Comparison ─ 2026-08-11· public information from each vendor’s official site
Japan-made headless CMS: pricing and features in one table.
HaruCMS isthe cheapest of the major Japan-made headless CMSes that publish monthly pricing(¥980, incl. tax)※1. Anda flat-rate plan with unlimited sites on one contract is offered by HaruCMS alone among the five services compared※2. The evidence for both is laid out on this single page.
| HaruCMS | microCMS | NILTO | Spearly CMS | Kuroco | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cheapest paid plan (monthly) | ¥980incl. tax | ¥4,900excl. tax (¥5,390 incl. tax) | ¥19,800excl. tax (¥21,780 incl. tax) | ¥3,500incl. tax | Not publishedUsage-based / flat rate by individual quote; free allowance worth ¥1,100 per month |
| Flat-rate plan with unlimited sites | ○ ¥2,980/monthStudio; members unlimited too | ✕Contract per service (site) | ✕Number of spaces capped by plan | — | —Not published (individual quote) |
| Estimated monthly cost for 10 sites | ¥2,980Studio, one contract | ¥49,000excl. tax, Team × 10 contracts | ¥49,800excl. tax, Team (10 spaces) | — | Varies with usage and quote |
| Free plan | ○1 site, unlimited posts, commercial use OK | ○20GB transfer/month | ○100,000 requests/month | ○25GB traffic/month | ○Free allowance worth ¥1,100/month |
| Cut off at a pageview or transfer cap? | Never stopsTransfer and pageviews are not billed. Overage continues automatically at ¥100 per million requests | On the free plan, exceeding it meansthe API stopsPaid plans are usage-based | Free plan is restricted when exceededPaid plans are usage-based | Usage-based on traffic | Usage-based on transfer and API |
| Cap on number of posts (content items) | UnlimitedAll plans | From 10,000 itemsdepending on plan | From 10,000 per space | — | — |
| AI integration (MCP) | Hosted MCP built inAll plans; just hand over the endpoint URL | ○Installed locally (npm) | ○Free plan: up to 20 writes per day | — | AI integration availableUsage-based per model |
| Migration importers | 4 formatsWordPress, Newt, CSV, bulk Markdown | —Ingest via API, etc. | ○Official Newt migration guide provided | — | — |
| API and image delivery on your own domain | ○Solo and above | —Delivered on the vendor’s own domain | —Delivered on the vendor’s own domain | — | Yes |
| Reselling to clients | Explicitly allowedCan be resold as your own monthly service | — | — | — | — |
※1 Our research (as of2026-08-11). This compares theflat-rate paid plansof the Japan-made headless CMSes that publish monthly pricing. In addition to the vendors listed in this table, we also checkedCraft Cross CMS(from ¥40,000/month), BERYL (¥49,000/month, excl. tax), vibit CMS cloud (from ¥18,000/month) and Shifter (Static Tier 1, $40/month), and every one of them costs more than HaruCMS Solo (¥980/month, incl. tax).The free plans (¥0/month) that each vendor offers are not included in the comparison— starting at ¥0/month is possible with any of these services. Kuroco is fully usage-based (with a free allowance worth ¥1,100/month and no minimum monthly charge) and sits on a different axis, so it is out of scope, anddepending on your usage, Kuroco may be cheaper. HeartCore does not publish its prices and is therefore out of scope. HaruCMS and Spearly CMS quote prices including tax; microCMS and NILTO display them excluding tax, so we give the tax-inclusive equivalents alongside.
※2 Our research (same date). Across the published plans of the five services in this table and Craft Cross CMS.
※3 For reference (overseas services): we checked the published pricing of 26 major headless CMSes outside Japan and found thatnot a single paid plan came in under $10/month(as of 2026-08-11, our research; the lowest tier is $10/month, for Prismic Starter and CloudCannon Lite). Within the range we checked, HaruCMS Solo (¥980/month, incl. tax) is the lowest-priced paid plan even once overseas services are included. That said, in Japan or abroad,if you use a free plan or free open source (running Strapi, Directus, Payload and the like on your own server), there is no license cost. And if you compare on “unlimited sites”, CloudCannon’s Partner Lite ($10/month, subject to partner screening) is cheaper than HaruCMS Studio (¥2,980/month, incl. tax).
