Frequently Asked Questions

Product Information & API-first CMS Basics

What is an API-first CMS?

An API-first CMS is a content management system that separates the front-end presentation layer from the back-end content repository and prioritizes APIs from the start of development. This approach lets businesses deliver content to websites, mobile apps, and other digital channels through APIs, making the system highly flexible and composable. Source

How does an API-first CMS differ from a headless CMS?

All API-first CMSs are headless, but not every headless CMS is API-first. In an API-first CMS, APIs are designed before other functionality, ensuring interoperability and extensibility. Some headless CMSs are built on Git or add APIs later, which can limit integration and scalability. Source

How does an API-first CMS work?

An API-first CMS makes API calls or requests to send or receive data. REST APIs use HTTP methods like GET, PUT, POST, and DELETE to retrieve or modify data. GraphQL, offered by Hygraph, lets developers request exactly the data they need, preventing over- or under-fetching. Source

Is an API-only CMS the same as an API-first CMS?

No. While both rely on APIs to deliver content, an API-only CMS often lacks robust authoring tools and preview capabilities. API-first CMSs, such as Hygraph, offer full editing, preview, and content management features alongside their API capabilities. Source

What is the role of APIs in modern CMSs?

APIs in modern CMSs enable omnichannel content delivery and integration with various platforms. They allow content to be delivered to websites, mobile apps, smartwatches, IoT devices, and more. Source

Features & Capabilities

What features does Hygraph offer?

Hygraph provides a GraphQL-native architecture, content federation, scalability, and a user-friendly interface for both technical and non-technical users. It supports integrations with platforms like Netlify, Vercel, Shopify, BigCommerce, AWS S3, Cloudinary, and more. Security features include SOC 2 Type 2, ISO 27001, and GDPR compliance, SSO integrations, audit logs, and encryption. Source, Security Features, Integrations

Does Hygraph provide an API?

Yes, Hygraph offers a powerful GraphQL API for efficient content fetching and management. API Reference

What integrations are available with Hygraph?

Hygraph integrates with hosting and deployment platforms (Netlify, Vercel), eCommerce solutions (Shopify, BigCommerce, commercetools), localization tools (Lokalise, Crowdin, EasyTranslate, Smartling), digital asset management (Aprimo, AWS S3, Bynder, Cloudinary, Mux, Scaleflex Filerobot), personalization and AB testing (Ninetailed), AI (AltText.ai), and more. Integrations

How does Hygraph ensure security and compliance?

Hygraph is SOC 2 Type 2 compliant, ISO 27001 certified, and GDPR compliant. It offers SSO integrations, audit logs, encryption at rest and in transit, and sandbox environments to protect sensitive data and meet regulatory standards. Security Features

Does Hygraph offer technical documentation?

Yes, Hygraph provides comprehensive technical documentation covering building and deploying projects, API usage, integrations, and more. Documentation

Pricing & Plans

What is Hygraph's pricing model?

Hygraph offers a free forever Hobby plan, a Growth plan starting at $199/month, and custom Enterprise plans. For full details, visit the pricing page.

Use Cases & Benefits

Who can benefit from Hygraph?

Hygraph is ideal for developers, IT decision-makers, content creators, project/program managers, agencies, solution partners, and technology partners. Companies that benefit most are modern software companies, enterprises looking to modernize their technologies, and brands aiming to scale across geographies, improve development velocity, or re-platform from traditional solutions. Source

What business impact can customers expect from using Hygraph?

Customers can expect significant business impacts, including time-saving through streamlined workflows, ease of use with an intuitive interface, faster speed-to-market for digital products, and enhanced customer experience through consistent and scalable content delivery. Source

What problems does Hygraph solve?

Hygraph solves problems such as reducing reliance on developers for content updates, modernizing legacy tech stacks, addressing conflicting needs of global teams, and improving user experience for content creation. Financially, it lowers operational costs, speeds up time-to-market, and supports scalability. Technically, it simplifies development workflows, streamlines query management, and resolves cache and integration challenges. Source

What are some case studies or success stories of customers using Hygraph?

Komax achieved a 3X faster time to market, Autoweb saw a 20% increase in website monetization, Samsung improved customer engagement with a scalable platform, and Dr. Oetker enhanced their digital experience using MACH architecture. More stories are available here.

What industries are represented in Hygraph's case studies?

