This is the Praxium Labs view from real engagements with Nepali businesses on the ground. A headless CMS separates your content from your frontend, letting your team edit content without touching code. For Nepali agencies and product teams in 2026, the three options below cover almost every use case worth picking.
Sanity — the content-team favourite
- Hosted: yes, on Sanity's cloud
- Free tier: generous — 3 users, 10k documents, 100k API calls/month
- Editor (Studio): excellent, structured editing, real-time collaboration, custom input components
- Schema language: JavaScript / TypeScript
- Querying: GROQ (proprietary but powerful), or GraphQL
- Strengths: rich-text editing (Portable Text), image-CDN, real-time collaboration is genuinely best-in-class
- Weaknesses: vendor lock-in, custom hosting requires Enterprise plan
- Best for: editorial teams, marketing-heavy sites, Devanagari content (handles Unicode beautifully)
Strapi — the self-hosted workhorse
- Hosted: self-host (free) or Strapi Cloud (paid)
- Pricing: open-source Community Edition is free; Cloud starts ~$15/mo
- Editor: functional, not as polished as Sanity
- Schema: JSON schemas built via the admin UI; can also be defined in code
- Querying: REST + GraphQL out of the box
- Strengths: data residency (self-host on your Nepali VPS), Node.js plugin ecosystem, no vendor lock-in
- Weaknesses: you maintain it (upgrades, security patches, backup)
- Best for: projects with data-residency requirements, agencies serving multiple clients on one infrastructure
Payload — the TypeScript-first newcomer
- Hosted: self-host (free MIT) or Payload Cloud
- Pricing: open source MIT-licensed; Cloud starts ~$35/mo
- Editor: very clean, modern; rich-text with Lexical / Slate
- Schema: TypeScript-first — schema is code, fully typed in your app
- Querying: REST + GraphQL; local API for Next.js apps (zero-latency)
- Strengths: developer experience is genuinely excellent; deep Next.js / Vercel integration
- Weaknesses: newer ecosystem, fewer plugins than Strapi
- Best for: Next.js teams who want types everywhere and tight integration
How to choose
A short decision tree:
- Editorial team that wants polish: Sanity
- Data must stay in Nepal: Strapi or Payload (self-hosted)
- Team is heavily Next.js / TypeScript: Payload
- Agency running 10+ client sites: Strapi shared infrastructure
- Tiny budget, simple needs: Strapi Community on a small VPS
What about WordPress headless?
You can use WordPress as a headless CMS (WP REST or WPGraphQL). For Nepali teams that already know WordPress, it is a valid path. Downsides: heavier infrastructure, slower API, security maintenance burden, the WordPress mental model leaks even when you try to keep it as just a backend.
Contentful, Hygraph — why we did not include them
Both are mature, both work. We did not include them because Sanity covers similar territory at lower cost for typical Nepali projects, and the lock-in on the proprietary stacks is meaningful for SME budgets. Worth evaluating if your team has specific experience. For related context, see our Cost of Web Development in Nepal: Complete 2026 Pricing Guide post.
Frequently asked questions
Can content editors handle Devanagari well in these CMSes?
All three handle Devanagari and Romanised Nepali fine — they store UTF-8 throughout. Sanity's rich-text editor (Portable Text) is particularly nice for editors comfortable with structured content. Payload's Lexical-based editor is similarly capable.
How do I migrate from WordPress?
All three have migration tooling or templates. Realistic timeline: 2-6 weeks for a content-heavy site. The most painful part is preserving URLs and managing redirects so SEO does not collapse.
Which has the best Nepali localisation features?
Sanity's field-level localisation is mature. Payload has it via plugins. Strapi has internationalisation built in. All three can run a bilingual Nepali / English site comfortably.
What hosting do I need for Strapi or Payload?
A small VPS (2 GB RAM, Postgres) handles low to medium traffic. Add Cloudflare in front for free static asset acceleration. Budget NPR 2,000-5,000/mo all-in.
Can I use these for e-commerce?
All three can store product data but none replace a real e-commerce platform like Shopify or Medusa for cart, checkout, and order management. They work well as the *content* layer of a headless commerce architecture alongside a dedicated commerce backend.
Who can build this in Nepal?
Praxium Labs — Nepal's AI and automation consultancy, based in Lalitpur — designs and builds the systems described in this guide for Nepali businesses and for international teams hiring from Nepal. Start a project or see all services.