What are the main differences between monolithic, custom, and headless CMS solutions?
Monolithic CMS solutions provide both the frontend and backend from a single vendor, often resulting in limited flexibility and higher risk due to data aggregation. Custom CMS solutions are built and maintained in-house, offering tailored features but requiring significant investment and ongoing maintenance. Headless CMS solutions, like Hygraph, decouple the backend from the frontend, allowing you to create unique frontends and deliver content to any channel via APIs. Headless CMSs offer reliable documentation, high security, and flexibility for modern digital strategies. For a detailed comparison, see our resource on Monolith vs. Custom vs. Headless CMS.
How does a headless CMS compare to monolithic and custom CMSs in terms of costs, flexibility, and security?
Headless CMSs typically reduce implementation risks and operational costs compared to monolithic CMSs, which often have high licensing fees. Custom CMSs require significant upfront investment and ongoing maintenance. In terms of flexibility, headless CMSs enable unique frontends and workflows, while monolithic CMSs are more rigid. Security is enhanced in headless CMSs by decoupling the backend and frontend, and they often provide out-of-the-box workflows that are easier to use. Learn more in our blog post on CMS comparison.
What are the frontend flexibility differences between monolithic, custom, and headless CMS?
Monolithic CMSs typically offer limited templates or frontend frameworks. Custom and headless CMSs allow for unique frontends that can be delivered to any channel via custom APIs, providing greater flexibility for modern digital experiences. Source: Strategic Roadmap to Transforming Your CMS.
Features & Capabilities
What features does Hygraph offer as a headless CMS?
Hygraph provides a GraphQL-native architecture, content federation, Smart Edge Cache for fast content delivery, custom roles for granular access control, rich text management, project backups, and enterprise-grade security and compliance. It also supports extensive integrations, localization, and asset management. For more, see Hygraph Features.
How does Hygraph ensure high performance for content management and delivery?
Hygraph delivers exceptional performance through features like Smart Edge Cache, high-performance endpoints, and optimized GraphQL API performance. These capabilities ensure fast, reliable content delivery for high-traffic and global audiences. Read more about performance improvements in this blog post.
What security and compliance certifications does Hygraph have?
Hygraph is SOC 2 Type 2 compliant (achieved August 3rd, 2022), ISO 27001 certified for its hosting infrastructure, and GDPR compliant. These certifications demonstrate Hygraph's commitment to security and compliance. For more details, visit the security features page.
What security features does Hygraph provide?
Hygraph offers granular permissions, SSO integrations, audit logs, encryption at rest and in transit, regular backups, and enterprise-grade compliance features such as dedicated hosting and custom SLAs. For transparency, Hygraph provides a process for reporting security issues and a public security and compliance report.
Use Cases & Benefits
Who can benefit from using Hygraph?
Hygraph is ideal for developers, product managers, and marketing teams in industries such as ecommerce, automotive, technology, food and beverage, and manufacturing. It is especially suited for organizations modernizing legacy tech stacks, global enterprises requiring localization, and companies seeking scalable, future-proof content management. Source: ICPVersion2_Hailey.pdf.
What problems does Hygraph solve for its customers?
What are some real-world results achieved with Hygraph?
Customers have achieved significant results with Hygraph, such as Komax realizing a 3X faster time-to-market by managing over 20,000 product variations across 40+ markets, Samsung improving customer engagement by 15% with a scalable member platform, and Stobag increasing online revenue share from 15% to 70% after transitioning to a digital-first approach. See more customer stories.
Implementation & Ease of Use
How easy is it to get started with Hygraph?
Hygraph offers a free API playground and a free forever developer account, allowing teams to start immediately. For larger projects, you can request a demo. The structured onboarding process includes introduction calls, account provisioning, and technical and content kickoffs. Extensive documentation, webinars, and how-to videos are available for self-paced learning. Source: Hygraph Documentation.
How long does it take to implement Hygraph?
Implementation timelines vary by project scope. For example, Top Villas launched a new project within 2 months from the initial touchpoint, and Si Vale met aggressive deadlines during their initial implementation. Hygraph's onboarding and training resources help accelerate adoption. Source: Top Villas Case Study.
What feedback have customers given about Hygraph's ease of use?
Customers praise Hygraph's intuitive user interface, accessibility for non-technical users, and ease of setup. It was recognized for "Best Usability" in Summer 2023, and users appreciate features like custom app integration for content quality checks. Source: Hailey Feed - PMF Research.xlsx, Try Hygraph.
