b10cks vs. Directus
Directus wraps any database in a clean REST and GraphQL API, and it is very good at that. It just has no idea what a draft, a locale or a publish button is. If your output is published content, that gap becomes your build.
Every feature. Unlimited editors. From €0 / month.
Credit where it is due
Point Directus at an existing relational database and you get a clean API over it without rebuilding the data model. MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, MariaDB, SQL Server, Oracle: it takes them all. Flows gives you visual automation for server-side event processing, and Extensions let you build a fully custom admin.
We also start from the same place: open source, self-hostable, no lock-in, no per-seat fees, real REST and GraphQL. That alignment is genuine.
Where it costs you
Directus is agnostic to content concepts by design. For a data platform that is the right call. For a website, a docs hub or a multilingual product, it is a backlog.
There is no draft and no published state. You add a status field, filter it in your frontend, and go without a publish queue or a publish history.
There is no localization system. You design relation tables or locale-keyed JSON, then build the UI, the locale switching, the fallback logic and the import and export.
Directus Studio is a strong data admin, not a content editor. No live preview, no clicking an element on the site to reach the field behind it. A preview route and API are custom work.
Directus records what changed. Getting back to how it was is a manual job. b10cks gives you version history with one-click rollback on every plan.
Directus uses the Business Source Licence. It converts to Apache 2.0 after four years, and production use above $5M in annual revenue needs a commercial licence. b10cks is AGPLv3 with no threshold.
The schema editor is flexible and mirrors almost any database. b10cks models blocks on an infinite canvas, so the whole architecture reads as one diagram.
Different tools, not a worse tool
Directus does not lack these things by accident. A database record has no publishing lifecycle, and refusing to invent one keeps the platform honest. That decision is free for a data project and expensive for a content one.
The rows that actually differ
APIs, roles, webhooks and multiplayer basics land on both sides. The split shows up at the content layer: publishing workflow, draft and published states, scheduled publishing, localization, visual preview and one-click rollback.
What it actually costs
Self-hosted Directus is free and complete, with a commercial licence required above $5M in annual revenue. Directus Cloud Professional is $99 a month for 5 studio users, 75,000 records and 250,000 API requests a month; the Starter tier was retired in December 2025. Enterprise is custom, and that is where SSO and dedicated infrastructure sit.
b10cks meters storage, traffic and requests. Nothing else.
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Who should pick which
Directus is the better tool when you need to expose an existing relational database through a clean API without rebuilding the model. When the job is data management rather than publishing: product catalogues, configuration, user records, internal tools. When you want a fully custom admin built with Extensions. When you need database flexibility beyond PostgreSQL. And when Flows is the automation layer you were looking for.
Pick b10cks when
Pages, articles, product copy, documentation. You want a visual editor for the people writing, localization you do not have to design, publishing workflows you do not have to build, and version history with one-click rollback instead of an audit trail.
AGPLv3, no revenue threshold
Unlimited
Unlimited
1 command
b10cks runs on PostgreSQL. If you need six database engines, that is a real reason to stay with Directus.
Make room for your next build
Visual editing, publishing, localization, version history and AI credits, in an open-source platform you can self-host in one command.