React CMS Options: Which One Is Best for Modern Frontends?

When you build a React application today, choosing the right headless CMS can make or break your developer experience and time to market.

In this post, we’ll compare the leading React-focused CMSs...

• Agility CMS
• Strapi
• Sanity
• Contentful

...across API flexibility, preview workflows, performance, and ease of integration. By the end, you’ll know which CMS aligns best with your project’s requirements and team skills.

What to Look for in a React-Friendly CMS

A great React CMS should offer:

1. Component-First APIs
   Fetch content as discrete modules you can map directly to React components.

2. Real-Time Preview
    ditors should see live updates while developing in your React app.

3. Schema Flexibility
   Define custom content types without endless admin configurations.

4. SDK & Framework Support
   Official libraries or starters—Next.js, Gatsby, Remix, or plain CRA—save setup time.

5. Developer Experience (DX)
   Clear docs, CLI tooling, and an active community matter as much as features.

Side-by-Side Comparison

Deep Dive: Agility CMS for React

While all four CMSs above integrate with React, Agility CMS offers several React-specific advantages:

1. Official JavaScript SDK

js

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import { AgilityFetchClient, ContentItem } from '@agility/content-client';

const client = new AgilityFetchClient({
  guid: process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_CMS_GUID,
  apiKey: process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_CMS_API_KEY,
});

export async function getPageContent(contentID, language = 'en-us') {
  const response = await client.getContentItem({
    contentID,
    languageCode: language,
  });
  return response.contentItem;
}

Use this in any React component to fetch and render dynamic modules. See the full examples in our Content Fetch API docs.

2. Component-Driven Page Builder

Agility CMS lets you define Modules (self-contained units of content (text blocks, image galleries, feature grids), and assign them to pages. In your React app, map each Module to a React component: 

jsx

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// pages/[page].js

import { getPageContent } from '../lib/cms';
import HeroModule from '../components/HeroModule';
import FeatureGrid from '../components/FeatureGrid';

export default function Page({ modules }) {
  return modules.map((mod, i) => {
    switch (mod.contentName) {
      case 'Hero':
        return ;
      case 'FeatureGrid':
        return ;
      default:
        return null;
    }
  });
}

export async function getStaticProps({ params }) {
  const page = await getPageContent(params.page);
  return { props: { modules: page.fields.modules } };
}

For a full example, check out the Next.js Starter project.

3. Real-Time Preview in Web Studio

As editors change content in Agility’s low-code Web Studio, your React app can reflect those updates instantly:

• Enable preview mode by passing a preview token via URL.

• React SDK automatically reruns fetches on token change.

• Editors see true WYSIWYG updates without rebuilds.

Learn how to set up preview in our Next.js pagination guide (preview section).

When to Consider Other CMSs

• Strapi if you need a fully self-hosted solution with complete data ownership and extensive plugin ecosystem.

• Sanity for collaborative content workflows with real-time multi-user editing and rich query language (GROQ).

• Contentful when you need a mature enterprise platform with extensive third-party integrations out of the box.

Conclusion & Next Steps

Choosing a headless CMS for React comes down to trade-offs between flexibility, hosting model, and built-in editor experiences. If you want...

• A hosted SaaS that removes ops overhead.

• A component-first API that maps directly into your React components.

• Real-time preview and a low-code page builder.

…then Agility CMS is designed to fit seamlessly into modern React stacks.

Ready to Get Started?

 👉 Explore our pricing and free trial and launch your first React-powered site today.