Headless CMS Hosting
own your content, fix your bill
Run Ghost, Strapi, Directus, Payload or Medusa on your own dedicated UK container — each with its own database, behind ScaleShield and free TLS. No per-seat pricing, no metered API calls, no one else holding your content.
Fixed GBP pricing · no usage billing · 30-day money-back guarantee.
Why self-host
Your CMS should not be a subscription trap
Self-hosting used to mean servers, patching and 2am pages. Managed self-hosting keeps the ownership and hands us the operations.
Own your data, literally
On a SaaS content platform your content lives in someone else’s multi-tenant store, behind their export tools. Here, every CMS runs with its own database — one per site, never shared tables. Standard SQL you can query, dump and take anywhere, any day.
Fixed cost, not per-seat maths
SaaS CMS bills grow with seats, records, locales and API calls — you pay more as you succeed. G7Cloud is a fixed GBP price per plan. Add ten editors, double your traffic, model fifty new collections: the bill does not move.
CMS and front end, one plan
A headless CMS is half a website. The Business plan’s three hosted sites run your CMS and the Next.js or Astro front end it powers side by side — and on Pro, WireGuard private networking connects them off the public internet.
No platform lock-in
These are open platforms deployed from your own git repo or as standard installs, on top of standard databases. If you ever leave, you take the code, the content and the schema with you. We would rather keep you by being good.
The platforms
Five platforms, compared honestly
They overlap less than you would think. Pick by what you are building, not by GitHub stars.
| Platform | Best at | API | Stack on G7Cloud | How it runs here |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ghost Publishing platform | Blogs, newsletters and paid memberships — publishing first, API second | Content + Admin REST APIs | Node.js · MariaDB | One-click managed — admin credentials provisioned for you |
| Strapi Headless CMS | General-purpose headless CMS — custom content types behind any front end | REST (GraphQL via plugin) | Node.js · PostgreSQL 15 | Deployed from your git repo, dedicated PostgreSQL 15 beside it |
| Directus Data platform | Instant API + admin panel over structured data — CMS and internal tools | REST + GraphQL, automatic | Node.js · MariaDB | One-click managed — admin credentials provisioned for you |
| Payload TypeScript-first CMS | TypeScript teams who want the CMS in their codebase, next to Next.js | REST + GraphQL, from your config | Node.js / Next.js · PostgreSQL 15 | Deployed from your git repo, dedicated PostgreSQL 15 beside it |
| Medusa Headless commerce | Custom e-commerce backends — own the whole stack, pay no platform fees | REST (store + admin) | Node.js · PostgreSQL 15 · Redis 7 | Deployed from your git repo, dedicated PostgreSQL 15 beside it |
The shorthand: Ghost if you are publishing — blogs, newsletters, paid memberships. Strapi if you want a general-purpose content API with content types your editors manage. Directus if you want an instant API and admin panel over structured data — it is as good at internal tools as it is at websites.
Payload if your team writes TypeScript and wants the CMS living in the same repo as the Next.js front end. And Medusa when the content is really products, carts and orders — it is a headless commerce engine rather than a CMS, and it earns its place here for exactly that reason.
Under the hood
How G7Cloud runs your CMS
The same operational baseline sits under every platform — this is what you are actually paying for.
A dedicated container per site
Every CMS gets its own isolated container — no shared PHP pool, no noisy neighbours inside your process. One site’s traffic spike is not another site’s outage.
One-click for Ghost and Directus
Ghost and Directus are managed platforms: pick one in the dashboard and we provision the container, the database and your admin credentials. You log in and work.
Git deploys for Strapi, Payload and Medusa
Connect GitHub, GitLab or Bitbucket and push to deploy with live build logs, rollback via redeploy, deploy webhooks — and a dedicated PostgreSQL 15 instance provisioned beside the container.
ScaleShield and free TLS
WAF and bot protection sit in front of every admin panel and API endpoint, and TLS certificates — including wildcards — are issued and renewed automatically, free.
Backups that provably restore
Daily, weekly or monthly schedules, plus manual and incremental backups with off-site targets. Every backup is restore-tested nightly in a real sandbox — you find out restores work before you ever need one.
