What do you host when you use Sanity?
Your team can use Sanity’s hosting for Studio or host the editing interface itself. Studio still connects to Sanity’s hosted Content Lake. The public website needs its own code and hosting.
Start with one kind of content. For a setup guide, choose fields such as the title, the steps and an illustration. An editor fills out those fields. Your site decides which entries to fetch and which layout shows them.
How do you let someone prepare an edit without putting it live?
The Contributor role can work on drafts without publishing. It is available on Growth and Enterprise. Free offers Administrator and Viewer, so check the plan before promising a separate writing and publishing handoff.
Use the published view for your public site and a protected draft preview for editors. Keep the preview credential on the server. A public dataset allows anyone to query published entries. Even a private dataset’s ordinary file and image URLs can be opened by someone who has the link. Keep confidential files in storage that checks access.
When does a Sanity project need to move beyond Free?
On November 12, 2026, Free listed two public datasets, up to 20 counted seats and 10,000 documents. A dataset is a named collection of documents. Growth listed US$15 per counted seat per month and supports private datasets and more editing roles.
Viewer accounts do not count as paid seats. Budget for content requests, file storage and delivery as the site grows. Sanity tracks requests served through its delivery cache separately from requests to the main API, and the public site’s hosting is a separate cost.
What can you export before changing CMS?
Use the dataset export to take document records and downloadable image and file originals. An export can include drafts, so decide which versions are safe to hand to a new site or vendor. Keep the Studio field definitions and your public site’s code separately.
Check the export’s asset list against the files you expect. An export of document records through the HTTP endpoint does not download the image or file contents. Keep any migration copy with drafts private and check the new site’s public view before connecting it.
How can you spot a preview problem before inviting an editor?
Draw a fake help article on paper and make two versions of its title. Keep the Studio, public website and access credentials out of the exercise.
- Draw both versionsGive the public sketch the published title. Give the editor’s preview the new draft title. The reader’s page should stay on the old title until the update is published and the site refreshes.
- Assign a writer and a publisherCheck whether your plan has a draft-only role. Mark which person would review and publish. Put confidential files outside the ordinary dataset media in your drawing.
- Plan what to carry awayList the approved version, one image, the field definitions and the public page template. Mark where each would come from and whether any draft should be excluded.