Host Directus without installing anything
A headless CMS that sits on an existing database and turns it, with no migration, into a polished back office plus REST and GraphQL APIs.
Starting at €8.99/month
Introduction
Directus installed, updated and backed up by us, on a machine in France. A headless CMS and an instant back office for any database, with a well-made admin interface and REST and GraphQL APIs generated automatically. You install nothing and configure no server: the application is online a few minutes after you order, under your own name.
The plan that suits it is App Confort at €8.99/month incl. VAT — 4 GB of memory, against a theoretical minimum of 1 GB. Directus is a Node.js application serving both the API and a complete admin interface, and it processes images on the fly: resizing a photo is the heaviest operation of the day. Add the database and the automations, and the theoretical minimum quickly becomes an uncomfortable floor.
What sets Directus apart is that it does not impose its schema: you point it at an existing PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, SQLite or SQL Server database, it reads the tables, the foreign keys and the types, and derives its collections from them. Your other programs keep writing to the same tables. The day you leave, the database is still yours in its original shape — Directus will only have added its own service tables alongside.
What managed hosting changes
It adapts to your database, not the other way round
PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, SQLite or SQL Server: Directus reads the existing schema and builds the matching interface. No migration, no table to rename, and the applications already writing to that database carry on doing so.
REST and GraphQL, generated and documented
Every collection is exposed in both forms, with filters, sorting, pagination and related records fetched in a single request. Access is granted by a static token for a service, or by session for a person.
Permissions down to the field and to the row
A role can see a collection but not the price column, or see only the records it authored, thanks to filter rules. That is what lets you open the same database to a contractor without showing them the rest.
A file library with on-the-fly image transforms
An image uploaded once is served in whatever size the site asks for, following named presets defined in advance. The front end stops shipping four-megabyte photos because nobody remembered to resize them.
Why hand it over rather than install it
A business database that never had an interface
The MySQL database inherited from an internal application becomes manageable in an afternoon: tables appear, relations are recognised, and the team stops asking a developer for an SQL statement to fix one row.
A website and a mobile app sharing the same content
Content is entered once. The site reads it over REST, the mobile app over GraphQL, and nobody copies a paragraph from one side to the other.
An editorial team with different scopes
Filter rules mean a writer only sees their own articles, a reviewer sees what is waiting for approval, and the editor sees everything.
A studio delivering a back office to its clients
The interface is fitted to the client's vocabulary — labels, layouts, dashboards — without writing an admin screen. The budget goes into the domain rather than into forms.
A team automating its routines
Built-in flows trigger on an event, on a schedule or on an external call: send a notification when an article is published, call a service on each new record, clean a table every night.
A content backbone hosted in France
The instance runs in our own datacentre in Nouvelle-Aquitaine, and the automatic backup kept for 14 days restores from the client area.
Frequently asked questions
Yes, and that is its whole purpose. You give it credentials for an existing PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, SQLite or SQL Server database, it reads the schema and presents your tables as collections, recognising foreign keys. It does not change their structure: it only adds its own service tables, prefixed directus_, to hold users, permissions and history. Your scripts and applications keep writing to the business tables exactly as before.
Not a classic open-source licence, and it is better to know: Directus is published under a BSL-style licence. Use is free below a revenue threshold set by the publisher, and each version moves to an open licence after a few years. For an association, a small business or an internal project this usually raises no difficulty; if your organisation is large, check the terms on the publisher's site before committing.
Through roles, above all. Each role defines what it can read, create, update or delete, collection by collection and field by field, with filter rules that also limit which rows are reachable. An application service gets a static token tied to a role cut for it; a person opens a session. The public role, the one that answers without authentication, should contain only what you would be happy to see on an open page.
Nothing. You choose the application, fill in the two or three fields it asks for, and it goes online; the address and credentials arrive by email. The recommended plan for Directus is App Confort, at €8.99/month incl. VAT with 4 GB of memory, and it can be changed later without reinstalling.
Yes, they are part of the service. A self-hosted application left un-updated is a security risk, not a saving. Version upgrades are applied and checked by us, with a backup kept for 14 days so you can roll back from the client area.