Top Strapi development companies (Updated July 2026)

Most businesses shopping for a Strapi development partner focus on one thing: does the agency know Strapi? That question is too narrow to be useful. Strapi is a framework, not a finished product. An agency that has deployed a Strapi blog five times may have no idea how to design a content type schema that holds up when the editorial team grows from two people to twenty, or how to build a custom plugin that extends Strapi's admin panel into a workflow the business actually runs on. What you are buying when you hire a Strapi development company is judgment: about content architecture, about the plugin layer, about which edition fits your scale, and about how the CMS will talk to the frontend the day it goes live and every day after.

The architecture question starts with content types. Strapi's strength is its flexible schema builder -- you can model any content structure in the admin panel and have a REST or GraphQL API generated automatically. The trap is designing content types for the current use case without thinking through the ones that follow. A media company that starts with an Article type and an Author type will quickly need Tags, Categories, Related Content, Embeds, and a Byline relationship reaching into a separate Author profile. A firm that has designed Strapi schemas for real editorial teams knows where those relationships create performance problems through deep population queries, and where the Document Service API in Strapi v5 changes how nested content gets queried compared to v4's Entity Service. A firm that has only deployed tutorial-level projects discovers those problems on your budget.

Then there is the plugin question. Strapi Community Edition ships with a useful set of built-in features, but most production deployments need more: a custom field type, a sidebar widget in the admin panel that shows related assets from a DAM, a lifecycle hook that fires a webhook when a content item reaches a specific workflow state, or a custom controller that wraps a third-party API call before returning content to the frontend. Strapi plugins are written in Node.js for the backend and React for the admin UI, and the team building them needs both skills. An agency that only delivers frontend-facing Strapi work often does not carry that depth.

The Strapi v4 to v5 migration is a third dimension. Strapi v5, released in late 2024, rewrote the internal API layer: the Document Service replaced the Entity Service, plugin APIs changed substantially, and TypeScript became the default. If your current CMS is on v4, moving to v5 is a genuine project, not a version bump. A development partner that has completed that migration in production knows where the hours go. One that has not will estimate it like a minor update.

This is a buyer's guide to the firms you hire to build a product on Strapi, not a list of Strapi plugins or SaaS tools. The eight Strapi development companies on this list are Successive Digital, RaftLabs, Artkai, Appnovation, QBurst, Kaliop, Naturaily, and Otterdev. RaftLabs is on this list. We wrote our own entry with the same directness we applied to everyone else.

How we evaluated this list

No company paid for placement on this list.

1. Successive Digital

Successive Digital is a next-generation technology services company and Strapi's first enterprise-level partner. Its Strapi practice focuses on composable digital experience platforms: helping organizations migrate from monolithic CMS ecosystems to API-first content infrastructures that serve multiple channels, support rapid iteration, and integrate across complex digital estates. It is the only firm on this list to hold Strapi's Enterprise Partner designation, which reflects its record on large-scale deployments rather than a self-declared status.

Among Strapi development companies, Successive Digital is the one to shortlist when the project is an enterprise-scale CMS transformation. It leads with platform architecture: designing content type schemas for large editorial teams, configuring advanced RBAC for organizations with multiple content editors and approval workflows, and deploying Strapi with containerized infrastructure using CI/CD pipelines and Kubernetes orchestration. Its Strapi v5 migration practice is explicitly documented, including a dedicated team for transitioning v4 codebases across the Document Service API change and the breaking plugin interfaces.

The value of an Enterprise Partner designation is what it signals about depth. Most Strapi agencies deploy the Community Edition on a handful of projects. Successive Digital's enterprise-level status means Strapi has independently verified its ability to handle the builds that require Strapi Enterprise features: SSO via SAML, audit logs, review workflows, content history, and the granular RBAC that a large organization's compliance team will ask about. If your project needs any of those features, you want a partner whose team has configured them in production before, not one that will be reading the documentation alongside you.

Its industry experience spans e-commerce, travel and hospitality, media and advertising, maritime, fintech, healthcare, agritech, logistics, and telecom. The breadth suggests a firm that adapts Strapi to different content domains rather than applying the same template. For a project where the content model needs to reflect a specific industry's data structure -- a product catalog with variant relationships, a news archive with embargo and workflow states, or a multi-brand media platform serving different editorial teams -- that adaptability matters.

