CMS Comparison
Sitepins vs Keystatic
Compare Sitepins and Keystatic side-by-side. Explore setup, editing experience, non-technical usability, collaboration, Git workflow, and pricing.
Sitepins
Git-Based CMSSitepins is a Git-based headless CMS built for teams who want full content control without the technical overhead. It connects directly to your repository and lets anyone—whether they're a developer or not—manage content, collaborate in real time and deploy without touching code. Sitepins is designed for simplicity, speed, and non-technical accessibility.
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Keystatic
Git-Based CMSKeystatic is a free, open-source, Git-based CMS built by Thinkmill. It stores content as Markdown, Markdoc, MDX, JSON, or YAML files directly in your Git repository. The admin UI is bundled inside your application and reads from and writes to those files with no separate CMS server or database. Keystatic is code-first and TypeScript-native.
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| Feature | Sitepins | Keystatic |
|---|---|---|
| CMS type | Git-Based | Git-Based (open-source, MIT-licensed) |
| SSG support | Astro, Next.js, Hugo, 11ty, Jekyll, SvelteKit, Nuxt + more | Astro, Next.js, Remix (first-party integrations). SvelteKit supported via community setup. Hugo, Jekyll, and 11ty not officially supported. |
| Pricing entry point | $12/mo (monthly) or $10/mo (annual); $199 one-time lifetime | Free forever (core CMS). Keystatic Cloud Pro starts at $10/mo per team (3 users included, $5/mo per additional user). |
| Free plan | ✅ Yes — Free forever, with limitations (Hobby plan) | ✅ Yes — Core CMS is permanently free with no user or project cap. Keystatic Cloud Free allows up to 3 users per team. |
| Free trial (without credit card) | ✅ Yes — 15 days (no card required) | ✅ Yes — No trial needed. The core CMS is permanently free. Keystatic Cloud Free provides full access for up to 3 users. |
| Content security | ✅ Yes — Highly secured. No database to hack; files are static and stored in Git | ✅ Yes — Highly secured. No database, no CMS server. All content is stored as static files in your own Git repository. |
| Native language support | ✅ Yes — 12 languages natively (en, zh, ja, de, fr, es, pt, ru, ko, id, vi, bn) for a consistent and localized experience | ❌ No — The CMS admin UI is English only. No native language switcher. i18n for content is not built in and requires manual workarounds or custom schema design. |
| Mobile friendly | ✅ Yes — Fully mobile and tablet optimized | ⚠️ Yes but — Mobile-first editing is listed as a feature, but multiple user reports note the interface is not fully optimized for mobile and integration can be complex on smaller screens. |
Setup & Configuration
| Feature | Sitepins | Keystatic |
|---|---|---|
| Non-technical setup | ✅ Yes — Zero configuration. Register, connect your repo and get started without any code or config. | ❌ No — Requires developer setup. A developer must install the package, create a keystatic.config.ts file defining the content schema, and configure storage mode and authentication before the CMS is usable. |
| Starter templates | ✅ Yes — 100+ Astro, Hugo, and Next.js ready-made project templates to launch faster | ⚠️ Yes but — Official CLI starters exist for Astro and Next.js. A small number of community starters are available. No large curated template library. |
| Edit schema modifier | ✅ Yes — Visual schema editor within the CMS. Adjust content field types and settings directly inside the CMS. | ❌ No — Schema is defined entirely in code via keystatic.config.ts (TypeScript). There is no visual schema editor. All schema changes require editing the config file directly. |
Editing Experience
| Feature | Sitepins | Keystatic |
|---|---|---|
| Editor | Visual editor + Markdown + Code | Rich text (WYSIWYG) + Markdoc + MDX + JSON/YAML. Auto-generated from your TypeScript schema. |
| Live preview system | ✅ Yes — Sandbox live preview. See how your content looks on the site before publishing. | ⚠️ Yes but — Real-time previews are supported via Next.js Draft Mode integration. Requires developer setup to wire the preview to the frontend. Not available out of the box. |
| AI assistant integration | ✅ Yes — Bring Your Own Key (BYOK) supporting OpenAI, Gemini, Claude, and Grok to generate or rewrite content inside the editor. | ❌ No — No built-in AI assistant or content generation tool in either the core CMS or Keystatic Cloud. |
| Collaborative editing | ✅ Yes — Allows multiple users to edit content simultaneously. | ⚠️ Yes but — Multi-player editing is an experimental feature on Keystatic Cloud Pro. The core CMS has no simultaneous editing. Saving the same file simultaneously creates Git merge conflicts with no built-in resolution UI. |
| iFrame embed preview | ✅ Yes — Render embedded content like videos or charts live inside the editor. | ❌ No — Not a built-in or documented feature. iFrame or embed preview inside the editor is not available natively. |
| Shortcode support | ✅ Yes — Manage shortcodes and custom content blocks for powerful content structuring. | ✅ Yes — Content components (custom blocks) are supported within Markdoc and MDX fields. Developers define reusable components that editors can insert as blocks inside the editor. |
| SEO tools | ✅ Yes — Built-in tools to optimize and preview content for search engines, content analysis, slug editing, and SERP preview. | ⚠️ Yes but — Slug generation is supported via the slug field type. No built-in SEO analysis, SERP preview, or content scoring. SEO metadata fields must be added manually to the content schema. |
| Dark mode | ✅ Yes — Supports full platform dark mode, switchable between Dark and Light. | ❌ No — No dark mode documented for the Keystatic admin UI. Not confirmed as a built-in or switchable feature. |
Non-Technical User Experience
| Feature | Sitepins | Keystatic |
|---|---|---|
