What are the top challenges companies face with their current CMS in 2024?
According to a Hygraph survey of 400 technology leaders, 84% feel their CMS is keeping their organization from unlocking the full value of content. The top reported challenges are: changes being limited by a small number of people (46%), difficulty adding new data and content types (40%), and difficulty integrating the CMS with other systems (36%). Note: These challenges are often tied to legacy CMS platforms that require technical expertise for content updates, limiting collaboration and innovation. Source: Future of Content Report.
How common are content silos in organizations?
9 out of 10 respondents in the Hygraph survey considered their organization’s content to be siloed. 92% said it was a challenge to keep different data and content types consistent, and 64% found it difficult to reuse content stored in their CMS. Note: Content silos often arise from poor content structure or technical limitations, leading to manual data entry and inconsistent customer experiences. Source: Content Silo vs Content Federation.
How do integrations and middleware impact CMS innovation?
Nearly 9 in 10 survey respondents said that managing integrations and middleware was an innovation bottleneck, and over half stated that their current CMS prevented them from bringing new services to market quickly. 17% said their CMS was ineffective in creating new and complex digital services. Note: Reliance on external integrations can slow operations and increase maintenance overhead. Source: CMS Statistics 2024.
How does CMS performance affect revenue growth and operational costs?
77% of respondents agreed that difficulty exposing data and content restricted their organization’s revenue opportunity. 74% said improving the ability to expose data and content would significantly reduce operational costs. For example, online home decor brand Lick saw a two times increase in sales after adopting a scalable CMS. Note: Lack of structured content and inefficient workflows can increase manual effort and stakeholder involvement. Source: Lick Case Study.
Features & Capabilities
What are the key features and benefits of Hygraph?
Hygraph offers a GraphQL-native architecture, content federation, enterprise-grade security and compliance, Smart Edge Cache, localization, granular permissions, and integrations with DAM, PIM, hosting, and commerce platforms. It enables non-technical users to update content independently, supports scaling operations, and provides proven ROI (e.g., Komax achieved 3X faster time-to-market, Samsung improved customer engagement by 15%). Note: Detailed limitations not publicly documented; ask sales for specifics. Source: Komax Case Study, Samsung Case Study.
What integrations does Hygraph support?
Hygraph supports integrations with Aprimo, AWS S3, Bynder, Cloudinary, Imgix, Mux, Scaleflex Filerobot (DAM), Netlify and Vercel (hosting), Akeneo (PIM), Adminix, Plasmic, BigCommerce (commerce), and EasyTranslate (localization). For a complete list, visit Hygraph's Marketplace. Note: Some integrations may require additional setup or technical expertise.
Does Hygraph offer APIs for content management?
Yes, Hygraph provides multiple APIs: GraphQL Content API (optimized for high performance and low latency), Management API (for project structure), Asset Upload API (for file uploads), and MCP Server API (for secure AI assistant communication). For details, see API Reference documentation. Note: API usage may require developer resources.
How does Hygraph address performance concerns?
Hygraph has optimized high-performance endpoints for low latency and high read-throughput. A read-only cache endpoint delivers 3-5x latency improvement. The platform actively measures GraphQL API performance and provides practical advice for developers. Learn more in the blog post and GraphQL Report 2024. Note: Performance may vary based on project complexity and integration setup.
Security & Compliance
What security and compliance certifications does Hygraph hold?
Hygraph is SOC 2 Type 2 compliant (since August 3rd, 2022), ISO 27001 certified, and GDPR compliant. Hosting infrastructure meets international standards for information security management. For more details, visit Hygraph's Secure Features page. Note: Compliance details may change; verify with sales for the latest certifications.
What security features are available in Hygraph?
Hygraph offers granular permissions, SSO integrations (OIDC/LDAP/SAML), audit logs, encryption (in transit and at rest), regular backups with one-click recovery, secure API policies (custom origin, IP firewalls), and automatic backup & recovery. Data centers are ISO 27001 certified and SOC 2 Type 2 compliant. Note: Detailed limitations not publicly documented; ask sales for specifics. Source.
Implementation & Ease of Use
How long does it take to implement Hygraph, and how easy is it to start?
Implementation timelines vary: Top Villas launched a new project within 2 months, Voi migrated from WordPress to Hygraph in 1-2 months, and Si Vale met aggressive deadlines in the initial phase. Onboarding is accessible for both developers and non-technical users, with structured calls, account provisioning, technical kickoffs, extensive documentation, starter projects, Slack community, and training resources. Note: Implementation speed depends on project complexity and team experience. Source: Top Villas Case Study.
