Is Ory or Strapi better?

Neither clearly leads. Ory starts at Free and Strapi at $35/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.

Which is cheaper, Ory or Strapi?

Ory has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Ory and $35/month for Strapi.

Does Ory or Strapi run on more platforms?

Ory runs on web, api. Strapi runs on Node.js, Cloud, Self-hosted, Docker.

Can I use Ory for free?

Yes. Ory has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Strapi starts at $35/month.

What is Ory best used for?

Ory is most often used for adding self-hosted or cloud identity to a new product, implementing fine-grained permission checks, supporting b2b organizations and multi-tenancy, building machine-to-machine authentication for microservices. Of those, adding self-hosted or cloud identity to a new product and implementing fine-grained permission checks are not what Strapi is typically brought in for.

What can Ory do that Strapi cannot?

Ory covers Authentication APIs, Permissions engine, Machine-to-machine tokens, B2B organizations. Strapi covers REST API, GraphQL API, Content management, PostgreSQL.

Cybersecurity · head to head

Ory vs Strapi

Ory

Cybersecurity

Open-source identity, authentication, and permissions infrastructure

From: Free
Rated: -

Full review Website

Strapi

APIs

Headless CMS with REST and GraphQL APIs

From: $35/month
Rated: -

Full review Website

The short version

Only Ory has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
Each has a real cost: Ory production and Growth plans are billed annually ($770/year and $9,350/year), which is a larger upfront commitment than monthly-only competitors.; Strapi cloud pricing is per project, not per account, so a second project doubles the bill
They diverge on capability: Ory covers Authentication APIs, Strapi covers REST API.
Prices and features above were last checked on 30 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Ory and Strapi actually diverge.

Attributes where Ory and Strapi differ
Attribute	Ory	Strapi
Starting price	Free	$35/month
Pricing model	usage-based	subscription
Free tier	Yes	No
Platforms	web, api	Node.js, Cloud, Self-hosted, Docker
Category	Cybersecurity	APIs
Founded	Unknown	2015

Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated).

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 Ory

Authentication APIs
Permissions engine
Machine-to-machine tokens
B2B organizations
SAML SSO
Multi-region deployments

Only in Strapi

REST API
GraphQL API
Content management
PostgreSQL
MySQL
MongoDB
AWS
Webhooks

What people use each for

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

Ory

Adding self-hosted or cloud identity to a new productnot Strapi
Implementing fine-grained permission checksnot Strapi
Supporting B2B organizations and multi-tenancynot Strapi
Building machine-to-machine authentication for microservicesnot Strapi

Strapi

Running a self hosted headless CMS with a REST or GraphQL APInot Ory
Giving editors a content admin panel over a custom content modelnot Ory

Where each one falls short

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

Ory

Production and Growth plans are billed annually ($770/year and $9,350/year), which is a larger upfront commitment than monthly-only competitors.
SAML SSO and multi-region deployments are reserved for the custom-priced Enterprise tier.
Usage-based pricing across aDAU, M2M tokens, and permission checks makes cost estimation more complex than flat per-MAU billing.

Strapi

Cloud pricing is per project, not per account, so a second project doubles the bill
Starter at $35 a month allows 100,000 API requests, and overage is $1.50 per 25,000
Extra bandwidth is $30 per 100 GB and extra asset storage $0.60 per GB
Backups start at the Pro plan, weekly, and only become daily at Business
An uptime SLA is Business only, at $450 a month per project
Additional environments cost $60 a month on Pro and $300 a month on Business

Pricing, plan by plan

Ory

Free

DeveloperFree
- Community support
- No production environments
Production$64/month
- $21 monthly credit included
- 1 production environment
- 3 staging environments
Growth$779/month
- $255 monthly credit included
- 2 production environments
- B2B organizations (max 3)

Strapi

$35/month

Starter$35/month
- 100k API requests
- 50 GB asset storage
- 50 GB asset bandwidth
Pro$90/month
- 1M API requests
- 250 GB asset storage
- 500 GB asset bandwidth
Business$450/month
- 10M API requests
- 1000 GB asset storage
- 1000 GB asset bandwidth

Which should you pick?

Choose Ory if

You need authentication apis.
You want to start without paying.
You work on web, api.
You also want permissions engine.

Ory review

Choose Strapi if

You need rest api.
You work on Node.js, Cloud, Self-hosted, Docker.
You also want graphql api.

Strapi review

Questions people ask

Is Ory or Strapi better?: Neither clearly leads. Ory starts at Free and Strapi at $35/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Ory or Strapi?: Ory has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Ory and $35/month for Strapi.
Does Ory or Strapi run on more platforms?: Ory runs on web, api. Strapi runs on Node.js, Cloud, Self-hosted, Docker.
Can I use Ory for free?: Yes. Ory has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Strapi starts at $35/month.
What is Ory best used for?: Ory is most often used for adding self-hosted or cloud identity to a new product, implementing fine-grained permission checks, supporting b2b organizations and multi-tenancy, building machine-to-machine authentication for microservices. Of those, adding self-hosted or cloud identity to a new product and implementing fine-grained permission checks are not what Strapi is typically brought in for.
What can Ory do that Strapi cannot?: Ory covers Authentication APIs, Permissions engine, Machine-to-machine tokens, B2B organizations. Strapi covers REST API, GraphQL API, Content management, PostgreSQL.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Ory: What does Ory cost?

Ory has a free Developer tier, a Production plan at $770/year including a $21 monthly credit, a Growth plan at $9,350/year including a $255 monthly credit, and custom Enterprise pricing.

Source

Strapi: How much do API request overages cost?

Additional API requests beyond the plan limit cost $1.50 per 25000 requests. Extra asset storage costs $0.60 per GB, and additional bandwidth costs $30 per 100 GB.

Source

Ory: How is usage metered?

Beyond the included credit, Ory charges per average daily active user (aDAU), per machine-to-machine token, and per permission check, with lower per-unit rates on the Growth plan.

Source

Strapi: Is yearly billing available?

Yes, yearly billing saves up to 17% compared to monthly billing on Strapi Cloud plans.

Source

Ory: What payment methods are supported?

Ory accepts credit cards (Visa, MasterCard, Amex) and bank transfer, processed via Stripe.

Source

Strapi: What is included with the Pro plan?

The Pro plan costs $90 per month per project and includes 1M API requests, 250 GB asset storage, 500 GB bandwidth, multi-environment support, weekly backups, and manual backups.

Source

Ory vs Strapi

Ory

Strapi

The short version

Where they differ

What each one covers

Only in Ory

Only in Strapi

What people use each for

Ory

Strapi

Where each one falls short

Ory

Strapi

Pricing, plan by plan

Ory

Strapi

Which should you pick?

Choose Ory if

Choose Strapi if

Questions people ask

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Related pages

More on Ory

More on Strapi

Keep looking

Other head to heads