraps any SQL database with a REST and GraphQL API layer and a visual management interface. It lives in the developer tools and frameworks ecosystem, specifically targeting teams needing a flexible backend for content management, admin panels, or custom applications without writing boilerplate code.
read the full Directus overview →
About sanity
Sanity Studio is an open source, MIT licensed single page application written in TypeScript that gives developers and content teams a fast to configure, real time workspace for editing structured content, with that content hosted in Sanity's Content Lake.
read the full sanity overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Directus or sanity more popular?
Directus has 37,952 GitHub stars and sanity has 6,324. 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 (37,952 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose sanity if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.