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

youtube.com

82citations

From Google AI Mode and Google AI Overviews

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 youtube.com Social 12.4% 2 of 4 40 Not read
2 reddit.com Community 9.8% 2 of 4 30 12
3 progressionagency.com Consultancy 7.4% 1 of 4 1 9
4 dev.to Community 5.7% 3 of 4 6 10
5 webflow.com Vendor site 6.2% 3 of 4 4 8
6 cosmicjs.com Vendor site 4.8% 3 of 4 7 9
7 github.com Vendor site 1.7% 2 of 4 8 Not read
8 lemonhive.com Vendor site 4.3% 3 of 4 1 9
9 dupple.com Media 3.6% 1 of 4 1 8
10 g2.com Review site 3.6% 2 of 4 4 9

Questions asked

QuestionLanguageMost recommended
best headless cms for developers English Directus, Payload, Sanity and Strapi, tied
headless cms for ecommerce websites English Contentful, Hygraph, Payload, Sanity, Storyblok and Strapi, tied
how to manage content for a website and mobile app in one place English Contentful, Directus, Sanity and Strapi, tied
how to migrate from a traditional cms to a headless cms English No brand recommended
headless cms vs traditional cms for marketing teams English Contentful and Storyblok, tied

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