Frequently Asked Questions

Getting Started & Onboarding

How do I register for a Hygraph account?

To register for a Hygraph account, visit https://app.hygraph.com/signup. You can sign up using GitHub, Google, or manually enter your email, password, and name. After agreeing to the terms of service and privacy policy, you'll receive a verification email to complete your registration. (Source)

What are the first steps after creating a Hygraph account?

After registering, you'll land on your project directory where you can view all your projects or create new ones. If you have pending project invites, they'll appear at the top of the screen. (Source)

How do I create a new project in Hygraph?

To create a new project, click '+ New project' at the top-right corner of the project directory. You can choose between a blank project or use one of Hygraph's Starters, which come with pre-configured schemas and models. (Source)

What is a Hygraph Starter project?

A Starter project in Hygraph is a pre-built project you can clone, complete with schema and models already set up. This helps you get started quickly without building everything from scratch. (Source)

How do I add fields to a model in Hygraph?

To add fields to a model, use the Schema builder and select the '+ Add' button. You can choose from various field types such as Single line text, Number, and Asset picker. Each field type may require different configurations and validations. (Source)

What are system fields in Hygraph?

System fields in Hygraph are automatically managed fields such as id, createdAt, and publishedAt. You can view all system fields for a model by clicking 'Show system fields' in the schema builder. (Source)

How do I create and publish content entries in Hygraph?

To create a content entry, navigate to the Content editor, select your model, and click '+ Add entry'. Fill in the required fields and save. To publish, click 'Publish' at the top-right corner. Published entries move from DRAFT to PUBLISHED stage. (Source)

What are content stages in Hygraph?

Content stages in Hygraph refer to the workflow states of content entries, such as DRAFT and PUBLISHED. Editors use DRAFT for staging or preview, while PUBLISHED represents live content. (Source)

How do I query content in Hygraph?

Hygraph automatically generates GraphQL queries for each content model. You can use the API Playground to test queries and fetch content entries, including filtering, pagination, and asset transformations. (Source)

How do I mutate content in Hygraph?

Hygraph generates GraphQL mutations for creating, updating, deleting, publishing, and unpublishing content entries. You can practice mutations in the API Playground and refer to the API Docs for typed arguments and examples. (Source)

How do I enable API access for my Hygraph project?

To enable API access, go to Project settings > Access > Endpoints and set Content API permissions. You can allow public access or protect your API with permanent auth tokens. (Source)

Where can I find additional resources and tutorials for Hygraph?

You can find comprehensive tutorials and guides in the Hygraph documentation, including the Getting Started tutorial, API access, and roles and permissions documentation. (Source)

What is the API Playground in Hygraph?

The API Playground is an interactive tool within Hygraph that allows you to test GraphQL queries and mutations for your project. It provides autosuggestions and documentation for each operation. (Source)

How do I work with assets in Hygraph?

Assets are a core feature in Hygraph, managed via the Asset model. You can store images and files, and use the Asset picker field to add assets to your content entries. Learn more in the assets documentation. (Source)

How do I schedule content publishing in Hygraph?

You can schedule content publishing by using the 'Schedule for later' option when publishing entries. This allows you to automate when content goes live. (Source)

What are field validations in Hygraph?

Field validations in Hygraph allow you to set constraints on fields, such as making them required. These validations are reflected in the UI and ensure data integrity. (Source)

How does Hygraph handle outdated content entries?

When you save changes to a content entry without publishing, the entry becomes outdated. The published version live on your website differs from the latest version in Hygraph. You can publish outdated entries at any time. (Source)

Can I clone a project to practice queries and mutations in Hygraph?

Yes, the Getting Started tutorial offers the option to clone a project, which you can use to practice queries and mutations. (Source)

How is content distributed globally in Hygraph?

Content is distributed globally using Hygraph's CDN. The region you select during project creation determines where content is stored, while the CDN serves content worldwide. (Source)

What technical documentation is available for Hygraph?