Industries include Food and Beverage, Consumer Electronics, Automotive, Healthcare, Travel and Hospitality, Media and Publishing, eCommerce, SaaS, Marketplace, Education Technology, and Wellness and Fitness. Case Studies

Who are some of Hygraph's customers?

Customers include Sennheiser, Holidaycheck, Ancestry, Samsung, Dr. Oetker, Epic Games, Bandai Namco, Gamescom, Leo Vegas, and Clayton Homes. Case Studies

Technical Requirements & Implementation

How easy is it to get started with Hygraph?

Hygraph is designed for easy onboarding, even for non-technical users. For example, Top Villas launched a new project in just 2 months from the initial touchpoint. Users can sign up for a free account and access documentation, video tutorials, and onboarding guides. Documentation, Top Villas Case Study

What training and technical support does Hygraph offer?

Hygraph provides 24/7 support via chat, email, and phone, onboarding sessions for enterprise customers, training resources like video tutorials and webinars, and Customer Success Managers for expert guidance. Contact Page

How does Hygraph handle maintenance, upgrades, and troubleshooting?

Hygraph offers 24/7 support through chat, email, and phone for maintenance, upgrades, and troubleshooting. Enterprise customers receive dedicated onboarding and expert guidance, and all users can access detailed documentation and the community Slack channel for additional support. Contact Page

Performance, Security & Compliance

How does Hygraph optimize content delivery performance?

Hygraph emphasizes optimized content delivery performance, which directly impacts user experience, engagement, and search engine rankings. Rapid content distribution and responsiveness help reduce bounce rates and increase conversions. Performance Details

What security and compliance certifications does Hygraph have?

Hygraph is SOC 2 Type 2 compliant, ISO 27001 certified, and GDPR compliant, ensuring the highest levels of data protection and security for users. Security Features

Pain Points & Differentiation

What pain points does Hygraph solve for different personas?

For developers: Hygraph reduces boilerplate code and streamlines query management. For content creators/project managers: It empowers non-technical users to update content independently and offers a user-friendly interface. For business stakeholders: Hygraph lowers operational costs, supports scalability, and accelerates speed to market. Source

How does Hygraph differentiate itself in the market?

Hygraph stands out with its GraphQL-native architecture, content federation, scalability, and ease of use for both technical and non-technical users. It addresses operational, financial, and technical pain points more effectively than traditional CMS platforms. Source

KPIs & Metrics

What KPIs and metrics are associated with the pain points Hygraph solves?

KPIs include time saved on content updates, number of updates made without developer intervention, system uptime, speed of deployment, consistency in content across regions, user satisfaction scores, reduction in operational costs, ROI on CMS investment, time to market, maintenance costs, scalability metrics, and performance during peak usage times. CMS KPIs Blog

Customer Experience & Ease of Use

How do customers rate the ease of use of Hygraph?

Customers praise Hygraph for its ease of use and intuitive interface, noting that even non-technical users can start using it right away. The user interface is described as logical and user-friendly, making it accessible for both technical and non-technical teams. Source

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API-first CMS: Everything you need to know

We’ll explain what an API-first CMS is, how it works, and its benefits and challenges.
Jing Li

Last updated by Jing 

Aug 26, 2025

Originally written by Jing

API-first CMS: Everything you need to know

In this article, we explain what an API-first CMS is, how it works, and why it’s transforming modern content management. You’ll learn its benefits, challenges, and how Hygraph goes beyond API-first with Content Federation—helping you unify data, empower both developers and editors, and future-proof your digital experiences with a truly composable approach.

  • API-first CMSs separate content from presentation, enabling omnichannel delivery.
  • They improve developer flexibility, marketer productivity, and time to market.
  • Many API-first CMSs struggle with legacy integrations and frontend unification.
  • Hygraph solves these gaps with Content Federation, unifying data across systems.
  • With GraphQL-native APIs, Hygraph empowers teams to build scalable, composable applications.
  • Hygraph is the API-first CMS that overcomes common challenges and future-proofs your stack.

Ready to jump right in?

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Many software applications frequently used today wouldn’t be the same without APIs. In content management, APIs are the cornerstone of headless architecture and play a vital role in a modern api cms.

As flexibility and adaptability become more important, many organizations are also adopting an API-first approach to content management, made possible through an api cms. In this blog, we’ll explain what an api cms is, how it works, and its benefits and challenges.

#What is an API?

Before getting into the ins and outs of an api cms, we first need to recap what an API is.