Notable work -- Successive Digital's documented Strapi work centers on platform transformation and enterprise content infrastructure. It has helped organizations migrate from legacy CMS platforms and build composable architectures serving omnichannel experiences. Its v5 migration service is explicitly offered as a dedicated engagement. Specific client names are limited in public case studies; the record is anchored by its Enterprise Partner designation and the breadth of industries it has served.

Pricing signal -- Successive Digital operates an offshore-led model with rates in the $25 to $49 per hour range. Enterprise engagements are typically scoped and priced by project. Expect a discovery phase for any build involving custom plugin development or complex RBAC configuration.

What to watch -- Successive Digital's strength is enterprise-scale Strapi deployments. For a small, single-site build on Community Edition, its enterprise-oriented structure may be heavier than the project needs. It is strongest when the scope includes platform architecture, multiple content editors, advanced Strapi Enterprise features, or a v4-to-v5 migration on a production deployment.

• Best for: Organizations building enterprise-scale composable content platforms on Strapi

• Specialization: Enterprise platform architecture, Strapi v5 migrations, CI/CD, Kubernetes, composable digital experience

• Pricing: $25-$49/hr, project engagements

• Clutch: Verify on Clutch before engaging

2. RaftLabs

RaftLabs is a product development firm that builds headless CMS products on Strapi end to end with one accountable team: custom content type architecture, custom software development covering Strapi plugins and extensions written in Node.js and React, API-driven Next.js frontends consuming Strapi's REST and GraphQL APIs, and cloud deployment on AWS and GCP. Founded in 2015, it has shipped software for clients including Vodafone, T-Mobile, Cisco, and Wyndham Hotels. One team owns the build from the content model and the plugin layer to the frontend the editorial team and the end user actually open.

RaftLabs sits at number two on this list because a Strapi build is an architecture and API problem before it is a CMS configuration problem, and shipping a product into real use is where RaftLabs is strongest. The value of a headless CMS comes from the content type design holding up as the editorial team grows, the API surface being queryable in the shape the frontend actually needs, and the custom plugins extending Strapi into the specific workflow the business runs on. That means owning the Document Service query design for nested content, the React plugin panels that show editors relevant information without leaving the admin UI, the webhook and lifecycle hook layer that fires the right events into the right downstream systems, and the Next.js ISR configuration that serves fast pages from Strapi content without hammering the API on every request.

Its 4.9/5 rating on Clutch across 50+ verified reviews reflects that direct-client model. One team, one account, one line of accountability from content architecture to production. RaftLabs builds for scale rather than a working demo and treats RBAC configuration, deployment resilience, and API surface design as build requirements rather than afterthoughts. It will tell a buyer when an off-the-shelf CMS SaaS beats a full custom Strapi deployment.

The reason the single-team model fits a Strapi build is that the content layer and the frontend layer have to evolve together. A new content type on the Strapi side needs a corresponding page template and data-fetching function on the Next.js side. A new custom plugin that adds a field to the editor panel needs a corresponding rendering component on the frontend. A RBAC change that restricts which editors can publish which content types needs the API responses to respect those restrictions without leaking unpublished data to public routes. When one team owns both sides, those dependencies are managed internally and the content model and the frontend stay in sync across every iteration. When separate vendors own the CMS and the frontend, the boundary becomes a coordination cost that slows every release.

Notable work -- RaftLabs has built data-driven products and API integrations across telecom, hospitality, and SaaS. Its experience with API-first architectures, content personalization, and cloud deployment on AWS and GCP carries directly into Strapi product builds. Its work is documented in its portfolio at raftlabs.co.

Pricing signal -- RaftLabs operates at $29-$49/hr for most engagements, with fixed-price structures available for well-defined scopes. A focused Strapi product -- custom content types, one or two plugins, and a connected Next.js frontend -- starts in the mid five figures. A full product with complex content architecture, multiple custom plugins, third-party integrations, and cloud deployment runs higher. The model is priced for owned outcomes, not rented seats.

What to watch -- RaftLabs is built for shipping a Strapi product into real use by one accountable team. If you only need engineers to direct yourself against a fixed spec, or a single senior specialist to slot into an existing team for one narrow piece, a staffing firm may be a closer match. For a product business that wants a Strapi CMS built, integrated, and owned by one team, RaftLabs is built for that outcome.

