Why Hygraph is a better alternative to DatoCMS?
DatoCMS is a popular choice serving typical legacy cases quite well – ex. marketing pages. It is not flexible for more innovative cases – especially end-user facing tools requiring user-generated content.
For starters, it offers a GraphQL API for content delivery only, and no GraphQL API for mutations. It doesn’t allow you to connect to any third-party API to source content.
In terms of content management, DatoCMS lacks a detailed user permissions system, which is required by large-scale teams. It does not offer collaborative features, and does not offer batch editing of content through the UI.
Lastly, DatoCMS does not allow you to choose your datacenter location; an important capability needed by enterprises for compliance or performance purposes.
Challenges you are likely to face with DatoCMS
You are likely to face these challenges when using DatoCMS:
- It only offers a GraphQL API for content delivery, and no GraphQL API for, content management or mutations.
- It does not offer advanced caching solutions.
- There are no other options to choose from and this is a challenge if you are looking to host in your own region.
- It does not allow you to connect to any third-party API.
- It only offers conditions for models, but you can't define detailed permissions. For instance, you can allow a user to access “blogs”, but can’t add a condition (e.g., { "author": "John" }), or define stages or locales.
- It does not allow content editors to add comments to content entries.
- It lacks depth when it comes to certain content management capabilities. For instance, DatoCMS doesn’t offer batch editing, in-line or block embedding of content, the ability to add fields to default asset model and more.
On the other hand, Hygraph offers the capabilities to solve all of these challenges. Sign up for a free developer account to experience the difference.
API and Core Features
| Hygraph | DatoCMS |
|---|
| Cloud Hosted (SaaS) | ✓ | ✓ |
| Custom Regions | ✓ | ✗ |
| GraphQL Content API | ✓ | ✓ |
| GraphQL Management API | ✓ | ✗ |
| GraphQL Mutations | ✓ | ✗ |
| Public API | ✓ | ✗ |
| Public API Permissions | ✓ | ✗ |
| API Playground | ✓ | ✗ |
| Frontend Agnostic | ✓ | ✓ |
| Image Delivery and Transformation API | ✓ | ✓ |
| Migration Tools | ✓ | ✓ |
| Simple User Permissions | ✓ | ✓ |
| Granular User Permissions | ✓ | ✗ |
| On premises hosting / Self | ✗ | ✗ |
| Open Source | ✗ | ✗ |
| Webhooks | ✓ | ✓ |
| Global CDN | ✓ | ✓ |
| Advanced Cache Invalidation | ✓ | ✗ |
| Environment Management (Master, Sandbox, etc.) | ✓ | ✓ |
| Connect to a Third-Party REST API | ✓ | ✗ |
| Connect to a Third-Party GraphQL API | ✓ | ✗ |
Learn more about Hygraph's core features.
Content Modelling
| Hygraph | DatoCMS |
|---|
| Schema Builder | ✓ | ✓ |
| Field Validations | ✓ | ✓ |
| Components | ✓ | ✓ |
| Nested Components | ✓ | ✓ |
| Filters | ✓ | ✓ |
| Flexible Content Modelling | ✓ | ✓ |
| Localisation (i18n) | ✓ | ✓ |
| Pagination | ✓ | ✓ |
| Required Fields | ✓ | ✓ |
| Saved Queries | ✓ | ✓ |
| Searchable Content | ✓ | ✓ |
| Sortable Relations | ✓ | ✓ |
| Sorting | ✓ | ✓ |
| Unique Fields | ✓ | ✓ |
| Validations | ✓ | ✓ |
| Versioning | ✓ | ✓ |
Editorial Features and Content Management
| Hygraph | DatoCMS |
|---|
| Batch Overwrites | ✓ | ✓ |
| Batch Operations (Editing) | ✓ | ✗ |
| Batch Operations (Publish/Unpublish) | ✓ | ✓ |
| Batch Operations (Delete) | ✓ | ✓ |
| Content Type: Asset Picker | ✓ | ✓ |
| Content Type: Booleans (Checkbox) | ✓ | ✓ |
| Content Type: Color | ✓ | ✓ |
| Content Type: Date and Time | ✓ | ✓ |
| Content Type: Enumeration (Dropdown) | ✓ | ✗ |
| Content Type: Float (Decimals) | ✓ | ✓ |
| Content Type: Integers (Numbers) | ✓ | ✓ |
| Content Type: JSON Editor | ✓ | ✓ |
| Content Type: Map | ✓ | ✓ |
| Content Type: Markdown | ✓ | ✓ |
| Content Type: Multi Line Text | ✓ | ✓ |
| Content Type: References | ✓ | ✓ |
| Content Type: Rich Text Editor (WYSIWYG) | ✓ | ✗ |
| Content Type: Single Line Text | ✓ | ✓ |
| Custom Metadata | ✓ | ✓ |
| Custom Roles | ✓ | ✓ |
| Custom Stages | ✓ | ✓ |
| Custom Workflows | ✗ | ✓ |
| Global Content CDN | ✓ | ✓ |
| GraphQL Unions (Polymorphic Relations) | ✓ | ✓ |
| Image Editor | ✓ | ✓ |
| Project Cloning | ✓ | ✓ |
| Rich Editing Interface | ✓ | ✓ |
| SEO Friendly | ✓ | ✓ |
| Static Site Generator Friendly | ✓ | ✓ |
Explore all of Hygraph's capabilities on our features page and docs.
