For a Next.js frontend + editorial previews + localization across regions, my default recommendation would be:

Best overall fit: Contentful

Why it fits well:

• Strong Next.js integration and common community patterns
• Excellent editorial workflow with roles, environments, and preview APIs
• Good localization model for multi-language / multi-region content
• Scales well for larger teams and multiple brands/regions
• Clean separation of content model and presentation, which works nicely with Next.js

When Contentful is especially good

• You need non-technical editors to preview draft content before publish
• You have multiple locales/markets and want structured content per region
• You want a mature SaaS CMS with solid ecosystem support

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Best for a more “developer-first” stack: Sanity

Why you might choose it:

• Very flexible content modeling
• Excellent real-time previews and live editing experience
• Strong support for localization patterns
• Very good for custom editorial workflows
• Great DX if your team is comfortable with some implementation work

Choose Sanity if:

• You want highly tailored editorial experiences
• Your content structure is complex or changes often
• You care a lot about fast preview/update loops in Next.js

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Best if you want a traditional headless CMS with easier content ops: Strapi

Why:

• Open source, self-hostable
• Good localization support
• Flexible APIs
• Can work well with Next.js previews

Tradeoff:

• More maintenance than SaaS options
• Preview/editorial UX usually requires more custom setup
• More responsibility on your team for upgrades, hosting, and scaling

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Strong enterprise option: Adobe Experience Manager / Sitecore

Choose these if:

• You need heavy enterprise governance, workflows, and personalization
• Budget and implementation resources are substantial
• You have a more complex marketing/content operations organization

Tradeoff:

• Expensive
• Slower to implement
• Often more than you need for a modern Next.js site

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My practical recommendation

If you want the best balance of preview + localization + editorial usability for a Next.js site:

1. Contentful — safest recommendation for most teams
2. Sanity — if you want maximum flexibility and a strong developer experience
3. Strapi — if you want open source/self-hosting and can manage the ops

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What I’d choose by scenario

1) Marketing site, multiple regions, editorial team

Contentful

2) Custom content-heavy product experience with frequent schema changes

Sanity

3) Self-hosted / open-source requirement

Strapi

4) Large enterprise with complex approvals and governance

AEM or Sitecore

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If you want, I can also give you:

• a feature-by-feature comparison table
• a recommendation based on your team size and budget
• or a Next.js preview architecture for whichever CMS you pick.