Lumen
That's usLocal-first desktop app for Astro.
Best for: Solo devs and small teams shipping Astro from git.
Pitch: Edit, preview, commit, and push without leaving the app.
Note: macOS first. Linux and Windows builds in progress.
Comparison · Updated 2026
The best CMS for Astro is built for Astro.
Eight options, one built specifically for the way Astro teams ship. Here's how Lumen stacks up against TinaCMS, Decap, Keystatic, Sanity, and the rest, and which one fits your project.
Which one should you use?
- You're a developer who edits content too Lumen
The person running
astro devis the one writing the words. Lumen sits next to your editor: open the project, write, hit publish. Git happens in the background. - Non-technical editors need to update a live Astro site Lumen Relay
Send a magic-link invite. They install Lumen, click the link, and edit. No GitHub account, no admin route to deploy, no per-seat SaaS bill.
- You want a free, fully-in-browser editor and nothing else Decap or Pages CMS
Browser-only, GitHub login, zero install. Fine for a solo creator who won't install an app. You give up the preview pane, the speed of a native editor, and the ability to invite editors without GitHub accounts.
- Your content team is 50+ editors across web, mobile, and email Sanity or Contentful
Once you're past a handful of Astro sites, hosted CMSes earn their cost: roles, workflows, localization, references across surfaces. For a single marketing site or docs, they're overkill.
Where each one stands.
The five most common picks for Astro, row by row. Pick what your project actually needs. Not every "yes" is the right "yes."
| Lumen | Tina | Decap | Keystatic | Sanity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Works offline | Yes | Partial | No | Partial | No |
| Content in your repo | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| No account required | Yes | No (Cloud) | No (auth) | Local only | No |
| Built-in dev server | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Built-in git sync | Yes | Via Cloud | Yes | Via host | N/A |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes (OSS) | Yes (OSS) | Yes (OSS) | Yes (limits) |
| Visual on-page editing | Preview pane | Yes | No | No | Via plugin |
How Lumen stacks up.
TinaCMS
Visual editor that runs inside your Astro site.
Best for: Teams that want inline editing on a deployed preview.
Pitch: On-page editing of the rendered site.
vs Lumen: Tina ships a runtime into your Astro site and ties editing to a deployed preview. Lumen runs as a native app, so your build stays pure static Astro.
Read the full Lumen vs TinaCMS →Decap CMS
Open-source browser CMS, formerly Netlify CMS, now independently maintained.
Best for: Static sites that need a free admin and don't mind a YAML config.
Pitch: Lives at /admin on any host.
vs Lumen: Decap is solid, but OAuth setup and a deployed admin route are still your problem. Lumen ships as an app, with no admin to host and no auth to wire up.
Read the full Lumen vs Decap CMS →Keystatic
Open-source git-based CMS that ships as an Astro integration.
Best for: Astro projects that want the admin inside the codebase.
Pitch: First-class Astro integration with type-safe schemas.
vs Lumen: Keystatic puts an admin route in your app, so editors need the deploy or local dev running. Lumen runs standalone and infers schemas from your existing files.
Read the full Lumen vs Keystatic →Sanity
Hosted, structured-content CMS with a custom query language.
Best for: Large teams with structured content across many surfaces.
Pitch: Real-time collab, references, image pipeline.
vs Lumen: Your content lives on Sanity's servers, behind GROQ, behind a CDN, behind a per-seat subscription. Lumen keeps content in your repo as Markdown: diffable, ownable, future-proof.
Read the full Lumen vs Sanity →Contentful
Enterprise headless CMS.
Best for: Enterprise content ops already standardized on Contentful.
Pitch: Mature roles, workflows, localization.
vs Lumen: Built for big content orgs and priced like it. For a typical Astro site, you'd pay enterprise rent for features you'll never touch.
Storyblok
Visual headless CMS for marketers.
Best for: Marketing teams that need a visual page composer.
Pitch: Drag-and-drop blocks with live preview.
vs Lumen: Storyblok pulls content out of your repo and into Storyblok-shaped JSON. Lumen leaves it where Astro expects it: in src/content/.
CloudCannon
Hosted git-based CMS with a visual editor for static sites.
Best for: Agencies handing static sites off to marketing teams.
Pitch: Visual editing on a real git repo, with branch-based previews.
vs Lumen: CloudCannon charges per editor seat in the browser. Lumen is one flat yearly price, and Relay invites editors as guests without adding to your bill.
Pages CMS
Free, open-source git-based CMS at app.pagescms.org.
Best for: Solo creators who want a free hosted editor for a GitHub repo.
Pitch: Zero-config: just a YAML in your repo.
vs Lumen: Fine if you're happy in the browser with a GitHub login. Lumen adds a real editor, a preview pane, and Relay invites for editors without GitHub.
Questions we get every week.
What's the best CMS for Astro in 2026?
For most Astro projects, a git-based CMS (Lumen, Keystatic, Tina, Decap, or Pages CMS) is the right call. Content stays as files next to your code, your build stays fast, and you don't pay a monthly bill per editor. Reach for a hosted CMS like Sanity or Contentful when you have a large team or content that needs to ship to multiple surfaces at once.
Does Astro have a built-in CMS?
No. Astro ships src/content/ collections: a typed
schema for Markdown, MDX, and JSON files in your repo, but
there's no editor UI. A CMS like Lumen reads those collection
files and gives you a place to edit them.
Should the CMS live in my repo or in the cloud?
If you're shipping Astro from git, your content probably should too. Git-based CMSes give you free version control, easy local previews, and no vendor lock-in. Hosted CMSes win when you need real-time collaboration, structured references across content types, or content that's reused across web, mobile, and email.
Can a non-developer use a git-based CMS?
Yes, but it depends on the CMS. Decap and Pages CMS run in the browser and don't expose git at all. Lumen Relay sends editors a magic-link invite: they install the Lumen Mac app, click the link, and never see git or GitHub. Keystatic and Tina need a deployed admin or cloud account.
What about MDX, Markdoc, or custom schemas?
Lumen, Keystatic, and Tina all handle Markdown plus structured frontmatter. Keystatic has the strongest type-safe schema story. Lumen auto-detects field types from your existing files, which is great for retrofitting an existing site.
Is Decap CMS (Netlify CMS) still maintained?
Yes. After Netlify stepped back, Decap continued as an independent open-source project (now maintained in the EU) and is shipping work like Decap Turbo. It's still free, still MIT, and still the most established browser-based git CMS.