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 helps makers create and publish business sites, then keep them updated without constant manual work. You control what appears on the site. Content autopilot prepares content drafts for approval, new inquiries arrive in Telegram, and visitor AI chat can answer using the site's content. Solo is $19/month or $190/year for 1 site; Studio is $49/month or $490/year for up to 5 sites. Full Export provides editable Twig themes and content as portable JSON, not the Pubner backend runtime.
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 + AI | Free self-hosted; Growth $45/mo includes 1,000 AI credits; Cloud hosting billed separately | Solo $19/mo or $190/yr (1 site) / Studio $49/mo or $490/yr (5 sites); hosting and AI included, no top-ups |
| 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.