Quick answer
Prismic - Prismic wins for most builders who want a generous free headless CMS with low-friction scaling, while Squidex wins if you need no-card onboarding and a more traditional content, traffic, and contributor-limited starter.
How the free tiers compare
Prismic’s free tier is much larger in the places that matter for a website or app CMS: 4 million API calls a month, 100 GB of CDN bandwidth, unlimited documents, types, and assets, plus the visual page builder. The tradeoff is that it is narrower on team size and locales, with just 1 user and 2 locales on free, and you do need a card to start. Squidex is more of a practical starter for small teams that want to experiment without payment details, but its free plan is much tighter: 20,000 API calls, 2 GB traffic, 500 MB storage, and 2 contributors, plus a required powered-by label. Once paid, both stay flat-priced rather than usage-based, but Prismic’s lowest paid step is cheaper while Squidex offers more gradual cloud and self-hosted paths.
Prismic vs Squidex free tier, side by side
| PrismicFTV 34 | SquidexFTV 54 | |
|---|---|---|
| API calls per monthPrismic is far more generous on request volume. | 4 million | 20,000 |
| CDN / trafficDifferent wording, same idea: Prismic includes much more delivery volume. | 100 GB built-in CDN bandwidth/month | 2 GB traffic included |
| Storage / assetsPrismic is much looser on asset storage. | Unlimited assets | 500 MB storage included |
| Contributors / usersSquidex gives you one more free collaborator. | 1 user account | 2 contributors included |
| LocalesLocale support is explicit on Prismic’s free tier, not in the Squidex input. | 2 locales | Not stated |
| Credit card requiredOnly stated because the field is present for both products. | Required | Not required |
After you outgrow the free tier
Both products use flat paid tiers, not usage-based pricing. Prismic’s first paid step is Starter at $10/month per repository paid annually, then Small at $25, Medium at $150, and Platinum at $675. Squidex’s cloud plans start at Basic at €19/month, then Professional at €49, Business at €99, plus separate Cloud, Managed Server Beta, and Managed Cluster options. For typical small-team usage, Prismic is cheaper at the entry point; Squidex becomes interesting when you value its cloud or self-hosted deployment paths more than the lowest sticker price.
Cost at real usage
| Usage | Prismic | Squidex |
|---|---|---|
| 1 seat, under free quotasSquidex still requires the powered-by label on free. | Free | Free |
| 3 seats, light content sitePrismic free only includes 1 user account, so 3 users pushes you paid; Squidex free includes 2 contributors, so 3 also pushes paid. | $10/mo on Starter | €19/mo on Basic |
| 100k API calls/moPrismic free includes 4 million API calls; Squidex free includes 20,000. | Free (within free tier quota) | €19/mo on Basic |
| 500k API calls/moSquidex Basic does not cover this volume. | Free (within free tier quota) | €49/mo on Professional |
Estimates, not quotes. Usage-based rates change - verify with the vendor's pricing page before committing.
When to pick each one
Pick Prismic when…
- You are solo or mostly solo and want a very large API allowance on the free plan.
- You need the visual page builder, migration API, or Prismic’s repository-based workflow.
- Your project is content-heavy but document-light, with lots of assets and unlimited document/types needs.
- You expect to scale into flat-priced plan upgrades rather than manage traffic-based overages.
Pick Squidex when…
- You want to start without entering a credit card.
- You only need a small CMS for a prototype, internal tool, or low-traffic site.
- You care about REST and GraphQL exposure and open-source self-hosting options later.
- You need a simple contributor limit and can live with the powered-by label on free.
Bottom line
For the most common builder case, Prismic is the better free tier because it gives you much more room to actually ship a site before you pay, especially on API calls, bandwidth, and assets. Squidex is the better choice when your top priority is starting without a credit card or keeping the setup closer to a small, open-source CMS workflow. If you are trying to avoid early constraints, Prismic is the easier free plan to grow on.
Read the full listings: Prismic and Squidex. Scores use the FTV methodology at /ftv. Browse more head-to-heads on /compare, or see the top-ranked free tiers on /top.