• Best for: Product businesses building a headless CMS product on Strapi, shipped into real use

• Specialization: Custom content types, Strapi plugin development, API-driven Next.js frontends, AWS/GCP deployment

• Pricing: $29-$49/hr, fixed-price engagements

• Clutch: 4.9/5 (50+ verified reviews)

3. Artkai

Artkai is a digital product development agency that became a certified Strapi partner in late 2024 and is part of Euvic Group, a global IT company with 6,000 employees and offices in the USA, UK, Sweden, and Germany. Its Strapi work sits inside a broader digital product practice that covers enterprise and B2B software, fintech, AI, and crypto. For a US or UK-based buyer wanting a Strapi partner with European engineering depth and a physical presence in their time zone, Artkai checks that box.

Among Strapi development companies, Artkai is the one to shortlist when the project is an enterprise or fintech digital product where Strapi manages the content layer and a larger product architecture surrounds it. Its three core flows -- building new products from scratch, improving existing product UX and functionality, and providing engineering resources to scale development capacity -- suggest a firm that can enter at different points of a product's lifecycle. That flexibility matters when a team has an existing Strapi deployment that needs extending, or an existing product that needs a headless CMS layer added without rebuilding what is already working.

The part of Artkai's background that translates most directly to Strapi work is its enterprise and B2B product experience. Enterprise products have content governance requirements that simple Strapi deployments skip: which editor can publish which content type, which reviewer must approve before publication, which fields are editable by which role. Configuring Strapi's RBAC to reflect those requirements -- and building custom plugins that give editors role-appropriate UI without exposing configuration they should not touch -- is the kind of work that an enterprise-experienced team approaches differently from one whose Strapi experience is limited to marketing sites. Artkai's record in that space is the draw.

Its Euvic Group membership means it can scale engineering resources if the project grows, and its US and UK offices mean client conversations and sprint reviews do not require a significant time-zone adjustment. For a UK buyer in particular, a Strapi partner with a real UK presence is rarer than it sounds on a list that skews heavily offshore.

Notable work -- Artkai's public portfolio spans enterprise software, fintech platforms, and B2B digital products. Its Strapi partnership was announced in late 2024 with a focus on high-quality, durable solutions for businesses of all sizes. Specific Strapi client names are limited in early public documentation; the broader product portfolio demonstrates the engineering depth.

Pricing signal -- Artkai does not publish fixed rates. For a European agency with US and UK offices and its size profile, blended rates typically fall in the $50 to $90 per hour range depending on team composition. Enterprise engagements are scoped by project.

What to watch -- Artkai's Strapi partnership is newer than some firms on this list. For a buyer who needs a partner with a long Strapi track record across many production deployments, verify the depth of specific Strapi project experience during scoping. Its broader product engineering depth is the stronger anchor to evaluate.

• Best for: US and UK buyers building enterprise or fintech digital products with a Strapi content layer

• Specialization: Digital product development, enterprise B2B software, fintech, Strapi CMS integration

• Pricing: Not publicly listed; blended $50-$90/hr typical

• Clutch: Verify on Clutch before engaging

4. Appnovation

Appnovation is a global, full-service digital partner founded in 2007, combining strategy, AI, experience and design, engineering, and managed services across a client base that spans North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific. It is a listed Strapi partner and integrates Strapi CMS delivery into a broader digital transformation practice. For a buyer whose project is one workstream inside a larger digital transformation -- a new content platform replacing a legacy CMS as part of a wider digital estate overhaul -- Appnovation's breadth is its differentiator.

Among Strapi development companies, Appnovation is the one to shortlist when the Strapi build is not the whole engagement. A large organization replacing a monolithic CMS as part of a wider platform migration needs a partner that can handle content migration strategy, experience design, API gateway architecture, and the Strapi deployment alongside each other rather than a boutique specialist whose mandate ends at the CMS boundary. Appnovation's five-practice model -- strategy, AI, design, engineering, and managed services -- means it can own the whole program rather than hand off between separate vendors.

