Frequently Asked Questions

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 tailored to specific business needs. For full details, visit the Hygraph pricing page.

Features & Capabilities

What are the key features of Hygraph?

Hygraph provides a GraphQL-native architecture, content federation, scalability, intuitive editing interface, content modeling, roles and permissions, versioning and approval workflows, CDN integration, and high-traffic handling. These features enable fast, flexible, and secure content management for modern digital experiences. Learn more at the Hygraph Features page.

Does Hygraph offer integrations with other platforms?

Yes, Hygraph supports a wide range of integrations, including Netlify, Vercel, BigCommerce, commercetools, Shopify, Lokalise, Crowdin, EasyTranslate, Smartling, Aprimo, AWS S3, Bynder, Cloudinary, Mux, Scaleflex Filerobot, Ninetailed, AltText.ai, Adminix, and Plasmic. For a full list, visit the Hygraph Integrations page.

Does Hygraph provide an API for content management?

Yes, Hygraph offers a powerful GraphQL API for efficient content fetching and management. You can learn more at the Hygraph API Reference.

How does Hygraph optimize content delivery performance?

Hygraph emphasizes optimized content delivery performance, ensuring rapid distribution and responsiveness. This leads to improved user experience, higher engagement, and better search engine rankings, while reducing bounce rates and increasing conversions. For more details, visit this page.

What security and compliance certifications does Hygraph have?

Hygraph is SOC 2 Type 2 compliant, ISO 27001 certified, and GDPR compliant. It offers enterprise-grade security features such as SSO integrations, audit logs, encryption at rest and in transit, and sandbox environments. For more details, visit the Hygraph Security Features page.

How does Hygraph streamline editorial workflows?

Hygraph enables streamlined editorial workflows with custom user roles, defined permissions, content review, approval, and publishing stages. This ensures collaboration, content quality, and efficient publishing cycles. Learn more at the Hygraph Product page.

Pain Points & Solutions

What problems does Hygraph solve for organizations?

Hygraph addresses operational pains (reliance on developers for content updates, outdated tech stacks, conflicting needs from global teams, clunky user experiences), financial pains (high operational costs, slow speed-to-market, expensive maintenance, scalability challenges), and technical pains (boilerplate code, overwhelming queries, evolving schemas, cache problems, OpenID integration challenges). For more details, visit the Hygraph product page.

How does Hygraph solve the pain points associated with outdated publishing workflows?

Hygraph replaces static, hard-to-search PDFs with modular, API-driven content management. It enables content repurposing, improves searchability, streamlines workflow management, and delivers dynamic, personalized user experiences across devices. This helps organizations stay competitive and deliver content efficiently. For more, see this blog post.

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

Key metrics include time saved on content updates, number of updates without developer intervention, system uptime, speed of deployment, content consistency across regions, user satisfaction scores, reduction in operational costs, ROI, time to market, maintenance costs, scalability metrics, and performance during peak usage. For more details, visit the Hygraph blog on CMS KPIs.

Use Cases & Benefits

Who can benefit from using Hygraph?

Hygraph is ideal for developers, IT decision-makers, content creators, project/program managers, agencies, solution partners, and technology partners. It serves modern software companies, enterprises seeking to modernize, and brands aiming to scale globally, improve development velocity, or re-platform from traditional solutions. Source: ICPVersion2_Hailey.pdf

What industries are represented in Hygraph's case studies?

Hygraph's case studies span food and beverage, consumer electronics, automotive, healthcare, travel and hospitality, media and publishing, eCommerce, SaaS, marketplace, education technology, and wellness and fitness. For examples, see Hygraph Case Studies.

Can you share specific customer success stories using Hygraph?

Yes. Komax achieved 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 at the Hygraph product page.

How easy is it to implement Hygraph and get started?

Hygraph is designed for quick implementation, even for non-technical users. For example, Top Villas launched a new project in just 2 months. Users can sign up for a free account and access documentation, onboarding guides, and video tutorials. Learn more at the Hygraph Documentation.