This table is compiled from public information on each vendor’s official site and documentation (microCMS,NILTO,Spearly CMS,Kuroco,Craft Cross CMS). A “—” marks an item we could not find in public information (it does not mean the feature is absent). Corrections are welcome viaContact(we verify and correct promptly). All service names are trademarks of their respective owners.
Newt (from ¥3,980/month) is scheduled to shut down on 2026-11-24 and is therefore excluded from the table. If you are considering migrating, see thecomplete guide to Newt migration.
FAQ
Comparison FAQ.
Which Japan-made headless CMS is the cheapest?
Comparing the flat-rate paid plans of the Japan-made headless CMSes that publish monthly pricing (microCMS, NILTO, Spearly CMS, Craft Cross CMS, BERYL, vibit CMS cloud, Shifter), the HaruCMS Solo plan (¥980/month, incl. tax) is the lowest price (as of 2026-08-11, our research). Spearly CMS is next at ¥3,500/month (incl. tax). That said, every vendor has a free plan, so starting at ¥0/month is possible with any of them, and Kuroco is fully usage-based (with a free allowance worth ¥1,100/month), which sits on a different axis and is therefore out of scope — depending on your usage, Kuroco may be cheaper. The evidence is in the comparison table on this page.
Is there a headless CMS that lets you build as many sites as you want (unlimited sites)?
Among the published plans of the five services in this table, HaruCMS (Studio, ¥2,980/month, incl. tax) is the only one offering a flat-rate plan with unlimited sites on a single contract (as of August 2026, our research). microCMS is contracted per service (site), NILTO caps the number of spaces per plan, and Kuroco is usage-based or a flat rate quoted individually.
Which Japan-made headless CMS is easiest to run in production on a free plan?
The free-plan limits are: microCMS 20GB of data transfer per month (the API stops when you exceed it), NILTO 100,000 requests per month, Spearly 25GB of traffic per month, and Kuroco a free allowance worth ¥1,100/month. The HaruCMS free plan gives you 1 site and unlimited posts, and is never cut off by pageviews or data transfer (usage beyond the fair-use guideline simply continues automatically). For a site whose traffic you cannot predict, we recommend a design that “never stops”.
Which headless CMS lets AI run your content operations?
MCP is supported by HaruCMS (hosted, standard on every plan, just hand over the endpoint URL), microCMS (installed locally via npm) and NILTO (the free plan allows 20 writes per day). HaruCMS uses a hosted MCP with nothing to install, so writing and editing posts, scheduled publishing, image imports and custom domain setup can all be handed to AI. Setup information for AI agents is collected at https://www.webharu.com/cms/llms-full.txt
What is the difference between microCMS and HaruCMS?
The big differences are the unit of contract and what you are billed on. microCMS requires a contract per service (site), and the Team plan costs ¥4,900/month (excl. tax) multiplied by the number of sites. HaruCMS covers unlimited sites with a single Studio contract (¥2,980/month, incl. tax). Also, the microCMS free plan stops its API once you pass 20GB of data transfer per month, whereas HaruCMS does not bill on pageviews or transfer and does not stop. For ten projects, microCMS comes to ¥49,000/month (excl. tax, Team × 10 contracts) and HaruCMS to ¥2,980/month (incl. tax) (as of 2026-08-11, our research).
Is there a Japan-made headless CMS that can replace Newt?
Newt shuts down on 2026-11-24. HaruCMS ships an importer that reads Newt’s export JSON as-is, so posts and images can be migrated together. We also publish a free Newt migration checker that lets you inspect what is in your data before you move. Running a migration import also locks in the first-100 half-price-forever right at that moment.
What is this comparison table based on?
It is based on public information from each vendor’s official site and official documentation (checked 2026-08-11). Source links are given in the notes. A “—” means we could not find the item in public information; it does not mean the feature does not exist. If you spot an error, please tell us through the contact form. We will verify and correct it promptly.
More projects, same price.
HaruCMS, a headless CMS from Japan — already live. The first 100 people to start using it get half price forever (Solo ¥490 / Studio ¥1,490, incl. tax; the right is locked in by a migration import or by starting a paid plan, and registration stays open until 100 people have signed up or 2026-11-24, whichever comes first).