The managed services angle is worth noting for production Strapi deployments. Running Strapi in production means monitoring API response times, handling Strapi version updates (particularly the v4-to-v5 path for organizations still on the older version), and managing the plugin ecosystem over time as Strapi releases change the internal APIs. Appnovation's managed services practice can continue that work after the initial build, removing the need to bring in a separate operations partner at the transition from build to run. For organizations that do not want to staff an internal team to maintain the CMS, that continuity has real value.

The trade-off is focus. Appnovation is a large digital consultancy, so its Strapi practice sits alongside many other technology practices. Confirm the assigned team's Strapi depth during scoping, and verify which Strapi version they have deployed most recently and whether they have built custom plugins in production.

Notable work -- Appnovation's portfolio spans digital transformation programs across financial services, insurance, healthcare, and media. Its Strapi work is part of a broader headless CMS and composable architecture practice. Specific Strapi client names are typically confidential; the record is anchored by its scale and multi-geography delivery.

Pricing signal -- Appnovation operates at rates commensurate with a large global consultancy. Rates are not publicly listed, but for a firm of its profile, blended project rates sit above the offshore market, reflecting North American seniority in leadership and strategy roles. Expect a scoping engagement before pricing is confirmed.

What to watch -- Appnovation is a full-service digital partner, not a boutique Strapi specialist. For a focused Strapi build where you do not need broad digital transformation work alongside it, a smaller specialist may deliver more Strapi depth per dollar. It is strongest when Strapi is one technology inside a larger program.

• Best for: Organizations running a larger digital transformation where Strapi is one workstream among several

• Specialization: Strategy, experience design, engineering, managed services, digital transformation with Strapi CMS

• Pricing: Not publicly listed; inquire for scoped engagement pricing

• Clutch: Verify on Clutch before engaging

5. QBurst

QBurst is a digital engineering company founded in 2004, with 3,400 professionals across 21 cities in 11 countries, and a Strapi Solution Partnership that reflects its enterprise delivery experience. Its Strapi practice covers the full engagement lifecycle: headless CMS strategy and architecture design, custom development, migration, third-party integration, and ongoing optimization. For a project where the hard part is enterprise delivery rigor -- consistent quality across a distributed team, structured delivery phases, and post-launch optimization -- QBurst's scale is the draw.

Among Strapi development companies, QBurst is the one to shortlist when delivery structure matters as much as technical depth. A 3,400-person firm with a Strapi-dedicated practice can bring multiple specialists to a complex build: a content architect to design the schema, an API engineer to tune query performance, a plugin developer to build the custom admin extensions, and a frontend engineer to build the Next.js consumer. Smaller agencies will cross-skill across those roles, which works for simpler projects and can become a bottleneck on complex multi-phase ones.

QBurst's documented Strapi use case is instructive: it revamped a major healthcare provider's digital infrastructure using Strapi, resulting in reduced operating costs and faster content updates. Healthcare CMS work carries specific constraints -- multi-role editorial workflows, content audit trail requirements, and the access control granularity that regulated content demands. A team that has delivered those constraints in production treats RBAC, audit logs, and content governance as standard deliverables rather than features that need to be negotiated into scope.

Its global footprint also means it can provide nearshore or onshore resources for buyers who need same-time-zone collaboration on sensitive parts of the project, even if offshore teams handle execution. For a US or UK buyer managing a large Strapi program, that flexibility in team composition is worth asking about during scoping.

Notable work -- QBurst has delivered Strapi implementations for clients in healthcare, e-commerce, and enterprise sectors, and publishes case studies on its Strapi partner page. Its broader portfolio spans cognitive solutions, custom software, and AI-driven engineering. Its Strapi Solution Partner designation confirms Strapi's own assessment of its enterprise delivery capability.

Pricing signal -- QBurst operates an offshore-led model with global delivery capacity. Rates are not publicly listed but are competitive for a firm of its size and partner status, typically in the $30 to $60 per hour range depending on team composition and geography. Enterprise engagements are scoped by project.

What to watch -- QBurst's strength is structured delivery at scale. For a lean MVP or a fast single-feature Strapi build, its delivery structure may add more overhead than the work needs. It is strongest on complex, multi-phase Strapi deployments where delivery discipline compounds across the engagement.

