What is Sanity.io: 2025 Headless CMS Guide
Pagepro
Headless Content Management with Sanity.io
Have you been wondering why Sanity is becoming so popular with modern development teams? You’re in the right place.
At its core, Sanity is a headless CMS, but with the recent changes, it has evolved past that and become a structured content platform built to support multi-channel publishing, real-time collaboration, and fully customizable editorial workflows.
As long-time fans of Sanity.io, we’ve decided to prepare an introduction to this amazing content management platform and why it might be the best choice for your next project
We’ve also prepared a video on why we think Sanity is a great choice for most projects – give it a watch!
But before we explore what sets it apart from other platforms, we should start by answering the question what is Sanity.
What Is Sanity CMS?
Like we’ve mentioned, Sanity is a headless content management system. In traditional CMS platforms like WordPress or Joomla, the content and its presentation are tightly joined, which can be very limiting when you need to deliver content across different platforms. A headless CMS, on the other hand, treats content as structured data and delivers it via APIs.
Sanity also fits into the broader composable CMS category and can be integrated with other services in your tech stack, like frontend frameworks (Next.js, React), eCommerce platforms (Shopify), or analytics tools.
In May 2025, the Sanity team unveiled the Spring Release 2025, marking the platform’s evolution from a headless CMS to a Content Operating System. This change came in with completely new tools, which greatly improved the workflows of content creation, management, and distribution:
Sanity Dashboard: A central hub that provides quick access to Studios, Canvas, Media Library, and custom apps. It offers a complete view of content operations across teams and apps.
Canvas: Previously named Sanity Create, Canvas is an AI-assisted, free-form writing environment. It allows for preparing content with non-intrusive AI support.
Media Library: An asset management system that organizes media across teams and datasets. It supports role-based access, versioning, and automation.
App SDK: Developers can build custom applications within Sanity, tailored to specific workflows.
Functions: Spring release introduced serverless functions, enabling complex backend logic, such as data synchronization and integration, directly within Sanity.
Agent Actions: Brings AI capabilities to content workflows through a programmatic interface. It can audit documents, identify gaps, suggest updates, and organize them into manageable work packages.
Insights: Offers visibility into content performance and workflow bottlenecks.
How Sanity CMS Works
Sanity’s architecture is built around three main components that work together to deliver a developer-first content platform.
Content Lake
At the heart of Sanity is the Content Lake. It’s a fully managed backend where content is stored as structured data, not HTML, which makes it reusable across any frontend.
Content Lake supports real-time updates. That means changes made in the Studio are instantly reflected in apps and websites. It also scales automatically with content versioning and document-level access. With that, you’re able to build once and distribute your content anywhere – no need to rewrite logic for each platform.
Sanity Studio
Sanity Studio is an editing environment in which users can create, manage, and organize content. It’s open source, written in React, and fully customizable. Instead of rigid templates, Sanity Studio lets you define your content model using JavaScript.
What’s more, it includes plugin support for adding things like AI assistants, visual previews, or third-party integrations. The themeable interface that matches your brand or client needs and custom content types makes Sanity Studio one of the few platforms that adapts to your team.
Source: Sanity.io
GROQ and APIs
Sanity uses GROQ (Graph-Relational Object Queries), a language designed for structured content. Although its syntax is similar to GraphQL, GROQ was built from the ground up to handle deeply nested structures and fetch exactly the shape of data you need in a single query.
In addition to GROQ, Sanity provides APIs that support different development styles. You can use the auto-generated GraphQL API or tap into the REST API for simple integrations with third-party services like Zapier or Netlify. Real-time listeners are also available, so your application can instantly respond to content changes.
Source: Sanity.io on Github
Pros and Cons of Sanity Content Management System
While it can be a good fit for most organizations and businesses, Sanity has some drawbacks that should be taken into account before making a decision. Let’s have a look at some of them:
Pros of Sanity CMS
Developer-First: Since the content model in Sanity is defined in the code (JavaScript or TypeScript), it can live in version control, evolve with your project, and adapt to edge cases that more traditional CMS platforms can struggle with.
Portable Content: Because it’s JSON-based and delivered via APIs, content in this CMS can be reused across different platforms, even between web and mobile.
Real-Time Collaboration: In Sanity, editors can collaborate on the same document and see updates as they happen, a very helpful feature for distributed teams chasing deadlines.
Custom Editorial Interfaces: If your content team has unique needs, Sanity gives you the option to build your own editorial interfaces, which can be great for brands managing multiple markets.
Powerful Ecosystem: The Spring Release 2025 expanded Sanity’s capabilities. The Media Library, Canvas AI editor, and App SDK let you build entire workflows within the Sanity environment.
Cons of Sanity CMS
Learning GROQ: GROQ is powerful, but it’s not as well-known as GraphQL or SQL. It may take time for new developers to get comfortable with its syntax.
Complex Initial Setup: Sanity Studio is very customizable, but has no templating system like you’d find in WordPress or Webflow. Non-developers will likely need expert help to define schemas and configure Studio.
Maintenance Responsibility: Because you can customize so much, you’re also responsible for maintaining those customizations. While it’s manageable, you should keep it in mind if your team has limited frontend resources.
Now that you have a better understanding of Sanity’s capabilities, we can move on to analyze who benefits most from it.
Who is Sanity for?
