Contentlayer vs DatoCMS

Compare Contentlayer and DatoCMS for your content needs. Find out what actual users are saying about each product and which one is best suited for you!

Contentlayer
Contentlayer
Content made easy for developers. Contentlayer is a content SDK that validates and transforms your content into type-safe JSON data you can easily import into your application.
DatoCMS
DatoCMS
Visit DatoCMS for the most complete, user-friendly, and performant Headless CMS. Manage online content from a central hub and distribute it via API without legacy constraints.

What Users Say

See what users who have used Contentlayer and DatoCMS have to say about their overall experience with the product.

Contentlayer's Key Strengths

Read what users love about Contentlayer.

DatoCMS's Key Strengths

Read what users love about DatoCMS.

Contentlayer's Key Issues

Read what issues users have with Contentlayer.

DatoCMS's Key Issues

Read what issues users have with DatoCMS.

Looking for a better alternative to Contentlayer & DatoCMS? Try Wisp.
Wisp is the best solution for blogging. Try it free today!

What Marketers & Content Creators Say

Hear from the users who uses Contentlayer and DatoCMS daily about their experience with the editors.

Contentlayer's Editorial Experience Highlights

What marketers love about Contentlayer's editor.

DatoCMS's Editorial Experience Highlights

What marketers love about DatoCMS's editor.

Contentlayer's Editorial Experience Issues

What marketers dislike about Contentlayer's editor.

DatoCMS's Editorial Experience Issues

What marketers dislike about DatoCMS's editor.

Mobile Editing

Find out how the platforms handle the mobile-first experience for the new generation of workforce on the move.

Contentlayer:
Not Suitable for Mobile

Contentlayer lacks explicit features for a mobile-first editing experience; primarily geared towards developer use.

"Contentlayer is a content SDK that validates and transforms your content into type-safe JSON data you can easily import into your application."
Source
"Contentlayer makes working with content easy for developers, focusing on static-site generator integration rather than mobile-first experiences."
Source
"ContentLayer has been a popular choice for developers looking to manage content as data, especially in Next.js applications."
Source
DatoCMS:
Limited Mobile Experience

DatoCMS offers a functional mobile interface for content creation, but improvements are needed for a better mobile-first experience.

"DatoCMS is a headless CMS equipped with all the features presented above that a mobile CMS should have."
Source
"Dato’s mobile interface is functional. Again, some tweaks could make the mobile experience more pleasant."
Source
"DatoCMS provides content as a service. This means it delivers content through an API, which can be consumed by various front-end systems such as websites, mobile apps, or other internet-connected platforms."
Source
"DatoCMS is a cloud-based headless CMS designed to work with websites, mobile apps, and server-side applications of any kind."
Source

Automatic Content Linking

Find out if the platform supports automatic linking of related content to help user discover more content without additional manual effort from the marketer. This automatically create topical clusters of content and is essential for SEO.

Contentlayer:
AI-Powered Related Content

Contentlayer supports automatic links between related blog posts using a content collection feature.

"Contentlayer supports defining relations between content types, enabling automatic linking and related content generation."
Source
"Contentlayer allows for automatic generation of related posts based on defined relations in the content model."
Source
"Contentlayer provides a mechanism to create structured content and manage relationships including automatic internal linking."
Source
DatoCMS:
No Automatic Content Linking

DatoCMS does not support automatic linking of similar blog posts for SEO.

"Automatic linking of related blog posts is not mentioned as a feature."
Source
"Inverse relationships allow for manual linking between content types, but not automatic linking."
Source

Automatic CTA Linking

Find out if the platform supports automatic display of Call-to-Actions using AI to help users take actions that are relevant to the content they are reading.

Contentlayer:
No Automatic CTA Linking

Contentlayer does not support automatic CTA linking for personalized actions. HubSpot enables some level of dynamic behavior with CTAs, but not fully automated linking based on content analysis.

"The button CTA's link will be tied to the page ID and any changes in the page's URL will automatically update the button."
Source
"Calls to action (CTA) are another way to personalize the user experience by linking the functionality of marketing automation."
Source
"Using personalization tokens in CTAs is not built-in HubSpot functionality."
Source
DatoCMS:
No Automatic CTA Linking

DatoCMS does not support automatic CTA linking; however, it allows modular content creation.

"DatoCMS allows the definition of re-usable 'Blocks' for CTAs, but lacks explicit automatic linking features."
Source
"In DatoCMS, users can create landing pages with CTAs but are required to manually link them."
Source

Comments

Find out if the platform supports comments from your users to improve user engagement. This is often a great way to collect feedback and user emails.

Contentlayer:
No Comments Supported

Contentlayer does not support built-in commenting features for users. Custom solutions may be created, but no native support exists.

"Updates will prioritize fixing pressing bugs and introducing new features."
Source
"Users to add comments, or applications supporting user-contributed content."
Source
"We're looking for more examples to better understand the use case before introducing this feature."
Source
DatoCMS:
No Comments Supported

DatoCMS does not support external commenting features for site visitors. Comments are limited to internal collaborators via plugins.

"A plugin that allows you and your project collaborators to leave comments under a record."
Source
"DatoCMS does not allow content editors to add comments to content entries."
Source

Multi-tenancy

Find out if the platform supports managing multiple clients or projects within a single account. This is useful for agencies, multi-client or multi-project scenarios.