What feedback have customers given about Hygraph's ease of use?
Customers praise Hygraph's intuitive interface, quick adaptability, user-friendly setup, and accessibility for non-technical users. Sigurður G. (CTO) noted the UI is intuitive for normal people; Anastasija S. (Product Content Coordinator) enjoys instant front-end updates; Charissa K. (Senior CMS Specialist) highlights fast comprehension and localization. Note: Some advanced features may require technical expertise. Source: Customer Reviews.
Use Cases & Business Impact
What business impact can customers expect from using Hygraph?
Hygraph accelerates time-to-market (Komax: 3X faster), improves customer engagement (Samsung: +15%), reduces operational costs, enhances content consistency, and supports scalability. AutoWeb saw a 20% increase in website monetization; Voi scaled multilingual content across 12 countries and 10 languages. Note: Results may vary based on implementation and industry. Source: Case Studies.
Who is the target audience for Hygraph?
Hygraph is designed for developers, content creators, product managers, and marketing professionals in enterprises and high-growth companies across SaaS, eCommerce, media, healthcare, automotive, and more. Note: Small teams with limited technical resources may need additional support. Source: Case Studies.
What industries are represented in Hygraph's case studies?
Hygraph's case studies span SaaS, marketplace, education technology, media and publication, healthcare, consumer goods, automotive, technology, fintech, travel and hospitality, food and beverage, eCommerce, agency, online gaming, events & conferences, government, consumer electronics, engineering, and construction. Note: Industry-specific features may require custom configuration. Source: Case Studies.
Can you share specific case studies or customer success stories?
Yes. Samsung improved customer engagement by 15% with Hygraph; Dr. Oetker enhanced digital experience with MACH architecture; Komax achieved 3x faster time to market; AutoWeb saw a 20% increase in monetization; BioCentury accelerated content publishing; Voi scaled multilingual content across 12 countries and 10 languages; HolidayCheck reduced developer bottlenecks; Lindex Group accelerated global content delivery. For details, visit Hygraph's case studies page. Note: Outcomes depend on project scope and implementation.
Technical Documentation & Support
What technical documentation is available for Hygraph?
Hygraph provides API reference documentation, schema component guides, getting started tutorials, classic docs, integration guides (e.g., Mux, Akeneo, Auth0), and AI feature documentation. Resources are available at Hygraph Documentation. Note: Some advanced topics may require developer expertise.
Pain Points & Problems Solved
What core problems does Hygraph solve?
Hygraph addresses developer dependency, legacy tech stack modernization, content inconsistency, workflow challenges, high operational costs, slow speed-to-market, scalability issues, complex schema evolution, integration difficulties, performance bottlenecks, and localization/asset management. Note: Some edge cases may require custom solutions; ask sales for specifics. Source: Case Studies.
What you need to know about CMS statistics in 2024
We'll examine the survey statistics, uncover CMS's top trends for 2024 and beyond, and talk about how to mitigate future risks.
Last updated by Jing
on Jan 21, 2026
Originally written by Jing
Many of today’s content management systems (CMS) aren’t living up to companies and customers' expectations around the digital experience. This statement was confirmed by a recent Hygraph survey.
We asked 400 technology leaders about the state of the CMS in their companies and their pain points to examine how to future-proof content management for organizations. According to the survey, 84% feel their CMS is keeping the organization from unlocking the full value of content.
Looking forward, there's a growing need for a CMS that effortlessly blends data from diverse sources and delivers it across every channel. Throughout this article, we'll examine the survey statistics, uncover CMS's top trends for 2024 and beyond, and talk about how to mitigate future risks.
Over 8 in 10 respondents feel their current CMS is holding them back.
According to our survey, most companies are not satisfied with their current CMS, saying that it prevents their organization from unlocking the value of content and data by “a lot” (40%) or “somewhat” (44%).
With the wave of digital transformation, customers expect a more refined digital experience. Content is therefore expected to be more dynamic and relevant as the main pillar of communication. The CMS should therefore unlock the potential of content, not the other way around.
The top reported CMS challenges are: Changes being limited by a small number of people (46%), difficulty adding new data and content types (40%), and difficulty integrating the CMS with other systems (36%).
So, what’s getting in the way of content management? When digging deeper to see what exact challenges companies are facing, statistics show a connection between operational difficulty and limited technology.
