Frequently Asked Questions

Frontend Unification & Digital Experience

What is frontend unification and why is it important?

Frontend unification refers to standardizing and consolidating the technologies and tools used in frontend development, using a consistent set of programming languages, frameworks, libraries, and build tools across the entire frontend codebase. This approach leads to a more maintainable, scalable, and efficient development process, enabling businesses to innovate quickly and provide developers with the tools to launch new applications rapidly. Without frontend unification, companies often face challenges such as complex IT infrastructure, performance bottlenecks, inefficient team collaboration, and negative user experiences. Source

What challenges do companies face without a unified frontend stack?

Companies without a unified frontend stack encounter several challenges, including complex IT infrastructure, performance issues, inefficient team collaboration, difficulty adapting to new digital channels, and negative user experiences. These issues can result in delayed time to market, increased maintenance costs, and inconsistent customer experiences across channels. Source

How does unifying the frontend stack improve business outcomes?

Unifying the frontend stack leads to improved site performance (faster loading speeds, less downtime), better discoverability (enhanced SEO), consistent user experiences across channels, increased security, and greater efficiency and scalability for internal teams. For example, every one-second increase in website speed can boost ecommerce conversions by up to 27%, and improved customer experience can yield a 2 to 7% increase in sales revenue. Source

What steps should be taken to unify a frontend stack?

To unify your frontend stack, you should: 1) Define the goals of the unification project, 2) Consult with key stakeholders, 3) Determine the appropriate technologies, 4) Replatform to a modern headless CMS and MACH architecture if needed, and 5) Migrate to a system that can unify both frontend and backend. Hygraph supports this process with its headless CMS and federated content platform. Source

How does Hygraph enable frontend unification?

Hygraph is a headless CMS and Federated Content Platform that supports the composable approach and provides the modular architecture required for successful frontend unification. It enables companies to orchestrate content in one unified layer by aggregating data from different sources with a single API, supporting gradual migration and integration of new technologies. Source

Features & Capabilities

What features does Hygraph offer?

Hygraph provides a GraphQL-native architecture, content federation, scalability, and a modular approach for digital experience management. Key features include a powerful GraphQL API, integrations with leading platforms (e.g., Netlify, Vercel, Shopify, AWS S3, Cloudinary), enterprise-grade security, and support for localization, digital asset management, and personalization. Source

Does Hygraph support integrations with other platforms?

Yes, Hygraph offers a wide range of integrations, including hosting and deployment (Netlify, Vercel), headless commerce (BigCommerce, Shopify), localization (Lokalise, Crowdin), digital asset management (AWS S3, Cloudinary, Bynder), personalization (Ninetailed), and AI (AltText.ai). For a full list, visit the Hygraph Integrations page.

Does Hygraph provide an API?

Yes, Hygraph provides a powerful GraphQL API that allows you to fetch and manage content efficiently. Learn more at the Hygraph API Reference.

How does Hygraph ensure optimized content delivery performance?

Hygraph emphasizes optimized content delivery performance, which directly impacts user experience, engagement, and search engine rankings. By ensuring rapid content distribution and responsiveness, Hygraph reduces bounce rates and increases conversions. Source

Pain Points & Solutions

What problems does Hygraph solve?

Hygraph addresses operational pains (e.g., reliance on developers for content updates, outdated tech stacks, conflicting needs from global teams, clunky content creation), 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). Source

How does Hygraph solve these pain points?

Hygraph provides an intuitive interface for non-technical users, modernizes outdated systems with its GraphQL-native, API-first architecture, ensures consistent branding and content federation, streamlines workflows to reduce costs, accelerates project delivery, and supports scalability. It also simplifies development by reducing boilerplate code and streamlining query management. Source

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

Key KPIs include time saved on content updates, system uptime, speed of deployment, consistency in content across regions, user satisfaction scores, reduction in operational costs, time to market for new products, maintenance costs, scalability metrics, and performance during peak usage times. Source

Use Cases & Customer Success

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 is especially beneficial for modern software companies, enterprises looking to modernize their tech stack, and brands aiming to scale across geographies or re-platform from traditional solutions. Source

What industries are represented in Hygraph's case studies?

Hygraph's case studies span industries such as food and beverage (Dr. Oetker), consumer electronics (Samsung), automotive (AutoWeb), healthcare (Vision Healthcare), travel and hospitality (HolidayCheck), media and publishing, eCommerce, SaaS (Bellhop), marketplace, education technology, and wellness and fitness. Source

Can you share specific customer success stories using Hygraph?

