Directus puts APIs and a data studio on top of your own SQL database. pylo gives your whole team one hosted system: data model, permissions, flows, admin UI, forms and analytics, hosted in Germany.

TL;DR

Directus is a data platform that wraps your own SQL database with REST and GraphQL APIs, a Data Studio for editors, Flows for automation and Insights dashboards. You can self-host it or use Directus Cloud, and its license and pricing are built around seats and collections. pylo is a hosted backend platform where data model, permissions, flows, admin UI, forms, events and AI access are one system, with unlimited users on every plan. Directus is one of the closest products to pylo, and in some areas it is ahead. If you need to put an admin layer on an existing SQL database or run everything on your own servers, Directus is a strong choice. If you want the whole backend hosted, with forms, event analytics and AI access with approval built in and no per-seat pricing, pylo is the better fit.

What is pylo?

pylo is a Backend-as-a-Service platform from Germany that you can use to build the operating system for your company. You model entities, fields and relations in the admin panel or through the API, and pylo generates a typed GraphQL API instantly. The same permission model governs that API, the admin UI, forms, flows and the MCP server. pylo flows run business processes and automations on top of your own data model and connect to the tools you already use. With pylo you build apps, automations and products on one coherent data base across your whole team.

What is Directus?

Directus connects to a SQL database such as PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, SQLite, MS SQL, CockroachDB or Oracle and generates REST and GraphQL APIs, realtime over WebSockets and an SDK from its tables. The Data Studio lets editors browse and edit data, with collaborative editing, a draft and publish workflow and content versioning. Flows automate tasks with event, webhook, cron and manual triggers, Insights builds dashboards and extensions add custom interfaces, endpoints and hooks. Directus is source-available under the Monospace Sustainable Core License and each release becomes GPL-3.0 four years after it ships.

At a glance

Data modelling for the whole team

Directus is at its best when you already have a SQL database: it reads the existing tables and gives you APIs and an editor on top, without moving the data. You can also create collections, fields and relations in the Data Studio, and Directus changes the database schema for you. That is a real strength, and it means you also run, back up and update that database and the Directus instance yourself, unless you pay for Directus Cloud.

In pylo you add an entity, a field or a relation in the admin panel and the typed GraphQL API updates at once, without any kind of migration or redeployment. Field types include relations, enums, JSON, public or private files, rich text, dates, booleans and number/text formatters, with validation built in. You filter across relations and group aggregations by any field, even across deeply nested data structures. There is no database or server for you to run.

Permissions that follow the data everywhere

Directus has a strong permission model: users get roles, roles combine policies, and policies grant create, read, update, delete and share per collection, with filter rules on items, field-level access, validation and presets. Custom access policies are available on every plan, including the free Core tier, and the same rules apply to the API and the Data Studio.

pylo separates tenants at the row level. Inside a tenant, any entity can act as the requester (ARO) and any entity as the requested object (ACO), with hierarchies and field-level rules. Every path into the data is GraphQL, so the same rules apply to the API, the admin panel, forms, flows and MCP.

pylo flows compared to Directus Flows

Directus Flows start on events, webhooks, schedules, other flows or a manual button in the Studio, and chain operations like conditions, requests, item changes, notifications and scripts. The Run Script operation is sandboxed, without node modules, file system or network access, so anything beyond that needs a server extension, which runs unsandboxed on your instance. The free Core tier includes 5 flows, Team 20.

In pylo you build automations in a visual workflow engine called pylo flows, where any event in pylo can start a flow, additionally you can use cron schedules and incoming webhooks. pylo flows include retries, custom rate limiting, error handling and full event logs and everything is statically typed. pylo ships integrations for email sending and a growing selection of third-party systems, and you write your own flow actions in TypeScript. They slot into the builder like the built-in ones, without hosting extensions yourself, and there is no cap on the number of flows.

Admin UI and forms

The Directus Data Studio is a mature editor, with layouts like tables, cards, calendars and maps, collaborative editing, drafts and publishing, and revisions you can restore. For content-heavy work it is ahead of pylo. What it lacks is a public form builder: forms for customers or partners are something you build in your own frontend or with community extensions.

pylo's admin UI is built for your whole team, no matter if they are developers or not: you compose list and detail views from predefined components, decide who sees what and show or hide fields depending on a record's state. The pylo form builder maps forms directly to your entities, including relations, with public or authenticated access, hidden fields, conditional rendering and submission limits per form or per user.

Events and dashboards built in with pylo analytics

Directus Insights builds dashboards from panels on your collections, and the activity and revision log records who changed what, kept 30 days on Core and 90 days on Team. For reporting on changes over a longer time, you export data or build it yourself.

In pylo, every create, update and delete emits an event with the full before and after state, which you can enrich with your own event data through our API. On top of your events and regular pylo data you can build customized dashboards directly next to your data and workflows. The event data and the changes on pylo entities are stored for as long as your account exists, in every tier.

