Contentful Migration to Directus
Cut your content infrastructure costs by 10x. Own your data. Skip the vendor lock-in. Opsily handles the heavy lifting.
Why Teams Migrate from Contentful to Directus
Contentful's API-call model hits different pain points at scale. Directus solves all three.
Cost That Scales Down, Not Up
Contentful Lite starts at $300/month for 1M API calls. One spike in traffic, you're overage billing. Directus Cloud is $99/month flat, unlimited API calls. Opsily's managed Directus is predictable: no surprise bills, no per-call charges.
Your Database. Your Rules.
Contentful keeps your data in their cloud, accessed only via API. Directus wraps your own SQL database. Run it on your infrastructure. Query it directly from analytics tools, BI platforms, or custom scripts. Full control, zero lock-in.
Predictable Pricing, Not Surprise Bills
Contentful charges per API call. Every spike hits your budget. Directus is seat-based: pay for your team, not for traffic. Unlimited API calls, unlimited storage. What you see is what you pay.
Built for teams who need reliability
Migration Steps
Migration is not one-click, but it is straightforward. Four phases, clear handoffs.
Export your Contentful spaces. Inventory content types, locales, assets, custom fields, webhooks. Decide: self-hosted Directus or Opsily's managed cloud.
Contentful content types become Directus collections. References become foreign keys. Locales become translation rows. This is the engineer-heavy step.
Pull JSON via Contentful's Management API. Transform to relational schema. Import via Directus REST or GraphQL. Assets migrate to your storage.
Export your Contentful spaces. Inventory content types, locales, assets, custom fields, webhooks. Decide: self-hosted Directus or Opsily's managed cloud.
Contentful content types become Directus collections. References become foreign keys. Locales become translation rows. This is the engineer-heavy step.
Pull JSON via Contentful's Management API. Transform to relational schema. Import via Directus REST or GraphQL. Assets migrate to your storage.
Plan & Audit
Export your Contentful spaces. Inventory content types, locales, assets, custom fields, webhooks. Decide: self-hosted Directus or Opsily's managed cloud.
Map Your Schema
Contentful content types become Directus collections. References become foreign keys. Locales become translation rows. This is the engineer-heavy step.
Extract & Transform
Pull JSON via Contentful's Management API. Transform to relational schema. Import via Directus REST or GraphQL. Assets migrate to your storage.
Test & Point Traffic
Verify all content, check permissions, update front-end API endpoints. Run delta sync the day before cutover. Zero downtime handoff.
How Long Does It Actually Take?
Small migrations (under 100K content records, few custom fields): 1-2 business days. Your team can handle it without outside help.
Medium migrations (100K to 1M records, complex relationships, many locales): 3-5 business days. You might want a second pair of hands from the Directus community or a migration partner.
Large migrations (1M+ records, custom apps, many environments, compliance checkboxes): 5-9 business days. Professional services (like ClonePartner) handle schema mapping, data transformation, custom extension rebuilds, and user acceptance testing.
What Carries Over Cleanly
- Content models and fields. Contentful's field types (text, rich text, media, references, locations, JSON) map directly to Directus field types.
- Assets. Migrate via S3 API or direct upload. Opsily's managed hosting includes storage.
- Locales and translations. Directus handles multi-language out of the box at all price tiers.
- Webhooks. Contentful webhooks need to be rebuilt as Directus Flows (visual automation) or SDK-based solutions. No code-for-code port, but Flows cover 90% of common use cases without writing code.
What Requires Rework
- Custom content apps. Contentful's custom apps become Directus extensions. If you built apps on Contentful's extension SDK, Directus extensions work differently but are simpler to build.
- Advanced workflow automation. Contentful's workflow states map to Directus status fields + Flows + role-based permissions. You might simplify workflows in the process.
- CI/CD and environment management. Contentful uses separate environments. Directus does not enforce environment branching—you use snapshots or version control your schema. Many teams prefer this flexibility.
Contentful vs Directus: Head to Head
What you get for your dollar, and what you're actually paying for.
Pricing as of September 2026. Contentful pricing subject to API overage charges; Directus pricing does not include per-call costs.
Cost reduction for high-traffic sites
At 10M+ API calls per month, Contentful can exceed $2,000/month with overages. Directus Cloud Team: $599/month flat, regardless of traffic.
Directus Hosting via Opsily
Choose the plan that fits your team. All plans include GDPR compliance and EU data residency.
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Enterprise Security. No Compromise.
Your data, protected.
Enterprise Hosting
Secure infrastructure with encryption in transit and at rest, comprehensive monitoring, automatic backups, and 24/7 support.
GDPR Compliant
All data processing complies with GDPR. Opsily can host your Directus instance in EU data centers for full compliance.
Data Sovereignty
Your data lives in your database. Not in a SaaS vendor's cloud. Full control over backup, restore, and data location.
No Vendor Lock-In
Export your entire database anytime. Directus is source-available. Run it yourself tomorrow if you want to. You are never trapped.
Contentful Migration: Answered
Common questions from teams planning their move.
Timeline depends on your data size. Small migrations (under 100K records, simple schemas) take 1-2 business days. Medium (100K-1M records, complex relationships, multiple locales) takes 3-5 days. Large migrations (1M+ records, custom integrations, compliance checks) take 5-9 business days. Professional services from ClonePartner or FocusReactive accelerate large projects.
Ready to Own Your Content Infrastructure?
Opsily's managed Directus handles the hosting, backups, security, and uptime. You handle your content. Let's start your migration.