In April 2026, the headless CMS list splits fast between tools with strong health and shipping scores and tools that trail once shipping falls away. Sanity, EmDash CMS, and Statamic sit clearly ahead of the pack on ToolVitals score.
This ranking uses ToolVitals score first, in descending order. GitHub stars are only a secondary popularity signal used to break ties when scores are close. All figures here come from the supplied April 2026 ToolVitals data for headless CMS tools.
Rankings
| Rank | Tool | Health | Shipping | GitHub Stars | Score | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sanity | 97 | 100 | 6087 | 98 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 2 | EmDash CMS | 95 | 100 | 10077 | 97 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 3 | Statamic | 92 | 100 | 4794 | 96 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 4 | Changelog | 94 | 86 | 0 | 90 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 5 | Lektor | 86 | 73 | 0 | 80 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 6 | Pages CMS | 76 | 80 | 3630 | 78 | 🟢 Good |
| 7 | Outstatic | 83 | 70 | 0 | 77 | 🟢 Good |
| 8 | dotCMS | 78 | 70 | 0 | 74 | 🟢 Good |
| 9 | Grav | 84 | 56 | 15466 | 71 | 🟢 Good |
| 10 | Keystone | 73 | 47 | 9869 | 61 | 🟢 Good |
| 11 | Craft CMS | 77 | 24 | 0 | 53 | 🟡 Fair |
| 12 | Kirby | 77 | 24 | 0 | 53 | 🟡 Fair |
| 13 | Markdown Site | 68 | 0 | 613 | 37 | 🔴 Needs Attention |
| 14 | LeadCMS | 67 | 0 | 33 | 37 | 🔴 Needs Attention |
| 15 | Microfeed | 52 | 0 | 3971 | 29 | 🔴 Needs Attention |
| 16 | Cockpit CMS | 36 | 0 | 5400 | 20 | 🔴 Needs Attention |
Top 3 Highlights
Sanity ranks first with a ToolVitals score of 98, backed by a health score of 97 and a shipping score of 100. It also has 6,087 GitHub stars, but the top spot comes from the score, not popularity alone.
EmDash CMS is right behind at 97, with a health score of 95 and a shipping score of 100. It has 10,077 GitHub stars, the most among the top three, but still lands second because ToolVitals score comes first.
Statamic holds third place with a ToolVitals score of 96 and a perfect shipping score of 100. Its 4,794 GitHub stars sit below the two tools above it, and the ranking follows the higher ToolVitals scores ahead of it.
Want to see the full health, shipping, openness, and evidence details for every tool in Headless CMS? Browse all Headless CMS Tools →