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head to head · open source

wagtail vs sanity

wagtail has 20,503 GitHub stars, 4,608 forks, 1,007 open issues and last shipped yesterday. sanity has 6,324 stars, 553 forks, 221 open issues and last shipped yesterday. wagtail leads on adoption by 224% (20,503 vs 6,324 stars). wagtail is written in Python under BSD-3-Clause; sanity is written in TypeScript under MIT. wagtail has attracted 22% 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.

wagtail ★ 21K sanity ★ 6.3K category Content & Publishing

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Side by side

wagtail sanity
GitHub stars ★ 21K ★ 6.3K
License BSD-3-Clause MIT
Written in Python TypeScript
Last push 2026-09-17 2026-09-17
Forks ⑂ 4.6K ⑂ 553
Self-hosting Yes Yes
Data ownership Your server Your server

pick wagtail if

  • You weight community size — 21K stars and counting
  • You want the BSD-3-Clause license terms
  • Your stack matches Python
  • You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance

full wagtail profile →

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

full sanity profile →

About wagtail

Wagtail is an open source content management system built on Django, for developers, designers and editors who need a fast authoring interface alongside precise control over front end design and content structure.

read the full wagtail 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 →

More in Content & Publishing

next.js ★ 142K storybook ★ 91K hugo ★ 90K Understand-Anything ★ 83K Strapi ★ 73K nuxt ★ 61K

Related comparisons

hugo vs wagtail hugo vs strapi hugo vs payload hugo vs halo hugo vs filament strapi vs payload strapi vs halo hugo vs decap-cms next-js vs nuxt next-js vs gatsby next-js vs ghost next-js vs jekyll next-js vs hexo next-js vs nextra next-js vs kit next-js vs vike storybook vs understand-anything storybook vs devdocs storybook vs docsify understand-anything vs devdocs storybook vs wiki storybook vs mkdocs-material understand-anything vs docsify understand-anything vs wiki

More Content Management Systems (CMS) projects

Compare either of these against the rest of the Content Management Systems (CMS) field.

wagtail vs hugo wagtail vs Strapi wagtail vs Payload wagtail vs halo wagtail vs filament wagtail vs decap-cms wagtail vs TinaCMS wagtail vs frappe wagtail vs Instatic wagtail vs OrchardCore wagtail vs Publii wagtail vs luban-h5

Frequently asked questions

Is wagtail or sanity more popular?

wagtail has 20,503 GitHub stars and sanity has 6,324. wagtail has the larger community by that measure.

Are wagtail and sanity free?

Both are open source. wagtail is licensed under BSD-3-Clause and sanity under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.

What is the difference between wagtail and sanity?

wagtail is written in Python 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, wagtail or sanity?

Choose wagtail if you want the larger community (20,503 stars) or its BSD-3-Clause licence terms. Choose sanity if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.