| Designed for non-technicals | ✅ Yes — Core product mission. | ⚠️ Yes but — Non-technical editors can use the visual admin UI once a developer has set it up. However, all schema configuration, setup, and schema changes require developer involvement. Keystatic is developer-first by design. |
| Version rollback | ✅ Yes — Undo changes and restore a previous version without touching Git, directly within the CMS. | ⚠️ Yes but — Full version history is available through Git. Every save becomes a commit, giving complete rollback capability. There is no dedicated non-technical rollback UI inside the CMS admin. Reverting requires Git. |
| Initial setup by non-dev | ✅ Yes — Zero configuration. Can be set up easily without developer involvement. | ❌ No — A developer must install the package, define the content schema in TypeScript, and configure storage and authentication before the CMS is usable. |
Media Management
| Feature | Sitepins | Keystatic |
|---|---|---|
| Media management | ✅ Yes — Upload, organize, drag and drop, rename files and folders, replace images and delete directly from the CMS. | ⚠️ Yes but — Images can be uploaded and stored in the Git repository via the image field. Keystatic Cloud Pro adds Cloud Images (a managed image storage, optimization, and delivery service). No folder organization or file renaming in the CMS UI. |
| External image URL support | ✅ Yes — Use images hosted on external CDNs or third-party services directly in the editor. | ⚠️ Yes but — External image URLs can be referenced in content fields. Keystatic Cloud Images serves images via Cloudflare CDN with URL-based transform parameters. No native plugin support for S3 or Cloudinary outside Cloud Images. |
Collaboration & Teams
| Feature | Sitepins | Keystatic |
|---|---|---|
| User access | ✅ Yes — Invite editors by email. Possible without requiring a Git account. | ⚠️ Yes but — Keystatic Cloud allows editors to log in without a GitHub account. Without Keystatic Cloud, users must authenticate directly via GitHub OAuth, requiring a GitHub account. |
| Custom roles | ✅ Yes — Define specific permission levels for different types of users. E.g. Owner, Admin, Editor. | ❌ No — No role-based access control in the core CMS or Keystatic Cloud Free or Pro. All users in a team have access to all projects within that team. Granular role permissions are not available. |
| Organization management | ✅ Yes — Manage multiple teams and projects under one account. | ✅ Yes — Keystatic Cloud organizes projects into teams. Each team can have multiple projects, each connected to a specific GitHub repository. |
| Branch workflows | ✅ Yes — Manage branches, create PRs, and merge directly from Sitepins. | ⚠️ Yes but — Keystatic supports branch-based workflows via GitHub mode. Editors can create and switch branches from within the admin UI. No built-in PR creation, review, or merge UI inside the CMS. These are done in GitHub directly. |
Git & Deployment
| Feature | Sitepins | Keystatic |
|---|---|---|
| Git providers | GitHub (all plans), GitLab (Team plan) | GitHub only via Keystatic Cloud. GitHub and local filesystem in self-hosted mode. GitLab and Bitbucket are not natively supported by Keystatic Cloud. |
| Vendor lock-in | ✅ No — No vendor lock-in. Content is stored in your own repo. | ✅ No — No vendor lock-in. Content is stored as static files (Markdown, YAML, JSON) in your own GitHub repository. Keystatic Cloud is optional. |
| Deployment | ✅ Yes — One-click Vercel deployment built-in. | Works with any Git-connected CI/CD platform. Content commits trigger builds on Vercel, Netlify, Cloudflare Pages, and other hosts. No built-in one-click deployment. |
Accessibilities
| Feature | Sitepins | Keystatic |
|---|---|---|
| Global search | ✅ Yes — Cmd/Ctrl+K to search for files stored anywhere in the CMS. | ⚠️ Yes but — Keystatic includes a search bar to filter entries within a collection by title or slug. There is no global cross-collection search or keyboard shortcut search across the entire CMS. |
| Edit configs as code | ✅ Yes — Direct access to configuration files. | ✅ Yes — All configuration is done in code via keystatic.config.ts. Editing configs as code is the primary and only method. |
| Mermaid diagram preview | ✅ Yes — Render Mermaid diagrams live while writing without leaving the CMS. | ❌ No — Mermaid diagram preview is not a built-in or documented feature in Keystatic. |
Note: If you found any wrong information here, please contact us and we will fix it.
Which one is right for you?
A quick summary to help you choose the right Git-based CMS.
Choose Sitepins if:
- You want to get started without writing a single line of config
- Your team includes non-technical editors or clients who need to manage content independently
- You want built-in AI assistance, collaborative editing, and live previews out of the box
- You need a free plan or a one-time lifetime deal with no recurring costs
- You want your CMS interface in your team's native language
Choose Keystatic if:
- Your team is developer-led and comfortable defining content schemas in TypeScript
- You are building with Astro or Next.js and want first-party, deeply integrated CMS support
- You need a completely free, open-source CMS with no SaaS dependency for small teams (up to 3 users)
- You want a TypeScript Reader API for type-safe content querying at build time
- Content lives in your codebase and you want to keep it there with zero infrastructure overhead
Migration Support
Already using another CMS?
Whether you are coming from WordPress, Contentful, Sanity, or any other platform, our team is ready to help you migrate your content, structure, and workflows with zero downtime. Migration support is available for all users on the Team plan or the Lifetime deal. We handle the boring, tedious tasks so you can focus on launching as soon as possible.
Get Started with Sitepins
Get started for free today and discover easy, flexible, and full control over your content.