Sanity
Sanity is our default when content is product-like and the editing experience matters. It treats content as structured data, not pages, and lets us design the Studio around how the team actually works.
- Type
- Headless, API-first CMS
- Query language
- GROQ (and GraphQL)
- Editing
- Customisable React Studio
- Best paired with
- Next.js
What Sanity is
Sanity is a headless CMS built around a real-time content lake and a fully customisable editing environment called the Studio. Content is modelled as typed documents queried with GROQ, delivered over an API or CDN, and versioned — so the same content feeds a website, an app and an AI crawler without duplication.
Editor & developer experience
For editors, Sanity is unusual: the admin — the Studio — is not a fixed dashboard but an interface we build around the content. Fields, validation, previews and custom input components are all shaped to the job, so the editing experience can be as guided or as free as the team needs. Real-time collaboration means several people edit the same document at once, with presence and revision history built in.
For developers, it is a genuine pleasure. Content is typed and modelled as code, queried with GROQ — a concise, powerful query language — and available over a fast CDN-backed API. The Studio is React, so extending it uses skills we already have, and content versioning plus a well-documented API make complex builds predictable rather than fragile.
Where it earns the shortlist
Sanity earns the shortlist whenever the content model is doing real work: component-driven design systems, product-like content that feeds more than one surface, or a team that will be in the CMS every day and deserves an editor built for them. It scales cleanly from a marketing site to a full application, which is why it is our default headless CMS.
- Design systems and component-driven sites where content maps to structured blocks
- Multi-surface content that feeds a site, app and other channels from one source
- Teams that want a tailored editing experience, not an off-the-shelf admin
When teams choose it — and when they don’t
Choose Sanity when
Content is structured and reused
Component-based pages, shared blocks, or content that feeds a site and an app.
The editing experience matters
You want a tailored, guard-railed Studio, not a generic admin.
A team publishes together
Real-time collaboration, roles and revision history are built in.
Developers own the front end
Typed content and GROQ make ambitious builds predictable.
Look elsewhere when
You need drag-and-drop page building
Marketers who want to compose pages visually are better served by Storyblok.
It is a simple brochure site
A handful of static pages does not need a structured content model.
No developer is involved
Sanity rewards a considered schema; it is not a no-code tool.
Pricing, in plain terms
Sanity has a generous free tier that covers most small builds, then usage-based plans as a project grows — priced on API requests, datasets and seats rather than a flat licence. For most of our clients it lands as a predictable monthly cost well below enterprise CMS licences, and we size the plan to the project so you are never paying for headroom you do not use.
The SmartaStudio take
Sanity is our first choice for serious content work, and it is what our own site runs on. The flexibility that makes it powerful also means it rewards being set up properly — a rushed schema will hurt here as anywhere. Put the thinking in up front and you get a CMS that fits the team like a tailored suit and scales for years. When a client instead needs visual, no-developer page building, we will happily point them at Storyblok rather than force the fit.
Not sure Sanity is the right call?
Answer a few questions and Build Spec recommends the stack for your project — no jargon, no sales call.
Build with Sanity?
Tell us about the project and we will confirm whether this is the right platform for it — and scope the build if it is.