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agility cms Article

<hr /> <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jina-zohori/">Jina Zohori</a> is a customer fanatic. OK, maybe customer-centric is more corporately apropos. But given her passion and gusto, fanatic feels a little more on target. It reflects her enthusiasm for championing success at a human level – and bringing <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/agility">Agility CMS's</a> powerful yet simple solutions to content creators and developers.She also sees this rabid customer commitment as a holistic calling, one that marshals an entire organization's collective efforts.“Being customer-centric isn't just marketing's job, or sales’ job, or customer success,” she said during our chat at <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/the-deep-dish-on-composable-6-tasty-takeaways-from-the-mach-alliances-2025-conference">“The Composable Conference”</a> a few weeks ago. “It's an engineering job. It's everybody's job. Technology is for everybody. And that experience, driven through our technology, doesn't have to stop at our customers.”That attitude is one of the many reasons why Jina is a rockstar leader – and exactly what Agility needs to navigate the dense and fiercely competitive jungles of the headless CMS landscape. As president, she combines her tech savviness and business acumen to drive strategy and meet the needs of her users, especially those in the deep trenches of digital experience and content creation.When I met with Jina at the recent <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/the-composable-conference-2025-takes-shape-as-mach-alliance-announces-speakers-and-new-events">MACH Alliance conference in Chicago,</a> I was eager to talk to a headless CMS that was a member of the open, best-of-breed cabal. This year’s conference modified the formula a bit, and I wanted some perspective on what’s changed through the CMS lens – and how the Alliance is continuing to support the goals of <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/what-is-a-content-management-system-cms">content management systems. </a>This is a key question, especially as the market wrestles with questions about the ROI of composable strategies. As stories of failures and <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7310313384015511552/">contradictory posts by VTEX</a> color the decision-making, customers are looking to their trusted SIs and vendors to help them navigate the complexities.As a 22-year veteran of the space, Agility is taking it all in stride. A big part of their success? You guessed it: customer centricity. And as Jina explained, that’s manifested through Agility’s focus on meaningful outcomes.“Our bread and butter isn’t just our content management system as a platform,” she said, “but the experience you gain through that as an editor, as a developer, and of course as an end user consuming that content on the front end.”<h3 id="the-evolution-to-headless-cms">The evolution to headless CMS</h3>While we didn’t go deep into the archives, Agility’s heritage is arguably one of its key advantages. With more than two decades under their belt, they’ve seen market opportunity and turmoil – and continued to persevere. Over the years, the Canadian-born and bred platform has earned a stellar reputation, powering large-scale enterprise brands like Cineplex, Scotiabank, and Mitsubishi Electric with its headless CMS. Like many of its legacy peers, life began as a solution to a common agency problem.“When we were building sites for our customers, we realized, 'Hey, it'd be really great if we had a CMS for this,'" Jina said. "Not only would we be able to have everything housed in one really nice package, but it would give the customer more autonomy, so they're not reliant as much on the developers, which would be us at that point.”As a consultancy, building websites opened more doors for implementing their homegrown CMS. As the footprint expanded, the mission shifted from easing the burden for their internal developers and giving more ownership and domain to their customers.The pivot to a headless CMS architecture came later, as CEO and co-founder <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonvoigt/">Jon Voigt</a> and CTO <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/joelvarty/">Joel Varty</a> saw the advantages of decoupling to provide even greater control and autonomy for developers. According to Jina, this journey began before the headless “Gold Rush.”“Prior to ‘headless’ being coined as a term, we were already looking at how we become more cloud-native, API driven, and decoupled,” she said.It wasn't quite SaaS at that time, but as Jina explained, Agility was aiming for greater flexibility and optionality, so the front end – whatever it might be, whatever channel the presentation layer should be – provided greater freedom and control.“It allows users to just be able to do more.” And the rest, as they say, is history. From an architectural perspective, Agility’s scalable and flexible posture makes it a seamless solution for composable stacks. I’ve spent a lot of time in the Agility UX, and it reflects thoughtful and persistent innovation. The company makes a conscious effort to engage customers around product betas to help perfect their tooling, which has resulted in its <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://agilitycms.com/product/web-studio">rock-solid Web Studio</a> and other features that put the headless CMS over the top. <h3 id="the-road-to-mach">The road to MACH</h3>Agility has been a member of the MACH Alliance since mid-2023. Since then, the Alliance has ballooned to well over 100 member technologies, many of which have aligned to deliver a myriad of composable solutions. As Jina described, the MACH ecosystem of partners – and the resulting collaboration – has really made an impact for Agility.