Stop guessing which one. Put them side by side.

The grid says what these tools are. This says what builders did about it — one decision per person, changeable whenever you change your mind.

# Tool comparison — Builder.io vs Keystatic vs MDX

Source: Kbaise, a directory of tools that work with Lovable projects.
Pick one and tell me why before writing any integration code.

## Builder.io (builder-io)
- URL: https://www.builder.io
- Category: CMS & content infrastructure
- Cost: mixed — Free: 5 users, 75 AI credits/mo. Pro around $24/user/mo, Team around $40/user/mo (20 users). Extra agent credits $25 per 500. Enterprise custom.
- What it is: Builder.io is a visual CMS where editors drag and drop your own registered React components onto a canvas. It also does AI design-to-code, turning Figma files and prompts into component code. The free plan covers 5 users and 75 monthly AI credits.
- Why builders pick it: Marketing and editorial teams ship landing pages without a developer, using components you already built and approved. Deep React and Next.js integration keeps the design system intact.
- Trap: Pro and Team prices are not published on the pricing page — the $24 and $40 per-user figures come from third-party trackers, so confirm with sales. AI agent work is metered separately.
- Wiring: npm i @builder.io/react
- Full dossier: /api/public/tools/builder-io

## Keystatic (keystatic)
- URL: https://keystatic.com
- Category: CMS & content infrastructure
- Cost: free — Free and MIT-licensed with no seat limits. Keystatic Cloud is an optional free add-on for GitHub auth and image handling.
- What it is: Keystatic from Thinkmill is an MIT-licensed CMS that makes Markdown, MDX, JSON and YAML in your repository editable through a React admin UI. There is no database. It runs against the local filesystem in development and against GitHub in production.
- Why builders pick it: Zero cost and zero vendor lock-in — the schema is a TypeScript file and content stays as plain files you can grep and diff. Ships integrations for Next.js, Astro and Remix.
- Trap: Smaller community and slower release cadence than Tina or Payload. No official MCP server, no built-in scheduling, and no multi-stage editorial workflow or approval chain.
- Wiring: npm create @keystatic@latest
- Full dossier: /api/public/tools/keystatic

## MDX (mdx)
- URL: https://mdxjs.com
- Category: CMS & content infrastructure
- Cost: free — Free, MIT-licensed open format.
- What it is: MDX is a format that lets you write JSX inside Markdown, so an article can embed live React components — charts, interactive figures, embeds — between paragraphs of prose. It compiles to a React component and is supported by Vite, Next.js and Astro.
- Why builders pick it: The reason a technical publication can ship an interactive explainer inside an ordinary article. Every file-based tool here — Tina, Keystatic, Outstatic, Velite — speaks it natively.
- Trap: MDX is a compiler, not a CMS: no editor, no media library, no workflow, no roles. Non-technical writers will not author raw MDX, so pair it with an editing layer.
- Wiring: npm i @mdx-js/rollup
- Full dossier: /api/public/tools/mdx

## Quick read

- Free with no card: Keystatic, MDX.

## Rules
1. Prefer the free tier when no budget was stated, and say what the ceiling is.
2. Read the full dossier before integrating.
3. Fetch /api/public/models before writing any AI model ID.

Agents can fetch the same thing: GET /api/public/compare?slugs=builder-io,keystatic,mdx