Hygraph offers extensive technical documentation, including API reference, schema components, references, webhooks, and AI integrations. Access all resources at Hygraph Documentation.

Pricing & Plans

What pricing plans does Hygraph offer?

Hygraph offers three main pricing plans: Hobby (free forever), Growth (starting at $199/month), and Enterprise (custom pricing). Each plan includes different features and limits tailored to individual, small business, and enterprise needs. (Source)

What features are included in the Hobby plan?

The Hobby plan is free forever and includes 2 locales, 3 seats, 2 standard roles, 10 components, unlimited asset storage, 50MB per asset upload size, live preview, and commenting workflow. (Source)

What features are included in the Growth plan?

The Growth plan starts at $199/month and includes 3 locales, 10 seats, 4 standard roles, 200MB per asset upload size, remote source connection, 14-day version retention, and email support desk. (Source)

What features are included in the Enterprise plan?

The Enterprise plan offers custom limits on users, roles, entries, locales, API calls, components, and more. It includes scheduled publishing, dedicated infrastructure, global CDN, security controls, SSO, multitenancy, instant backup recovery, custom workflows, dedicated support, and custom SLAs. (Source)

Features & Capabilities

What are the key capabilities and benefits of Hygraph?

Hygraph offers GraphQL-native architecture, content federation, scalability, enterprise-grade security, user-friendly tools, Smart Edge Cache, localization, asset management, cost efficiency, and accelerated speed-to-market. (Source)

Does Hygraph support integrations with other platforms?

Yes, Hygraph supports integrations with Digital Asset Management systems (Aprimo, AWS S3, Bynder, Cloudinary, Imgix, Mux, Scaleflex Filerobot), Adminix, Plasmic, and custom integrations via SDK or APIs. Explore more in the Hygraph Marketplace. (Source)

What APIs does Hygraph provide?

Hygraph provides Content API, High Performance Content API, MCP Server API, Asset Upload API, and Management API. Each serves different purposes for querying, mutating, asset management, and project structure. (Source)

How does Hygraph ensure high performance?

Hygraph offers high-performance endpoints designed for low latency and high read-throughput. Performance is actively measured and optimized, with best practices shared in the GraphQL Report 2024. (Source)

What feedback have customers given about Hygraph's ease of use?

Customers praise Hygraph for its intuitive UI, easy setup, custom app integration, and ability for non-technical users to manage content independently. Some users note it can be complex for less technical users. (Source)

Security & Compliance

What security and compliance certifications does Hygraph have?

Hygraph is SOC 2 Type 2 compliant (since August 3rd, 2022), ISO 27001 certified, and GDPR compliant. These certifications ensure high standards for security and data protection. (Source)

What enterprise-grade security features does Hygraph offer?

Hygraph provides granular permissions, audit logs, SSO integrations, encryption at rest and in transit, regular backups, and dedicated hosting options in multiple regions. (Source)

Use Cases & Benefits

Who is the target audience for Hygraph?

Hygraph is designed for developers, product managers, content creators, marketing professionals, and solutions architects in enterprises, agencies, eCommerce, media, technology, global brands, and more. (Source)

What industries are represented in Hygraph's case studies?

Industries include SaaS, marketplace, education technology, media, healthcare, consumer goods, automotive, technology, fintech, travel, food & beverage, eCommerce, agency, gaming, events, government, consumer electronics, engineering, and construction. (Source)

What business impact can customers expect from using Hygraph?

Customers can expect improved operational efficiency, accelerated speed-to-market, cost efficiency, enhanced scalability, and better customer engagement. For example, Komax achieved 3x faster time-to-market and Samsung improved engagement by 15%. (Source)

Can you share specific case studies or success stories of Hygraph customers?