• Best for: Enterprise buyers who need Strapi delivered with structured rigor and multi-specialist depth

• Specialization: Headless CMS strategy, Strapi architecture, custom plugin development, enterprise delivery, migration

• Pricing: Not publicly listed; roughly $30-$60/hr depending on team geography

• Clutch: Verify on Clutch before engaging

6. Kaliop

Kaliop is a French digital agency that has been integrating CMS platforms since 2000 and headless CMS since 2016, making it one of the longest-running Strapi practitioners on this list. Its Strapi record includes contributing to the Strapi community by developing plugins, mastering the JavaScript ecosystem across React, Vue, Nuxt, and Node, and building large-scale digital projects for established European organizations. For a project where the Strapi deployment is the core of a complex digital platform requiring sustained CMS expertise, Kaliop's longevity in the space is the differentiator.

Among Strapi development companies, Kaliop is the one to shortlist when the project is a large-scale digital platform and when longevity in the headless CMS space matters more than raw cost. Its status as a CMS practitioner since 2000 -- sixteen years before headless became the mainstream conversation -- means it has seen what happens when content architecture decisions made early become constraints years later. Teams with that history design schemas with more discipline because they have lived through the maintenance bill of schemas designed without it.

The plugin contribution angle is worth unpacking. Kaliop has developed Strapi plugins for the open-source community, which is a different category of experience from deploying Strapi. Building a plugin that the community uses requires understanding the Strapi plugin API well enough to make it stable, documented, and compatible across Strapi version updates. Agencies that build and maintain open-source Strapi plugins operate at a different depth than those that only configure and deploy the platform. That depth translates directly into custom plugin work for clients: the same skills that make a public plugin well-built make a private one reliable.

Kaliop integrates SEO, accessibility, and eco-design principles into its development methodology. For editorial CMS products where content discoverability matters -- a news platform, a knowledge base, a marketing content hub -- those considerations built into the development phase mean the CMS and its frontend are constructed with structured data, semantic markup, and performance targets as design constraints from the start rather than layered on at the end.

Notable work -- Kaliop has delivered large-scale digital projects for clients across France and Europe, with documented strengths in CMS integration, headless architecture, and JavaScript-stack products. It has contributed plugins to the Strapi community. Specific client names vary in public documentation; the record is anchored by two decades of CMS practice and the depth its plugin contributions reflect.

Pricing signal -- Kaliop is a French agency with rates typical of a mid-sized European consultancy. Rates are not publicly listed. For a firm of its profile, blended rates typically fall in the $60 to $100 per hour range. Large-scale digital platform projects are scoped by engagement.

What to watch -- Kaliop is strongest on large-scale, complex Strapi deployments. For a small marketing site or a lean MVP where cost is the primary constraint, its consultancy structure and rates may be more than the work needs. It is calibrated for projects where CMS depth and long-term maintainability matter more than raw cost.

• Best for: Organizations building large-scale digital platforms requiring sustained Strapi depth and headless CMS maturity

• Specialization: Headless CMS architecture, Strapi plugin development, JavaScript ecosystem, large-scale digital platforms

• Pricing: Not publicly listed; blended $60-$100/hr typical

• Clutch: Verify on Clutch before engaging

7. Naturaily

Naturaily is a full-cycle development company with twelve years of experience and a headless and Jamstack practice built around Strapi, Contentful, and Sanity. Its Strapi work focuses on websites, portals, and digital platforms for SaaS companies and digital-first businesses, using Next.js and Nuxt as the frontend frameworks that consume the Strapi API. The emphasis on Core Web Vitals and performance makes it the closest match on this list for a buyer whose product is primarily a content-driven website or a SaaS marketing platform where page speed and search visibility directly drive business results.

Among Strapi development companies, Naturaily is the one to shortlist when the Strapi deployment is serving a content-driven website or a SaaS product's public-facing content layer, and when the frontend framework is Next.js or Nuxt. Its end-to-end service covers custom web development, headless architecture, Jamstack builds, e-commerce, and design, which means it can take a Strapi CMS project from content architecture through frontend delivery without coordinating separate vendors for CMS and frontend work.

