Compare
Zeku vs Keystatic.
Checked , from each project's own site and repository.
Zeku is a writing app for your Astro site, not a full-blown CMS. It handles posts and pages within your content collections, reading frontmatter and markdown, leaving the rest to whatever you already build your site with. There's no web admin portal, no user roles, and no page builder.
Keystatic and Zeku both edit the Markdown in your Astro repository. Keystatic is an admin you build into the site itself, at /keystatic, working on local files while you develop or on GitHub once deployed. Zeku is an app on your computer that reads your project directly, with nothing added to the site.
Side by side
| Keystatic | Zeku | |
|---|---|---|
| Where you write | In a browser, at /keystatic on your site | In a desktop app for Windows, Mac or Linux |
| Setup | Add the React, Markdoc and Keystatic integrations and a keystatic.config.ts; a deployed admin also needs a server adapter | Open your project's folder |
| Your Astro schema | Not read: you describe each field again in keystatic.config.ts and keep the two in step | Read from content.config.ts and the schema astro sync writes |
| Writing | A document editor with custom content blocks | Live-preview Markdown, with callouts, tables, math and Mermaid drawn as you type, and your real page from your own astro dev beside it |
| Publishing | Local mode writes files for you to commit; GitHub mode commits through GitHub | Commits and pushes with your own git |
| Who can edit | In GitHub mode, anyone with access to the repository, from a browser | Whoever has the app and the repository |
| Price | Free and open source, with an optional hosted Keystatic Cloud | $19 once for a founding license until October 31, then $39, with a 14-day trial |
When Keystatic fits better
- You want the editor built into the site, so people can edit from a browser.
- Your editors already have GitHub accounts, or you'll set them up with Keystatic Cloud.
- You want custom content blocks in a document editor, and it has to be free.
When Zeku fits better
- You'd rather not add integrations, a second schema, or a server adapter to your site.
- You want the editor to use the schema you already have, and to catch what your build would reject before you publish.
- You want to see your real page as you write, and to write offline.
Using both
Both read and write the same Markdown files, so the people who edit in a browser can keep Keystatic while the main writer uses Zeku, and git keeps them in step.
Weighing more than these two? Every Astro CMS option, compared.