Strapi — Leading Open Source Headless CMS

What Strapi Does

Strapi provides a complete content management solution:

• Content-Type Builder: Visual interface to define content models with fields, relations, and components
• Auto-generated APIs: REST and GraphQL APIs created automatically from your content types
• Media Library: Upload, organize, and transform images and files with built-in asset management
• Authentication & RBAC: User management with role-based permissions at field and content-type level
• Internationalization (i18n): Built-in multi-language content management
• Content Versioning: Draft/publish workflow with content history
• Marketplace: 100+ community plugins for SEO, email, search, and more
• Customization: Extend with custom controllers, services, middlewares, and policies

Architecture

┌──────────────┐     ┌──────────────┐     ┌──────────────┐
│  Your App    │────▶│  Strapi      │────▶│  SQLite /    │
│  (Next.js /  │     │  Server      │     │  PostgreSQL /│
│  Nuxt / etc) │     │  (Koa.js)    │     │  MySQL       │
└──────────────┘     └──────┬───────┘     └──────────────┘
                            │
                     ┌──────┴───────┐
                     │  Admin Panel │
                     │  (React)     │
                     └──────────────┘

Getting Started

Create a Project

npx create-strapi@latest my-project
# Choose database: SQLite (default), PostgreSQL, or MySQL
# Choose TypeScript or JavaScript

Content Types via UI

The Content-Type Builder lets you visually create:

• Collection Types: Repeatable content (Articles, Products, Users)
• Single Types: Unique content (Homepage, Settings, About Page)
• Components: Reusable field groups (SEO, Address, Social Links)

Content Types via Code

// src/api/article/content-types/article/schema.json
{
  "kind": "collectionType",
  "collectionName": "articles",
  "info": {
    "singularName": "article",
    "pluralName": "articles",
    "displayName": "Article"
  },
  "attributes": {
    "title": {
      "type": "string",
      "required": true
    },
    "content": {
      "type": "richtext"
    },
    "slug": {
      "type": "uid",
      "targetField": "title"
    },
    "cover": {
      "type": "media",
      "allowedTypes": ["images"]
    },
    "category": {
      "type": "relation",
      "relation": "manyToOne",
      "target": "api::category.category"
    },
    "author": {
      "type": "relation",
      "relation": "manyToOne",
      "target": "plugin::users-permissions.user"
    }
  }
}

API Usage

REST API

# List articles
curl http://localhost:1337/api/articles?populate=*

# Get single article
curl http://localhost:1337/api/articles/1?populate=cover,category

# Create article (authenticated)
curl -X POST http://localhost:1337/api/articles 
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_JWT" 
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" 
  -d '{"data": {"title": "My Post", "content": "Hello World"}}'

# Filter and sort
curl "http://localhost:1337/api/articles?filters[category][name][$eq]=tech&sort=publishedAt:desc&pagination[limit]=10"

GraphQL API

query {
  articles(
    filters: { category: { name: { eq: "tech" } } }
    sort: "publishedAt:desc"
    pagination: { limit: 10 }
  ) {
    data {
      id
      attributes {
        title
        content
        slug
        cover {
          data {
            attributes {
              url
            }
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Self-Hosting

Docker Compose

services:
  strapi:
    image: strapi/strapi:latest
    ports:
      - "1337:1337"
    environment:
      DATABASE_CLIENT: postgres
      DATABASE_HOST: postgres
      DATABASE_PORT: 5432
      DATABASE_NAME: strapi
      DATABASE_USERNAME: strapi
      DATABASE_PASSWORD: strapi
      JWT_SECRET: your-jwt-secret
      ADMIN_JWT_SECRET: your-admin-jwt-secret
      APP_KEYS: key1,key2,key3,key4
    depends_on:
      - postgres
    volumes:
      - strapi-data:/opt/app

  postgres:
    image: postgres:16-alpine
    environment:
      POSTGRES_USER: strapi
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: strapi
      POSTGRES_DB: strapi
    volumes:
      - pg-data:/var/lib/postgresql/data

volumes:
  strapi-data:
  pg-data:

Strapi vs Alternatives

FAQ

Q: Is Strapi suitable for large enterprise projects? A: Yes. Strapi v5 strengthens enterprise features including audit logs, SSO, approval flows, and content publishing workflows. Many enterprises run Strapi in production.

Q: What's different between Strapi v5 and v4? A: v5 improves the API response format (flatter), introduces the Document Service API, improves TypeScript support, and optimizes database query performance. Migrating from v4 requires updating API call patterns.

Q: Does the content editor support Markdown? A: The default rich text editor is WYSIWYG. Community plugins can swap it for a Markdown editor, or you can use the CKEditor 5 plugin for a more powerful editing experience.