Directus

Headless CMS/data platform (BSL source-available)

source-available stub guide

Overview

Directus wraps SQL databases with APIs and an admin app. Useful for custom member portals or content APIs—review BSL terms carefully.

At a glance

Field	Value
Categories	`developer-platform`, `website-cms`
Deployment	`self-hosted`, `managed-saas`
License class	source-available
Cost model	`freemium`
Implementation difficulty	`moderate`
Maintenance burden	`medium`
Maturity	`stable`
Verification	`partially-verified` (2026-07-17)

Cost reality

Self-host under BSL; cloud paid. Verify pricing and license conversion.

Pricing and free-tier limits change frequently; re-check official pricing before budget decisions.

Official pricing

Tasks reduced or augmented

Software does not replace community or ops staff. It may reduce or augment:

Headless content management
Internal data admin UI

Human oversight still needed

BSL compliance
API auth design

Data held

business data in connected DB
files
users
Personal data: yes
Payment data: no / not primary

Risks

Area	Notes
Vendor lock-in	Evaluate export formats and API completeness before deep customization.
Security	Apply updates promptly; restrict admin access; enable TLS.
Compliance	Operator remains responsible for privacy and local regulatory obligations.
Licensing	Not OSI open source while under BSL.
Operational	Plan backups, monitoring, and a restore drill before production use.

Coworking fit

Roles: technical-operator, consultant-implementer

Workflows: member-onboarding, marketing-campaigns

Problems: integrate-stack, self-host-for-data-control

Smallest useful experiment

Prototype a read-only content API for the marketing site from a staging database.

Typical time to first value: 1–3 days

Implementation guide

See the human-written implementation guide.

Verification

Status: partially-verified
Last reviewed: 2026-07-17
Sources:

Seed entry compiled from official project sites and repositories. Re-verify pricing, license text, and feature claims before production decisions. Star counts and free-tier numeric limits intentionally omitted unless verified at review time.