Contentful licenses its platform on two levels. The plan (Free, Lite, Premium or Enterprise) sets organization-wide matters such as the number of users, the number of roles and locales, the support level and the usage quotas. The space licence attached to each space sets what a single project may hold. A software asset manager reconciling Contentful has to inventory both, and the reconciliation point is the renewal, when Contentful asks the customer to bring its spaces into line with the new contract.[1] This article describes both levels using Contentful’s published pricing, usage and help pages.
Plans
Free
The pricing page describes the Free plan as EUR 0 forever, for learning and exploring the platform. It lists 10 users, 2 roles (Admin and Editor), 2 locales, 100K API calls and 50 GB of CDN bandwidth per month and one Starter space.[2] The usage limits page adds that additional API calls and bandwidth are not allowed, that the Free plan may only be used to test and learn about the product, and that Contentful may suspend or terminate an account that uses it for commercial use cases.[3] Free organizations cannot add spaces except by upgrading to Lite.[3] A Free organization that supports a production website therefore falls outside the permitted use; the Terms of Service separately prohibit regulated or sensitive information, including personal information, and any production use for free, trial and proof-of-concept use.[4]
Lite
The Lite plan is listed at EUR 300 per month for smaller businesses managing a single project. It includes 20 users, 3 roles (Admin, Editor and Author), 3 locales, 1M API calls and 100 GB of bandwidth per month, comments and task management, scheduled publishing and one Starter space, with one Lite space available for additional purchase.[2] The additional Lite space is shown at USD 850 per month and is limited to one per organization.[2] The usage limits page agrees: Lite organizations hold one Starter space and at most one Lite space and 20 users, and no additional Starter spaces can be added.[3] Only organization owners and admins of Lite plans can purchase licences, and a Lite customer can cancel licences that are not assigned to spaces, which stops card charges from the next billing period.[1]
Premium and Enterprise
The usage limits page treats Premium (launched on 1 February 2023) and Enterprise together for utility limits and distinguishes them only by quota: asset bandwidth of 10,000 GB for Premium and 40,000 GB for Enterprise, and Functions and AI quotas that differ by plan.[3] The pricing page shows the Enterprise plan as sold by contacting sales, with a custom number of users, roles and locales, unlimited API calls and unlimited space allowance, and an uptime SLA of up to 99.99%.[2] Users on Premium are governed by the Premium plan purchased and spaces are added through a sales representative or the Service Order.[3] Prices are not published.
Spaces
Space types
The pricing page names five space licences. The Starter space is free, included on every platform plan and cannot be bought separately. The Lite space is an additional larger space for Lite organizations. Standard, Enterprise and Templated spaces are the Premium space types for larger deployments.[2] The page describes Standard spaces as quotas fit for standalone commercial use cases, Enterprise spaces as suited to coordination across teams, brands, business units or regions, with embargoed assets, localized workflows, locale-based publishing and connected spaces, and Templated spaces as a way to deploy many smaller standardized sites from templates determined by an Enterprise space.[2]
Quotas
The published quotas per space are:
| Quota | Starter | Lite space | Premium spaces |
|---|---|---|---|
| Content types | 25 | 50 | Custom |
| Environments | 2 | 4 | Custom |
| Records | 10,000 | 50,000 | Custom |
| Workflows | Not available | Up to 5 | Custom |
These figures come from the pricing page.[2] The Space add-ons help page gives an example of a Standard licence that includes 75 content types, 4 environments and 50,000 records.[5] Neither page defines precisely what counts as a record, so the definition should be confirmed from the Service Order or Contentful’s content model documentation before sizing. Technical limits sit above the entitlements: 5,000,000 records per space, 151 environments per space, 1,000 content types per environment, 500 locales and 250 custom roles per space.[6] Where a space entitlement is below the technical limit, the entitlement applies.[6]
Bandwidth by space type
On Premium and Enterprise plans each space adds to the organization’s monthly asset bandwidth: 0 GB for Starter, 750 GB for Standard, 2,000 GB for Enterprise and 100 GB for Templated spaces.[3] The organization’s total bandwidth entitlement therefore depends on the mix of space licences, not only on the plan. A Lite space adds 750 GB per month and 2,000,000 API calls to the Lite plan quotas.[3]
Space add-ons
Space add-ons let a customer increase content types, environments or records for Standard and Enterprise licences without buying another licence. The help page says the capability is available only for those licences and that organization admins or owners can buy add-ons and allocate them to spaces, with the add-on inventory showing quantities used, allocated and remaining per entitlement.[5] Its example buys an extra 200 content types for a space whose Standard licence includes 75.[5] Add-ons are therefore an organization-level pool, and a SAM team should reconcile the pool as well as the licences.
Managing licences
Reassignment
On Premium plans a space is upgraded or downgraded by assigning a licence with higher or lower limits. The help page states that this does not affect the subscription total established in the contract, and that the previous licence stays in the account until the end of the contract, so it can be used for a new space or to move another space if usage allows.[1] Deleting a space does not cancel its licence; the licence returns to the available licences table and can be reassigned, but trial and expiring licences are excluded from reassignment.[1]
Archiving and renewal
Archiving makes a space inactive without deleting it. Content delivery for archived spaces continues for 30 days, content cannot be created, edited or published, and archiving is available only after a renewal or a downgrade to the Free plan, with a 15-day period to manage spaces.[1] After a renewal Contentful emails the customer to align the number and type of spaces with the new contract, which the page says means upgrading using available licences, downgrading or archiving spaces as agreed.[1] Additional licences are bought through an account executive or support.[1]
Users, roles and organizations
Users and spaces sit in different layers. Organization membership is required for space membership, and the four organization roles (owner, admin, developer and member) are fixed and cannot be customized.[7] Only owners can change billing details and subscriptions or appoint further owners.[7] On the Free and Lite plans the user count is hard-capped at 10 and 20, and the technical limits list 5,000 users per organization.[3][6] The Free plan allows each user to create one organization, while paying users may create up to ten, with no limit on how many organizations a user owns.[3]
Trial spaces
Trial spaces, formerly Proof of Concept spaces, are free but are intended only for non-production development and testing, last 30 days, and carry no SLA. They count towards the organization’s total API calls and bandwidth and can convert into production spaces under a new or changed Service Order.[3] Contentful reserves the right to discontinue Trial spaces and may apply technical restrictions such as throttling or limiting roles.[3]
Out of scope
Roles and permissions below the organization level, the content model features of each plan and legacy plan terms are not covered. The pricing page presents feature comparison as check marks that are not reproduced in its text, so feature availability by plan should be verified against the Service Order.