Yes, notable case studies include Samsung (scalable API-first app), Dr. Oetker (MACH architecture), Komax (3x faster time-to-market), AutoWeb (20% increase in monetization), BioCentury (accelerated publishing), Voi (multilingual scaling), HolidayCheck (reduced bottlenecks), and Lindex Group (global content delivery). (Source)

Who are some of Hygraph's customers?

Hygraph's customers include Samsung, Dr. Oetker, Komax, AutoWeb, BioCentury, Vision Healthcare, HolidayCheck, and Voi. (Source)

Pain Points & Solutions

What core problems does Hygraph solve?

Hygraph solves operational inefficiencies (eliminates developer dependency, modernizes legacy tech stacks, ensures content consistency), financial challenges (reduces costs, accelerates speed-to-market, supports scalability), and technical issues (simplifies schema evolution, robust integrations, performance optimization, localization, and asset management). (Source)

What pain points do Hygraph customers commonly express?

Customers often mention developer dependency, legacy tech stacks, content inconsistency, workflow challenges, high operational costs, slow speed-to-market, scalability issues, complex schema evolution, integration difficulties, performance bottlenecks, and localization challenges. (Source)

How does Hygraph differentiate itself in solving these pain points?

Hygraph stands out with its user-friendly interface, GraphQL-native architecture, content federation, cost efficiency, accelerated speed-to-market, robust APIs, Smart Edge Cache, and enhanced localization and asset management. It is recognized as the easiest to implement headless CMS in the G2 Summer 2025 report. (Source)

What are some case studies relevant to each pain point Hygraph solves?

Operational: HolidayCheck (reduced bottlenecks), Dr. Oetker (global consistency), Si Vale (intuitive UI). Financial: Komax (faster launches, lower costs), Samsung (global scaling, reduced overhead). Technical: Hygraph case studies highlight simplified development, schema evolution, and robust integrations. (Source)

Competition & Comparison

How does Hygraph compare to traditional CMS platforms?

Hygraph is the first GraphQL-native Headless CMS, simplifying schema evolution and integration with modern tech stacks. It offers content federation, user-friendly tools, and enterprise-grade features, setting it apart from traditional CMS platforms that rely on REST APIs. (Source)

Why choose Hygraph over alternatives like Sanity, Prismic, or Contentful?

Hygraph differentiates itself with GraphQL-native architecture, content federation, cost efficiency, scalability, and ease of implementation. It ranked 2nd out of 102 Headless CMSs in the G2 Summer 2025 report and is recognized for its fast onboarding and proven ROI. (Source)

Implementation & Support

How long does it take to implement Hygraph?

Implementation time varies by project complexity. For example, Top Villas launched a new project in just 2 months, and Si Vale met aggressive deadlines with smooth onboarding. (Source)

How easy is it to start using Hygraph?

Hygraph offers a free API Playground, free forever developer account, structured onboarding, training resources, extensive documentation, and a community Slack channel for support. (Source)

Help teams manage content creation and approval in a clear and structured way
Hygraph
Docs

#Quickstart

#Overview

This quickstart guide shows the basic mechanics you need to create a Hygraph project with a schema.

We also have a Getting Started tutorial that covers these subjects - and more - in depth, where you can follow step-by-step lessons that will take you from project creation to frontend connection.

#Register

  1. Go to https://app.hygraph.com/signup.
  2. Select one of the available options - GitHub or Google - or manually add your email, password and name.
  3. Select the checkbox to agree to the terms of service and privacy policy, and click Continue.
  4. You will receive a verification email. Click on the provided link and log in using your information.

You will land on your project directory. If you have pending project invites to accept, you will find them at the top of the screen.

This is where you will see all your projects and where you can create new ones.

#Create a project

When you log into Hygraph, you will see a list of all projects you created or have been invited to. If you're new to Hygraph, this section might be empty.

To create a project, click + New project at the top-right corner of the project directory.

New projectNew project

You can alternatively scroll down to use one of our Starters.

