A Strapi alternative for Astro content sites

Markstage vs Strapi for an Astro site: edit on the real page with content in git; releases, roles and SSO with no plan fees. Facts checked 3 Nov 2026.

Facts about Strapi checked on 2026-11-03, from its own website. Markstage is not affiliated with it.

Markstage
Visual editor

A visual editor for Astro: writers edit on the site’s real design; content stays Markdown and JSON in git.

Edits on the real page
Yes The site's own components and CSS; text and rich text typed on the page, other fields in a side panel. Components mark their fields with a helper ⁴

Content in git
Yes ³

Self-host
Yes One docker run with the server image, Docker Compose, or systemd and nginx ⁹ ⁸

Price to start
Free to self-host ³

Licence
Elastic License 2.0 Source-available, free to self-host ²⁰
Strapi
Self-hosted CMS app

A headless CMS server with an API, self-hosted or on Strapi Cloud.

Edits on the real page
Partly Live Preview on Growth and up ⁸⁹

Content in git
No Read by API ⁹⁰

Self-host
Yes ⁸⁷

Price to start
Free; Growth $45/mo ⁸⁷

Licence
Community Edition: MIT; Enterprise paid ⁸⁸

From the full comparison; each number links to its source.

Strapi is a widely used headless CMS that you run yourself or on Strapi Cloud, with REST and GraphQL APIs. Astro reads it through a small wrapper. Markstage is an editor for an Astro site's own Markdown and JSON files in git.

Who each one is for

Strapi suits teams who want a self-hosted content API for several front ends, with a customisable admin and a large community.

Markstage suits an Astro content site whose writers should edit on the real design, with no separate content API. Markstage is pre-release.

Side by side

	Markstage	Strapi
Where content lives	Markdown and JSON in git	Strapi's own server, read by REST or GraphQL
Editing	On the real page	Admin panel; Live Preview on Growth and Enterprise
Releases	Included	Growth and Enterprise
Review workflows	Staging and production, included	Enterprise
Single sign-on	OpenID Connect, included	$150/mo add-on, plus $50 per user
Roles	Five built in, plus custom roles	Role-based access in the free edition
Price	Free to self-host	Free; Growth $45/mo with 3 users (+$15 per user)
Licence	Elastic License 2.0 (source-available)	Community Edition: MIT; Enterprise features under a paid licence

Where Strapi is stronger

A content API for many front ends and apps.
A very large community (about 73k GitHub stars on 3 November 2026).
Strapi Cloud if you want it hosted.

Moving from Strapi to Markstage

Read your entries through Strapi's API, convert rich text to Markdown, and run Markstage's import API (dry run first, imported as drafts, idempotent on each source id).

Frequently asked questions

Does Strapi work with Astro?

Yes. Astro's docs have a Strapi guide that builds a wrapper function to fetch from Strapi.

Which Strapi plans include Live Preview and Releases?

On 3 November 2026 Strapi's docs listed Live Preview and Releases on the Growth and Enterprise plans.

Is there a Strapi alternative without a database?

Markstage keeps content in git and needs no database server. One SQLite file on its server holds people, sessions, the inbox, drafts in progress, trash, releases, the media index and the audit log.

Sources

Checked on 2026-11-03: Strapi pricing · Strapi preview docs · Strapi licence file · Astro: Strapi guide. Markstage facts: the full comparison.

Get Markstage on GitHub All comparisons Read the docs