What business impact can customers expect from using Hygraph?

Customers can expect time-saving through streamlined workflows, ease of use with an intuitive interface, faster speed-to-market, and enhanced customer experience via consistent, scalable content delivery. These benefits help modernize tech stacks and drive operational efficiency. Source: ICPVersion2_Hailey.pdf

Competition & Comparison

How does Hygraph compare to traditional CMS platforms?

Hygraph stands out with its GraphQL-native architecture, content federation, and scalability. Unlike traditional CMS platforms that often require developer intervention and lack flexibility, Hygraph empowers non-technical users, streamlines workflows, and supports modern development practices. For more, see the Hygraph product page.

Why should a customer choose Hygraph over alternatives?

Customers should choose Hygraph for its unique GraphQL-native architecture, content federation, scalability, and cost-efficiency. It enables impactful digital experiences, reduces operational costs, and improves efficiency. For more details, visit the Hygraph product page.

Technical Requirements & Documentation

Where can I find technical documentation for Hygraph?

Comprehensive technical documentation is available at the Hygraph Documentation page, covering everything needed to build and deploy projects.

Support & Implementation

What customer service and support does Hygraph offer?

Hygraph provides 24/7 support via chat, email, and phone. Enterprise customers receive dedicated onboarding and expert guidance. All users can access documentation, video tutorials, and the community Slack channel. For more, visit the Hygraph Contact Page.

What training and technical support is available to help customers get started?

Hygraph offers onboarding sessions for enterprise customers, 24/7 support, training resources (video tutorials, documentation, webinars), and Customer Success Managers for expert guidance. For more, visit the Hygraph Contact Page.

How does Hygraph handle maintenance, upgrades, and troubleshooting?

Hygraph provides 24/7 support for maintenance, upgrades, and troubleshooting. Enterprise customers receive dedicated onboarding and expert guidance, while all users have access to documentation and the community Slack channel. For more, visit the Hygraph Contact Page.

Product Information

What is the primary purpose of Hygraph?

Hygraph's primary purpose is to unify data and enable content federation, allowing businesses to create impactful digital experiences. Its GraphQL-native architecture removes traditional content management pain points, offering scalability, flexibility, and efficient data querying. Source: Hygraph About Us

What is Hygraph's overarching vision and mission?

Hygraph's vision is to unify data and enable content federation, empowering businesses to create impactful digital experiences. Its mission is to remove traditional content management pain points through a GraphQL-native architecture, advancing the concept of Headless CMS. Source: Hygraph About Us

Customer Proof

Who are some of Hygraph's customers?

Notable customers include Sennheiser, Holidaycheck, Ancestry, Samsung, Dr. Oetker, Epic Games, Bandai Namco, Gamescom, Leo Vegas, and Clayton Homes. For more details and logos, visit Hygraph Case Studies.

Velocity at Scale: Join the Launch of Hygraph’s Latest AI Innovations

If we live in 2025, why is your publishing process stuck in the 1990s?

How switching to a more advanced publishing workflow can give you the edge
Jing Li

Written by Jing 

Feb 20, 2025
If we live in 2025, why is your publishing process stuck in the 1990s?

A slow publishing cycle, siloed business units, and poor content discoverability can seriously hinder any organization that places content at the heart of its operations. As businesses are increasingly exploring ways to integrate AI into their digital offerings, no one wants to be held back by outdated publishing processes. If you still rely on PDF uploads to publish your business content, it's time to face the reality: you're falling behind.

Companies that provide trend analysis, market intelligence, and consumer insights often publish highly specialized content to paid and non-paid audiences on their websites. The quality of that content—how engaging it is and how easily it can be discovered—plays a crucial role in your business's growth, especially if you're a subscription-based model.

Continuing to use PDFs as your primary publishing method is one of the biggest barriers to unlocking your business potential. In this article, we'll dive into why this is the case and explore how switching to a more advanced publishing workflow can give you the edge.