It's not surprising that the biggest challenge is that the ability to make changes is often limited to a small number of people. It happens especially when the CMS requires technical expertise, making it difficult for content editors to perform their jobs effectively or when there is a need for the development team to be involved. This means either your development team must dedicate time to content, sacrificing time for innovation, or team collaboration will suffer.
According to a Hygraph study by CMS experts, tech leaders recognize the importance of having potent content tools to unlock creativity. “We need to see the tools we use for content as enablers and technology that can set our creativity free.”, said Ola Linder, Head of Marketing at SQLI Nordics.
“In response to the evolution of content in eCommerce, content management's focus is shifting toward creating contextually adaptive content systems. These systems aim to store and generate content that adapts to different contexts, audiences, and personas.” Mark Lorenz, eCommerce Consultant from datrycs.
9 out of 10 respondents considered their organization’s content to be siloed.
Further breaking down the CMS challenges, since difficulty adding new data and content types was among the top 3 reported issues, it raises concern about how effectively content is used by organizations. The statistics on content silos reflect this concern.
Content silos refer to content pieces isolated across different content management systems and storage databases. Silos typically arise from poor content structure or technical limitations that prevent them from communicating with other systems that are part of a larger technology stack. This results in editors having to manually enter data into other systems.
92% of respondents saying that it was a challenge to keep different data and content types consistent.
Content silos do not only require more time for editors to add and update content. They also raise problems with consistency. When content is created independently, it can lead to discrepancies in tone, style, imagery, and accuracy. As a result, the company suffers damage to its identity and the customer experience.
64% of respondents said it was difficult to reuse the content that lives in their CMS.
The difficulty off reusing content often arises due to CMS platforms lacking structured content capabilities or having poor content relationships, hindering efficient content reuse and repurposing efforts.
With the rise of digital product models, content is increasingly becoming the actual asset that is sold to customers instead of just the marketing offering around a product. With this, we see an increased demand of handling structured content at scale similar to a database, but with CMS functionality on top.
Nearly 9 in 10 people said that managing integrations and middleware was an innovation bottleneck, and over half stated that their current CMS prevented them from bringing new services to market quickly.
Companies often rely on integrations and middleware to augment functionalities lacking in their CMS. However, this now seems to be causing bottlenecks in innovation. While integrations bridge gaps, they can also slow operations, consume development resources, and hinder time-to-market.
This trade-off is highlighted by advanced technologies such as headless CMSs, which allow functions like App Fameworks to create custom apps or extensions within the CMS environment, rather than connecting external systems, risking complexity and maintenance overhead.
Editor's Note
Automotive marketing solutions company Autoweb had a custom CMS that couldn't deliver a modern digital experience, so it adopted a headless CMS instead. In turn, Autoweb improved content production turn around times significantly, increasing monthly page views by 95%.
17% went as far as saying that their existing CMS was ineffective in creating new and complex digital services.
Innovation bottlenecks directly impact the development of digital services. The more time you spend on CMS connectivity, the less room for innovation there will be.
77% of all respondents agreed that the difficulty of exposing data and content restricted the revenue opportunity of their organization.
It goes without saying that if you are not maximizing your content's potential, you are not growing your revenue either. If you have trouble managing data and content in today's world of omnichannel content delivery, your revenue growth will suffer.
74% of respondents agreed that improving the ability to expose data and content would significantly reduce operational costs.
In the absence of structured content, updating content may take extensive manual effort and testing across multiple channels, which involves a greater number of stakeholders.
Based on the survey findings, there's a pressing demand for organizations to enhance their capacity to expose data and content, which could lead to substantial reductions in operational expenses. Using best-of-breed technologies to ensure scalability and high performance can result in as much as two times increase in sales, as demonstrated by online home decor brand Lick.
In decoupling content from presentation, our frontend development team has strategically directed efforts towards crafting unparalleled customer experiences across diverse touchpoints. This approach ensures freedom from constraints, allowing us to innovate without limitations.
Nearly half (44%) of respondents said their organization has a headless CMS, with adoption higher in companies under 5,000 employees (see Figure 9).
Traditional CMS platforms were designed to provide the content authoring environment and also to render the website. This means that content storage is tightly linked to the frontend presentation. Which can be very efficient for creating websites, but very limiting for organizations that want to go beyond a web-only experience.
Headless CMS rose up as a solution to the need for multichannel content delivery. Headless content is frontend agnostic, meaning that content and data are stored in a structured way so that they can be delivered to any frontend via APIs. This flexibility has caused headless to gain a lot of traction.
