Open Source Alternatives to Directus

A headless CMS and collaborative backend platform that connects to any SQL database to automatically generate production-ready REST and GraphQL APIs. The software provides a no-code admin interface for data modeling, content editing, and user management without an abstraction layer between the API and the database schema. It includes a digital asset manager for file organization and a built-in AI assistant for content translation and record creation. The platform supports a native MCP server to connect AI agents like Claude Desktop and Cursor directly to live data. Users can deploy the software via Directus Cloud or self-host on their own infrastructure.

Whether you want to cut software costs or escape vendor lock-in, these open source alternatives to Directus give you an option you fully own. You can self-host them, so your data stays on infrastructure you control. This page lists 1 open source alternative to Directus. The most popular is Hasura. It uses the Apache-2.0 license and ships an official Docker image.