Support & Maintenance
What support and training resources are available for Hygraph customers?
Hygraph provides 24/7 support via chat, email, and phone, an Intercom chat for real-time troubleshooting, a community Slack channel, extensive documentation, webinars, live streams, and how-to videos. Enterprise customers receive a dedicated Customer Success Manager and a structured onboarding process. Source: Hygraph Documentation, Hygraph Pricing.
How does Hygraph handle maintenance, upgrades, and troubleshooting?
Hygraph is a cloud-based platform, so all deployment, updates, security, and infrastructure maintenance are managed by Hygraph. Upgrades are seamlessly integrated, and troubleshooting is supported by 24/7 support, Intercom chat, community Slack, and extensive documentation. Enterprise customers have access to a dedicated Customer Success Manager. Source: manual.
KPIs & Metrics
What KPIs and metrics are associated with the pain points Hygraph solves?
Key KPIs include time saved on content updates, system uptime, content consistency across regions, user satisfaction scores, reduction in operational costs, speed to market, maintenance costs, and scalability metrics. For more details, see the blog on CMS KPIs.
Vision & Differentiation
What is Hygraph's vision and mission, and how does the product support it?
Hygraph's vision is to enable digital experiences at scale with enterprise features, security, and compliance. The mission is guided by values such as trust, collaboration, customer focus, and continuous learning. Hygraph's GraphQL-native architecture, content federation, Smart Edge Cache, and enterprise-grade features empower businesses to modernize content management and scale digital operations. Source: Contact Hygraph.
How does Hygraph differentiate itself from other CMS solutions?
Hygraph stands out as the first GraphQL-native Headless CMS, offering flexibility, scalability, and integration capabilities. Its content federation, user-friendly tools, and enterprise-grade features (security, compliance, Smart Edge Cache) enable businesses to deliver exceptional digital experiences at scale. For a comparison with other CMS types, see this resource.
A comprehensive guide on choosing the CMS that suits your need
+2
Last updated by Alex, Alessandro & 1 more
on Mar 27, 2026
Originally written by Alex, Alessandro & 1 more
Let’s make one thing clear: nobody has to write software from scratch nowadays.
The beautiful and unique frontend of a website relies on multiple JS libraries, the most custom backend application relies on multiple open-source or proprietary microservices and products, and the entire application is, probably, hosted in the software universe of a cloud provider.
Still, how do you stay unique and differentiated in design and functionality if all is off-the-shelf microservices? How can you shine with a strong digital strategy, how do you become future-proof and less dependent on one single monolithic vendor?
Well, Build versus Buy is a range. All strategies are somewhere in-between.
There are software elements that may be core to your strategy, product, or brand that have to be customized and unique (e.g. the appearance of your digital property). And there are elements that merely assist you (e.g. your CMS, your payment solution). They are not your core capability and should not be created or maintained by you.
If we look into the content management world, there are three distinct strategies: a monolithic solution (a vendor gives you the frontend and the backend), a custom-built “homebrew” CMS (you create and maintain both frontend, and backend), and a customizable API-first, headless CMS (you create the frontend, a vendor gives you a very configurable backend with a content API).
This ebook reviews the three CMS strategies: monolithic, custom, and headless. We will compare these three options and examine the factors organizations overlook when making their selection. Caveat: no-code page-builder tools for small organizations are not under review in this guide.
The 2000s and early 2010s were a time where large businesses relied on either a monolithic CMS (e.g. Sitecore), or a custom, self-built system. Standard use cases e.g. corporate marketing, meant that going for a monolithic system was the safest option. In contrast, custom CMSs, “homebrew” ones, were built by content-heavy businesses for non-standard use cases: media, publishing, data companies, etc.
Custom CMSs used to be built by content-heavy businesses for non-standard use cases: Media, publishing, data companies, etc.
Remember, these were the years before or just in the beginning of the mobile revolution after the iPhone launch in 2007.
Gradually, the mobile channel content consumption became so important that monolithic solutions became inadequate due to their sole focus on desktop websites.
In addition, the explosive increase in Javascript communities and libraries (early and mid 2010s) meant that beautiful, unique- looking and feature-rich websites and applications could be created at the fraction of the cost and the time.
