The most visible headless CMS platforms in Europe, October 2026

October 2026 · 105 questions asked from 7 countries · ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Gemini and Google AI Mode · 420 answers read

Leader

Sanity

72Heralded Score, range 67–75

Most cited source

dupple.com

15citations

From ChatGPT

Where engines disagree most

They agree

Every engine names the same top three.

Brands

Search is not measured for this board yet, so it ranks on AI answers.

Rank Brand Rank change Heralded Score All AI Score trend Mentioned Recommended By engine Mentioned by Change
1 Sanity NO New entry 72 , range 67–75 72#1
72
  • : score 72 · #1
80% 35% First reading
2 Strapi FR New entry 70 , range 65–73 70#2
70
  • : score 70 · #2
79% 33% First reading
3 Contentful DE New entry 69 , range 64–72 69#3
69
  • : score 69 · #3
80% 29% First reading
4 Storyblok AT New entry 57 , range 52–63 57#4
57
  • : score 57 · #4
57% 32% First reading
5 Payload US New entry 39 , range 36–42 39#5
39
  • : score 39 · #5
29% 19% First reading
6 Directus US New entry 32 , range 26–35 32#6
32
  • : score 32 · #6
20% 10% First reading
7 Prismic FR New entry 26 , range 15–32 26#7
26
  • : score 26 · #7
16% 7% First reading
8 Hygraph DE New entry 11 , range 8–23 11#8
11
  • : score 11 · #8
14% 2% First reading
9 Contentstack US New entry 6 , range 4–8 6#9
6
  • : score 6 · #9
7% 1% First reading
10 Builder.io US New entry 5 , range 3–7 5#10
5
  • : score 5 · #10
5% 2% First reading

“=” marks brands whose score ranges overlap, so the test cannot separate them. Every brand named in at least three answers is ranked. AI gives each brand’s score and rank from the engines’ answers; Search is not measured for this board yet. By engine has one dot per engine (ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Gemini and Google AI Mode), darker the more often it names the brand.

Most cited sources

Rank Source Type Cited in Engines Pages cited Brands its pages mention
1 dupple.com Media 3.6% 1 of 4 1 8
2 stateofdigitalpublishing.com Media 2.4% 3 of 4 4 Not read
3 headlesscms.guide Media 2.1% 2 of 4 5 5
4 stackbriefly.com Media 1.9% 1 of 4 1 5
5 techtarget.com Media 1.0% 2 of 4 1 3
6 daily.dev Media 0.7% 1 of 4 3 Not read
7 omr.com Media 0.7% 2 of 4 1 6
8 aboutmartech.com Media 0.5% 2 of 4 1 Not read
9 cmsstash.de Media 0.5% 1 of 4 1 6
10 designerdiscussion.com Media 0.5% 1 of 4 1 Not read

Questions asked

QuestionLanguageMost recommended
Care este cel mai bun CMS headless pentru un site de marketing? Romanian Contentful, Sanity and Strapi, tied
Management de conținut headless pentru echipele de dezvoltare Romanian Contentful, Directus, Sanity, Storyblok and Strapi, tied
Cum poate o companie să publice același conținut pe site și în aplicația mobilă? Romanian No brand recommended
Cum pot să le permit specialiștilor în marketing să editeze conținutul unui site construit cu un framework JavaScript? Romanian Builder.io, Contentful, Storyblok and Strapi, tied
CMS tradițional sau CMS headless pentru site-ul unei companii în creștere? Romanian Contentful and Strapi, tied
CMS headless open-source sau găzduit pentru startupuri? Romanian Directus, Payload, Sanity and Strapi, tied
Alternative la un CMS tradițional pentru un site cu mai multe canale Romanian No brand recommended
Alternative la introducerea directă a conținutului în codul unei aplicații web Romanian No brand recommended
Sunt dezvoltator front-end și construiesc un site de marketing. Ce CMS headless ar trebui să folosesc? Romanian Sanity and Storyblok, tied
Coordonez activitatea digitală într-o companie de dimensiuni medii și vreau un singur hub de conținut pentru site, aplicație și magazine. Romanian Contentful

Each engine's top three

Method

Each leaderboard ranks brands on two sides. AI is how ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Overviews and Google AI Mode answer the board's buyer questions. Search is Google's top 10 results for the keywords behind those questions. All combines the two, where Search is measured.

For the AI side, each month Heralded asks every engine the same buyer questions, twice each, and reads every answer. An answer counts 0 for a brand it leaves out, 50 for a brand it names and 100 for a brand it recommends, and the Heralded Score is built from those. A brand named in at least three answers gets a score and a place.

How the leaderboards are measured