#Reality check

Many organizations still rely on exporting PDFs from Word documents and uploading them to their platforms as the primary way to share business content—an approach that dates back to the 1990s. At the time, when print was the norm, many publishing companies moved to digital by adopting the most familiar format: the PDF.

While PDFs were once the standard for information sharing and still have their place today, they are now just one of many ways to consume content—and they shouldn’t be the default. Static PDF content no longer meet the expectations of modern users, who demand fast, interactive experiences across multiple channels.

And the reality is, that the competition is catching up fast. According to our State of CMS report, nearly half (44%) of respondents said their company has a headless CMS. Headless solutions enable organizations to provide timely, highly discoverable content integrated across multiple platforms. For those still stuck in the PDF era, this creates a serious threat—because while you’re struggling to deliver a great experience, your competitors are already ahead of the game.

We know nothing about the PDFs. Our current CMS is almost like an FTP site where life just goes on.
HA
Hussein El AgganChief Architect at TechInsights
related partner logo

#4 reasons you should not use file uploads anymore

Content can’t be repurposed

Your analysts put a lot of effort into compiling their findings into a report, which usually includes text, images, charts, and other rich media. But turning that report into a PDF is a time-consuming task for your editors. Worse, once it's in PDF format, you lose the ability to easily repurpose any of that valuable content due to the fixed layout. Whether it's turning your report into an ungated blog post for non-subscribers, creating slide decks for events, or crafting assets for social media, PDFs make it difficult. This forces you to duplicate efforts whenever you want to reuse content, which hampers scalability.

Poor content searchability

Relying on PDFs severely limits content searchability for two key reasons. First, PDFs are often a sign of an outdated content management approach, where poor metadata management makes it harder for search engines and internal systems to index and retrieve information effectively. Second, even within the PDF itself, searching is inefficient—while users can try Ctrl + F, they still have to manually sift through hundreds of pages to locate relevant insights, especially in long scientific reports. This creates a major problem for companies: you might have the right content, but if users can’t find it, it’s as if it doesn’t exist.

Inefficient workflow management

It’s no secret that relying on PDFs slows down your publishing process. But it’s not just about how time-consuming it is to compile reports into PDF format; this method creates inefficiencies at every step of the publishing journey. Specifically, this leads to:

  • Siloed teams: Analysts handle the content, while editors work separately within the CMS. The lack of integration and communication between teams makes it harder for them to collaborate and reduces overall efficiency.
  • Manual work at every stage: From compiling PDFs to uploading them into the CMS, every update or change requires repeating the same tasks. This process is not only tedious but also prone to errors. If a mistake is found after publishing a PDF, your audience might have already downloaded it before you can correct it, creating unnecessary headaches. Moreover, any content revision requires duplicated effort, further slowing down your workflow.
  • Poor multimedia management: While PDFs can include images and charts, everything is locked together in one file. This creates barriers to managing them effectively and hurts content discoverability. When a PDF spans hundreds of pages, finding a specific piece of data becomes a challenge. In contrast, using a headless CMS lets you manage images, charts, and data as separate, interlinked pieces for much greater flexibility and ease of access.

With so many aspects of the publishing process tied to manual tasks, there are only so many areas that can be optimized. The result? Slower publishing times put your content at a disadvantage, especially in industries where speed is critical. If you can’t keep up with the pace at which content needs to be delivered, it poses a serious threat to your ability to stay competitive.

Outdated user experience

When your publishing process falls behind, the impact isn’t just behind the scenes—it directly affects how your audience engages with your content. Ultimately, they’re the ones reading the PDF, and every friction point in their journey means lost opportunities.

Here’s how PDFs create a frustrating user experience:

  • Stuck in static formats: PDFs are rigid and display content in a fixed layout, preventing users from interacting with or engaging with your content dynamically. You also lose the ability of tracking user engagement, as there’s no control over how the content is consumed once it’s downloaded.
  • Limited accessibility across devices: PDFs are primarily designed for desktop viewing and often require users to download the file before reading. The fixed format makes them difficult to navigate, especially on mobile devices. With most people using multiple digital devices, catering only to desktop users is no longer enough.

