Subcategory · AI Citation Index
Headless CMS
Contentful, Sanity, and Storyblok dominate AI shortlists at ~68% each; 64 brands compete for developer mindshare in decoupled content delivery.
173 discovery queries · 255 head-to-heads · refreshed Oct 19, 2026
Discovery stage
The shortlist
Across 173 buyer-style "Headless CMS" queries
Contentful (68.2% shortlist rate, 427 mentions) and Sanity (67.6%, 407 mentions) lead a tight four-way race with Storyblok (65.3%) and Strapi (64.7%). All four appear across all model families tested. Hygraph holds fifth at 59.5% but trails sharply in mention volume (210 vs. 352–427 for top four). Prismic and Contentstack fall below 50% shortlist penetration despite moderate unCited scores.
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Signal by intent
By topic
Top 5 most-cited brands per intent cluster. Brands with zero citations in a topic are not shown.
Evaluation stage
Head-to-head
How often AI cites each brand across uniform category evaluation prompts · median 8/100
When models compare vendors head-to-head, Sanity, Contentful, Storyblok, and Strapi tie at 47/100 average evaluation score across 27 queries each. Hygraph trails by one point (46/100, 26 comparisons). Prismic drops to 39/100 despite a 72 unCited score, signaling strong awareness but weaker relative performance in direct matchups. Category median evaluation score sits at just 8/100, far below the top cluster.
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Each brand's score is the share of category evaluation prompts where AI cited them across all four engines — the same prompt pool for every brand. Brands above the median citation rate have stronger presence in evaluation-stage queries.
Trends
Over the last 12 months
Category average score fell from 57 in March 2026 to 6 by October across seven monthly snapshots (sample sizes 4–14 prompts). Acoustic Content surged +27 points month-over-month; Form.io collapsed -44. Small sample sizes limit trend confidence.
Brands to know
In this category
Contentful
Leads mention volume (427) and ties for highest shortlist rate (68.2%). Ties at 47/100 in head-to-head evaluations, matching Sanity and Storyblok despite narrowly higher raw visibility.
Read brand profile →Sanity
Matches Contentful's 47/100 evaluation score across 27 comparison queries and appears in 67.6% of shortlists with 407 mentions. Second by one percentage point in shortlist penetration.
Read brand profile →Strapi
Open-source contender at 64.7% shortlist rate (352 mentions) ties the top tier in evaluations (47/100) but carries a 38 unCited score—less than half Contentful's 66—suggesting weaker commercial positioning.
Read brand profile →Prismic
Holds a 72 unCited score—highest in the featured set—yet shortlist rate drops to 48% and evaluation score to 39/100. High awareness does not translate to competitive strength in direct vendor comparisons.
Read brand profile →Hygraph
Fifth-place shortlist rate (59.5%) with 46/100 evaluation score across 26 queries. Mention count (210) lags the top four by 40–50%, indicating narrower but consistent AI visibility.
Read brand profile →Citation sources
Where AI pulls citations from
555 citations captured across Headless CMS prompt runs.
Vendor pages
275Product, help, and marketing pages from tracked vendors
Independent sources
132Reviews, encyclopedias, forums, press — not vendor-owned
Buyer questions
What AI cites for top Headless CMS questions
Most-cited prompts across the buyer journey. Click any prompt to see the actual URLs AI engines link to.
Discovery
Buyers exploring the categoryEvaluation
Buyers comparing options- 12 Best Headless CMS Platforms for 2025 | Agami Technologiesagamitechnologies.com
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