# Directus vs Kontent.ai

> Kontent.ai scores 70.5 (BB) to Directus's 67.1 (B) for content management. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/directus-vs-kontent-ai
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/directus-vs-kontent-ai.md (~2,650 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/directus-vs-kontent-ai.min.md (~780 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/directus-vs-kontent-ai.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-09

Kontent.ai scores 70.5 (BB) on agent readiness against Directus's 67.1 (B), and leads in 2 of 7 scored categories. Directus leads on schema & documentation and payments & pricing. Both do content management.

- Directus: grade B, 67.1/100, rank #263 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/directus.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/directus.json
- Kontent.ai: grade BB, 70.5/100, rank #153 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/kontent-ai.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/kontent-ai.json
- Best headless CMS and website publishing for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/cms/index.md
- All 91 cms comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cms/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Directus (B)

Good for: Teams that already keep content in an SQL database and want an agent to edit items, files and the data model under a named user's permissions.

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 81 against 74
- Payments & pricing, 55 against 20

Watch for: Version 12 (10 June 2026) added licence enforcement. The free Core tier allows 3 Studio seats, 25 collections and 5 flows, and an instance over its limits is locked after a grace period

### Kontent.ai (BB)

Good for: A company already on Kontent.ai, or evaluating it on a trial, that wants an agent to draft, localise, move through workflow and publish structured content with a permission-limited key and an audit trail.

Ahead on:
- Security & auth, 81 against 68
- Transparency & trust, 75 against 61

Also in its favour:
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
- Runs on your own machine
- Free to start without a card
- No incidents deducted, where Directus loses 6 points for them

Watch for: No price is published. The pricing page shows sliders for seats, content types and items and a form that requests a quote


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Directus | Kontent.ai | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 82 | 82 | even |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 81 | 74 | Directus +7 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 73 | 71 | Directus +2 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 68 | 81 | Kontent.ai +13 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 55 | 20 | Directus +35 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 86 | 83 | Directus +3 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 61 | 75 | Kontent.ai +14 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -6 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **67.1 · B** | **70.5 · BB** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Directus | Kontent.ai |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Monospace Inc. (Directus) | Kontent CZ s.r.o. |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://manage.kontent.ai/v2` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP, stdio, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Paid |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MSCL-1.0-GPL (Monospace Sustainable Core Licence 1.0), source-available with a licence key for paid tiers, each version converting to GPL-3.0 after four years. `@directus/sdk` is MIT | Proprietary service under the Kontent.ai Terms of Service. The management SDKs for JavaScript and .NET and the MCP server on GitHub are MIT |
| Tools exposed | 12 | 54 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | yes |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | not listed | `io.github.kontent-ai/mcp-server` |
| Last release | 2026-10-07 | 2026-10-02 |
| Terms last updated | no date given | 2026-09-11 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-06-09 | 2025-06-02 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 38k stars, 23k npm/wk | 8.4k npm/wk |

## Verdicts

**Directus.** The built-in MCP server works under the connecting user's permissions, supports OAuth limited to the MCP endpoint and blocks deletes unless an administrator allows them. Since version 12 a licence check caps the free Core tier at 3 Studio seats, 25 collections and 5 flows, and the default tool list carries about 79 KB of instructions.

**Kontent.ai.** Management API keys take per-area permissions, environment limits and an expiry from one minute to two years, and changes made with a key are named in the audit log. Rate limits and Retry-After are documented. No price is published, and no OpenAPI file was found. Access starts with a 30-day trial that a person opens in a browser.

## Before you call either

### Directus

1. Connect with OAuth or an `Authorization: Bearer` header. Don't put the token in the URL as `?access_token=`, where it can be logged
2. Use `/mcp?tool_mode=registry` when the client loads every tool definition. Default mode sends each tool's full instructions, about 79 KB in total
3. Read the `schema` tool before writing. Item payloads are untyped objects, so field names and types come only from the data model
4. Publish a version with `POST /versions/{id}/promote` over REST. The MCP `items` tool refuses system collections such as `directus_versions`
5. Count translation and junction tables against the 25-collection Core limit before creating collections

### Kontent.ai

1. Send `Authorization: Bearer <key>` to `https://manage.kontent.ai/v2/projects/{environment_id}/...`. The Management API must be switched on under Environment settings, General, Enabled APIs first
2. Ask for a Management API key with only the permissions the task needs. Read content alone gives a read-only key, and keys expire after six months by default
3. Stay under 10 requests a second and 400 a minute per environment, send requests one at a time, and wait the seconds in Retry-After on a 429
4. Page lists by passing the `continuation_token` from the response back in the `x-continuation` header
5. Create items with an `external_id` and write with the upsert PUT at `/items/external-id/{id}` so a retry after a lost response does not create a duplicate
6. With the MCP server, call `get-patch-guide` before any patch tool, and use a client that prompts on destructiveHint

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Directus or Kontent.ai?

Kontent.ai scores 70.5 (BB) on agent readiness against Directus's 67.1 (B), and leads in 2 of 7 scored categories. Directus leads on schema & documentation and payments & pricing.

### Do Directus and Kontent.ai need an API key?

Directus takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. Kontent.ai needs an API key.

### Can an agent call Directus and Kontent.ai without installing anything?

No hosted endpoint is listed for Directus. Kontent.ai has a hosted endpoint at https://manage.kontent.ai/v2.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/directus-vs-kontent-ai.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/directus-vs-kontent-ai.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "directus", "b": "kontent-ai"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare directus kontent-ai`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/directus.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/kontent-ai.json

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- [Kontent.ai vs WordPress](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/kontent-ai-vs-wordpress.md)