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APIs · head to head

Formance vs Sanity

Formance logo

Formance

APIs

Open source double-entry ledger and payment orchestration for money-moving software

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Sanity logo

Sanity

APIs

Headless CMS with real-time collaborative editing and structured content APIs

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Formance formance holds no money and provides no regulatory cover, so it must be paired with a payments provider or bank, and buyers occasionally mistake a ledger for a treasury system and discover the gap late.; Sanity free plan limited to 10,000 documents and 100GB assets
  • They diverge on capability: Formance covers Double-entry ledger, Sanity covers Content API.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Formance and Sanity actually diverge.

Attributes where Formance and Sanity differ
AttributeFormanceSanity
Pricing modelOpen source, no licence feefreemium
PlatformsLinux, Docker, Kubernetes, Web, APIWeb
FoundedUnknown2011

Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated), category (APIs).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Formance

  • Double-entry ledger
  • Numscript transaction DSL
  • Multi-currency
  • Payments connectivity
  • Reconciliation
  • Self-hosted deployment
  • Cloud offering
  • API and SDKs

Only in Sanity

  • Content API
  • Collaborative editing
  • Structured content
  • Webhooks
  • Third-party services
  • GROQ query language
  • Cloud support
  • JavaScript SDK support

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Formance

  • A marketplace splitting a single customer payment between seller, platform fee and tax that needs the split to be atomic and auditablenot Sanity
  • A fintech whose homegrown balances table produced numbers finance could not reconcile and now needs proper double-entry before an auditnot Sanity
  • A payments team that wants one normalised model across several PSPs so reconciliation is not written separately for eachnot Sanity
  • A company that wants its ledger under a licence it can keep running even if the vendor disappearsnot Sanity

Sanity

  • Headless CMS for structured content managementnot Formance
  • Collaborative content editing with real-time multiplayer supportnot Formance
  • API-driven content delivery with GROQ query languagenot Formance

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Formance

  • Formance holds no money and provides no regulatory cover, so it must be paired with a payments provider or bank, and buyers occasionally mistake a ledger for a treasury system and discover the gap late.
  • Numscript is a domain-specific language your team must learn, and while it makes complex splits expressible it also means transaction logic sits outside the languages your engineers already debug well.
  • Self-hosting a ledger that must never lose or duplicate a transaction is a serious operational commitment covering backups, upgrades and Postgres tuning, which is real cost the zero licence fee hides.
  • Enterprise pricing is not published, so the difference between the free path and the supported path cannot be evaluated without a sales conversation.
  • The company is much smaller than the incumbent alternatives, and while the MIT licence protects the code it does not protect the roadmap, so features on the hosted side may arrive slowly or change direction.

Sanity

  • Free plan limited to 10,000 documents and 100GB assets
  • Free plan supports only public datasets
  • Growth plan capped at 50 seats maximum
  • Private datasets, scheduled drafts, and comments/tasks require paid plans
  • Annual billing unavailable for Growth plan; Enterprise-only

Pricing, plan by plan

Formance

Free
  • Open SourceFree
    • MIT licensed core ledger
    • Numscript transaction DSL
    • Multi-currency tracking
  • Enterprise$undefined/year
    • Managed or private deployment
    • Payments connectivity and reconciliation
    • Support with response commitments

Sanity

Free
  • FreeFree
    • Up to 20 seats
    • 2 public datasets only
    • 10,000 documents included
  • Growth$15/month
    • Up to 50 seats per seat
    • 2 private or public datasets
    • 25,000 documents included
  • Enterprise$null/month
    • Custom seats
    • Custom datasets
    • Custom document limits

Which should you pick?

Choose Formance if

  • You need double-entry ledger.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, Docker, Kubernetes, Web, API.
  • You also want numscript transaction dsl.
Formance review

Choose Sanity if

  • You need content api.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You also want collaborative editing.
Sanity review

Questions people ask

Is Formance or Sanity better?
Neither clearly leads. Formance starts at Free and Sanity at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Formance or Sanity?
Formance starts at Free and Sanity at Free.
Does Formance or Sanity run on more platforms?
Formance runs on Linux, Docker, Kubernetes, Web, API. Sanity runs on Web.
Can I use Formance for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Formance best used for?
Formance is most often used for a marketplace splitting a single customer payment between seller, platform fee and tax that needs the split to be atomic and auditable, a fintech whose homegrown balances table produced numbers finance could not reconcile and now needs proper double-entry before an audit, a payments team that wants one normalised model across several psps so reconciliation is not written separately for each, a company that wants its ledger under a licence it can keep running even if the vendor disappears. Of those, a marketplace splitting a single customer payment between seller, platform fee and tax that needs the split to be atomic and auditable and a fintech whose homegrown balances table produced numbers finance could not reconcile and now needs proper double-entry before an audit are not what Sanity is typically brought in for.
What can Formance do that Sanity cannot?
Formance covers Double-entry ledger, Numscript transaction DSL, Multi-currency, Payments connectivity. Sanity covers Content API, Collaborative editing, Structured content, Webhooks.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Formance: Is Formance really open source?

Yes. The core ledger is MIT licensed with full source access and no deployment restrictions.

Sanity: What does the Sanity Free plan include?

The Free plan includes up to 20 seats, 2 public datasets, 10,000 documents, 1 million API CDN requests per month, and 2 permission roles.

Source
Formance: Does Formance move money?

No. It records and orchestrates movements; the actual payments happen at a PSP or bank you connect.

Sanity: How much does Sanity Growth plan cost per user?

The Growth plan costs $15 per seat per month, with up to 50 seats, and includes 25,000 documents, 1 million API CDN requests, and 5 permission roles.

Source
Formance: What does the enterprise version cost?

Not published. It is an annual subscription quoted per customer.

Sanity: What is included in Sanity Enterprise pricing?

Enterprise pricing is custom and requires contacting sales. It includes custom seat limits, custom datasets, Single Sign-On, and dedicated support.

Source
Formance: Do I have to use Numscript?

Yes for anything beyond the simplest transfers. It is how multi-party transactions are expressed atomically.

Sanity: Does Sanity offer annual billing discounts?

Annual and invoice payment options are available exclusively for Enterprise customers. Self-serve plans (Free and Growth) use monthly billing only.

Source
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