Evaluating CloudSource
CloudSource vs. Contentful
Most retail teams looking at CloudSource are already paying for Contentful. This page sets the two side by side, including the places where Contentful wins.
Contentful's plans, limits and pricing change over time. Figures here use $300/month as the reference point for a mid-tier subscription. Check your own invoice and contract for the numbers that actually apply to you.
The commercial model
This is the difference that matters most, and it is not really about features.
| CloudSource | Contentful | |
|---|---|---|
| How you pay | $1,499 once | Monthly or annual subscription |
| What drives the price up | Nothing — only your AWS usage | Entries, seats, API calls, spaces, locales |
| Overage charges | None | Yes, on most metered limits |
| Renewal uplift | Not applicable | Negotiated at each renewal |
| Three-year total | $1,499 + AWS | $10,800 at $300/month |
| If you stop paying | It keeps running — it is your deployment | Access ends |
Capabilities, side by side
| Capability | CloudSource | Contentful |
|---|---|---|
| Custom content models | Unlimited | Limited by plan |
| Field types | 10 types, covering the common cases | Broader set, including location and JSON objects |
| Relations between entries | Single and multiple | Single and multiple |
| Rich text editing | Yes | Yes, with embedded entries |
| Media library | Your S3 bucket, no cap | Vendor-hosted, capped by plan |
| Video transcoding | AWS MediaConvert integration | Via third-party apps |
| Draft / published states | Yes | Yes |
| Scheduled publish and unpublish | Yes, both ends of a window | Yes |
| Multi-site isolation | Unlimited spaces, cloneable | Spaces, priced by plan |
| Roles and permissions | Three roles: Super Admin, Editor, Author | Custom roles and granular rules |
| Delivery API | REST / JSON, CORS enabled | REST and GraphQL |
| Management (write) API | Not included | Yes |
| Webhooks | Not included | Yes |
| App marketplace | None | Extensive |
| Field-level localisation | Handled with a space per locale | Built in, per field |
| Source code access | Full, on GitHub | None |
| Where content lives | Your AWS account and region | Vendor infrastructure |
| Uptime SLA | You operate it | Contractual on enterprise plans |
How your fields map across
The importer converts Contentful field types to their CloudSource equivalent automatically. This is the full mapping.
Contentful → CloudSource
| Contentful | CloudSource |
|---|---|
| Short text | text |
| Long text | textarea |
| Rich text | richtext |
| Number / Integer | number |
| Boolean | boolean |
| Date | date |
| Media (single) | media |
| Media (multiple) | media_multiple |
| Reference (single) | relation |
| Reference (multiple) | relation_multiple |
Check these before you commit. Contentful field types with no direct equivalent — location fields, arbitrary JSON objects, and rich text with embedded entries — need a decision about how to represent them. Send us an export and we will tell you exactly what happens to your model.
What you give up
Worth stating plainly, because finding out later is expensive:
- No write API. Content is authored in the admin panel. If a nightly job pushes product data into your CMS today, that integration has to change.
- No webhooks. Nothing fires outward when content publishes, so a build-on-publish pipeline needs another trigger, such as polling or a manual deploy.
- No GraphQL. The delivery API is REST and JSON only.
- No marketplace apps. Translation services, DAM connectors and preview tools are not available as drop-in installs.
- Three fixed roles. If you need per-model or per-field permissions, CloudSource does not have them.
- You are the on-call. Uptime, patching, backups and scaling become yours.
Several of these are surmountable with the source code you get — but that means engineering time, so factor it in honestly.
What you gain
$9,301
Saved over three years, before AWS costs
0
Metered limits to trip during peak trading
Your region
Content stored where you choose
Full
Source access, so gaps are fixable
The saving figure compares $10,800 of subscription against a $1,499 licence. Subtract your AWS bill to get the net — work yours out here.