Liteshow vs Contentful

Contentful is a powerful enterprise headless CMS—it's also expensive and locks you into their infrastructure. Liteshow gives you the developer experience you love about Contentful, with true git version control, zero vendor lock-in, and costs that are 95% lower.

Quick Comparison

FeatureLiteshowContentful
HostingSelf-hosted anywhereSaaS only
PricingFree (open source)$300-2,000+/month
Version ControlNative git commitsBuilt-in (proprietary)
DatabaseSQLite (file-based)Proprietary cloud DB
Content StorageGit repositoryContentful cloud
Vendor Lock-inNone (open source)High
Content ModelingCode-firstUI-first
Data OwnershipFull (in your repo)Limited (export only)

The $20,000/Year Difference

Contentful Pricing (2026)

Free tier:2 users, 25k records (hobbyist only)
Team:$300/month ($3,600/year)
Premium:$2,000+/month ($24,000+/year)
Enterprise:$50k-$200k/year

Hidden costs:

  • ● Additional API calls: $1-2 per 1,000 over limit
  • ● Additional users: $25-100/user/month
  • ● Media bandwidth: Charges for high traffic
  • ● Additional environments: Extra cost

Liteshow Pricing

Software:Free (open source, MIT license)
Hosting:$0-20/month
Scaling:No usage limits
Users:Unlimited

Annual Cost Comparison (Typical Team)

NeedContentfulLiteshow
10 users$300-2,000/mo$0/mo
500k recordsPremium tier$0/mo
10M API calls/moExtra charges$0/mo
5 environmentsExtra cost$0/mo (git branches)
Annual Total$20,000-$50,000$0-240

Save $19,000-$50,000/year

That's a full-time developer salary

Why Developers Are Leaving Contentful

Vendor Lock-In

Contentful:

  • Proprietary content format
  • Data lives in Contentful's cloud
  • Difficult to migrate out
  • Must use Contentful's APIs
  • Dependent on their uptime

Liteshow:

  • Open source (MIT license)
  • Content is standard JSON/Markdown
  • Lives in your git repository
  • Migrate anytime (it's just files)
  • Full control over infrastructure

2.Contentful's "Versioning" Isn't Git

Contentful has version history, but it's proprietary and limited:

  • Can't branch content like code
  • Can't merge content changes
  • No pull request workflow
  • Version history tied to Contentful account

Liteshow difference:

Every content change is a real git commit:

git log --oneline
7f3a8c2 Update pricing page
4b2e1f9 Add new case study
3d1c7a8 Fix typo in hero

git diff 4b2e1f9 7f3a8c2
# See exactly what changed

3.API Call Limits and Overage Charges

Contentful charges for API calls over your plan limit:

  • ● Free tier: 1M calls/month
  • ● Team: 5M calls/month
  • ● Overages: $1-2 per 1,000 calls

For a busy site:

10M API calls/month = $10-20k/year in overages

Liteshow:

  • No API call limits (it's your infrastructure)
  • Static builds = minimal API calls
  • Scale infinitely without overage charges

Real-World Example: E-Commerce Product Catalog

Contentful Approach

  1. 1. Create space, define content models
  2. 2. Enter products via Contentful UI
  3. 3. Query Contentful API
  4. 4. Pay $300-2,000/month
  5. 5. Pay more as you scale
// Dependent on Contentful API const products = await fetch( contentful_api_url, { headers: { Auth: token } } )

Liteshow Approach

  1. 1. Define product model in TypeScript
  2. 2. Add products via Admin UI or git
  3. 3. Import products directly
  4. 4. Pay $0-20/month for hosting
  5. 5. No cost increase when scaling
// No external API dependency import { getProducts } from '@/lib/content' const products = await getProducts()

Save $3,600-$24,000/year

Migration from Contentful

# 1. Export from Contentful
npm install contentful-export
contentful-export --space-id YOUR_SPACE_ID

# 2. Convert to Liteshow format
npx liteshow-migrate contentful ./export.json

# 3. Review in git
git add content/
git commit -m "Migrate from Contentful"

# 4. Deploy
git push origin main

# 5. Cancel Contentful subscription
# Save $300-2,000/month 💰

Ready to Leave Contentful?

Your content is yours. Your data is yours. Your costs are near zero. Welcome to CMS freedom.