The rendering strategy question is where Naturaily's performance focus pays off. For a content-heavy Strapi deployment -- a blog, a knowledge base, a docs site, a media library -- the decision about how pages are rendered on the Next.js side is what determines whether they load fast enough to retain visitors. Static Site Generation serves pre-rendered pages from cache with no Strapi API call on request. Incremental Static Regeneration regenerates individual pages in the background when content changes, keeping pages fast without requiring a full rebuild. Server-Side Rendering fetches live from Strapi on every request, which is slower but necessary for content that changes by user or session. Choosing between these patterns at the architecture stage rather than letting the framework default decide is something a performance-conscious firm does as part of the build specification.

Naturaily's twelve years in web development and its focus on SaaS and digital-first companies suggest a team that treats content architecture as a business problem rather than a technical configuration. For a SaaS company building its documentation platform, its marketing site, or its customer knowledge base on Strapi, that framing produces a better result than one that starts from the CMS features and works outward.

Notable work -- Naturaily has delivered headless CMS and Jamstack projects for SaaS companies and digital-first businesses across Europe and beyond. Its public portfolio includes web development, headless architecture, and e-commerce work. Its blog covers headless CMS topics including Strapi and Next.js in depth, reflecting active practice rather than marketing familiarity with the platform.

Pricing signal -- Naturaily is a Polish agency with competitive European rates. It does not publish fixed rates publicly. For an agency of its profile and geography, blended rates typically fall in the $50 to $80 per hour range.

What to watch -- Naturaily is strongest on content-driven websites and SaaS marketing platforms. For a complex CMS product with heavy custom plugin requirements, multi-team RBAC, or Strapi Enterprise features, confirm that depth during scoping. It is calibrated for Jamstack and headless delivery rather than deep enterprise CMS governance.

• Best for: SaaS companies and digital-first businesses building content-driven websites or marketing platforms on Strapi

• Specialization: Headless CMS, Jamstack, Strapi plus Next.js and Nuxt, Core Web Vitals, SaaS web development

• Pricing: Not publicly listed; roughly $50-$80/hr typical

• Clutch: Verify on Clutch before engaging

8. Otterdev

Otterdev is a Singapore and Australia-based web development agency listed as an official Strapi partner, specializing in UX-first, high-performance websites built on Strapi with Next.js and Astro as the frontend frameworks. Its Strapi focus is narrow and deliberate: it is not a broad digital agency or a large-scale enterprise integrator, but a specialist shop that picks Strapi as its CMS of choice for performance-critical website builds and delivers those builds with a consistent architecture across projects. For a buyer in the Asia-Pacific region, or a buyer anywhere who wants a focused Strapi specialist rather than a generalist with Strapi on a long list of platforms, Otterdev is the firm to shortlist.

Among Strapi development companies, Otterdev represents the specialist end of the spectrum. While other firms on this list bring Strapi into broader enterprise engagements or multi-technology programs, Otterdev has made Strapi plus Next.js and Strapi plus Astro its primary technical stack. That focus means it builds the same architecture repeatedly, which produces tighter delivery and fewer surprises on each new project. Firms that specialize in one stack tend to have pre-solved the hard problems: the Next.js ISR configuration that keeps content fresh without hammering the API, the Strapi image provider configuration that serves optimized assets to the frontend, and the deployment pipeline that pushes Strapi and the frontend in tandem without breaking either side.

The Astro angle is worth noting for buyers who are open to it. Astro is an increasingly common frontend framework for content-heavy sites, with a default output of static HTML and a partial hydration model that keeps pages fast by default. Pairing Astro with Strapi as a content source gives a content-driven website near-optimal Core Web Vitals scores with minimal additional configuration, and Otterdev's Astro practice reflects delivery experience rather than framework familiarity. For a buyer whose site needs to perform well on page speed and whose content does not require real-time personalization or user-specific rendering, an Astro plus Strapi architecture is worth exploring during the technical scoping conversation.

Notable work -- Otterdev's portfolio is anchored by web development projects in Singapore and Australia using Strapi, Next.js, and Astro. Its official Strapi partner status reflects its consistent delivery in the headless web space. Specific client names are not widely documented publicly.

Pricing signal -- Otterdev is based in Singapore and Australia. Rates reflect the Asia-Pacific market and are not publicly listed. For agencies of its profile and geography, rates typically fall in the $75 to $130 per hour range depending on project complexity.

