Contentful vs Apollo GraphQL Pricing (2026)
How do these two stack up on price? Here's what each one costs, what you get, and where the value sits.
| Contentful | Apollo GraphQL | |
|---|---|---|
| Starts at | $300/mo | $5/mo |
| Number of plans | 3 | 4 |
| Free plan | ||
| Free trial | — | — |
| Pricing model | hybrid | usage-based |
Free
- 10 users
- 2 roles
- 2 locales
- 100K API calls/ month
- 50 GB/ month CDN bandwidth
- Structured content
- Developer tools
- Editorial experience
Lite
- 20 users
- 3 roles
- 3 locales
- 1M API calls/ month
- 100 GB/ month CDN bandwidth
- Comments & task management
- Scheduled publishing
- Live collaboration
Enterprise
- Custom number of users, roles & locales
- Unlimited API calls/ month
- Custom amount of CDN bandwidth
- Dedicated Customer Success & Professional Services with 24/7 customer support
- Enhanced governance, compliance and security features with up to 99.99% uptime SLA
- Unlimited Spaces allowance
- Compatible with Personalization, Studio and new AI Actions
Free
- GraphOS - Apollo's complete API management platform
- Supports any GraphQL API
- Self-hosted GraphOS Router (limited to 60 requests per minute)
- Built-in support for GraphQL Federation, Connectors, Response Caching, Federated Subscriptions, and more.
Developer
- GraphOS - Apollo's complete API management platform
- Supports any GraphQL API
- Self-hosted GraphOS Router
- Built-in support for GraphQL Federation, Connectors, Response Caching, Federated Subscriptions, and more.
Standard
- GraphOS - Apollo's complete API management platform
- Supports any GraphQL API
- Self-hosted GraphOS Router
- Built-in support for GraphQL Federation, Connectors, Response Caching, Federated Subscriptions, and more.
- Schema Proposals - Collaboration and approval workflows
- Single sign-on (SSO)
Enterprise
- GraphOS - Apollo's complete API management platform
- Supports any GraphQL API
- Self-hosted GraphOS Router
- Built-in support for GraphQL Federation, Connectors, Response Caching, Federated Subscriptions, and more.
- Schema Proposals - Collaboration and approval workflows
- Single sign-on (SSO)
- Audit logging
- Custom MSA
- (Add-on) Premium Support Packages
- (Add-on) Professional Services Packages
Contentful vs Apollo GraphQL FAQ
- Which one is cheaper?
- Apollo GraphQL is the cheaper option, starting at $5/mo vs $300/mo for Contentful.
- Can I use either one for free?
- Both offer free plans, so you can try each without paying. Start with whichever fits your workflow better and upgrade when you hit the limits.
- How do they charge?
- Different approach here. Contentful uses hybrid pricing, while Apollo GraphQL goes with usage-based. That changes the math depending on your team size and usage.
- Which one is a better deal?
- Depends on what you need. Contentful: Contentful sits at the premium end of the headless CMS market — they're not competing on price with Strapi or Directus. They're going after mid-market and enterprise teams who need a battle-tested, API-first platform and are willing to pay for reliability and ecosystem depth. Apollo GraphQL: They're positioned as the accessible entry point into GraphQL federation tooling — $5/mo to start is nearly frictionless compared to enterprise API management suites that require sales calls from day one. The custom-priced tiers exist to compete for platform-level deals against players like Postman or enterprise API gateways once volume and compliance needs escalate.
Still deciding? See the best Contentful alternatives or the best Apollo GraphQL alternatives, ranked with verified pricing.
Keep tabs on both.
We'll monitor pricing changes for Contentful and Apollo GraphQL and let you know when something moves. See how competitor pricing monitoring works.