“What MACH does for us is it gives us that sense of community,” she said. “Not just headless in the CMS space, but all these other vendors that come together and provide a full composable solution. Which, again, gives more autonomy to our customers to be able to easily plug and play with different technologies to fit their stack and their needs to better service their customers.”<h3 id="mapping-the-future-with-ai">Mapping the future with AI</h3>AI was on everyone’s mind at “The Composable Conference,” from agentic AI to agentic commerce and beyond. Like all of its other endeavors, Agility has been careful and intentional around its AI roadmap, blocking and tackling around the hype and engaging with customers around their practical and “blue sky” wish lists.Being at the conference helped crystallize things for Jina – and reinforce Agility’s approach.“Obviously, AI is a big part of what our future roadmap looks like,” Jina said. “But being really strategic and listening to these kinds of stories helps refine that for us. So there's an idea of what you think your customers would want, and you're like, okay, I'm gonna give them AI. But really, how is it impacting their day-to-day experience in our platform to do more with less?”As Jina explained, Agility’s AI play is focused beyond the low-hanging fruit, focusing on tangible ways to make their product experience easier, smoother, and more enjoyable to use.“You're on the platform for eight hours a day sometimes,” she reminded me. To that end, usability is key, and AI should help simplify everything from block editors to manipulating pages and templates. “We're really focused on that day-to-day usage and how we enhance and make that better for our users.”<h3 id="takeaways-from-“the-composable-conference”">Takeaways from “The Composable Conference”</h3><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/the-deep-dish-on-composable-6-tasty-takeaways-from-the-mach-alliances-2025-conference">As I've written about previously,</a> this year’s MACH Alliance confab provided different tracks for attendees, designed for the early “MACH Curious” to “Active” and “Pro” practitioners. Obviously, Agility falls into the latter, and I wanted Jina’s perspective on what stood out.“I've been hearing some of the stories from potential customers, and a lot of the MACH Alliance members are telling us about their pain in the beginning of moving towards a composable stack,” she said. I heard this from attendees as well. She noted that some of this angst might have come from the lackluster promise of easy-to-use software combined with a gap in proper training – or even the introduction of “green” staff with limited experience.One of the big changes Jina zeroed in on was the shift in narrative surrounding use cases. Based on her observation, last year’s content focused more on vendors and how their composable tech stacks were central to solving problems. This year, brands took center stage, and customer experience was the focal catalyst for composable transformation. Interestingly, Jina gained a lot of perspective on this from attending the “MACH Curious” sessions.“I wanted to [know] what triggers people to want to move to a composable solution,” she said. “If they're solving these problems with their monolithic solution, and it’s doing the thing it's supposed to do – the website's up, it's running, it's great, it's converting – what's triggering you to think about what else you can do to make things easier?”Smart. And as Jina noted, uncovering the factors requires a deeper dive with the people working on the product and the solution, and the brands in attendance were openly sharing their lessons on a multitude of dimensions. She found this to be incredibly refreshing.“I love that we're [putting] customers first,” she said exuberantly. “It's not all about how I use these really great brands to build out my tech stack, and now we're making X/Y dollars. A lot of the presentations actually had some of the metrics completely wiped out. Because it wasn't about that – it was about the customer experience.”An “agile” conclusion if there ever was one. Here’s six minutes with Jina:  <figure class="media"><div data-oembed-url="https://youtu.be/dIXrxCrTBho"><div style="position:relative;padding-bottom:100%;height:0;padding-bottom:56.2493%"><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dIXrxCrTBho" style="position:absolute;width:100%;height:100%;top:0;left:0" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe></div></div></figure> <hr /><h4 style="text-align:center" id="looking-for-guidance-on-agility-cms?-talk-to-an-expert.">Looking for guidance on Agility CMS? <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/contact">Talk to an expert.</a></h4><hr /> <h3 id="upcoming-events">Upcoming Events</h3> <img style="width:33.07%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2025/05/contentcon25-logo-1747412490394.png" /><h4 id="contentstack-contentcon-25"><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.contentstack.com/contentcon">Contentstack ContentCon 25</a></h4>June 3-5, 2025 – Chicago, USAThe future of digital is waiting for you! Contentstack presents ContentCon, the premier event for digital teams and industry leaders who are reimagining the future of digital experiences. Join us for two days of transformative presentations and workshops designed to help you put personalization and AI strategies into action. <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://contentcon2025.site.zuddl.com/">Register today! </a> <img style="width:31.83%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2025/01/cms-connect-2025-logo.png" alt="" /><h4 id="cms-connect-25"><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmsconnect25">CMS Connect 25</a></h4>August 5-6, 2025 – Montreal, CanadaWe are delighted to present the second annual summer edition of our signature global conference dedicated to the content management community! CMS Connect will be held again in beautiful Montreal, Canada, and feature a unique blend of masterclasses, insightful talks, interactive discussions, impactful learning sessions, and authentic networking opportunities. Join vendors, agencies, and customers from across our industry as we engage and collaborate around the future of content management – and hear from the top thought leaders at the only vendor-neutral, in-person conference exclusively focused on CMS. Space is limited for this event, <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmsconnect25">so book your seats today.</a>