New starter projectNew starter project

#Blank project

To create a blank project, click + New project at the top-right corner of the project directory. The New project modal will display:

Blank new projectBlank new project

  1. Select a plan: The New project modal lets you select Hobby, Enterprise, or start your 30-day trial. To learn which plan is the best for you, check out our Pricing page.
  2. Project info: Give your project a name and an optional description, then use the dropdown menu to select a region to store your content. If you need a custom region, you can talk to sales.
  3. Finalize: Click Add project to create the blank project. The system will redirect you to the project homepage.

#Starter

Our Starters are projects you can clone, with a schema and models already set up.

To create a starter project, scroll down to the Starters section of the project directory, select a project and click Get started. The New project modal will display:

Starter new projectStarter new project

  1. Select a plan: The New project modal lets you select Hobby, Enterprise, or start your 30-day trial. To learn which plan is the best for you, check out our Pricing page.
  2. Project info: You can use the default project name & description or add your own, then use the dropdown menu to select a region to store your content. If you need a custom region, you can talk to sales using the link provided there.
  3. Include Starter content checkbox: Select this checkbox to import existing Starter content into the project.
  4. Finalize: Click Add project to create the Starter project. The system will redirect you to the project homepage.

#Create a model

Let's create a model for our products.

Creating a product modelCreating a product model

  1. Navigate to the Schema builder.
  2. Use the + Add button, create a new model called Product, keeping the default suggested values for API ID and Plural API ID.
  3. You can optionally set a Description that will show for content editors inside the app, and within the GraphQL API schema.
  4. Click Add

Once the model is created, you can start adding fields to it, which we will do in the next step.

#Add fields to your model

We will now add some fields to our Product model for a product Name, Price and Image.

Every time we need to add a field, we will select one of the field types from the right sidebar of the schema builder.

Different field types may require for us to fill in different information.

In this Quickstart, we will add three fields to our Product model: One for product name, one for product price and one for product images. Check out our document on field types to learn more about all the types of fields you can add to your schema.

#Create a name field

Creating a name fieldCreating a name field

  1. Select Single line text field from the right sidebar.
  2. Set the Display name to Name.
  3. Click on the Validations tab and select the Make field required checkbox.
  4. Click Add.

#Create a price field

Creating a price fieldCreating a price field

  1. Select the Number field from the right sidebar. You'll find it in the Integer section.
  2. Set the Display name to Price.
  3. Click on the Validations tab and select the Make field required checkbox.
  4. Click Add.

#Create an image field

Creating an image fieldCreating an image field

  1. Select the Asset picker field from the right sidebar. You'll find it in the Asset section.
  2. Set the Display name to Image.
  3. Select the Allow multiple assets checkbox. This will later allow you to add more than one image to your product content entries.
  4. Click Add.

#Explore system fields

By default, Hygraph handles system fields for things such as the id, createdAt, publishedAt, and more.

You can see all of the system fields for your selected model by clicking on Show system fields.

Show system fieldsShow system fields

#Create a content entry

We will now add some content for our newly created Product model.

Add entryAdd entry

  1. Navigate to the Content editor in your Hygraph project.
  2. Select the Product view from the Default views list. If your project only has the Product model so far, this view will display automatically when you access the content editor.
  3. Your content entries table for Product is currently empty. To create content, click + Add entry at the top-right corner of the screen.
  4. A form will display where you can enter the details for your new product. As you can see, the information you can complete here is the fields that we added to the model before.
  5. Go ahead and add your product details, this can be anything you like!
  6. To upload one or more images for your product. You can do this by clicking Add existing Images, and choosing a file from your computer to upload.
  7. Click on Save in the top-right corner of the screen. This action saves without publishing, meaning the content will be in the DRAFT state. You can continue to make changes to your content entry, and then save it again as many times as you want.

Entry in DRAFT stageEntry in DRAFT stage

#Publish your content

You can publish your first content entry by clicking Publish at the top-right corner of the screen while editing your content entry.