What to watch -- Otterdev is a focused specialist rather than a broad agency. For a project that requires deep enterprise CMS configuration, custom plugin development at scale, or Strapi Enterprise features with complex RBAC, a firm with broader enterprise Strapi experience is a closer match. Otterdev is strongest on UX-led, performance-first website builds where the content architecture is well-defined.

• Best for: Buyers in Asia-Pacific building UX-led, performance-first websites on Strapi with Next.js or Astro

• Specialization: UX-first web development, Strapi plus Next.js, Strapi plus Astro, high-performance websites

• Pricing: Not publicly listed; roughly $75-$130/hr typical for Asia-Pacific agencies

• Clutch: Verify on Clutch before engaging

Side-by-side comparison

What separates a working Strapi deployment from a maintained one

The most common way Strapi projects go wrong is not technical failure -- it is architectural drift. The content type schema that made sense for the first launch does not account for the localization requirements added in month three, the multi-brand content model added in month six, or the editorial approval workflow the business needs before the CMS goes to a larger team in month nine. Each of those additions is technically possible in Strapi, but whether they slot in cleanly or require rebuilding the data model depends entirely on how the initial schema was designed.

The firms at the structured end of this list -- Successive Digital, Artkai, and Kaliop -- are there because they design content schemas with longevity in mind. They have seen enough Strapi projects mature past the first release to know where the decisions that look small in month one become expensive in month twelve. A content type that models a blog post as a flat document with a rich text body field rather than a structured set of components will require schema reconstruction the day the business wants to pull just the introduction paragraph for a preview card, or just the author block for a byline aggregation page. That reconstruction on a production CMS with real content already in it is a data migration, not a schema edit.

The firms at the specialist end -- Naturaily and Otterdev -- are there because they deliver one architecture repeatedly and deliver it well. A SaaS company building its documentation site on Strapi and Next.js does not need an enterprise consultancy's overhead. It needs a team that has built the same architecture enough times to know exactly which decisions produce fast, maintainable pages. Naturaily's Core Web Vitals focus and Otterdev's Next.js and Astro depth reflect that.

RaftLabs sits at number two because it does the work across both sides: content architecture designed for how the editorial team will actually use the CMS, custom plugins built for the specific domain and workflow rather than bolted on from the community registry, an API surface designed for how the frontend will query it, and a Next.js frontend built and deployed in the same engagement. It does not hand you a Strapi deployment and a separate frontend quote. It builds the thing that reaches the user, integrated and deployed.

Getting the edition -- Community Edition, Cloud, or Enterprise -- and the architecture right before any code is written matters more than getting the agency brand right.

"I think it's a no-brainer that headless CMS is the future."

Pierre Burgy, CEO and co-founder, Strapi

Burgy said that in a 2024 interview with CMS Critic, and the market data is proving him right. The global headless CMS market was valued at approximately $741 million in 2023 and is projected to reach $3.85 billion by 2031, growing at a 22.9% CAGR, according to The Insight Partners. Strapi specifically has seen over 50 million downloads and 66,000-plus GitHub stars (according to Strapi's own published metrics), making it one of the most widely adopted open-source headless CMS platforms available. The Strapi v5 release in late 2024 formalized what the community had been building toward for years: a TypeScript-first, Document Service-powered platform designed for production-grade deployments rather than developer side projects. Organizations that treated their CMS as a backend detail are finding that content is now the product -- the layer that feeds the AI systems summarizing their pages, the personalization engines adapting their copy, and the multi-channel frontends serving mobile, web, and connected devices simultaneously. The partner that understands both the content architecture and the API layer is the one that gets you there without rebuilding the schema six months in.

Five questions to ask before signing

Which version of Strapi have you deployed in production, and have you handled a v4-to-v5 migration? Strapi v5 is not a minor update from v4. The Document Service API replaced the Entity Service, plugin interfaces changed substantially, and TypeScript became the default. A team that has only deployed v4 in production will treat a v5 deployment as a first deployment, and a team that has never done a v4-to-v5 migration will discover the breaking changes as they go. Ask for a specific production deployment on v5 and, if a migration was involved, ask how they handled it. Ask which custom plugins they rewrote for v5 compatibility and where the hours actually went. A team that answers specifically is one that has done it; a team that describes the process from the documentation has not.