Digital Asset Management
| Hygraph | DatoCMS |
|---|
| Asset Transformations | ✓ | ✓ |
| Assets from Facebook | ✓ | ✓ |
| Assets from Google Drive | ✓ | ✗ |
| Assets from Instagram | ✓ | ✗ |
| Assets from Search | ✓ | ✗ |
| Assets from System | ✓ | ✓ |
| Assets from URL | ✓ | ✓ |
| Digital Asset Management (DAM) | ✓ | ✓ |
| Add Fields to the Default Asset Model | ✓ | ✗ |
| Global Asset CDN | ✓ | ✗ |
| SEO Optimized Asset Management | ✓ | ✓ |
Community and Resources
| Hygraph | DatoCMS |
|---|
| Examples : Blog | ✓ | ✓ |
| Examples : Gatsby | ✓ | ✓ |
| Examples : Gridsome | ✓ | ✗ |
| Examples : NextJS | ✓ | ✓ |
| Examples : NuxtJS | ✓ | ✓ |
| Examples : ReactJS | ✓ | ✓ |
| Examples : Sapper | ✓ | ✗ |
| Examples : Svelte | ✓ | ✗ |
| Examples : Union Types | ✓ | Modular Blocks |
| Examples : VueJS | ✓ | ✓ |
| Reference App : eCommerce | ✓ | ✓ |
| Reference App : Events and Conferences | ✓ | ✓ |
| Reference App : Marketing Website | ✓ | ✓ |
| Reference App : Podcasts | ✓ | ✓ |
| Reference App : Travel & Hospitality | ✓ | ✓ |
Explore more references on our GitHub profile, or view examples created with Hygraph and popular frameworks like Gatsby, NextJS, Svelte, Gridsome, and Vue, amongst others.
Plans and Pricing
| Hygraph | DatoCMS |
|---|
| Additional API Operations | 1,000,000/month 10c/10,000 On top | Unknown |
| Additional Asset Traffic | 500GB/month 10c/1GB On top | ✓ |
| Content Entries | 10,000 - Unlimited | 30- custom models |
| Custom Pricing | ✓ | ✓ |
| Enterprise Plans | ✓ | ✓ |
| Free forever community plan | ✓ | ✓ |
| Free trial for Premium features | ✓ | ✗ |
| Monthly and Annual Plans | ✓ | ✓ |
| Plans in EUR | ✓ | ✓ |
| Plans in USD | ✓ | Unknown |
| Pricing By | Project | Project |
| Self Service Plans | ✓ | One self service |
Get started with a free forever developer plan or explore our other pricing options to accommodate your scaling needs.
Security, Compliance, and Support
| Hygraph | DatoCMS |
|---|
| 24/7 Infrastructure Monitoring | ✓ | ✓ |
| Advanced Firewall Rules | ✓ | Unknown |
| Audit Logs | ✓ | ✓ |
| Authentication | ✓ | ✓ |
| Backups | ✓ | ✓ |
| Choice of data center | ✓ | ✗ |
| Community Support | ✓ | ✓ |
| Customer Success | ✓ | ✓ |
| Dedicated Infrastructure | ✓ | Dedicated S3 buckets |
| Email Support | ✓ | ✓ |
| Encryption at rest | ✓ | ✓ |
| Encryption in transit | ✓ | ✓ |
| GDPR Compliant Infrastructure | ✓ | ✓ |
| Hosted in Europe | ✓ | ✓ |
| Implementation Partner Network | ✓ | ✓ |
| Login with Github | ✓ | ✗ |
| Login with Socials | ✓ | ✗ |
| Onboarding and Architecture Support | ✓ | ✓ |
| Onsite Chat | ✓ | ✗ |
| Project Backups | ✓ | ✓ |
| Public Slack Channel | ✓ | ✓ |
| SLA Performance | ✓ | ✓ |
| SLA Support | ✓ | ✓ |
| Solution Architects | ✓ | ✓ |
| SSO Support | ✓ | ✓ |
| User Management | ✓ | ✓ |
Note: We constantly monitor and update the information here as and when we're aware of any changes. For any inconsistencies or inaccuracies please get in touch to update the comparisons.