Publish your contentPublish your content

By default, all projects come with a DRAFT and PUBLISHED content stages. In this context, publishing an entry means to promote it to the PUBLISHED stage, so the content is live and others can consume it.

Once you click on Publish, a confirmation modal displays. This modal will also include any related entries or assets that are currently in the DRAFT stage and may need publishing as well.

The following image shows how Hygraph asks if you would like to also publish the assets related to your entry that are in the DRAFT stage:

Publish your entry & assetsPublish your entry & assets

You should use the checkbox to Select all, and then click Publish.

You can continue to make changes to your content entry, and then save it again as many times as you want without publishing. When you save but don't publish, you'll see inside of the stages list that the entry is now outdated, meaning that the published version live on your website is different from the latest version in our Hygraph project.

A blue "Published" pill indicates that the content entry is outdatedA blue "Published" pill indicates that the content entry is outdated

Click here to learn more about our system content stages.

#Query content

For any content model you create, Hygraph will automatically generate queries to fetch content entries, as well as mutations to create, update, delete, publish, and unpublish them.

You can try out all of the queries, and mutations your project has inside of the API Playground.

You can visit the API Playground by navigating to it from the sidebar:

The API PlaygroundThe API Playground

If you begin to type inside of the API Playground product you will see autosuggest recommend some queries. We'll get the query to fetch a single product entry, multiple, an individual product version, and the connection query to fetch edges/nodes.

Let's use the products query to fetch all of our product content entries, as well as the fields for name, price, and the image:

{
products {
name
price
image {
url
fileName
}
}
}

If you execute this query using the "Play icon" you'll get the results of the content entries you saved.

#Mutate content

For any content model you create, Hygraph will automatically generate GraphQL mutations so you can create, update, delete, publish, and unpublish content entries.

You can try out all of the queries, and mutations your project has inside of the API Playground.

Just like we saw in the queries section, you can visit the API Playground by navigating to it from the sidebar.

Inside the API Playground, you'll start with the following:

mutation {
}

Then inside there, when you type product you'll be given a list of all mutations that relate to your Product model.

For this tutorial we'll use the updateProduct mutation to modify the product entry we previously created using the UI.

If you explore the API Docs, you'll see the typed arguments the updateProduct mutation accepts. Just hover over the mutation, and a dialog will show you some information about it, which is clickable and displays documentation on the Docs tab of the API Playground:

updateProduct mutationupdateProduct mutation

You can click-through to the individual types to see what fields are necessary. For example, ProductUpdateInput will contain all of the fields that match your content model.

Let's use these types to help us write our GraphQL mutation, providing both where, and data arguments.

We'll only update the price field for our product entry.

mutation {
updateProduct(where: { id: "<ADD_YOUR_ID_HERE>" }, data: { price: 2000 }) {
id
name
price
}
}

You should then see once you execute the operation that the product entry has been updated with the new price value.

#API Access

The last step, is to navigate to your Project settings panel to enable access to your API. You can either enable full public access to your API or protect your API with permanent auth tokens.

The default stage for the Content API is set to Published. To create the new permissions click Yes, initialize defaults in the Content API Permissions section.

Content API permissionsContent API permissions

This will set Read permission on all models on stage Published.

Now that the API is public, let's test it. Copy your project's Content API endpoint and paste it in your URL bar for your browser. You'll find the Content API URL in Project settings > Access > Endpoints.

Content API URLContent API URL

Run the query we used in the Query content section of this document once more. This is now publicly accessible on the web!

Content publicly availableContent publicly available

#Additional resources

DocumentAbout
Getting StartedComprehensive project-based tutorial on how to create a Hygraph project from A to Z.
API accessInformation on enabling API access.
Roles and permissionsInformation on roles and permissions including system roles, custom roles, how to work with roles & permissions, and detailed examples.