Strapi is an open-source headless CMS — a powerful API and admin panel for content, with no opinion about your frontend; Pubner generates the frontend too, as a working Twig site, then keeps it going with Content autopilot, an AI chat for visitors, and a Telegram assistant. Both give developers a real backend instead of a page builder. The split shows up the moment you ask "and where does the website come from — and who keeps it updated?" — with Strapi, you write and maintain the frontend yourself, every time, in whatever framework you choose. With Pubner, the site is already there, and it keeps working after launch.
What is Strapi?
Strapi is the leading open-source headless CMS: REST/GraphQL API, unlimited content types, RBAC, and — genuinely ahead here — AI that generates your content structure from a text description. Community edition is free forever, self-hosted, unlimited usage. Growth is $45/month (3 seats, +$15/seat) and unlocks Strapi AI (1,000 credits/month), live preview, and content history. Enterprise is custom-priced. If you don't self-host, Strapi Cloud hosting is billed separately: $18/$90/$450 per project/month depending on tier. Strapi has real scale behind it — $49M raised, 87 employees, 20M+ downloads, ~70K GitHub stars, and customers ranging from two-person shops to Allianz, Adobe, Toyota, and Airbus. But every one of those customers still built their own frontend — Strapi doesn't render a website, it serves data to one.
What is Pubner?
Pubner is an AI-driven CMS environment: API, admin panel, and the client-facing site in Twig, in one stack. A Hub runs dozens of isolated tenant sites from one place, with RBAC. The AI mode builds pages from a conversation with a live preview, generating a real Twig template, not a JSON blob you still have to render. After launch, three features keep the site going without constant hands-on work: Content autopilot generates fresh drafts on a schedule and waits for one-tap approval; AI chat for visitors answers questions from the site's real content 24/7, fully on its own; and the Telegram assistant routes every inquiry to your phone in real time, drafts a reply on request, and sends only after your OK. Starter is $7/month (1 site), Premium $29/month (5 sites), hosting included, 14 days free with no card. Full Export hands you your Twig themes and all your content as portable JSON — clean code and data, no lock-in.
Strapi vs Pubner: side by side
| Strapi | Pubner | |
|---|---|---|
| What you get | API + admin panel for content | API + admin panel + rendered Twig site |
| Frontend | ❌ you build it separately (React/Next/Vue…) | ✅ generated Twig, included |
| Runs itself after launch | ❌ nothing — you build and maintain the frontend | ✅ Content autopilot (scheduled drafts), AI chat (24/7, autonomous) |
| Owner notifications | ❌ none built in | ✅ Telegram assistant — inquiries in real time, weekly pulse digest |
| AI | ✅ generates data structure/Content-Types from text | ✅ generates the page (Twig template) from a conversation, plus Content autopilot + AI chat + Telegram assistant |
| Multi-client management | ❌ one Strapi instance per project | ✅ Hub — many isolated tenants, one place |
| API auto-docs | ✅ generated automatically per field | ❌ not yet — roadmap |
| Pricing | Free (self-hosted) → $45/mo (Growth) → custom (Enterprise); Cloud hosting billed separately | Starter $7/mo (1 site) / Premium $29/mo (5 sites), hosting included, 14-day trial |
| Export / lock-in | ✅ open-source core, self-hostable | ✅ Full Export → Twig themes + portable JSON |
| Best for | Teams who want a dedicated frontend stack (Next.js, mobile app, etc.) | Teams who want the site working without building a frontend from scratch |
When Strapi is the better choice
If the plan already includes a dedicated frontend — a Next.js marketing site, a native mobile app, a multi-channel product feeding several different clients — Strapi's API-first model is exactly right, and its Content-Type AI generation is genuinely ahead of what Pubner does at that layer. It's also the better call if you specifically need auto-generated API documentation per field, which Pubner doesn't have yet.
When "just give me the JSON" gets old
The moment the actual deliverable is a website — not an API for six different clients to consume — writing the same React/Vue frontend against the same kind of content model, project after project, is the tax Strapi doesn't remove. Pubner starts from "you need a working site," so the AI mode produces the Twig template directly, and for agencies running many client sites, the Hub means one place to manage all of them instead of one Strapi instance and one hosting bill per client. And the site doesn't go quiet once it ships: Content autopilot keeps drafts coming on a schedule so you only approve, not write from scratch; the AI chat answers visitor questions from the site's real content around the clock; and the Telegram assistant puts every inquiry in your pocket the moment it arrives, drafting a reply on request and sending only with your OK.