Likelihood to Recommend Netlify CMS is well suited when you have very less frequent updates to your content, maybe once a day and very few people need to access your data. You can connect it to Netlify, GitHub, or any platform and have multiple people access it and do as many updates as you wish, but the process is not well-defined and you need to build your own system for that. It is well suited for projects you need to pull off with very low cost, it is essentially free as the software is open source and free to use, and all you need to do is set up your schema correctly and find a deployment pipeline where you can build your static site/API to redeploy whenever the content changes. I personally used a GitHub Login -> Netlify CMS -> next app consumer of content -> GitHub pipelines to run next SSG -> GitHub Pages to deploy the built static site. It might not be appropriate for large teams where users themselves need no-code tools to modify the schema of the content.
Read full review 1. If a headless CMS is needed. 2. Need the cms UI to be clean. 3. There is a need for customization options in the UI and API as well. 4. Expertise in javascript and need cms with node js backend. 5. Want auth APIs pre-made. 6. Easy to customize the backend as well. 7. The user interface can be fully customizable.
Read full review Pros Storing content data in customized schema without a database Full control over your content and infrastructure where it is deployed and stored Very low-cost way for building your own CMS and CDN Read full review Free and open source. CMS UI is nice and clean. Customization options. Regular updates and bug fixes. Easy to find and understand docs. Blogs available to learn more. Plugin eco system. Read full review Cons Linking between different schema types, i.e. having some relations between content Better ways to define content schema, like how TinaCMS would handle using a JSON Read full review Tutorial videos. Use typescript for it's backend. Detailed explanation of commands available. More clear docs for releasing. Read full review Alternatives Considered We really can't compare it to full-fledged CMS software, like
WordPress , which has a lot of community and support with widgets, plugins, and whatnot. It's not built for that, but you can compare it to
Contentful , Ghost,
Strapi , etc., which provide similar functionality to a headless CMS with custom schema options, but even among them, it still lacks a lot of functionality, ease of use, and support. But Netlify CMS pros would be of the opinion that compared to other platforms where most schemas need to use their own tools and frameworks, it's very cost-effective. Something new called TinaCMS has come up to compete with Netlify CMS by covering most of its shortcomings, but it's something new being built by the same team that built
Forestry CMS and comes with many modern features, yet currently only supports NextJS SSG.
Read full review Return on Investment Helped us inject dynamic content into existing site very quickly Wasted a lot of time to implement when something complex, such as querying content, was needed Read full review Easy to setup. Customize the ui. Increased productivity. Get prebuilt auth apis. Customize the backend and add new apis. Read full review ScreenShots