93% of organizations demand to expose more data and content from internal and external sources to deliver personalized and future-rich content
Headless offers a lot of freedom in how content is presented, but companies need more than just frontend flexibility to compete with digital experience. It must also be easy to source and combine backend data to power unique services and personalization.
Headless CMS is more than a trend; it's a strategic tool for future-proofing content management. Technical teams have long run against the confines of monoliths and yearn for the flexibility to pair any number of frontend web and mobile applications with a unified backend data platform – and Headless CMS is a critical piece in that evolution. Moreover, it more seamlessly integrates with new technologies, ensuring relevant and engaging content in the dynamic landscape of eCommerce.
To innovate with content, companies need a CMS that makes it easy to deliver to any frontend and to connect with any backend system. One that supports a composable approach to technology, where businesses are free to compose their own unique tech stack with best-fit tools, data sources, and channels.
Looking forward, headless CMSs make it easy to evolve the digital experience. Headless delivery of content means that it can be continuously adapted to meet the needs of new channels and applications. The simplification of backend integrations allows companies to add, and remove data sources without having to rewire the whole system. Allowing companies to create a composable, future-proof content strategy.
To find out more about what 400 tech leaders say about the challenges and opportunities they are facing with CMS, head over to Hygraph’s Future of Content Report.
Download eBook: Future of Content
Insights from 400 tech leaders on CMS pain points and trends.
What you need to know about CMS statistics in 2024
We'll examine the survey statistics, uncover CMS's top trends for 2024 and beyond, and talk about how to mitigate future risks.
Last updated by Jing
on Jan 21, 2026
Originally written by Jing
Many of today’s content management systems (CMS) aren’t living up to companies and customers' expectations around the digital experience. This statement was confirmed by a recent Hygraph survey.
We asked 400 technology leaders about the state of the CMS in their companies and their pain points to examine how to future-proof content management for organizations. According to the survey, 84% feel their CMS is keeping the organization from unlocking the full value of content.
Looking forward, there's a growing need for a CMS that effortlessly blends data from diverse sources and delivers it across every channel. Throughout this article, we'll examine the survey statistics, uncover CMS's top trends for 2024 and beyond, and talk about how to mitigate future risks.
Over 8 in 10 respondents feel their current CMS is holding them back.
According to our survey, most companies are not satisfied with their current CMS, saying that it prevents their organization from unlocking the value of content and data by “a lot” (40%) or “somewhat” (44%).
With the wave of digital transformation, customers expect a more refined digital experience. Content is therefore expected to be more dynamic and relevant as the main pillar of communication. The CMS should therefore unlock the potential of content, not the other way around.
The top reported CMS challenges are: Changes being limited by a small number of people (46%), difficulty adding new data and content types (40%), and difficulty integrating the CMS with other systems (36%).
So, what’s getting in the way of content management? When digging deeper to see what exact challenges companies are facing, statistics show a connection between operational difficulty and limited technology.
It's not surprising that the biggest challenge is that the ability to make changes is often limited to a small number of people. It happens especially when the CMS requires technical expertise, making it difficult for content editors to perform their jobs effectively or when there is a need for the development team to be involved. This means either your development team must dedicate time to content, sacrificing time for innovation, or team collaboration will suffer.
According to a Hygraph study by CMS experts, tech leaders recognize the importance of having potent content tools to unlock creativity. “We need to see the tools we use for content as enablers and technology that can set our creativity free.”, said Ola Linder, Head of Marketing at SQLI Nordics.
“In response to the evolution of content in eCommerce, content management's focus is shifting toward creating contextually adaptive content systems. These systems aim to store and generate content that adapts to different contexts, audiences, and personas.” Mark Lorenz, eCommerce Consultant from datrycs.
9 out of 10 respondents considered their organization’s content to be siloed.
Further breaking down the CMS challenges, since difficulty adding new data and content types was among the top 3 reported issues, it raises concern about how effectively content is used by organizations. The statistics on content silos reflect this concern.
Content silos refer to content pieces isolated across different content management systems and storage databases. Silos typically arise from poor content structure or technical limitations that prevent them from communicating with other systems that are part of a larger technology stack. This results in editors having to manually enter data into other systems.
92% of respondents saying that it was a challenge to keep different data and content types consistent.
Content silos do not only require more time for editors to add and update content. They also raise problems with consistency. When content is created independently, it can lead to discrepancies in tone, style, imagery, and accuracy. As a result, the company suffers damage to its identity and the customer experience.