Yes. 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 on the Hygraph product page.

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. See more at the Hygraph Case Studies page.

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 Hygraph pricing page.

Technical Requirements & Documentation

Where can I find Hygraph's technical documentation?

Comprehensive technical documentation is available at the Hygraph Documentation page, covering everything you need to know about building and deploying projects.

How easy is it to get started with Hygraph?

Hygraph is designed for easy onboarding, even for non-technical users. Customers can sign up for a free account and use resources like documentation, video tutorials, and onboarding guides. For example, Top Villas launched a new project in just 2 months from the initial touchpoint. Source

Security & Compliance

What security and compliance certifications does Hygraph have?

Hygraph is SOC 2 Type 2 compliant, ISO 27001 certified, and GDPR compliant. These certifications ensure high levels of data protection and security. Source

How does Hygraph protect sensitive data?

Hygraph provides enterprise-grade security features such as SSO integrations, audit logs, encryption at rest and in transit, and sandbox environments to protect sensitive data and meet regulatory standards. Source

Support & Implementation

What support is available to Hygraph customers?

Hygraph offers 24/7 support via chat, email, and phone. Enterprise customers receive dedicated onboarding and expert guidance. All users have access to detailed documentation, video tutorials, and a community Slack channel. Source

What training and onboarding resources does Hygraph provide?

Hygraph provides onboarding sessions for enterprise customers, training resources such as video tutorials, documentation, webinars, and access to Customer Success Managers for expert guidance. Source

Product Information & Company Vision

What is Hygraph's primary purpose and mission?

Hygraph's primary purpose 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 its GraphQL-native architecture, helping businesses modernize their tech stacks and deliver exceptional digital experiences at scale. Source

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Unify your frontend stack for better user engagement

Challenges companies face on the frontend and how replatforming to a new stack can help.
Jing Li

Written by Jing 

Aug 31, 2023
Unify your frontend stack for better user engagement

Global enterprises with multiple brands under one umbrella sometimes struggle to display a unified and consistent digital experience for their customers. That’s because juggling numerous brands, websites, and the associated infrastructure that makes everything click can be challenging.

Businesses that want to showcase consistency, improve efficiency, and have the flexibility to pivot into new markets and strategies to deliver a better experience can no longer rely on their existing monolithic architecture to support them.

Instead, a new approach that enables them to unify the frontend stack is essential. In this article, we’ll highlight the challenges companies face and how replatforming to a new stack can help.

#The frontend stack challenge

Delivering a cohesive frontend stack requires businesses to leverage a unified architecture. Without one, these companies find themselves facing various challenges.

Complex IT infrastructure

Ecommerce brands expand their backend stacks with tools like PIM software, CRM tools, CMS solutions, analytics tools, and other technologies. However, overtime, this ends up being a mix of different programming languages, frameworks, and libraries that struggle to interact with each other as brands seek to create the user experience from scratch.

Performance issues

Brands relying on monolithic infrastructure might have the best intentions regarding unifying the frontend. Still, they are also likely to suffer from some performance issues, including frequent maintenance requirements and challenging integrations. As a result, too much time and resources are lost, and other challenges, such as speed limitations and restricted innovation, become a problem.

Inefficient team collaboration

The lack of a unified architecture means that team collaboration becomes inefficient. Companies cannot implement the right processes that help them keep everyone on the same page. As a result, time to market is delayed, new campaigns can’t be launched as quickly, and eCommerce merchants miss new opportunities.

Leaving out emerging channels

Brands building engaging eCommerce experiences must be aware of new and emerging channels that appear almost annually. Today customers are leveraging digital channels such as AR/VR devices, wearable technologies, and other devices to browse and shop for their favorite products. However, without a unified frontend stack, it can be impossible to deliver engaging frontend experiences on channels such as these and quickly adapt to other channels as they emerge.

Negative user experience

As all of the previously mentioned challenges cascade, it negatively impacts the digital customer experience. Internally, teams will be unable to deliver on customer expectations. Externally, customers don’t receive the digital experience they crave and will seek out competitors that can meet those demands.

#From fragmented to integrated: introducing frontend unification

Companies need to aggregate all of their backend functionality to easily share data between microservices to solve the challenges of complexity, performance issues, and inefficient collaboration. However, beyond that, they also need to unify the frontend to offer users a consistent experience.

Unifying the frontend stack refers to the process of standardizing and consolidating the technologies and tools used in the frontend development of a software project or application. In other words, it’s about using a consistent set of programming languages, frameworks, libraries, and build tools across the entire frontend codebase.