These two major trends – mobile and JS – made the emergence of the API-first, or headless, CMS inevitable. The strategy made cross-channel content delivery possible and satisfied the hunger for more and more complex web-based applications with complex content structures. Also, it appeared to be the perfect balance between buying and building. Create the unique user-facing design and functionality without the burden of a building and maintaining a content backend and editorial interface.
Additional reasons to move to an API-first CMS and, generally, a microservices stack became aparent in the late 2010s and early 2020s. As shared in the 2022 and 2023 MACH Alliance Report (MACH Alliance report), the drivers of MACH are ambitions to improve customer experiences and platform speed. Satisfied users converting at a higher rate and website visitors not bouncing due to slow loading times are a central priority for global brands. Privacy and security follow closely, whereas the costs of maintaining existing systems are a lower priority.
Content API for multi-channel content distribution
CMS user management and authentication
Additional functions (e.g. search, analytics; plugins and extensions; custom integrations, API level; frontend functionality)
Content delivery network
Security and compliance (e.g. backups, versioning, audit logs, system health reporting)
#Monolith vs. Custom vs. Headless: A side-by-side comparison
A universal one-size-fits-all strategy does not exist. The balance has, obviously, shifted from Monolith and Custom to Headless. There are, however, multiple use cases and organizational setups where a different strategy is better.
Let’s look at how monolithic vs. custom vs. headless CMS compare to each other in terms of costs, flexibility, security, and more.
SaaS-Composing your solution is like buying paid insurance for customer satisfaction, performance and security
The composable SaaS model can be compared to buying insurance. Insurance that your product will be secure, that its component will have a high NPS and Performance rating, and that its components will already be battle-tested by thousands of other customers. You won’t be the experimental guinea pig alpha customer of the product. And if you build it, you are the only customer.
Alessandro CanessaHead of Developer Relations at Commerce Layer
Implementation costs and risks
Monolith
High licensing costs.
Often, self-hosting and server management
May require expertise related to the monolithic product and specific programming languages (e.g. extremely steep learning curve with solutions like AEM)
Custom
Requires highly skilled and experienced experts incl. software architects, backend and frontend engineers, UX experience designers, designers, project managers.
High initial uncertainty about functionality, scope, unknowns, and total costs of ownership.
Self-hosting and server management
Data and content modelling experise required
Large upfront investment
Headless
More widely available frontend developers are needed for setting up the frontend
Data and content modelling experise required
Homebrew CMS projects have gigantic hidden costs for HR, PM, design, and docs
Whereas licensing costs for services like hosting the database and the application are known, teams often neglect the complexity of projects which require manpower for research, coordination, project management, recruiting, design, implementation, ongoing maintenance, vulnerability management, creation, and maintenance of documentation. If you start a new, even just moderately complex, custom CMS project, you may need to hire an additional developer. At current market rates (2023) for recruiters or internal HR managers, with the onboarding costs in mind and having in mind the onboarding costs until full productivity, a new hire can easily cost 15-40k USD!
More importantly, your VP of Product has given you some timelines. A custom built-CMS project will take much longer and will require diverting resources from multiple people who are in completely different development cycles.
Marcos MelladoTechnical Director at Resn
Customization degree
Monolith
Low flexibility - limited ability to change admin interface, data schema and user-facing frontends.
Custom
You can custom-build your entire backend and frontend - editorial features, engineering, hosting, apps, etc.
Headless
Provides flexibility to set up workflows, pick hosting locations, and use app frameworks if available with vendor.
With some headless solutions, the customizability of the data schema is comparable to the customizability of a powerful database.
Use-facing frontends can be completely custom.
Comparison chart - what can be customized?
Capability
Custom CMS
Headless CMS
Traditional CMS
Data storage, modeling
✓
✓
Pre-defined types, page-centric
Content Management EX
✓
Partially
Partially
Content Delivery
✓
✓
-
Integrations
✓
✓
✓
Developer Experience DX
✓
Partially
Partially
Frontend Experience
✓
✓
-
Business Logic
✓
Partially
Partially
Security and Compliance
✓
-
-
How much customization do you actually need?
A manufacturing leader was moving away from Sitecore to a headless CMS. The 100+ item RFI Questionnaire had a detailed requirement about a particularly complex custom workflow. The content management team had strong feelings about mapping their Sitecore workflow to the new CMS. The business requirement could not be matched with either of the new alternatives.
