Astro CMS options, compared.

Which one fits depends on who edits your site and where they do it. Here is every serious option for an Astro site whose posts and pages are Markdown, what each one costs, and who it suits.

Three kinds of Astro CMS

• Git-based web CMSs give you an admin page in the browser that reads and writes the Markdown in your repository: Decap, Sveltia, TinaCMS, Keystatic, Pages CMS and CloudCannon.
• Local editors open the files on your own computer: Zeku, Astro Editor, Front Matter CMS inside VS Code, and Obsidian with Vault CMS.
• Headless CMSs keep your content in their own database and hand it to Astro through an API: Storyblok, Sanity, Contentful and others. Your posts stop being files in your repository, which is the right trade for some teams and the wrong one for most personal sites.

At a glance

"Reads your Astro schema" means the editor builds its fields from the collections in your content.config.ts, so there is no second description of every field to keep in step with the first.

The options

Zeku

A native app that opens your Astro project. It reads your collections and their schema, so each frontmatter field gets an editor that fits its type, and a field your build would reject is marked before you publish. You write in live-preview Markdown, see the real page through your own astro dev, and publish with your own git. It suits people writing on their own computer, alone or in a small team, and it has no browser editor, no roles and no page builder. $19 once for a founding license until October 31, then $39, with a 14-day trial.

Astro Editor

The closest thing to Zeku: a free, open-source desktop app that reads your Astro schema too, with a focus mode and a copyedit mode that highlights parts of speech. It is officially supported on the Mac only, with Windows and Linux builds marked as not yet supported, and its README puts git, publishing and deployment out of scope, so you publish with your usual tools.

Decap CMS

The original git-based CMS, formerly Netlify CMS, and still the one most tutorials reach for. You add an admin page to your site and describe every field again in a config.yml, and editors log in through your git host to write in the browser. It is free and open source, with an editorial workflow that turns drafts into pull requests. Because it doesn't read your Astro schema, the two descriptions can drift apart. Zeku and Decap, compared.

Sveltia CMS

A rewrite of Decap that reads the same config.yml, so switching from Decap is nearly free. It is faster, handles translations well, works on phones, and is under very active development. If you want a free browser CMS for an Astro site, start here rather than with Decap.

TinaCMS

A git-backed CMS whose standout is visual editing: you click the rendered page and change it in place. Fields are described in its own tina/config.ts. Editing locally is free, and editing the live site goes through Tina Cloud or a backend you host yourself. Tina Cloud is free for two users and then $24 per project a month for the Team plan, or $290 a year. Zeku and TinaCMS, compared.

Keystatic

An admin interface you mount inside your Astro site, working on local files through your dev server or on GitHub. Its editor is well made and its configuration is typed, but it is a second schema: you describe your fields in keystatic.config.ts and keep your Astro schema in step by hand. Free and open source. Zeku and Keystatic, compared.

Pages CMS

A web app that edits a GitHub repository, used hosted or self-hosted, with the quickest setup of the browser CMSs and a clean media manager. Fields are described in its own .pages.yml. Free and open source.

CloudCannon

A commercial git-based CMS with excellent visual editing and a real offer for agencies and teams. It starts at $55 a month, or $49 a month paid yearly, for three users, with a 21-day trial.

Front Matter CMS

A CMS inside VS Code, with a content dashboard, media, SEO checks and a site preview. It is free and works entirely on your computer, but it lives in your code editor and needs its own frontmatter.json describing your fields. Zeku and Front Matter CMS, compared.

Obsidian with Vault CMS

If you already write in Obsidian, Vault CMS turns it into an editor for your Astro site, with a starter setup and a set of plugins. It is free and open source, and it is made by the same person as Zeku. It is also where Zeku came from: Obsidian doesn't know what Astro is, so each plugin teaches it a little more, and Zeku is the same idea as one app that already knows.

Headless CMSs

Storyblok, Sanity, Contentful, Payload, Strapi and others keep content in their own database and serve it to Astro through an API. They are built for teams, structured content and publishing to many places, and most have a free tier or are open source to host yourself. The trade is that your posts stop being Markdown in your repository. Astro's CMS guide lists them.

How to choose

• Clients or a team editing in a browser: Sveltia or Decap if free matters most, TinaCMS or CloudCannon for visual editing and support.
• You write on your own computer and want your schema respected: Zeku, or Astro Editor on a Mac if you publish with your own tools.
• You already write in Obsidian: Vault CMS.
• You spend your day in VS Code: Front Matter CMS.
• Your content has to live in a database, for many sites or apps: a headless CMS.

Where Zeku fits

Zeku won't replace a CMS for a team of editors working in a browser, and it doesn't try. If you're the one writing, on your own computer, it reads the site you already have, with no second configuration, and stays out of the way while you write.