Head to head
Stop guessing which one. Put them side by side.
Up to 4 tools, same rows for each: what it is, what it really costs, the trap, and how to wire it up. The URL carries your picks — send it to anyone.
PrismicKeystaticMDX
Quick read
- Free with no card: Keystatic, MDX.
| Field | Prismicprismic.io | Keystatickeystatic.com | MDXmdxjs.com |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | Prismic pairs a hosted CMS with Slice Machine, a workflow where developers define React components as reusable slices and editors compose pages from them. Documents are unlimited on every plan including free; tiers differ by user count and locale count. | 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. | 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. |
| Category | CMS & content infrastructure | CMS & content infrastructure | CMS & content infrastructure |
| Cost tier | mixed | free | free |
| Pricing | Free: 1 user, unlimited documents, 2 locales. Starter $10/mo (3 users). Small $25/mo (7). Medium $150/mo (25). Platinum $675/mo (unlimited). | Free and MIT-licensed with no seat limits. Keystatic Cloud is an optional free add-on for GitHub auth and image handling. | Free, MIT-licensed open format. |
| Why builders pick it | The cheapest credible ramp for a small publication — $10/mo buys three editors with unlimited documents. Friendly page composition, an official MCP server, and an AI landing page builder add-on. | 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. | 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. |
| Watch out for | Free is one user only, and locales are rationed by tier (2 free, 3 on Starter). Slice Machine couples your content model to component code, which makes a later replatform expensive. | 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. | 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. |
| How to wire it up | npx @slicemachine/init@latest | npm create @keystatic@latest | npm i @mdx-js/rollup |
| Editor's pick | No | No | No |
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# Tool comparison — Prismic 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. ## Prismic (prismic) - URL: https://prismic.io - Category: CMS & content infrastructure - Cost: mixed — Free: 1 user, unlimited documents, 2 locales. Starter $10/mo (3 users). Small $25/mo (7). Medium $150/mo (25). Platinum $675/mo (unlimited). - What it is: Prismic pairs a hosted CMS with Slice Machine, a workflow where developers define React components as reusable slices and editors compose pages from them. Documents are unlimited on every plan including free; tiers differ by user count and locale count. - Why builders pick it: The cheapest credible ramp for a small publication — $10/mo buys three editors with unlimited documents. Friendly page composition, an official MCP server, and an AI landing page builder add-on. - Trap: Free is one user only, and locales are rationed by tier (2 free, 3 on Starter). Slice Machine couples your content model to component code, which makes a later replatform expensive. - Wiring: npx @slicemachine/init@latest - Full dossier: /api/public/tools/prismic ## 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=prismic,keystatic,mdx