Have you built custom Strapi plugins in Node.js for the backend and React for the admin panel? Using Strapi's built-in content type builder and the community plugin library is a different category of work from building a custom plugin that extends the admin UI or adds a custom controller route. Ask for a specific plugin the agency built for a client, what it did, and why it could not be solved with a community plugin. Ask whether the plugin used the Strapi Design System for the admin panel UI, and how it was tested across Strapi version updates. A firm that has only consumed Strapi's built-in features will not know how the plugin API behaves in edge cases. A firm that has built and maintained custom plugins will know exactly which parts break when Strapi releases a new minor version.

How do you approach content type architecture before any code is written? The content model is the schema that every query, every migration, and every future feature will be built on top of. Ask how the agency runs a content modeling session before development starts. Ask whether it documents the content type schema, the field relationships, and the RBAC roles as a formal deliverable before building anything. Ask how it handles the case where the content model needs to change after content has been published -- which is not a hypothetical, it is a certainty on every live CMS. A team that treats content architecture as a one-hour kickoff conversation rather than a formal deliverable will leave you with a schema that constrains your roadmap the moment it needs to evolve past the initial scope.

Which frontend frameworks have you integrated with Strapi, and how do you handle preview and ISR? A Strapi deployment without a frontend integration plan is an API that nobody has built a consumer for. Ask which framework the agency prefers for Strapi frontends -- Next.js is the most common, Nuxt is the second, Astro is growing -- and ask for a specific project where they built the frontend alongside the CMS in one engagement. Ask how they handle live preview, which lets editors see unpublished content in context before publishing. Ask whether they use Strapi's Draft and Publish system for the preview workflow or a custom implementation. Ask how they configured ISR or SSG to serve fast pages from Strapi content without sacrificing content freshness. Agencies that have only deployed Strapi without a production frontend have not solved the real delivery problem.

How do you deploy and maintain a Strapi instance in production? Running Strapi in production is not the same as running it locally or on a shared hosting plan. A production Strapi deployment needs a process manager or containerization, a database with backup and restore confirmed, environment variable management for API tokens and secrets, a deployment pipeline that does not expose the admin panel to public traffic during a deploy, and a monitoring setup that catches API errors before users report them. Ask where the agency has deployed Strapi in production -- Railway, Render, AWS EC2, AWS ECS, GCP Cloud Run, or Heroku -- and ask how it handled the first time a Strapi update changed a plugin API. Ask who maintains the instance after launch and what that engagement looks like. A team with a clear answer on all of these has operated a Strapi deployment in production. A team that responds that it is just Node.js and hosting is straightforward has not.

The verdict

Successive Digital for organizations running an enterprise-scale CMS transformation on Strapi Enterprise, with v5 migration and composable platform architecture as the core requirement. RaftLabs for product businesses that want a Strapi CMS built end to end -- custom content types, custom plugins, API-driven Next.js frontend, cloud deployment -- by one accountable team. Artkai for US and UK buyers building enterprise or fintech digital products where Strapi manages the content layer. Appnovation for organizations where the Strapi CMS build is one workstream inside a broader digital transformation program. QBurst for enterprise buyers who need Strapi delivered with structured delivery discipline and multi-specialist depth across a complex, multi-phase project. Kaliop for organizations building large-scale digital platforms where deep headless CMS expertise and Strapi plugin development are core requirements. Naturaily for SaaS and digital-first businesses building content-driven websites or marketing platforms on Strapi with Next.js or Nuxt. Otterdev for Asia-Pacific buyers building UX-led, performance-first websites on Strapi with Next.js or Astro.

The decision simplifies when you answer three questions honestly: what are you building on Strapi (a content-driven website, a CMS product with custom plugins, an enterprise platform with governance requirements, or a multi-channel content API), which tier is right (Community Edition, Cloud, or Enterprise), and whether you need one accountable team to own the whole build or a specialist to slot into an existing team for one piece. Answer those three, and the shortlist above narrows to one or two names on its own. Get them wrong, and even the most experienced Strapi partner on this list will build you something that works for launch and constrains you for everything that follows.

RaftLabs designs and builds headless CMS products on Strapi -- custom content types, custom plugins, and API-driven Next.js frontends -- in one team from content architecture to production. No handoff gap. 4.9/5 on Clutch across 50+ verified reviews. Talk to a founder about your Strapi build.