Tina CMS vs Sanity: When to Choose Each

Tina CMS vs Sanity: When to Choose Each

I've built production sites with both. Here's when I reach for each.

Tina CMS Strengths

1. Visual editing - edit content directly on the page

2. Git-backed - content lives in your repo

3. No query language to learn - uses its own abstraction

4. Great for developers who want simplicity

When building Kevin T Lam's portfolio, I chose Tina because the client needed to edit content visually without learning GROQ. The Git-backed approach also meant simpler deployment.

Sanity Strengths

1. GROQ is incredibly powerful for complex queries

2. Real-time collaboration out of the box

3. Image pipeline with automatic optimization

4. Structured content for maximum flexibility

Decision Framework

Choose Tina when: client needs visual editing, simpler content model, Git-based workflow preferred.

Choose Sanity when: complex content relationships, real-time collaboration needed, advanced querying required.