“Give the out-of-the-box workflow of the headless CMS a chance. At least for the trial.” The team not only didn’t complain, but they were excited about how much easier the new workflow is. “It’s most likely going to be fine with everybody. It is so not true that content teams can’t adapt. They can learn and unlearn.” Requirements are often mixed with current (inefficient) experiences.
“I do this now, so the new system has to do it. Ultimately, so many customizations come from wrong requirements not groomed and clarified properly.”
Alessandro CanessaHead of Developer Relations at Commerce Layer
Frontend flexibility
Monolith
Either only templates or frontend frameworks with limited availability of engineers. Either not multi-channel or has limited API capabilities
Custom
Unique frontends, can deliver to any channels via custom API
Headless
Unique frontends, can deliver to any channels via custom API
Are you aware of all the edge cases that building a new custom CMS will involve?
Years ago, Danone decided to launch a store locator picker experience on their website. Initially, an engineering team was tasked to build it all using only partially external APIs like the GoogleMaps API. Only after a major pushback did the team realize that the scalability of their application would be a major issue and that they were not even aware of all edge cases related to the applications’ business logic. It was decided to go for a commercial SaaS vendor.
What user interactions make sense? Who will be in charge of research and design? What vulnerabilities may emerge if you build the application? Do you intend to have your application security audited? What are your application’s implications on SEO? How do you guarantee scalability? How much time will you dedicate to building the solution, and maintaining it? How much time are you ready to dedicate if the solution goes down.
Marcos MelladoTechnical Director at Resn
Web vitals/application performance
Vendor lock-in
Monolith
High migration costs, organizations often opt for stepwise move
Content structures need to be redesigned completely and the frontend rebuilt from scratch.
Custom
Huge dependency on the internal team who outlined, designed, developed and documented the system.
In the case of a migration, little of the custom code can be salvaged. Data can be exported at an increased cost.
Headless
API-first systems are more easily replaceable, generalist developers sufficient (e.g. JS and API knowledge).
Data can be exported easily via the REST or GraphQL API in a standard format.
Frontend code usually reusable with a different API.
Expert knowledge for your stack
Monolith
A pool of engineers who have worked with the specific monolithic CMS solution and the specific programming languages required for its operation
Custom
Your internal team who built and maintains the custom system
New engineers have to undergo a rigorous and prolonged onboarding on the system
Headless
A large pool of frontend developers
Knowledge of the CMS system and its API is usually not required unless a proprietary API format.
Content complexity
Monolith
Mostly content model templates.
Custom
The creator of the CMS has full theoretic flexibility to use any database and create any custom data structures.
Headless
Very high flexibility to create custom data structures. Some CMSs support bi-directional references between models (e.g. Hygraph)
If you build a custom CMS, only your team will share feedback about improvements and bugs. You will always be the one to uncover issues and won’t rely on a large community of previous users who already made the product better.
Alexander NaydenovHead of Global Enablement at Hygraph
CMS user community
Monolith
Thousands of users reporting issues. Wide-spread monolithic CMS around since early 2000-2005. Technical documentation is reliable, complete and constantly updated.
Custom
Only 1 company uses the system and reports issues. Documentation is sometimes missing or not updated on a regular basis.
Headless
Thousands of users reporting issues. First headless CMSs around since 2014. Technical documentation is reliable, complete and constantly updated.
Maintenance costs
Monolith
Competition between monoliths and new entrants keeps prices and quality in check.
Custom
The entire codebase and docs have to be maintained, bugs fixed, improvements created from scratch by the company who built the system.
Headless
High competition between new and old vendors - for improving the products, fixing bugs, securing systems.
While industry leaders often hike prices for existing customers, price pressure for new contracts is high and costs lower.
Maintenance costs for the frontend.
Security
Monolith
Usually audited and certified, but higher risk due to aggregation of data in the hands of one vendor
Custom
Multiple security experts need to be involved for ensuring a solution is truly secure.
Little incentive to get independently audited
Headless
Massive competition amongst vendors, incl. the smallest ones, to get security audited and certified.
Diversification of data hosting responsibilities (e.g. ecommerce vs cms data) reduces the risk of all data being exposed if an attack is successful
Security of composed solutions is the highest among CMS approaches
The claim “composable is less secure” than a monolithic solution or homebrew is rather weak. Nowaday, all of your vendors will be SOC2 compliant or ISO27001 certified. The growing security certification and audit industry is creating strong competition among even the smallest of vendors to take data privacy and security seriously. Do you intend to audit your own implementation? Do you have multiple inhouse experts taking care of security?
