# 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. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hygraph-vs-strapi
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hygraph-vs-strapi.md (~2,450 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hygraph-vs-strapi.min.md (~680 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hygraph-vs-strapi.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

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.

- Hygraph: grade B, 69.3/100, rank #182 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/hygraph.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/hygraph.json
- Strapi: grade B, 65.7/100, rank #285 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/strapi.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/strapi.json

## 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

| Category | Weight | Hygraph | Strapi | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 89 | 82 | Hygraph +7 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 78 | 80 | Strapi +2 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 72 | 65 | Hygraph +7 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 63 | 66 | Strapi +3 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 35 | 50 | Strapi +15 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 74 | 87 | Strapi +13 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 60 | 72 | Strapi +12 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -6 | |
| **Total** | | **69.3 · B** | **65.7 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Hygraph | Strapi |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Hygraph GmbH | Strapi, Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://mcp.hygraph.com/mcp` | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under Hygraph GmbH's Terms of Service. The `@hygraph/management-sdk` package is MIT | 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 |
| Tools exposed | 17 | none |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-09-30 | 2026-10-07 |
| Terms last updated | no date given | 2026-10-07 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | 2023-03-01 |
| 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 | yes | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | yes |
| Popularity | 52 stars, 8.6k npm/wk | 73k 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).


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Hygraph or Strapi

- [Contentstack vs Hygraph](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/contentstack-vs-hygraph.md)
- [Contentstack vs Strapi](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/contentstack-vs-strapi.md)
- [DatoCMS vs Hygraph](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/datocms-vs-hygraph.md)
- [DatoCMS vs Strapi](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/datocms-vs-strapi.md)
- [Directus vs Hygraph](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/directus-vs-hygraph.md)
- [Directus vs Strapi](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/directus-vs-strapi.md)
- [Ghost vs Hygraph](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ghost-vs-hygraph.md)
- [Ghost vs Strapi](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ghost-vs-strapi.md)
- [Hygraph vs Payload](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hygraph-vs-payload.md)
- [Hygraph vs Prismic](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hygraph-vs-prismic.md)
- [Hygraph vs Sanity](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hygraph-vs-sanity.md)
- [Hygraph vs Storyblok](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hygraph-vs-storyblok.md)
- [Hygraph vs Webflow](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hygraph-vs-webflow.md)
- [Hygraph vs WordPress](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hygraph-vs-wordpress.md)
- [Payload vs Strapi](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/payload-vs-strapi.md)
- [Prismic vs Strapi](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/prismic-vs-strapi.md)
- [Sanity vs Strapi](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/sanity-vs-strapi.md)
- [Storyblok vs Strapi](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/storyblok-vs-strapi.md)
- [Strapi vs Webflow](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/strapi-vs-webflow.md)
- [Strapi vs WordPress](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/strapi-vs-wordpress.md)