AI and MCP with guardrails

Directus has a built-in MCP server that you switch on in the settings. It uses the permissions of the user whose token connects, can read and write items, change the schema, manage files and trigger flows, and deletes are off by default. Writes apply directly; any approval happens in the AI client, not in Directus. The Studio also has an AI assistant with your own model key, which asks before running tools.

pylo's MCP server is made for both, developers who want to use agentic coding and team members who want to analyze their data. The AI gets exactly the connected user's read permissions, nothing else. pylo never applies an AI's writes directly, instead they arrive as proposals that a human accepts or declines inside pylo, so the approval doesn't depend on which AI client someone uses.

File handling

Directus allows more complex file operations out of the box: it has image transformations with presets and focal points and storage adapters for local disks and cloud buckets.

pylo stores files in EU-hosted object storage with public or private links, a file library, no file size limit and for any file type. You can build any kind of file-based functionality in your custom pylo flows, of course.

Agencies and multi-tenant work

With pylo, agencies can run many client workspaces from one user account; each workspace is its own tenant separated by RLS and one login switches between them, with unlimited users on every plan.

With Directus, agencies usually run one instance per client self-hosted, that means one more server to operate per client and each instance is licensed by seats and collections, so client staff who log into the Studio count against the seat limit.

Pricing

Directus licenses its software by seats, flows and collections and a self-hosted instance that exceeds the limits of its tier locks its API after a grace period until you buy a license. Small companies can apply for a free grant with more features for self-hosting. On top of the costs for the usage comes hosting, either your own servers and time or Directus Cloud as an add-on.

pylo's price already includes hosting, flows, the admin UI, forms, analytics and personal onboarding. Every pylo plan has every feature and unlimited users, plans differ only in included usage for the number of stored records, flows ran and storage used.

Hosting, compliance and reliability

All pylo content data, data models and databases live in data centres in Germany, our subprocessor list is public and names every non-EU parent company openly. A GDPR data processing agreement is part of the terms and we never use customer data to train AI models. Paid plans come with a 99.5% availability SLA, hourly encrypted backups kept for 30 days at a separate German location and support from the team that builds the product.

Directus Cloud offers regions in Frankfurt, North Virginia and Singapore, with more on Enterprise. Monospace, Inc. is a US company, holds SOC 2 Type II and offers a DPA through its trust center, which lists recovery objectives of 24 to 48 hours. If you self-host, hosting, backups and compliance are in your hands.

Where Directus is the better choice

We would rather tell you than have you find out later:

• Directus works on top of an existing SQL database and supports many database engines. pylo brings its own database.

• You can self-host it and read its source code, while pylo can't be self-hosted.

• The Data Studio is very mature, with collaborative editing, drafts and publishing, content versioning and many layouts.

• More auth options, including OpenID, LDAP and SAML.

If you want an admin layer on your own SQL database or a headless CMS you run yourself, Directus is excellent. pylo is for teams that want the whole backend hosted, with forms, event analytics and approved AI writes, and without per-seat pricing.

Where pylo is a great Directus alternative

We think these are the main reasons to pick pylo over Directus:

• Nothing to operate. No servers, database, updates or backups to run yourself, and no license keys that lock an instance when you outgrow a tier.

• Schema changes without a deploy. Add an entity or field and the typed GraphQL API is live immediately, without any migration or redeployment.

• Permissions that hold everywhere. API, admin panel, forms, flows and MCP all go through the same permission layer, with hierarchies and field-level rules.

• Flows without caps or extensions. Event, cron and webhook triggers with retries, rate limiting, typed actions and full logs, and custom actions in plain TypeScript that you don't host yourself.

• Forms built in. Public or authenticated forms mapped directly to your entities, with conditional fields and submission limits.

• Analytics you don't have to instrument. pylo records every change as an event with before and after state, and dashboards sit right next to the data.

• AI access that's safe for production. MCP runs with the connected user's exact read permissions, and every write goes through human approval in pylo as a proposal.

• No per-seat pricing. Unlimited users and API requests and all features on every plan. Only three meters are billed: flow actions, records, and file storage/traffic.

• Built for agencies. You can run many client workspaces with separate tenants and permissions, switch between them with one login and give client teams access without paying per seat.

• German hosting from a German company. pylo hosts user data in Germany and the DPA is part of the terms. You get a 99.5% SLA from the first paid plan, hourly backups with 30-day retention, and personal support from the people who build the product.

FAQs - Questions and answers about pylo

• Can pylo connect to my existing SQL database like Directus? No, pylo brings its own database. You import your existing data once and work in pylo from then on, which we make as easy as possible.

• Is pylo open source? No, but you can export all data at any time as CSV or JSON or through the API. The data models, flow definitions and generated SDK code are yours to keep, even after you leave.

• Can I self-host pylo? No, but if you need specific hosting options, we can discuss them as part of the Enterprise plan.

• Does pylo scale? Yes, production workspaces of our customers already run with millions of records today.

• Where exactly is my data? Content data is in data centres in Germany and backups are kept at a different German location.

• Can I get access now? pylo is currently in private beta. Request access and we will set up your first entities with you on a call and onboard you personally for your first project.