By separating responsibilities among several software components you are literally diversifying. Different vendors have different permission and access levels to different segments of your data. This is not the case with either a single monolithic vendor, or your own custom solution.
Are all your eggs in one basket or in multiple baskets?
Alessandro CanessaHead of Developer Relations at Commerce Layer
Hygraph is the first GraphQL-native Headless Content Platform, enabling teams across the world to rapidly build and deliver tomorrow’s multi-channel digital experiences at scale.
It was designed for removing traditional content management pain points by using the power of GraphQL, and take the idea of a Headless CMS to the next level. Hygraph integrates with any frontend technology, such as React, Vue and Svelte.
Get started with Hygraph by creating a free account, learn how our customers are solving real-world problems, gather information about next-generation CMS from our resources or academy, or learn more about the applications of Hygraph.
To discuss how Hygraph can help you transform your digital projects, reach out to us.
Get started for free, or request a demo to discuss larger projects
A comprehensive guide on choosing the CMS that suits your need
+2
Last updated by Alex, Alessandro & 1 more
on Mar 27, 2026
Originally written by Alex, Alessandro & 1 more
Let’s make one thing clear: nobody has to write software from scratch nowadays.
The beautiful and unique frontend of a website relies on multiple JS libraries, the most custom backend application relies on multiple open-source or proprietary microservices and products, and the entire application is, probably, hosted in the software universe of a cloud provider.
Still, how do you stay unique and differentiated in design and functionality if all is off-the-shelf microservices? How can you shine with a strong digital strategy, how do you become future-proof and less dependent on one single monolithic vendor?
Well, Build versus Buy is a range. All strategies are somewhere in-between.
There are software elements that may be core to your strategy, product, or brand that have to be customized and unique (e.g. the appearance of your digital property). And there are elements that merely assist you (e.g. your CMS, your payment solution). They are not your core capability and should not be created or maintained by you.
If we look into the content management world, there are three distinct strategies: a monolithic solution (a vendor gives you the frontend and the backend), a custom-built “homebrew” CMS (you create and maintain both frontend, and backend), and a customizable API-first, headless CMS (you create the frontend, a vendor gives you a very configurable backend with a content API).
This ebook reviews the three CMS strategies: monolithic, custom, and headless. We will compare these three options and examine the factors organizations overlook when making their selection. Caveat: no-code page-builder tools for small organizations are not under review in this guide.
The 2000s and early 2010s were a time where large businesses relied on either a monolithic CMS (e.g. Sitecore), or a custom, self-built system. Standard use cases e.g. corporate marketing, meant that going for a monolithic system was the safest option. In contrast, custom CMSs, “homebrew” ones, were built by content-heavy businesses for non-standard use cases: media, publishing, data companies, etc.
Custom CMSs used to be built by content-heavy businesses for non-standard use cases: Media, publishing, data companies, etc.
Remember, these were the years before or just in the beginning of the mobile revolution after the iPhone launch in 2007.
Gradually, the mobile channel content consumption became so important that monolithic solutions became inadequate due to their sole focus on desktop websites.
In addition, the explosive increase in Javascript communities and libraries (early and mid 2010s) meant that beautiful, unique- looking and feature-rich websites and applications could be created at the fraction of the cost and the time.
These two major trends – mobile and JS – made the emergence of the API-first, or headless, CMS inevitable. The strategy made cross-channel content delivery possible and satisfied the hunger for more and more complex web-based applications with complex content structures. Also, it appeared to be the perfect balance between buying and building. Create the unique user-facing design and functionality without the burden of a building and maintaining a content backend and editorial interface.
Additional reasons to move to an API-first CMS and, generally, a microservices stack became aparent in the late 2010s and early 2020s. As shared in the 2022 and 2023 MACH Alliance Report (MACH Alliance report), the drivers of MACH are ambitions to improve customer experiences and platform speed. Satisfied users converting at a higher rate and website visitors not bouncing due to slow loading times are a central priority for global brands. Privacy and security follow closely, whereas the costs of maintaining existing systems are a lower priority.
Content API for multi-channel content distribution
CMS user management and authentication
Additional functions (e.g. search, analytics; plugins and extensions; custom integrations, API level; frontend functionality)
Content delivery network
Security and compliance (e.g. backups, versioning, audit logs, system health reporting)
#Monolith vs. Custom vs. Headless: A side-by-side comparison
A universal one-size-fits-all strategy does not exist. The balance has, obviously, shifted from Monolith and Custom to Headless. There are, however, multiple use cases and organizational setups where a different strategy is better.