When user experience falls short, so does engagement. No matter how valuable your content is, if the experience doesn’t meet user expectations, they simply won’t engage. PDFs restrict personalization, limit audience reach, and prevent effective cross-selling or upselling—all of which ultimately impact revenue.

Editor's Note

Uploading PDFs is a sign of an outdated publishing process and content management approach. Discover the key challenges facing information publishing companies in this article.

#How to opt for an advanced publishing workflow

To stay competitive and deliver content efficiently, it’s crucial to embrace an advanced publishing workflow. This involves reassessing your current CMS, adopting a modular approach, leveraging APIs for seamless integrations, and ensuring team alignment. Let’s dive into the details.

Reassess your CMS

Many information publishing companies rely on custom CMS solutions due to concerns that off-the-shelf platforms can’t meet their unique content needs. However, modern headless CMSs, like Hygraph, offer robust features while freeing you from the complexity of maintaining a custom solution. If your current CMS lacks the following capabilities, it might be time to consider an upgrade:

  • Intuitive editing interface: With a user-friendly interface, your team can focus on content quality rather than wrestling with complex CMS tools, speeding up your content production cycle.
  • Content modeling: Content modeling allows you to structure content in a way that suits your specific needs. This flexibility is critical, as it enables you to define content types, relationships, and workflows that best align with your publishing goals. It also allows for content reuse, saving time and effort in managing multiple pieces of content across different platforms.
  • Roles and permissions: Clear roles and permissions ensure that the right people have access to the right content and tools at the right time. You can define permissions for content creation, editing, approval, and publishing, streamlining the approval process and reducing errors.
  • Content versioning and approval: Versioning and approval workflows are necessary for managing content revisions, ensuring accuracy, and tracking changes over time.
  • Content distribution networks (CDN): A CDN ensures faster load times and a seamless experience for global audiences, improving user engagement and retention.
  • High-traffic handling: Information publishing companies often experience spikes in traffic during product launches, news releases, or special events. A CMS that can handle high traffic volumes without slowing down or crashing ensures that your website remains accessible and functional even during peak times.

Use a modular approach

While a headless CMS is essential to a modern digital experience, embracing content modularity with the right mindset is just as crucial. Leverage your CMS’s content modeling capabilities to create reusable content blocks and treat content like data that can be easily repurposed across different formats and channels. This approach enables quicker updates, personalized content, and more efficient workflows.

Leverage API

To fully execute a modular content strategy, APIs are essential. They enable seamless multichannel delivery and third-party integrations, helping you extend your content’s reach while maintaining consistency. With the right API capabilities, your content can flow freely across various platforms and systems.

Team alignment

Lastly, aligning your team around these changes is crucial. Encourage a culture of flexibility and collaboration to ensure everyone understands the benefits of the new workflow and can contribute to its success. A unified approach will help streamline adoption and drive better results across your content operations.

Editor's Note

You also need a well-structured content operations strategy to successfully transition to an advanced publishing workflow. Explore our guide on content operations best practices for information publishing companies to learn how to build a future-proof workflow.

#What’s next

The days of relying on PDFs as your primary publishing format are over. Static, hard-to-search, and difficult to repurpose, PDFs create bottlenecks that slow down your publishing process, limit discoverability, and frustrate users. In a digital-first world where speed, accessibility, and personalization define success, clinging to outdated workflows puts your business at a competitive disadvantage.

To stay ahead, a modern, headless approach is essential. Hygraph enables this transformation. With powerful content modeling, API-first flexibility, and seamless integrations, it helps organizations move beyond static publishing and embrace a scalable, future-proof workflow. If you're ready to leave outdated PDFs behind and unlock new possibilities for your content, it's time to rethink your publishing strategy.

Blog Author

Jing Li

Jing Li

Jing is the Senior Content Marketing Manager at Hygraph. Besides telling compelling stories, Jing enjoys dining out and catching occasional waves on the ocean.


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