Directus CMS Pricing: What Actually Costs You
Self-hosted, Directus Cloud, or fully managed. Compare the real numbers: infrastructure, labor, operations, and compliance.
Directus pricing is simple when you know where to look
Directus itself is free to self-host if your organization is under $5 million in annual revenue and fewer than 50 employees. But "free software" is not the same as "free to run."
When you add up server costs, database backups, SSL certificates, monitoring, security updates, and the time someone spends babysitting it all, self-hosting Directus costs between €4,800 and €6,000 per year for a small team.
This guide shows you three paths: doing it yourself, renting from Directus Cloud, or letting a managed hosting provider handle the work. Each row below is a real number, not a best-case scenario.
The Three Ways to Run Directus
What you actually spend, not including your time or the coffee you drink debugging DNS.
Labor estimates based on €50-€75/hour ops time, 2-5 hours/month for updates, troubleshooting, and monitoring.
Directus Cloud vs Opsily Managed
Both remove the self-hosting burden. Here's where they diverge.
Directus Cloud 2025 pricing. Team tier shown as representative; Enterprise requires sales contact.
The math is simple, but the decision is not
If you have a team, Opsily's €30/mo Small plan plus one developer spending 3 hours a month on ops ($150) equals €180/month total cost of ownership. That is €120/month cheaper than the low end of self-hosting, and a fraction of Directus Cloud's Team tier.
But cost is only one decision point. Consider:
- Development focus: DIY hosting means someone is oncall for database crashes at 2 AM. Managed hosting means your dev team ships features instead.
- Compliance risk: GDPR violations carry €10K-€20M fines. Opsily runs German data centers with ISO 27001 certification and includes DPAs in every plan. Self-hosting makes compliance your problem.
- Growth pain: Directus Cloud charges per additional seat once you add people. Opsily scales seats, collections, and flows with no overage fees.
- Portability: All Directus installations are equally portable — your data stays yours. Switching from Directus Cloud to Opsily managed takes days, not months.
Why choose Opsily for Directus
Honest pricing, built-in compliance, and the time to build what matters.
No surprise costs
Your bill is fixed. No per-seat overages, no tiered feature locks, no hidden infrastructure charges. Scale from 10 to 1,000 users on the same plan without renegotiating.
GDPR by default
German data centers, ISO 27001 certification, and Data Processing Addendums included in every plan. Compliance is not an add-on you negotiate later.
Support when you need it
24/7 live support from people who run Directus. No tier-based support limits. Email, chat, or phone — your choice.
Built for teams who need reliability
Opsily Directus Plans
All plans include automated backups, GDPR compliance, 24/7 support, and German data residency. Add more collections, users, or storage anytime.
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saved per year, minimum, vs self-hosting
Based on €400-€500/mo self-hosted cost (server €50 + ops labor €200 + backup tools €50 + monitoring €100). Opsily Small plan: €30/mo. That is a 93% cost reduction.
Built for teams that value their data
Compliance is not a feature you bolt on later. It is the foundation.
GDPR Compliant
Your data stays in German data centers subject to German privacy law, not US jurisdiction. DPAs included in every plan, no negotiation needed.
Automatic Daily Backups
Every plan includes encrypted daily backups stored redundantly in German data centers. Recovery time objective: under 1 hour.
24/7 Managed Support
Our ops team monitors your Directus instance around the clock. Security patches, version updates, and troubleshooting are handled before you notice a problem.
Full Data Ownership
Export your Directus instance anytime. No lock-in contracts, no data hostage scenarios. Portability is built in.
Pricing & Hosting Questions
The questions we hear from teams deciding between DIY, Cloud, and managed Directus.
Directus is an open-source headless CMS that wraps any SQL database with REST and GraphQL APIs, plus a visual no-code admin interface. Teams choose it because you own your data completely, there is no vendor lock-in, and you can use Postgres, MySQL, MariaDB, SQLite, or other databases. It is free to self-host if your organization is under $5M revenue and 50 employees. Directus also offers Cloud hosting starting at €599/mo, or managed hosting through Opsily starting at €30/mo.
Stop paying for complexity. Start with Opsily.
14-day free trial. No credit card. No hidden fees.