Let’s look at how monolithic vs. custom vs. headless CMS compare to each other in terms of costs, flexibility, security, and more.
SaaS-Composing your solution is like buying paid insurance for customer satisfaction, performance and security
The composable SaaS model can be compared to buying insurance. Insurance that your product will be secure, that its component will have a high NPS and Performance rating, and that its components will already be battle-tested by thousands of other customers. You won’t be the experimental guinea pig alpha customer of the product. And if you build it, you are the only customer.
Alessandro CanessaHead of Developer Relations at Commerce Layer
Implementation costs and risks
Monolith
High licensing costs.
Often, self-hosting and server management
May require expertise related to the monolithic product and specific programming languages (e.g. extremely steep learning curve with solutions like AEM)
Custom
Requires highly skilled and experienced experts incl. software architects, backend and frontend engineers, UX experience designers, designers, project managers.
High initial uncertainty about functionality, scope, unknowns, and total costs of ownership.
Self-hosting and server management
Data and content modelling experise required
Large upfront investment
Headless
More widely available frontend developers are needed for setting up the frontend
Data and content modelling experise required
Homebrew CMS projects have gigantic hidden costs for HR, PM, design, and docs
Whereas licensing costs for services like hosting the database and the application are known, teams often neglect the complexity of projects which require manpower for research, coordination, project management, recruiting, design, implementation, ongoing maintenance, vulnerability management, creation, and maintenance of documentation. If you start a new, even just moderately complex, custom CMS project, you may need to hire an additional developer. At current market rates (2023) for recruiters or internal HR managers, with the onboarding costs in mind and having in mind the onboarding costs until full productivity, a new hire can easily cost 15-40k USD!
More importantly, your VP of Product has given you some timelines. A custom built-CMS project will take much longer and will require diverting resources from multiple people who are in completely different development cycles.
Marcos MelladoTechnical Director at Resn
Customization degree
Monolith
Low flexibility - limited ability to change admin interface, data schema and user-facing frontends.
Custom
You can custom-build your entire backend and frontend - editorial features, engineering, hosting, apps, etc.
Headless
Provides flexibility to set up workflows, pick hosting locations, and use app frameworks if available with vendor.
With some headless solutions, the customizability of the data schema is comparable to the customizability of a powerful database.
Use-facing frontends can be completely custom.
Comparison chart - what can be customized?
Capability
Custom CMS
Headless CMS
Traditional CMS
Data storage, modeling
✓
✓
Pre-defined types, page-centric
Content Management EX
✓
Partially
Partially
Content Delivery
✓
✓
-
Integrations
✓
✓
✓
Developer Experience DX
✓
Partially
Partially
Frontend Experience
✓
✓
-
Business Logic
✓
Partially
Partially
Security and Compliance
✓
-
-
How much customization do you actually need?
A manufacturing leader was moving away from Sitecore to a headless CMS. The 100+ item RFI Questionnaire had a detailed requirement about a particularly complex custom workflow. The content management team had strong feelings about mapping their Sitecore workflow to the new CMS. The business requirement could not be matched with either of the new alternatives.
“Give the out-of-the-box workflow of the headless CMS a chance. At least for the trial.” The team not only didn’t complain, but they were excited about how much easier the new workflow is. “It’s most likely going to be fine with everybody. It is so not true that content teams can’t adapt. They can learn and unlearn.” Requirements are often mixed with current (inefficient) experiences.
“I do this now, so the new system has to do it. Ultimately, so many customizations come from wrong requirements not groomed and clarified properly.”
Alessandro CanessaHead of Developer Relations at Commerce Layer
Frontend flexibility
Monolith
Either only templates or frontend frameworks with limited availability of engineers. Either not multi-channel or has limited API capabilities
Custom
Unique frontends, can deliver to any channels via custom API
Headless
Unique frontends, can deliver to any channels via custom API
Are you aware of all the edge cases that building a new custom CMS will involve?
Years ago, Danone decided to launch a store locator picker experience on their website. Initially, an engineering team was tasked to build it all using only partially external APIs like the GoogleMaps API. Only after a major pushback did the team realize that the scalability of their application would be a major issue and that they were not even aware of all edge cases related to the applications’ business logic. It was decided to go for a commercial SaaS vendor.