An application programming interface (API) makes it possible for disparate software applications to communicate and share data. If you think about a simple marketing technology stack that includes a CMS and a CRM, APIs are responsible for transferring data between each tool.

For example, a potential customer visits a website and is interested in an exclusive piece of content that has been gated. To access that content, they are greeted by a form requesting their email address or other information in exchange and a consent box indicating that the business may contact them later. When that customer adds their information to the form, an API call is sent to an email service to send a confirmation email to the user and the requested content. Another API call is also sent to the company CRM to store that customer information so that the business can follow up with them later with additional relevant content or ways to speak with a sales rep.

There are more examples of APIs in everyday life. For understanding an api cms, the other key piece of information relates to the different APIs, particularly REST and GraphQL.

REST or RESTful APIs are the most popular API types in the modern era and can be found in most software applications, allowing a client to send requests with different HTTP methods. GraphQL is a modern query language and a runtime for APIs that many view as the successor to REST since it allows developers to get exactly what they’re asking for when making a request.

#What is an API-first CMS?

An api cms separates the frontend presentation layer from the backend content repository. This removes restrictions on where and how content can be published and enables businesses to push content to websites and any digital channel, including mobile apps, smartwatches, and IoT-connected devices. That content is published to those channels via APIs, which also work to connect the frontend and backend of the CMS.

Not only does an api cms offer more content delivery options than a traditional CMS but it also enables organizations to build a best-of-breed technology stack. Enterprises don’t only rely on a CMS to handle day-to-day operations; they also need analytics tools, eCommerce solutions, a CRM, personalization systems, and many other tools. With an api cms, businesses can connect these tools to the CMS using APIs to share information between systems and receive a comprehensive view of the business and the customer.

What is API Content Management

Is an API-first CMS a headless CMS?

While an API CMS shares many similarities with a headless CMS — including separation of frontend and backend and omnichannel publishing capabilities — that doesn’t mean that every headless CMS is built API-first.

An API CMS follows the API-first approach to software development. In this approach, APIs are prioritized at the start of the software development process before any other code is written. Once the APIs are created, then the other functionality can be added. As such, any products built this way prioritize interoperability and extensibility, ensuring that they can be more easily integrated and share data with other products.

In the case of an API CMS, it can easily integrate with an eCommerce platform, marketing automation tool, or any other system in the stack. On the other hand, some headless CMSs favor a Git-based approach. These solutions are typically developer-focused, leveraging Git for storage and version control benefits but at the same time sacrificing interoperability, scalability, and user-friendliness.

Moreover, even a traditional CMS such as WordPress can leverage APIs and provide a headless approach that enables content to be delivered to multiple channels. However, these APIs are added onto the system afterward, meaning that integration with disparate systems is just as challenging, and the scalability issues are still relevant.

#What’s driving the popularity of the API-first CMS?

Several businesses today are seeking out API-first solutions. One of the primary reasons is, of course, the ability to deliver content to multiple channels. As customers interact with their favorite brands on different devices, reaching them wherever they are with the right content is becoming increasingly important.

However, the reality is that businesses can achieve multichannel content delivery with any headless CMS, so why an API CMS? The popularity of an API CMS is increasing due to many companies moving away from monolithic and legacy solutions as they look to increase their adaptability and responsiveness. To do this, they are adopting solutions built on MACH infrastructure, such as API-first CMSs. Many companies are leveraging these tools to adapt to market volatility, with 85% of organizations increasing the percentage of their MACH infrastructure in the past year.

#How does an API-first CMS work?

An API CMS makes API calls or requests to send or receive data. Let’s illustrate a few examples of how that works with REST APIs. REST APIs communicate using JSON and send or receive data using GET, PUT, POST, or DELETE.

  • GET: Data is retrieved from a server, such as when pulling content from a repository.

  • PUT: Information in an existing resource is updated, such as updating a blog post from 2020 to include more relevant information.

  • POST: A new resource is created, and data gets sent to a server. For example, creating a new product listing on an eCommerce page.

  • DELETE: A resource such as a page or blog post gets deleted.

If your API CMS offers GraphQL, like Hygraph, you can avoid over-fetching or under-fetching data when different API calls are made.

#How an API CMS works

An API CMS or API-only CMS works the same way as an API CMS. However, despite the ability to use APIs, an API-only CMS lacks additional features relevant to modern content management.