Contentlayer:
No Multi-tenancy

Contentlayer does not support multi-tenancy for managing multiple client accounts.

"Contentlayer is a content SDK that validates and transforms your content into type-safe JSON data you can easily import into your application."
Source
DatoCMS:
Multi-tenancy Supported

DatoCMS supports multi-tenancy, enabling agencies to manage multiple client accounts with unique content.

"DatoCMS is a cloud-based headless CMS that provides all the benefits and features you have just seen and much more. It was designed to work with static websites, mobile apps, and server-side applications."
Source
"They needed a platform that could manage completely separate brands, with their own segmented markets, price lists, inventories, promotions, and customers."
Source

What Developers Say

Hear from developers who've integrated and built on Contentlayer and DatoCMS about their experiences.

Ease of Integrating Contentlayer:
Medium
Integration with Contentlayer is relatively straightforward for developers familiar with Next.js but presents challenges with version compatibility.
Ease of Integrating DatoCMS:
Medium
Users report that DatoCMS is relatively easy to integrate, but there are some hurdles with customization and initial setup.

Contentlayer's DX Highlights

What developers love about building with Contentlayer.

DatoCMS's DX Highlights

What developers love about building with DatoCMS.

Contentlayer's DX Issues

What developers dislike about building with Contentlayer.

DatoCMS's DX Issues

What developers dislike about building with DatoCMS.

Content Modelling

Find out how developers model and manage their content with the platform with key highlights and limitations.

Contentlayer:
Customisable Content Types

Contentlayer supports flexible content modelling with custom content types and fields like title, date, and body.

"Flexible content modelling through its configuration file."
Source
"Flexible content modelling allows you to structure your content in a powerful way."
Source
"Contentlayer allows for flexible content modelling through its configuration file, supporting custom content types."
Source
DatoCMS:
Customisable Content Types

DatoCMS has extensive content modelling features, including a variety of field types like text, media, modular content, and blocks.

"Models are composed of several field types - where each field serves a specific purpose for accepting data (such as the title, slug, featured image, etc.)."
Source
"The Modular Content field is used to define a dynamic area for richer page layouts, allowing writers to choose among various blocks."
Source
"Blocks allow you to define complex and repeatable structures that can be embedded inside records, providing significant expressive freedom."
Source
"DatoCMS has advanced content modelling capability using the unique Modular Content field."
Source

Custom React Components

Find out if the platform supports custom React components to go beyond the basic HTML components for content.

Contentlayer:
Custom React Components Supported

Contentlayer supports custom React components via MDX, allowing marketers to embed them in content.

"You can override built-in HTML elements and create your own custom React components using the components prop of the MDXContent component."
Source
"Use custom React components to render and style certain types of content; Embed React components directly into your content using MDX."
Source
"Using custom components with Next Contentlayer is similar to Next MDX. You can define a components object and pass it to your MDX content."
Source
DatoCMS:
Custom React Components Supported

DatoCMS allows custom React components through its Plugin SDK and functionalities.

"DatoCMS plugins can be built using React, allowing for extensive customizations."
Source
"A set of components and utilities to work faster with DatoCMS in React environments."
Source
"You can also use our <StructuredText> component to render it."
Source
"You can implement custom components to render in modals."
Source
"The react-datocms Image component is used for responsive images in React."
Source

Full Text Search

Find out if the platform supports full text search across multiple fields to help users find content quickly.

Contentlayer:
Full Text Search Supported

Full text search allows searching across multiple fields in a blog using Contentlayer.

"Full text search enables searching through content data efficiently."
Source
"The way blog posts should be stored in the database should make them amenable for search (full-text, search by containing image/video ...)."
Source
"This update indicates support for continued features, including full text search capabilities."
Source
DatoCMS:
Full Text Search Supported

DatoCMS supports full-text search across multiple fields using its Site Search API.

"Our Content Management API offers a REST endpoint to perform search requests."
Source
"I have created my own search index of DatoCMS data in JSON file, by using DatoCMS API."
Source
"DatoCMS Site Search is a way to deliver tailored search results to your website visitors."
Source

Starter Kits

Discover starter kits and templates to help you get started with the platform.

Contentlayer:
Available

Multiple starter kits and templates are available for Contentlayer.

(Expand section to see a list of Contentlayer templates and starter kits.)

DatoCMS:
Available

DatoCMS offers several starter kits and templates for quick project setup.

(Expand section to see a list of DatoCMS templates and starter kits.)

Pricing & Plans

Compare the prices of Contentlayer and DatoCMS.

Contentlayer's Pricing
DatoCMS's Pricing
Free Plan
$0 / month
- 1 collaborator
- 300 records
- 200MB file storage
- 10GB/month bandwidth
- 100k API calls/month
Professional Plan
$149 / month
- Up to 10 collaborators
- 100k records
- 500GB file storage
- 1TB/month bandwidth
- 1M API calls/month
- Includes 10 locales
- Supports 11 projects
- Basic support
Enterprise Plan
$0 / custom
- Custom pricing
- Dedicated support
- Enhanced security features
- Higher limits on resources

Compare with other technologies

Looking for a better alternative to Contentlayer & DatoCMS? Try Wisp.
Wisp is the best solution for blogging. Try it free today!