By unifying the frontend stack, businesses can innovate more quickly and provide developers with the tools to launch new applications rapidly without worrying about disrupting the entire system or that new applications cannot fit into the existing digital ecosystem.

However, achieving frontend unification largely depends on the current architecture being used. Brands still using monolithic architecture will need to replatform to a modern approach leveraging headless architecture or they will not be able to impress customers due to poor user experiences.

#Comparison of unified and not unified stack

Unifying the frontend stack is a strategic approach that can lead to a more maintainable, scalable, and efficient development process. Understanding the differences between what can be achieved with a unified stack and one that is not unified can help businesses understand why replatforming to an architecture that enables frontend unification is essential.

Unified frontend stack Disparate frontend stack
Data unification Data is shared between multiple applications in order to create a cohesive ecosystem. Each system operates independent of the others leading to silos due to the lack of data sharing.
Collaboration and efficiency Communication is streamlined allowing for better collaboration between teams and greater process efficiency. Teams suffer from inefficient processes, increased redundancy and slower time to market.
Scalability Increased scalability as teams can easily add new projects and applications Difficulty scaling and innovating
Maintenance requirements Maintaining the system becomes easier as teams use standardized protocols and don’t need to update each system separately Increased maintenance and security challenges due to having to manage each system separately
User experience Consistent and engaging user experience across systems and channels Lack of consistency as users move between channels and applications

#How creating a seamless experience brings customer satisfaction

After achieving frontend unification, brands can realize a number of benefits.

Improved site performance

Unifying the frontend helps to distribute traffic across different servers without negatively impacting the user experience. The knock-on effects of improved site performance are faster loading speeds, less downtime, and an all-around smoother browsing experience. This leads to further benefits as for every one-second website speed increases, ecommerce conversions can increase up to 27%.

Better discoverability

Frontend unification also means providing a consistent structure for every frontend application. This improves the findability of websites and can lead to better discoverability for the business and products due to better SEO performance.

Better user experience

A unified frontend offers more consistency for the end-user. No matter what channel they are browsing or where they choose to shop for items, they will be presented with a similarly high-level experience that brings more satisfaction and improves customer loyalty. Having an improved customer experience like this can yield a 2 to 7% increase in sales revenue.

Increased security

By standardizing protocols and policies across frontend applications and sites, teams can ensure better compliance with regulatory requirements and reduce the likelihood of falling victim to malicious attacks. Better security helps to improve consumer trust, which is important as 71% of consumers are unlikely to buy from a company if trust is lost.

Better efficiency and scalability

Internal teams can make better use of resources and operate more efficiently since maintaining and updating the tech stack is more streamlined. Teams can also quickly scale and enter new markets with ease.

#How to unify your frontend stack

Unifying your frontend stack can provide brands the consistency and flexibility to remain competitive. However, it’s essential to carefully evaluate the requirements and constraints of your specific project to select the most suitable technologies and approaches.

  1. Start by defining the goals of the unification project and ensure that they match the overall organization’s goals and objectives.

  2. Consult with key stakeholders to understand if the existing system is able to meet their needs and what features they need from the new tools to meet their requirements.

  3. Determine the appropriate technologies needed to meet organizational goals today and the future needs of tomorrow.

  4. If your system isn’t currently built using MACH architecture and headless technologies, it’s time to replatform to a new system instead.

  5. Migrate to a new headless CMS that will be able to unify the frontend and backend.

Achieving frontend unification requires a system that can consolidate the technologies and tools used in frontend development and enable brands to innovate as required. Hygraph is a headless CMS and Federated Content Platform that supports the composable approach and provides the modular architecture required for successful frontend unification.

Whereas monolithic solutions struggle to unify the frontend, Hygraph offers Content Federation. This approach is an enabler to help companies replatform and unify the frontend stack. Companies can orchestrate their content in one unified layer by aggregating data from different sources with one single API.

Moreover, enterprises can choose to migrate their system piece by piece until all of the appropriate tools and technologies are in place, and the entire front end is unified.

#What’s next?

Enterprises that want to deliver high-quality products to various audiences need the right infrastructure to support them. By unifying the frontend stack, these organizations can avoid the challenges of complex IT infrastructure, performance issues, and the threat of new and emerging channels.

Hygraph and Content Federation offer the capabilities to replatform to a new tech stack and unify the frontend stack instead of struggling with monolithic architectures. Contact us today to learn more about unifying the frontend stack.

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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