Developers
Developers have full control over Sanity’s content architecture, frontend integration, and editorial workflows. The schema definitions are easy to maintain and version with the rest of your project, since they live in code. Additionally, the App SDK and serverless Functions allow for building fully custom content tools within the Sanity ecosystem.
Content Teams and Marketers
Sanity is full of features meant to make the work of editors smoother, such as real-time collaboration, live previews, and structured content. The Canvas interface with AI-assisted drafting and the centralized Media Library help content specialists move faster, without needing devs to implement every change.
Startups and Growing Teams
The generous free tier and modular setup make Sanity a great fit for early-stage startups. You can start small with a simple Studio, and then scale content delivery as your needs grow.
Enterprise Teams
For companies managing large content operations, Sanity supports a variety of functions: role-based access control, dataset partitioning, and complex integrations with CDNs, eCommerce platforms, and analytics tools. Insights and Agent Actions offer visibility and automation for future expansions.
Non-technical users
Although the initial setup usually calls for developer input, once the Studio is set up, even non-technical users can work with the content. Editors don’t need to understand how the frontend works to work inside a custom interface designed around their tasks.
Sanity CMS Pricing
Sanity’s usage-based pricing scales from solo developers to enterprise teams, making it accessible for a wide range of content needs.
Source: Sanity.io
Free Plan: For Individual Developers or Small Teams
Ideal for personal projects, MVPs, or learning Sanity. You get 20 seats, 2 datasets, and enough bandwidth and storage to support simple use cases. Real-time collaboration and access to the Media Library are included, but advanced features such as comments and AI Assist are missing.
Growth Plan: For scaling teams
At $15 per seat/month, this plan is perfect for startups or growing teams that want more roles (up to 5), private datasets, collaboration features (like comments and tasks), and optional pay-as-you-go overages. You can also purchase add-ons like SSO and extended quotas.
Enterprise Plan: For large organizations with complex needs
This custom-priced tier is tailored for companies that need enterprise-grade support, SAML SSO, uptime SLAs, advanced access control, and high usage quotas. It includes onboarding, custom retention, audit trails, and premium dataset features.
Sanity Use Cases
To prove Sanity’s flexibility, here are a few real-world examples showing how different teams use Sanity to solve practical content challenges:
Ecommerce
Modern eCommerce sites require speed, high personalization, and integration with product data to perform well. Sanity fits right in, giving teams a structured content layer they can shape around customer journeys.
Source: Siella Beauty
Siella Beauty‘s Shopify store uses Sanity to manage campaign content, editorial, and landing pages, separately from their product catalog. This way, their team has more control over storytelling while Shopify handles transactions.
Marketing Websites
Marketing teams often need to update copy, swap visuals, or launch landing pages with no time to wait for a developer. Sanity Studio makes that possible by offering a CMS custom-made for their workflow.
Source: Lyngen North
Lyngen North, an arctic luxury hotel, wanted a high-performance website that reflected their brand and offered easy content updates. Combining Sanity with the power of Next.js, we delivered a fast frontend and a custom Studio that lets the team update text, imagery, and packages whenever they need.Documentation & Knowledge Bases
Structured documentation is where Sanity shows its full potential. It allows for building scalable docs with ease thanks to rich text support, nested references, and real-time updates.
Source: Carousal
Causal built their entire documentation system using Sanity and Next.js. They structured everything in portable blocks of content, which link related topics, let them add code snippets, and serve docs between different platforms.
Is Sanity Right for You?
If your team needs a CMS that adapts to your tech stack, supports custom workflows, and scales with your content operations, Sanity is one of the most capable options out there. It’s especially well-suited for teams that value developer control, structured content, and multi-channel delivery.
At Pagepro, we’ve helped companies implement Sanity to streamline marketing workflows, migrate from legacy CMSs, and build scalable, content-driven products. If you’re considering Sanity for your next project, get in touch with us or check out our case studies to see what’s possible.
Frequently Asked Questions About Sanity CMS
Is Sanity a CMS?
Yes, Sanity is a headless CMS (Content Management System). Unlike traditional CMSs, it separates content management from presentation, making it ideal for multi-platform publishing.
Is Sanity Free?
Sanity offers a free tier with basic features and usage limits. For larger projects or team collaboration, paid plans are available with added capabilities like increased API quotas, user roles, and usage analytics.
What is Sanity Studio?
Sanity Studio is an open-source editing environment built with React. It’s fully customizable, letting you design and edit project workflows.
What Language Does Sanity Use?
Sanity uses JavaScript and React for its Studio, and its query language is called GROQ (Graph-Relational Object Queries), which is designed specifically for querying structured content.
What Are the Benefits of Using Sanity?
Some key benefits include real-time collaboration, content modeling, portable APIs, and developer freedom. It’s a great fit for content-rich, scalable applications.
Who Uses Sanity?
Sanity is used by companies ranging from startups to enterprises. Notable users include Nike, Figma, and National Geographic. It’s especially popular among teams building eCommerce, marketing websites, and digital experiences.
What Are the Alternatives to Sanity?
Alternatives include traditional CMSs like WordPress and Webflow, or other headless CMSs like Strapi, Contentful, and Prismic. Sanity stands out for its real-time editing and Studio customization.
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Written by
Pagepro
Pagepro
Next.js, Expo & Sanity developers for hire! At Pagepro, we take over the technical duties by providing Next.js, Expo & Sanity development teams, so you can focus on the strategic goals of your business, and stop worrying about the delivery so much.