Alternatives to Directus
Directus wraps an existing SQL database in a REST and GraphQL API and a well-built admin application, without demanding that you start from its schema. That last property is rare and is why people choose it. The usual reasons to look elsewhere are its licence — source-available, and since v12 the Monospace Sustainable Core License rather than the BSL it used before — and permissions being enforced in the application rather than in the database.
Published by Rebase, which is one of the tools on this page. Every other entry is described by what it is good at, several of the recommendations below are not us, and there are no prices anywhere — competitor pricing changes quarterly and a stale number is worse than none.
Start from why you are leaving
Almost nobody wants "the best alternative". They want the one that fixes the specific thing that broke. Find your row.
“The licence is a problem for us”
Rebase, NocoDB or PayloadAll three carry conventional open-source licences, which matters if your legal review has an opinion or you intend to offer the thing as a service.
“We need authorization enforced in the database”
RebaseSecurity rules compile to Postgres row-level security, so the rules hold for psql, a reporting tool and another service — not only for requests that arrive through the application.
“We want the schema defined in code and reviewed”
Rebase or PayloadBoth define collections in TypeScript in your repository rather than through a UI, so a schema change is a pull request.
“We mainly need editors managing content”
StrapiThe most mature editorial experience among the open CMSes, with the largest plugin marketplace behind it.
“We need a database that is not Postgres or MySQL”
DirectusStay. Its multi-engine support is broader than most of this list, and Rebase in particular is PostgreSQL only, deliberately.
“We really just want a grid over the tables”
NocoDBLess product to run, and a spreadsheet is what a lot of teams actually meant.
8 alternatives to Directus
Ordered roughly by how often each one turns out to be the answer, not by any score. Where a head-to-head exists, it is linked.
- 1
Rebase
That's usOpen source· BothBest for: An API and an admin panel over your existing Postgres, with RLS in code
A Postgres backend — REST API, typed SDK, auth, realtime, storage, functions, cron — plus an admin panel generated from the same TypeScript collection definitions. Row-level security is written in code and compiled to real Postgres policies, so authorization is enforced by the database rather than by the layer in front of it. Connects to a Postgres database that already exists.
- 2
Strapi
MIT (enterprise directory excepted)· BothBest for: Content editors, and a large plugin marketplace
The best-known open-source headless CMS, with a polished editorial interface and years of plugins behind it. It owns the schema — content types are defined through Strapi, in Strapi's tables — which is the trade you are making.
- 3
Payload
Open source (MIT)· Self-host, or Payload Cloud for existing customersBest for: A CMS that lives inside your Next.js app
Config-as-code, TypeScript throughout, and it deploys as part of the Next.js application rather than beside it. Deep content modelling — nested blocks, localisation, versioning. The tighter the Next.js coupling suits you, the better this is. Part of Figma since June 2025; the repository is still MIT, and Payload Cloud stopped taking new sign-ups after the acquisition.
- 4
NocoDB
Open source· BothBest for: A spreadsheet view over a database, for non-technical users
Turns a SQL database into an Airtable-like grid, with views, forms and automations. Excellent when the requirement is genuinely 'let the ops team edit rows'. Less suited to being the backend of an application, which is a different job.
- 5
Hasura
Open source (Apache-2.0)· BothBest for: GraphQL, especially federated across several sources
Generates a GraphQL API over Postgres and other sources with a permission system defined in metadata. The strongest option here if GraphQL is a product decision rather than a preference. It gives you an API and a console, not a back office for non-developers.
- 6
Supabase
Open source· BothBest for: The largest ecosystem, and getting started fastest
Postgres with auth, storage, realtime and edge functions, and by a distance the most documented product in this category. The dashboard is a table editor rather than an admin panel, and RLS is written as SQL in that dashboard, which is the two things people most often go looking to replace.
- 7
Budibase
Open source· BothBest for: Self-hosted internal tools, built by dragging
A low-code builder for internal apps over a database or an API, self-hostable and open source. The nearest open equivalent to Retool's model — you draw screens, and they stay drawn, which is fine until a schema change means visiting all of them.
- 8
Directus
Source-available (MSCL)· BothBest for: A mature editorial interface over an existing database
Wraps a SQL database in a REST and GraphQL API and a well-built admin app, and it will work with a schema you already have. Permissions are enforced in the Directus layer rather than in the database, and the app owns a set of its own tables.
Rebase and Directus, answered
What is the best alternative to Directus?
It turns on which Directus property you were relying on. For an admin UI over a database you already have, Rebase is the closest in intent — it also reads an existing schema rather than owning one. For editorial content management, Strapi is more mature. For a grid over tables, NocoDB is less product to run.
Is Directus open source?
Not by the OSI definition, and the terms have moved twice. It left MIT for the Business Source License in 2023, and with v12 it moved again to the Monospace Sustainable Core License: source-available, free below a revenue and headcount threshold, and converting to GPL-3.0 four years after each release. Whether that is a problem is a question for your legal review rather than for us. Rebase, NocoDB, Payload and Budibase carry conventional open-source licences.
Which alternatives work with an existing database?
Rebase, Hasura and NocoDB all connect to a schema that already exists, as Directus does. Strapi and Payload prefer to own the schema and define content types themselves, which is a genuine difference in kind rather than a feature gap.
What is the difference between Directus and a backend-as-a-service?
Mostly scope. Directus gives you an API and an admin app over your database. A backend-as-a-service also brings authentication, storage, realtime, scheduled jobs and functions as first-class parts of the platform. If you were going to assemble those anyway, that is the difference worth pricing.
Where should authorization live?
In the database, if you can manage it. A permission engine in front of the database — which is how Directus and most CMSes work — is expressive and easy to reason about, and it stops being in force the moment anything reaches the data another way. Postgres row-level security applies to every client, which is why Rebase compiles to it.
Don't take our word for it.
The comparison that matters is the one you run. Point Rebase at a Postgres database you already have and see how it holds up next to Directus.