What user interactions make sense? Who will be in charge of research and design? What vulnerabilities may emerge if you build the application? Do you intend to have your application security audited? What are your application’s implications on SEO? How do you guarantee scalability? How much time will you dedicate to building the solution, and maintaining it? How much time are you ready to dedicate if the solution goes down.
Marcos MelladoTechnical Director at Resn
Web vitals/application performance
Vendor lock-in
Monolith
High migration costs, organizations often opt for stepwise move
Content structures need to be redesigned completely and the frontend rebuilt from scratch.
Custom
Huge dependency on the internal team who outlined, designed, developed and documented the system.
In the case of a migration, little of the custom code can be salvaged. Data can be exported at an increased cost.
Headless
API-first systems are more easily replaceable, generalist developers sufficient (e.g. JS and API knowledge).
Data can be exported easily via the REST or GraphQL API in a standard format.
Frontend code usually reusable with a different API.
Expert knowledge for your stack
Monolith
A pool of engineers who have worked with the specific monolithic CMS solution and the specific programming languages required for its operation
Custom
Your internal team who built and maintains the custom system
New engineers have to undergo a rigorous and prolonged onboarding on the system
Headless
A large pool of frontend developers
Knowledge of the CMS system and its API is usually not required unless a proprietary API format.
Content complexity
Monolith
Mostly content model templates.
Custom
The creator of the CMS has full theoretic flexibility to use any database and create any custom data structures.
Headless
Very high flexibility to create custom data structures. Some CMSs support bi-directional references between models (e.g. Hygraph)
If you build a custom CMS, only your team will share feedback about improvements and bugs. You will always be the one to uncover issues and won’t rely on a large community of previous users who already made the product better.
Alexander NaydenovHead of Global Enablement at Hygraph
CMS user community
Monolith
Thousands of users reporting issues. Wide-spread monolithic CMS around since early 2000-2005. Technical documentation is reliable, complete and constantly updated.
Custom
Only 1 company uses the system and reports issues. Documentation is sometimes missing or not updated on a regular basis.
Headless
Thousands of users reporting issues. First headless CMSs around since 2014. Technical documentation is reliable, complete and constantly updated.
Maintenance costs
Monolith
Competition between monoliths and new entrants keeps prices and quality in check.
Custom
The entire codebase and docs have to be maintained, bugs fixed, improvements created from scratch by the company who built the system.
Headless
High competition between new and old vendors - for improving the products, fixing bugs, securing systems.
While industry leaders often hike prices for existing customers, price pressure for new contracts is high and costs lower.
Maintenance costs for the frontend.
Security
Monolith
Usually audited and certified, but higher risk due to aggregation of data in the hands of one vendor
Custom
Multiple security experts need to be involved for ensuring a solution is truly secure.
Little incentive to get independently audited
Headless
Massive competition amongst vendors, incl. the smallest ones, to get security audited and certified.
Diversification of data hosting responsibilities (e.g. ecommerce vs cms data) reduces the risk of all data being exposed if an attack is successful
Security of composed solutions is the highest among CMS approaches
The claim “composable is less secure” than a monolithic solution or homebrew is rather weak. Nowaday, all of your vendors will be SOC2 compliant or ISO27001 certified. The growing security certification and audit industry is creating strong competition among even the smallest of vendors to take data privacy and security seriously. Do you intend to audit your own implementation? Do you have multiple inhouse experts taking care of security?
By separating responsibilities among several software components you are literally diversifying. Different vendors have different permission and access levels to different segments of your data. This is not the case with either a single monolithic vendor, or your own custom solution.
Are all your eggs in one basket or in multiple baskets?
Alessandro CanessaHead of Developer Relations at Commerce Layer
Hygraph is the first GraphQL-native Headless Content Platform, enabling teams across the world to rapidly build and deliver tomorrow’s multi-channel digital experiences at scale.
It was designed for removing traditional content management pain points by using the power of GraphQL, and take the idea of a Headless CMS to the next level. Hygraph integrates with any frontend technology, such as React, Vue and Svelte.
Get started with Hygraph by creating a free account, learn how our customers are solving real-world problems, gather information about next-generation CMS from our resources or academy, or learn more about the applications of Hygraph.
To discuss how Hygraph can help you transform your digital projects, reach out to us.
Get started for free, or request a demo to discuss larger projects