# CMS Brew vs Keystatic, compared honestly.

> Both write plain commits to your repository. The difference is the handoff: an admin UI and GitHub logins where write access means publish access, versus chat editing, built-in sign-in, and per-field review before anything goes live.

## Short answer

Choose Keystatic if your editors are developer-adjacent and you want a free, open-source admin over files you can still edit by hand. Choose CMS Brew if you hand finished sites to clients: they describe changes in chat instead of learning an admin UI, there is a review step between their edit and your production site, which Keystatic does not have, and they sign in without a GitHub account or a Keystatic Cloud seat.

## Why developers go looking for a Keystatic alternative

Keystatic is a well-crafted Git-based CMS from Thinkmill: free, open source, and pleasant for developers, because content stays in Markdown, JSON, and YAML you can still edit by hand. The friction starts when the person editing is not a developer but a client.

You define every collection and field in keystatic.config, for each site. Then comes sign-in: in GitHub mode your client needs a GitHub account with write access to the repository, and the way around that is Keystatic Cloud, a separate hosted service with per-user pricing beyond its free tier. And once they are in, an editor publishes directly. There is no approval step for you.

- **Write access is publish access:** A Keystatic editor commits straight to the repository. There is no review queue, and no concept of a request that should reach you instead. In CMS Brew, per-field guards decide what publishes freely and what waits for your approval.
- **An admin UI is a thing to relearn:** Collections, fields, and blocks are a clean interface, and still an interface. A client who edits twice a year starts from scratch each time. In CMS Brew they type the change in plain words and watch it in a live preview.
- **Client sign-in is the hard part:** GitHub mode means giving your client a GitHub account with write access to the repo. Keystatic Cloud removes that, but adds a service with its own team plans. CMS Brew ships sign-in out of the box: Google, or a 6-digit email code.

## CMS Brew vs Keystatic, side by side

| | CMS Brew | Keystatic |
| --- | --- | --- |
| What the client sees | A chat. They describe the change in plain words and watch a live preview. | An admin UI with collections, fields, and blocks to learn. |
| Content modeling | Automatic. The repository is mapped when you connect it. | You define collections and fields in keystatic.config, per site. |
| Client sign-in | Built in: Google or an emailed 6-digit code. | A GitHub account with write access to the repo, or Keystatic Cloud. |
| Review before publish | Per-field guards and a review queue, included. | None. An editor with access commits directly. |
| Out-of-scope requests | Refused in the editor and escalated to you with the client's original words. | Not a concept. The request reaches you as an email or a phone call. |
| What is editable | The site's content wherever it lives: pages, components, frontmatter, images. | The Markdown, JSON, and YAML files your schema describes. |
| Frameworks | Any repo that rebuilds from Git: Next.js, Astro, SvelteKit, Hugo, and more. | Next.js, Astro, and Remix officially. |
| Price | $39/mo for 5 sites, unlimited editors, 7-day free trial. | Free and open source. Keystatic Cloud is free for 3 users, then paid per team and user. |

## Where the other option wins

Where Keystatic wins: it is free, open source, and genuinely nice for technical teams, and its two-way editing keeps the files clean enough to edit by hand. If your editors are developer-adjacent and edit often, it holds up well. CMS Brew earns its fee at handoff: clients with no GitHub account, edits that are rare, and changes you want to see before they are live.

- Your editors already have GitHub accounts and are comfortable with write access to the repo.
- You value files clean enough to edit by hand, and Keystatic's two-way editing keeps them that way.
- The site is Next.js, Astro, or Remix and your team edits often enough to stay fluent in the UI.
- Free and open source is a hard requirement, and publish-without-review is acceptable.

## How to switch from Keystatic to CMS Brew

1. **Connect the repository** Sign in and connect the site's GitHub or GitLab repository. Keystatic's content is Markdown, JSON, and YAML in the repo, which is exactly where CMS Brew reads and writes, so there is no migration. keystatic.config is simply not used.
2. **Set your guards** Review the mapped fields and set a guard level per category: Open publishes freely, Warn asks the client to confirm, Review holds the change for you. This adds the approval step Keystatic does not have.
3. **Invite the client** Send the client an invite. They sign in with Google or an emailed 6-digit code. No GitHub account, no repo write access, no Keystatic Cloud seat.
4. **Remove Keystatic when ready** Run both during the transition; both write plain commits. When you are done, remove the Keystatic admin route and config from the project, and revoke the editors' repo access.

## FAQ

### Is Keystatic still maintained?

Yes. It is a Thinkmill project and continues to see development, so the reason to switch is not abandonment. Agencies move because of what surrounds it in a client handoff: the schema you maintain per site, the GitHub or Keystatic Cloud sign-in, and the missing review step.

### Do I have to migrate my content to CMS Brew?

No. Keystatic's whole point is that content lives in your repository as Markdown, JSON, and YAML, and that is exactly where CMS Brew reads and writes it too. Connect the repository and the editable content is mapped automatically; keystatic.config can stay in the repo or be deleted.

### Do my clients need GitHub accounts with CMS Brew?

No. Clients sign in with Google or an emailed 6-digit code, and they never see GitHub. In Keystatic, GitHub mode requires an editor to have a GitHub account with write access to the repository, or you adopt Keystatic Cloud to avoid it.

### Can my client break the site with CMS Brew?

No. The editor never writes code. It can only change the specific content fields you allow, and anything risky is flagged for review before it goes live.

### Keystatic is free. What am I paying for?

The handoff costs around free: defining and maintaining the schema for every site, getting each client authenticated, and having no review step between their edit and your production site. That last one is the expensive part. A few of the newer free panels have added a review step, but it is a branch you merge on GitHub, all of the client's changes at once, with no way to mark which fields never needed your attention. That per-field control, and having out-of-scope requests come back to you instead of becoming a phone call, is what you are actually paying for. CMS Brew is $39 per month for 5 connected sites with unlimited editors, guards and review included, and it starts with a 7-day free trial.

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