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Head to head · Cms content · October 2026 research run

Hygraph vs Strapi

Hygraph scores 69.3 (B) on agent readiness against Strapi's 65.7 (B), and leads in 2 of 7 scored categories. Strapi leads on payments & pricing, maintenance & community and transparency & trust. Both do cms content.

HygraphHygraph GmbH · HTTP API B69.3/100#182 of 841 StrapiStrapi, Inc. · HTTP API B65.7/100#285 of 841

Which one, for what

Hygraph B

Good for Teams on Hygraph who want an agent to create, localise and publish entries, upload assets or change schema, with delete and unpublish kept out of reach on MCP.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 89 against 82
  • Agent ergonomics, 72 against 65

Also in its favour

  • A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
  • Free to start without a card
  • No incidents deducted, where Strapi loses 6 points for them

Watch for

GraphQL error bodies carry a message and a requestId with no machine-readable code, and only asset transformation 429 responses are documented with Retry-After

Strapi B

Good for Teams that want to own their CMS and let an agent draft, localise and publish entries under a narrow token.

Ahead on

  • Payments & pricing, 50 against 35
  • Maintenance & community, 87 against 74
  • Transparency & trust, 72 against 60

Also in its favour

  • Open source

Watch for

Content History keeps no version for REST, GraphQL or MCP writes, and exists only on Growth and Enterprise plans

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runHygraphStrapiEdge
Reliability16%208982Hygraph +7
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.27880Strapi +2
Agent ergonomics13%16.27265Hygraph +7
Security & auth14%17.56366Strapi +3
Payments & pricing10%12.53550Strapi +15
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.87487Strapi +13
Transparency & trust7%8.86072Strapi +12
Negative events≤150-6
Total69.3 · B65.7 · B

Facts side by side

FactHygraphStrapi
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorHygraph GmbHStrapi, Inc.
Hosted endpointhttps://mcp.hygraph.com/mcpno (local only)
TransportsHTTP, Streamable HTTPHTTP, Streamable HTTP
AuthOAuth or keyAPI key
PricingFreemiumFreemium
x402nono
LicenceProprietary service under Hygraph GmbH's Terms of Service. The @hygraph/management-sdk package is MITMIT for the Community Edition. Code under ee/ directories is under Strapi's Enterprise Edition licence, and Strapi Cloud is a paid service under its own terms
Tools exposed17none
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
Last release2026-09-302026-10-07
Terms last updatedno date given2026-10-07
Privacy policy last updatedno date given2023-03-01
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessnot found in the textyes
Terms restrict benchmarkingyesyes
Terms or service can change without noticeyesyes
Arbitration or class-action waivernot found in the textyes
Popularity52 stars, 8.6k npm/wk73k stars, 259k npm/wk

Verdicts

Hygraph

Tokens are limited by model, stage, locale and action, the GraphQL schema is typed and introspectable, and a hosted MCP server rejects delete and unpublish operations. Error bodies carry a message without a machine code, there are no idempotency keys, audit logs are Enterprise only, and no data processing agreement, sub-processor list or security.txt was found.

Strapi

The built-in MCP server shows an agent only the tools, fields and locales its Admin token permits, and content tools create drafts by default. Rollback is the limit. Content History is a paid feature and records admin panel edits only, so API and MCP writes leave no version to restore, and the MCP server can't upload files.

Before you call either

Hygraph

  1. Send the Permanent Auth Token as Authorization: Bearer <token> to https://<region>.hygraph.com/v2/<projectId>/<environment>. Read the schema by introspection first, because every type is generated from the project's models
  2. Mutations write to DRAFT. Call publish<Model> with to: [PUBLISHED] as a separate mutation, and pass locales to write or publish a localisation
  3. Stay under the plan's limit for uncached requests (5 a second on Hobby, 25 on Growth) and its concurrent mutations (5 and 10). Back off exponentially on 429
  4. Upload an asset with createAsset, then POST the file to the returned pre-signed URL, or pass uploadUrl for a remote file. The asset stays ASSET_CREATE_PENDING until processed
  5. Schema changes go to the Management API through @hygraph/management-sdk or the MCP tool submit_batch_migration. Version restore has no documented mutation, so read <model>Version and write the old values back

Strapi

  1. Pass status=draft on every REST POST and PUT. Without it the Content API publishes the entry at once
  2. Use an Admin token for /mcp and admin routes and an API token for /api. Each kind is rejected on the other's routes
  3. Upload files with multipart POST to /api/upload first, then reference the returned file id in the entry. MCP tools can't upload
  4. Call media_delete_assets and media_delete_folder without dryRun first to preview, and take asset ids only from media_list_assets
  5. Keep your own copy of an entry before updating it. API and MCP writes create no Content History version

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Hygraph or Strapi?

Hygraph scores 69.3 (B) on agent readiness against Strapi's 65.7 (B), and leads in 2 of 7 scored categories. Strapi leads on payments & pricing, maintenance & community and transparency & trust.

Do Hygraph and Strapi need an API key?

Hygraph takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. Strapi needs an API key.

Can an agent call Hygraph and Strapi without installing anything?

Hygraph has a hosted endpoint at https://mcp.hygraph.com/mcp. No hosted endpoint is listed for Strapi.

Are Hygraph and Strapi open source?

No open-source release is listed for Hygraph. Strapi is open source (MIT for the Community Edition. Code under ee/ directories is under Strapi's Enterprise Edition licence, and Strapi Cloud is a paid service under its own terms).

Other comparisons with Hygraph or Strapi

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