Per-minute monitoring
Uptime checks every minute with email, webhook and Slack alerts, resource metrics kept for 90 days, and TLS expiry alerts. If your API goes down at 3am, you hear about it at 3:01.
Pricing
One ladder covers CMS, front end and everything else
No per-seat charges, no metered API calls. Hosting, email, DNS and backups on one fixed GBP price.
Starter
or £86/yr — save 20%
One real site on your own domain — with email, DNS and backups.
- 1 hosted site — WordPress, PHP, Ghost, git apps & more
- AI Website Builder — 3 projects, publish 1 on your domain
- 60K AI tokens per day
- Custom domain + free SSL
- Email hosting (mailboxes, webmail, spam filtering)
- DNS hosting & SFTP access
- Daily backups with one-click restore
- Uptime monitoring with alerts
Business
or £182/yr — save 20%
Recommended for CMS + front end
Run your CMS and the front end it powers side by side, with managed Postgres and Redis add-ons.
- 3 hosted sites — any type, incl. WooCommerce & Magento
- Full-stack AI apps — online shop, bookings, CMS & more
- Real database + admin panel on AI-built sites
- Stripe checkout on your AI-built shop (your own keys)
- AI Website Builder — 5 projects, publish 3
- 150K AI tokens per day
- Managed PostgreSQL & Redis add-ons
- Site cloning, phpMyAdmin, WP-CLI
- Everything in Starter included
Pro
or £374/yr — save 20%
For freelancers and power users — 10 sites, highest AI allowance.
- 10 hosted sites
- Dedicated MySQL database per site (included)
- AI Website Builder — 20 projects, publish 10
- 500K AI tokens per day
- Git deploys with PR preview environments
- WireGuard private networking
- Priority support
- Everything in Business included
There is also a Free plan (AI Website Builder only, no card needed) and an Agency plan for 25 sites with team roles.
Compare all five plans on the pricing page — every plan is a fixed GBP price with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
FAQ
Headless CMS hosting, answered straight
What is headless CMS hosting?
A headless CMS runs as its own service and serves content over an API, so any front end — a Next.js site, a mobile app, a kiosk — can consume it. Headless CMS hosting means running that service somewhere reliable. On G7Cloud, each CMS runs in a dedicated container with its own database, behind ScaleShield WAF and free TLS, with daily restore-tested backups and per-minute monitoring.
Which platform should I pick?
Honest shorthand: Ghost for blogs, newsletters and paid memberships; Strapi for a general-purpose content API with custom content types; Directus for an instant API and admin panel over structured data; Payload if your team lives in TypeScript and wants the CMS inside the Next.js codebase; Medusa if the "content" is actually products, carts and orders. Each platform page below goes deeper.
Do you charge per seat, per record or per API call?
No. G7Cloud has no usage-based billing at all — every plan is a fixed GBP price per month. That is the core difference from SaaS content platforms, whose pricing scales with seats, entries and API traffic.
Can my front end and CMS live on the same plan?
Yes. The Business plan includes three hosted sites — typically the CMS plus the front end it powers, with a slot spare. Git apps deploy in 14 frameworks including Next.js, Astro, Nuxt, SvelteKit and Remix. On Pro, WireGuard private networking links your services off the public internet.
Is headless overkill for a simple site?
Often, yes — and we would rather tell you that than sell you complexity. A blog or publication is usually better served by Ghost, a classic business site by managed WordPress, and if you just want a working site fast, the AI Website Builder ships database-backed sites with an admin panel on every plan. Headless earns its keep when multiple front ends share one content source, or your team wants full control of the presentation layer.
Will you help me migrate an existing CMS?
Yes — assisted migration is free on every paid plan. Our team does the move with you: code, database and media come across, you preview the result on G7Cloud, and nothing cuts over until you approve it.
Not sure headless is the answer?
Fair question. Here is where else to look on G7Cloud.
App hosting
Git push-to-deploy in 14 frameworks — Next.js, Astro, Nuxt, SvelteKit, Remix and more, with PR previews and live build logs.
Managed WordPress hosting
For classic business sites, WordPress with the same dedicated containers, restore-tested backups and ScaleShield protection is often the simpler call.
G7Cloud vs Vercel
Per-user pricing plus usage bills versus one fixed GBP price with the database included — the honest model comparison.