TessTess vs Sanity
Hosted content platform with an open-source studio
A hosted Content Lake with a customizable, open-source React editing studio and its own query language, GROQ.
Side by side
| Criterion | Tess | Sanity |
|---|---|---|
| Delivery | Software you run yourself | Hosted Content Lake; the studio is open source and self-deployable |
| Content models | Admin UI or API, applied immediately | Schemas in JavaScript/TypeScript code |
| API | GraphQL generated from the models | GROQ, plus a deployable GraphQL API |
| Editing | Admin UI with drafts and reviews | Real-time collaborative editing in a highly customizable studio |
| Data location | Your servers and your database | Sanity's cloud |
| Pricing | Community free for personal use; Enterprise license for commercial use | Free tier, then paid plans by usage and seats |
Choose Sanity if…
- You need real-time collaboration and a deeply customized editing studio.
Choose Tess if…
- You want your content in your own database, with a standard GraphQL API and no query language to learn.
Moving from Sanity to Tess
Sanity document types and objects map to Tess content types and components; arrays of mixed types become DYNAMIC_ZONE fields. Import the models with tess-transfer, then copy documents from a Sanity export through the Tess GraphQL API.
Facts checked on October 20, 2026 from Sanity's public documentation (www.sanity.io). Products change quickly: check the vendor's site for the latest features and pricing.