My Journey in Finding A CMS

I need a CMS that is easy for me to integrate, simple for a user to use and doesn't make me jump through hoops to modify.

As the year (2021) approaches its close, I have been looking at all the upcoming projects I have. Quite a few involve building sites.

I have pretty much settled on Nextjs for the frontend, it's the other side that's giving me concerns. I would like to get these sites up and running as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Use A Site Builder or Preexisting Template

The thought has absolutely crossed my mind...

Sure, I could use something like Editor X, Webflow or WordPress. But it all boils down to customisation. These sites are going to be custom - very custom, looks that can't be achieved with a site builder.

Great as these tools may be, they will not offer me what I aim to achieve.

So, Why Nextjs?

There are a number of options when it comes to choosing a frontend. Nextjs just makes more sense to me because:

• React: Nextjs is basically React but a tier higher, I can achieve more with the former than the later.
• Gatsby: A friend tried to put me on Gatsby. I tried it, I didn't like how it handles things.
• Vue: I am too far down my coding journey to try and start learning another framework
• Svelte: See before
• Pure HTML/CSS: I'm crazy, but not that crazy. I have done this before, but not this time.
• Astro: I still need to do some looking into Astro. I like what Chris Bongers has accomplished with it.
• Angular: We do not talk about Angular on this blog.

I have chosen Next because:

• Like their website says 'The Framework for production'
• I am hoping to maybe possibly get a chance to work with Vercel

So Why This Post?

With all that out of the way, let's get back to the reason for this post. Whilst Nextjs may have the frontend covered, I need something as efficient to handle the content and data of the sites.

So, in the coming weeks, I will be looking at several options, documenting what I learn and how well it suits my needs. I will be scoring the backend options based on:

1. Ease of use
2. How well data can be queried
3. Ease of integration with Next
4. Time taken to production
5. Support/Community
6. Ease of deployment

The contenders so far are as follows:

• Sanity
• Strapi
• Payload CMS
• WordPress CMS
• Contentful
• GraphCMS

I will be creating the same type of site to see which does it best.

Also, if you have a backend option you think I should look at, please tell me. I will gladly give it a try.

This post will be updated as we go

Update 29 October 2021: Added 'Contenful' and 'GraphCMS' to the list. I think I'll stop at six. Added 'Time to production' ranking.

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