Khalid / Compare / Khalid vs Strapi
Khalid vs Strapi: a blog engine, or a headless CMS you build on.
Strapi is a headless CMS: an admin and an API, with a front end you build and host yourself. Khalid is one free program that writes your blog pages for you, and can also serve posts to your own front end. For a blog, Khalid is less to build. For content that is not a blog, Strapi fits better.
Strapi facts from Strapi's own pages, read 4 November 2026.
The short answer.
- Pick Khalid if
- You want a blog. Khalid writes the blog pages itself, with SEO built in, and can also serve your posts to an Astro or Next.js front end.
- Pick Strapi if
- Your content is more than a blog, and you will build and host your own front end. Strapi is an admin and an API, not a website.
- Cost
- Strapi Cloud is $35, $90 or $450 a month per project, plus a front end. Self-hosted Strapi is free. Khalid costs $0 with no front end to build.
Yes or no. Khalid and Strapi, side by side.
Every Strapi fact links its source in the table further down.
| Feature | Khalid | Strapi |
|---|---|---|
| What you get | ||
| Blog pages ready to read | Yes:Written by Khalid, in 11 templates | No:You build a separate front end |
| Headless: posts served to your own front end | Yes:Headless mode and a Content API | Yes:This is what Strapi does |
| Content beyond a blog | Partly:Posts, pages, authors, glossary, case studies, changelog and snippets | Yes:A flexible content type builder |
| Cost and hosting | ||
| Price of the software | Yes:Free, AGPL-3.0, no paid edition | Partly:Community is free; Growth is $45 a month |
| A hosted service run for you | No:No hosted service | Yes:Strapi Cloud, from $35 a month |
| What your own server runs | Yes:One program, its database inside | Partly:Node.js and a database, plus your front end |
| Starters | ||
| Official Next.js starter | Yes:Ships with Khalid | Yes:LaunchPad, with Tailwind |
| Official Astro starter | Yes:Ships with Khalid | No:None found on 4 November 2026 |
| Teams | ||
| Review before publishing | Yes:Draft, in review, ready and published | Partly:Review workflows on Enterprise only |
| Content history | Yes:Every post is a text file you can keep in git | Partly:14 days, on the paid Growth plan |
Strapi facts from strapi.io and docs.strapi.io, read 4 November 2026. Khalid facts from its README and docs on GitHub.
Setup and running cost. What a year costs.
Strapi Cloud hosts the admin and the API. The front end that readers see is a second project, hosted and paid for on its own.
Strapi Cloud, per project
- Starter$35 a month: 100,000 requests, sleeps when idle, no backups$420
- Pro$90 a month: 1 million requests, weekly backups$1,080
- Business$450 a month: 10 million requests, 99.9% SLA$5,400
- Your front endBuilt and hosted separatelyExtra
$420a year on Starter, before a front end
Running Strapi yourself instead: Node.js 22, 24 or 26 and a database, plus a front end you build. Growth adds paid seats at $45 a month for 3.
Khalid
- The programFree and open source, AGPL-3.0$0
- The blog pagesWritten by Khalid, 11 templates$0
- DatabaseInside the program, no database server$0
- Hosting a static blogCloudflare's free plan$0
$0a year
Want your own front end? Headless mode and the Astro and Next.js starter kits are free too. The admin needs a running server, at your host's price.
List prices per project per month, from Strapi Cloud pricing and self-hosted pricing, read 4 November 2026. Yearly figures are the monthly price times 12, before taxes. Extra requests cost $1.50 per 25,000, and an extra environment $60 a month.
The facts behind the table. Each with its source.
| Fact | Khalid | Strapi |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A blog engine: one program that writes the blog pages, with SEO built insource | A headless CMS: an admin and an API; the blog needs a separate front endsource |
| Hosted plans | None. You run it, or a host you choose runs itsource | Cloud: $35 Starter, $90 Pro, $450 Business a month per projectsource Stronger |
| Self-hosted plans | One free edition with every featuresource | Community free with unlimited users; Growth $45 a month for 3 seats, then $15 a seatsource |
| Running it yourself | One program for Linux, macOS or Windows, or a Docker imagesource Stronger | Node.js 22, 24 or 26; SQLite by default, which needs Python; MySQL, MariaDB or Postgressource |
| Front end | Pages built in; Astro and Next.js starter kits for your ownsource Stronger | LaunchPad, a Next.js and Tailwind app with a multilingual blogsource |
| Astro starter | Yes, in the Khalid repositorysource Stronger | No official one foundsource |
| Content API | Read only, with Ghost's filter grammar; key safe in browserssource | The admin and the API are the product, for any front endsource |
| Content types | Posts, pages, authors, glossary entries, case studies, changelog entries and snippetssource | A flexible content type builder, in Strapi's own wordssource Stronger |
| Team features | Roles, passkeys and review states in the free programsource Stronger | SSO $150 a month extra; review workflows and audit logs on Enterprisesource |
Strapi facts read on 4 November 2026. A cell marked Stronger is the better side for that row, in our reading. Wrong or out of date? Email [email protected].
When to pick each. Strapi first.
Choose Strapi if
- Your content is more than a blog: products, events, app screens or anything else of your own design. Khalid only knows blog content.
- You already have a front end team, and one API should feed a website, an app and more.
- You want a hosted admin and API. Strapi Cloud runs them for you. Khalid has no hosted service.
Choose Khalid if
- You want a blog, not a project. Khalid writes the pages in one of 11 templates, so there is no front end to build.
- You want SEO done for you: titles, schema, sitemaps, share images, redirects and a linter that stops weak posts.
- You want your own front end in Astro. Khalid ships an Astro starter kit as well as a Next.js one.
Our limits, in the same place: fixed blog content types, no hosted service, and a new, small project.
Questions about Khalid and Strapi.
Can't find the answer? Email us.
Is Khalid a headless CMS like Strapi?
Khalid can be. In headless mode it switches its own pages off and serves posts through its Content API to your front end. By default it writes the blog pages itself, so you do not need a front end at all. Strapi always needs one.
What does Strapi Cloud cost?
Strapi's cloud pricing page lists $35, $90 and $450 a month per project, with 100,000, 1 million and 10 million requests. The $35 plan sleeps when idle and has no backups. The front end is hosted and paid for separately.
Is there an Astro starter for Strapi?
We found no official one on 4 November 2026. Strapi's official starter, LaunchPad, is a Next.js app. Khalid ships starter kits for both Astro and Next.js.
When is Strapi a better choice than Khalid?
When your content is more than a blog. Khalid knows posts, pages, authors, glossary entries, case studies, changelog entries and snippets. If you need products, events, app screens or other content of your own design, a headless CMS like Strapi fits better.
Can I move from Strapi to Khalid?
Not with one command. Khalid has no Strapi importer. Its importer reads Markdown folders, so you can export your Strapi posts to Markdown files and import those.
Sources and corrections.
Every competitor fact on this page comes from that company's own public pages, listed here and read on 4 November 2026. Prices and plans change. If something here is out of date or wrong, email [email protected]. We fix it, change the date and record the change on the changelog.
- Strapi Cloud pricingchecked 4 November 2026
- Strapi self-hosted pricingchecked 4 November 2026
- Strapi install docschecked 4 November 2026
- LaunchPad, the official Strapi starterchecked 4 November 2026
- Strapi vs Ghost, by Strapichecked 4 November 2026
A blog with no front end to build.
Run your blog on Khalid.
Free and open source. Compare it with Ghost and WordPress too.