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Federated CMS
GraphQL
Free tier

Hygraph

The Federated Content Platform

4.5/ 5
108 verified reviews on G2
hygraph.com

Quick Specs

Type
Federated Content Platform
Site Generators
All frameworks
Pricing
Free & Paid
Self-hosted
No
APIs
GraphQL native
Founded
2017, Germany

What is Hygraph?

Hygraph is a federated content platform built natively on GraphQL. Its defining feature — Content Federation — allows teams to pull data from external REST or GraphQL APIs and surface it through the same GraphQL schema alongside content managed directly in Hygraph.

This makes it the platform of choice for composable architecture projects where content, commerce, and operational data need to be queried in a single API call without building a custom backend aggregation layer.

G2 Reviews

Rated 4.5/5 from 108 verified reviews.

"Hygraph's Content Federation has let us build a composable architecture that pulls from our commerce platform, our ERP, and our CMS content in a single GraphQL query. The alternative was building a BFF layer ourselves — Hygraph replaced months of custom work."

Solutions Architect · Enterprise

"The GraphQL API is the cleanest of any headless CMS I have worked with. Schema-first design, automatic type generation, Persisted Queries for performance — Hygraph has thought carefully about every API design decision."

Frontend Developer · Agency

"We use Hygraph to federate our Shopify catalogue with our editorial content. Querying both in the same GraphQL request and getting back a single typed response has simplified our frontend significantly."

Engineering Manager · Mid-Market

"Hygraph is the right choice when GraphQL is non-negotiable and you need to merge multiple data sources. The Content Federation feature is genuinely unique in the headless CMS market."

Technical Director · Agency

Platform Features

Content Federation

  • Remote data sources from any REST or GraphQL API
  • Field-level mapping of external data into the Hygraph schema
  • Single unified GraphQL API for all data sources
  • No-code connector for Shopify, Salesforce, and more

Content Modelling

  • Schema editor with a visual field builder
  • 20+ field types including rich text, assets, and references
  • Component reuse via Hygraph Components (modular content blocks)
  • Schema versioning with controlled migration workflow

API & Performance

  • GraphQL API with automatic type generation from schema
  • Persisted Queries for cached, CDN-optimised requests
  • High-Availability CDN with global edge caching
  • Webhooks for cache invalidation and build triggers

Editorial Workflows

  • Content stages (Draft, Review, Published) with permission gating
  • Scheduled publishing with date and time controls
  • Localisation with per-locale content and fallback logic
  • App Framework for custom sidebar extensions in the editor

Pros & Cons

Strengths

  • The only major headless CMS with native content federation from external APIs
  • Pure GraphQL-first design with automatic schema type generation
  • Persisted Queries enable CDN-level caching for API responses
  • Strong enterprise adoption for composable architecture projects
  • Clean, well-documented GraphQL API that teams adopt quickly
  • Content stages enable proper review and approval workflows without extra tooling

Limitations

  • GraphQL-only delivery — no REST API for content queries
  • Higher pricing than REST-based alternatives for equivalent features
  • Content federation setup requires technical knowledge of the external APIs being connected
  • Smaller plugin ecosystem compared to Contentful or Strapi

Hygraph Pricing

Hygraph pricing is based on operations (API requests), environments, and seats. A free Community plan is available. Growth plans start at $299/month for teams needing multiple environments and higher operation limits.

Community

Free

forever

Developers and personal projects

  • 1 user
  • 1 environment
  • 500k operations/mo
  • REST + GraphQL sources
  • Community support
GrowthPopular

$299

per month

Teams and production use

  • 10 users
  • 3 environments
  • 5M operations/mo
  • Content federation
  • Email support
Enterprise

Custom

contact sales

Scale and compliance

  • Unlimited users
  • Custom environments
  • SSO & SCIM
  • Custom SLA
  • Dedicated CSM

Not sure which plan is right for you?

Speak with the Hygraph team to find the right plan and explore Content Federation for your use case.

Frequently Asked Questions

Hygraph Alternatives

Other platforms worth evaluating alongside Hygraph.

Contentful

Contentful

Better for teams who need REST and GraphQL APIs and a larger app marketplace without the federated architecture overhead.

DatoCMS

DatoCMS

A cleaner, more affordable GraphQL-native CMS for teams not requiring multi-source content federation.

Sanity

Sanity

Better for real-time collaboration and a fully customisable editing studio, with GROQ or GraphQL for queries.

Strapi

Strapi

The open-source self-hosted alternative for teams who need REST and GraphQL APIs with full data ownership.