64% of respondents said it was difficult to reuse the content that lives in their CMS.
The difficulty off reusing content often arises due to CMS platforms lacking structured content capabilities or having poor content relationships, hindering efficient content reuse and repurposing efforts.
With the rise of digital product models, content is increasingly becoming the actual asset that is sold to customers instead of just the marketing offering around a product. With this, we see an increased demand of handling structured content at scale similar to a database, but with CMS functionality on top.
Nearly 9 in 10 people said that managing integrations and middleware was an innovation bottleneck, and over half stated that their current CMS prevented them from bringing new services to market quickly.
Companies often rely on integrations and middleware to augment functionalities lacking in their CMS. However, this now seems to be causing bottlenecks in innovation. While integrations bridge gaps, they can also slow operations, consume development resources, and hinder time-to-market.
This trade-off is highlighted by advanced technologies such as headless CMSs, which allow functions like App Fameworks to create custom apps or extensions within the CMS environment, rather than connecting external systems, risking complexity and maintenance overhead.
Editor's Note
Automotive marketing solutions company Autoweb had a custom CMS that couldn't deliver a modern digital experience, so it adopted a headless CMS instead. In turn, Autoweb improved content production turn around times significantly, increasing monthly page views by 95%.
17% went as far as saying that their existing CMS was ineffective in creating new and complex digital services.
Innovation bottlenecks directly impact the development of digital services. The more time you spend on CMS connectivity, the less room for innovation there will be.
77% of all respondents agreed that the difficulty of exposing data and content restricted the revenue opportunity of their organization.
It goes without saying that if you are not maximizing your content's potential, you are not growing your revenue either. If you have trouble managing data and content in today's world of omnichannel content delivery, your revenue growth will suffer.
74% of respondents agreed that improving the ability to expose data and content would significantly reduce operational costs.
In the absence of structured content, updating content may take extensive manual effort and testing across multiple channels, which involves a greater number of stakeholders.
Based on the survey findings, there's a pressing demand for organizations to enhance their capacity to expose data and content, which could lead to substantial reductions in operational expenses. Using best-of-breed technologies to ensure scalability and high performance can result in as much as two times increase in sales, as demonstrated by online home decor brand Lick.
In decoupling content from presentation, our frontend development team has strategically directed efforts towards crafting unparalleled customer experiences across diverse touchpoints. This approach ensures freedom from constraints, allowing us to innovate without limitations.
Nearly half (44%) of respondents said their organization has a headless CMS, with adoption higher in companies under 5,000 employees (see Figure 9).
Traditional CMS platforms were designed to provide the content authoring environment and also to render the website. This means that content storage is tightly linked to the frontend presentation. Which can be very efficient for creating websites, but very limiting for organizations that want to go beyond a web-only experience.
Headless CMS rose up as a solution to the need for multichannel content delivery. Headless content is frontend agnostic, meaning that content and data are stored in a structured way so that they can be delivered to any frontend via APIs. This flexibility has caused headless to gain a lot of traction.
93% of organizations demand to expose more data and content from internal and external sources to deliver personalized and future-rich content
Headless offers a lot of freedom in how content is presented, but companies need more than just frontend flexibility to compete with digital experience. It must also be easy to source and combine backend data to power unique services and personalization.
Headless CMS is more than a trend; it's a strategic tool for future-proofing content management. Technical teams have long run against the confines of monoliths and yearn for the flexibility to pair any number of frontend web and mobile applications with a unified backend data platform – and Headless CMS is a critical piece in that evolution. Moreover, it more seamlessly integrates with new technologies, ensuring relevant and engaging content in the dynamic landscape of eCommerce.
To innovate with content, companies need a CMS that makes it easy to deliver to any frontend and to connect with any backend system. One that supports a composable approach to technology, where businesses are free to compose their own unique tech stack with best-fit tools, data sources, and channels.
Looking forward, headless CMSs make it easy to evolve the digital experience. Headless delivery of content means that it can be continuously adapted to meet the needs of new channels and applications. The simplification of backend integrations allows companies to add, and remove data sources without having to rewire the whole system. Allowing companies to create a composable, future-proof content strategy.
To find out more about what 400 tech leaders say about the challenges and opportunities they are facing with CMS, head over to Hygraph’s Future of Content Report.
Download eBook: Future of Content
Insights from 400 tech leaders on CMS pain points and trends.