Prismic: the go-to headless CMS to scale digital experiences 

What’s certain is that there’s no one-size-fits-all CMS. Brands have different needs and wants and require different CMS functionalities. One of the latest additions to our growing CMS portfolio is Prismic, a headless CMS that’s cloud-based, fast, and user-friendly. Before I get into why Prismic is one of our favorite CMSes, let’s take a look at what a headless CMS actually is.

With a headless CMS, the front end is separated from the back end. The front end is the ‘front’ of any user interface - it’s what users see and interact with. The back end, as you can guess, refers to everything that goes on ‘behind-the-scenes’: it’s where you can upload, edit, and manage content. When using a headless CMS, the separated front end fetches the content from the back end using an application programming interface (API) and displays it to whoever is viewing your content.

Headless CMSes are front-end agnostic, which means you’re no longer restricted to specific modules, themes, or functionalities and can decide where and how you want your content to be presented. This enables developers to build multiple ‘heads’ for different channels and devices, making it easier for marketers to create omnichannel experiences.

There are tons of headless CMSes on the market, each with its unique set of features and functions. You might be wondering - what’s so special about Prismic? Allow me to make my case.

In their own words, Prismic is “a tool that lets you choose your technology, framework, and language and then easily manage your content.” It’s a fast, easy-to-use CMS that makes life easier for everyone involved in developing and managing websites. Developers, designers, and marketers using Prismic can work in tandem or independently with ease. No wonder it’s trusted by big names like Google, Levi’s, Netflix, Deliveroo, and eBay.

What makes Prismic unique is one of their core concepts called “slices”. Slices are dynamic website sections that marketing teams can easily create and rearrange to design pages for blog posts, case studies, landing pages, product pages, and more. Prismic also has a built-in media library where you can upload all your images, videos, and audio files. These assets are automatically compressed, formatted, and optimized. You can crop and resize your images, as well as add alt text and other metadata.

Adding new languages is free with Prismic, which makes localizing content a breeze. Not to mention your content loads faster because it sits on a content delivery network and uses APIs to deliver data. Site visitors don’t have to wait for your server to load the data from its location. Instead, the data is fetched from the closest server.

Besides these functionalities, Prismic brings a ton of benefits to marketing and development teams:

• Independence

With Prismic’s slices, marketers can unleash their creativity and easily create dynamic content without needing developers. This speeds up time-to-market for new content.

• Ability to preview and schedule content

You can preview your content in real time and see how pages will look before publishing them. On top of that, you can schedule your content for publishing - whether that’s one, two, or 50 pieces of content.

• Revision history

You can track every modification and see who made the changes. In the case of lost or deleted content, you can simply revisit an earlier version of the site and retrieve the content.

• Technology agnostic

Developers can pick whichever technology, framework, or language they prefer, whether that’s React, Node, or vanilla JS/PHP/Ruby. Which means increased speed and quality of development.

• Fast and simple setup

Being a cloud-based CMS, Prismic enables developers to create a new repository on Prismic with a single click. All you need to do is name your project and everything gets automatically connected. 

• No need for maintenance

Prismic takes care of upgrades, bug fixes, and security issues, which gives developers more time to focus on their craft.

A great example of Prismic’s potential is our recent work with globally-renowned interior brand HKliving. They wanted to improve their digital customer experience (CX) with a new website that is both functional and well-designed. HKliving also wanted to integrate an e-commerce store with the website. Not an easy feat, but we couldn’t wait to take on the challenge.

After comparing different CMS options together with HKliving, Prismic took the cake. Mostly because HKliving has a vast product portfolio and catalogs. Their team publishes and updates content often, and they needed a CMS that would give them the flexibility, ease, and speed to cater to their content goals. The built-in media library is also a big help and saves HKliving tons of time by storing their assets in an easily accessible location.

With Prismic as our trump card, we delivered a unique, future-proof website that takes HKliving’s digital experience to greater heights. Unlike most e-commerce platforms which tend to prioritize function over form, HKliving’s new website offers the best of both worlds and stays true to what the brand is known for: their eye for exceptional design. Curious to know more about the project? Click here.

Hopefully by now I’ve convinced you of the wonders of Prismic. That being said, in some cases Prismic may not be the best solution. Brands that want to maintain control over their data will find little benefit in using Prismic. Since it’s cloud-based, it’s not possible to host data on your own servers or in your country of choice.

While the initial setup is fast and simple, developers are still needed to create different content types and configure the slices. If you don’t have in-house developers, this will need to be outsourced. In my opinion though, it’s a small price to pay for the speed, ease, and flexibility of Prismic.

Picking the right CMS can be a daunting task and several factors come into play when deciding which one is right for you. Map out your CMS needs: if you’re looking for fast and trouble-free content publication, the ability to localize content, and little to no maintenance requirements, Prismic might just be the CMS for you.