For instance, in an API-only CMS, the content authoring capabilities are often very limited. This means that non-technical personnel cannot create or edit content without developer assistance, and they can’t preview content before it gets published. Hygraph goes beyond this by offering a content editing experience that empowers marketers and editors to create, reuse, and publish content independently.

#Benefits of using an API-first CMS

When businesses choose to adopt an API CMS, they can gain several benefits:

Composability

With an API CMS it is possible to embrace the benefits of composability. Instead of working with a legacy or monolithic system, you can build a modular system with the best tools for your business.

Content reusability

Unlike the rigid, page-builder approach of traditional CMS platforms, API CMS systems empower content creators to craft content as modular components. This transformation enables the seamless repurposing of content across various channels, promoting efficiency and consistency in content management. By breaking free from the confines of predefined templates, organizations can now adapt and distribute content more flexibly, ultimately delivering a more dynamic and engaging user experience.

Improved marketer-friendliness

An API CMS doesn’t only offer the capabilities that developers are looking for. It also allows content creators to create, edit, publish, and preview content without developer assistance. This ensures that marketers feel just as comfortable using the CMS as a traditional CMS like WordPress. Furthermore, API-first CMS offers a paradigm shift for editors. Editors would work with pre-defined frontend components which ensure design consistency across the website or app and makes the publishing process much easier.

Improved developer flexibility and productivity

An API CMS helps developers in multiple ways, but flexibility and productivity increase exponentially. First, they can work with the modern tools and frameworks they want without being restricted by templates or specific languages. Secondly, productivity increases because they can use the best tools for them, and developers don’t have to worry about additional requests from marketers.

Faster go-to-market

With increased productivity for marketers and developers, an API CMS enables businesses to go to market with new ideas and campaigns much faster. They can pivot to capitalize on changing trends without missing a beat.

Improves content experience

The content experience for customers is also much better with an API CMS. Instead of being restricted to interacting with a brand on a website or desktop, they can have high-quality content delivered to them on their smartphones, tablets, or other devices.

Future-proof your stack

An API CMS is a future-proof system that doesn’t need to be changed as new technologies are released or the business grows. It offers future-proof scalability that allows the business to integrate new technologies, publish content to channels that haven’t been created, and more.

Foundation for your tech stack

An API CMS provides the foundation for the rest of the technology stack. As brands seek to embrace composability and MACH, they can easily integrate any tools required using APIs with the CMS at the center of it all.

#Challenges for API-first CMS

While an API CMS offers numerous benefits, it doesn’t come without challenges. Even with an API-first approach, businesses might still struggle.

Integrating legacy systems

Legacy systems weren’t built with an API-first approach, so it can be challenging to integrate them with modern systems. However, many organizations still rely on legacy systems due to the years of valuable data on them. Nevertheless, if the legacy system supports APIs, users may start with a trickle migration to a CMS with Content Federation capabilities, such as Hygraph. In WordPress, for instance, you can access the data via a REST API or GraphQL plugin.

Frontend stack unification

While the API CMS may offer the flexibility to choose modern technologies and frameworks that developers love, it may not be the same across the entire frontend codebase due to the presence of other systems.

API-first CMS and frontend stack unification are, however, symbiosis. By using an API CMS, you will be able to unify the frontend in the future since it gives you the freedom to use any frontend you choose as opposed to traditional systems, which have their own template languages.

#Overcoming API-first challenges

To overcome challenges of integrating legacy systems and frontend unification and get the full benefits of an API CMS, businesses need the help of Content Federation. Through Content Federation, businesses can pull together data from multiple sources on the backend using APIs. It means that companies can extract data from legacy systems without migrating everything to a new system.

Hygraph is a headless CMS and Federated Content Platform that supports the composable approach and provides a modular architecture fitting of an API CMS platform. However, Hygraph goes beyond API-first and solves the problems that plague many enterprises with Content Federation.

Engineering teams can build high-performance composable applications using native GraphQL Content APIs, and content creators can create, reuse, and distribute content wherever needed.

#Wrapping up

API-first CMSs enable companies to leverage the full power of APIs to deliver content to multiple channels and build their modular tech stacks. This helps them to improve developer productivity and flexibility, achieve a faster time to market, and future-proof their systems. However, adopting an API CMS isn’t without challenges.

Hygraph offers an API CMS with additional features to overcome the challenges that other API-first CMSs might struggle with. Contact us to learn more about Hygraph and the API-first approach.

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