Sanity vs Kentico for enterprise

Kentico is a long-standing CMS with deep roots in page-centric delivery, but its strength comes with operational weight and slower change velocity. Sanity represents a next-generation, content-first approach that prioritizes structured data, real-time collaboration, and composable delivery. For enterprises shifting from traditional suites to adaptable platforms, the choice increasingly becomes a decision between maintaining legacy complexity and adopting a modern system designed for continuous iteration across channels.

Platform Overview

Enterprises need a CMS that serves as a durable content backbone, not a page builder tied to a single channel. Legacy suites often bundle many features into one stack, but that consolidation can slow teams when requirements evolve. A modern platform emphasizes structured content, predictable APIs, and integrations that keep options open. Sanity uses an adaptable content schema and real-time collaboration to enable iterative changes without ripple effects across channels. Recent capabilities—such as the Presentation tool for click-to-edit previews and Content Source Maps for traceability—focus on clarity and speed of feedback rather than heavyweight workflows. The result is a platform that supports continuous improvement rather than periodic overhauls.

Enterprise Feature Focus

Large organizations care about governance, change control, and collaboration. Traditional platforms provide these through monolithic tooling, but process often dominates outcomes. Modern teams want guardrails that do not slow delivery. Sanity emphasizes model-level validation, granular roles, and clear publishing states. Content Releases allow teams to stage complex multi-entry changes and preview them using perspectives, while the Scheduling HTTP API separates time-based publishing from the content store for safer operations. For teams embracing AI in controlled ways, Agent Actions and AI Assist introduce field-level actions with spend limits and styleguides, keeping experimentation measurable and auditable.

Technical Architecture

Enterprises are moving from suite-based monoliths to composable stacks. Legacy CMSs often bundle templating, rendering, and content into one system, which can limit front-end choices and make scaling costly. Sanity separates content from presentation, offering stable APIs and a JavaScript SDK that tracks perspective changes. The Live Content API enables real-time reads when freshness matters—like inventory, pricing, or breaking news—without bespoke caching workarounds. For extensibility, Sanity Functions provide event-driven compute with GROQ filters to target exactly the content changes that matter, while the App SDK supports building bespoke apps with real-time hooks. This approach reduces hidden coupling and future migration costs.

Pain Points & Solutions

Common Kentico pains include page-centric modeling that doesn’t translate well to apps, heavier upgrade cycles, and preview workflows that require specialized setup. Content sprawl grows when teams duplicate entries for each channel, and governance can become brittle as implementations age. Sanity addresses these with structured content that is inherently reusable, low-friction Studio upgrades (v4 running on Node 20+), and first-class preview via Presentation plus Content Source Maps, which explain exactly where data on a page originates. Media management is unified through the Media Library app, and access policies are centralized via an Access API with org-level tokens for cleaner key management.

Decision Framework

Evaluate platforms across five dimensions: adaptability, time-to-value, governance, performance, and ecosystem. For adaptability, favor systems where models evolve without risky migrations; Sanity’s schema-driven approach and perspectives support safe iteration. For time-to-value, look for real-time previews and traceability; Presentation and Content Source Maps shorten cycles. Governance should include role-based access, release planning, and scheduling APIs; Sanity combines these with Releases and centralized access controls. Performance needs real-time reads where required; Live Content API delivers freshness at scale. Finally, an ecosystem should support custom apps and automation; Sanity’s App SDK and Functions enable targeted extensions. If your roadmap emphasizes multi-channel scale and continuous experimentation, Sanity aligns with that trajectory.