MACHtales: Voices from “The Composable Conference” with Jina Zohori of Agility CMS

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<hr /> <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://agilitycms.com/">Agility CMS</a> Chief Technical Officer <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/joelvarty/">Joel Varty</a> just wrapped up his first YouTube video series, <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGoA-Jt52_c&amp;list=PLEI81bLU4t-uzsIOt1iaykzI4ZSsNQ9ao&amp;pp=gAQB">Building with Next.js and Headless CMS</a>. It’s an 8-part series looking at the power of <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://agilitycms.com/starters/nextjs">Next.js</a> when paired with Agility CMS. Next.js and <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://agilitycms.com/product/headless-cms">headless CMS</a> go hand-in-glove to help <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://agilitycms.com/product/developers">developers</a> build fast, scalable, and dynamic websites. Joel’s video series walks you through integrating Agility CMS with Next.js, examining essential topics such as previewing, creating components, caching, authenticating, and more.Watch the Full Series: <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGoA-Jt52_c&amp;list=PLEI81bLU4t-uzsIOt1iaykzI4ZSsNQ9ao&amp;pp=gAQB">Building with Next.js and Headless CMS on YouTube</a>  <figure class="media"><div data-oembed-url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGoA-Jt52_c&amp;list=PLEI81bLU4t-uzsIOt1iaykzI4ZSsNQ9ao"><div style="position:relative;padding-bottom:100%;height:0;padding-bottom:56.2493%"><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UGoA-Jt52_c" style="position:absolute;width:100%;height:100%;top:0;left:0" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe></div></div></figure><h3 id="the-what-and-why-of-next.js-">The What and Why of Next.js </h3> <h4 id="the-what-">The What </h4>Next.js was developed in 2016 by <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://agilitycms.com/partners/integrations/vercel">Vercel</a> as an open-source, <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://agilitycms.com/blog/react-cms">React</a>-based JavaScript framework. It enables server-side rendering (SSR), static site generation (SSG), and incremental static regeneration (ISR) to optimize performance and <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://agilitycms.com/solutions/modern-websites-and-seo">search engine optimization (SEO)</a>. In other words: Next.js decides the best way to show content based on how data is fetched from pages: <ul><li>SSG prepares pages ahead of time. </li><li>SSR generates them on demand. </li><li>ISR generates them statically at first, but then incrementally updates them as changes happen in the CMS. </li></ul>All these options reduce the work a visitor’s browser must do. This makes the browsing experience smoother and more efficient.  <h4 id="the-why-">The Why </h4>Both developers and marketers benefit from Next.js: <figure class="table"><table><tbody><tr><td>Developers</td><td>Marketers</td></tr><tr><td><ul><li>API Routes </li><li>Incremental Static Regeneration (ISR) </li><li>File-Based Routing </li><li>Optimized Performance </li><li>Seamless Vercel Integration</li></ul></td><td><ul><li>Fast loading speed for high-performance sites </li><li>SEO-friendliness for easy content indexing </li><li>Greater content control via headless integration </li><li>Supports <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://agilitycms.com/solutions/content-hub-and-omnichannnel-deployments">omnichannel</a> marketing activities </li><li>Real-time previews and publishing</li></ul></td></tr></tbody></table></figure>Marketing websites benefit from fast-loading, SEO-rich content. E-commerce platforms can take advantage of dynamic product pages using ISR. With Next.js and a headless CMS, your content becomes omnipresent – meaning it’s ready for websites, apps, digital signage, and beyond. <h3 id="joel’s-key-takeaway-">Joel’s Key Takeaway </h3>If there’s one thing Joel wants you to take away from <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGoA-Jt52_c&amp;list=PLEI81bLU4t-uzsIOt1iaykzI4ZSsNQ9ao&amp;pp=gAQB">Building with Next.js and Headless CMS</a>, it’s this (in his own words): “As a modern web framework, Next.js is the leader when it comes to building actual production sites for customers. A front-end developer with React skills can really level up their game by following along with this series. I see it as an opportunity for someone to take their career to a whole new level.” <h3 id="next.js-makes-a-difference-">Next.js Makes a Difference </h3>React is powerful. But by itself, it doesn’t offer SSR, SSG, ISR, SEO, or many other amazing acronyms. Next.js fills in those gaps and transforms React into a full-featured web framework. From there, Next.js: <ul><li>Spans developer and marketing needs: Developers can build quickly while content teams manage content effectively – without stepping on each other’s toes.  </li><li>Future-proofs your tech stack: Next.js works with <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://agilitycms.com/resources/guide/introduction-to-jamstack">Jamstack</a> and deploys on platforms like Vercel or <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://agilitycms.com/partners/integrations/netlify">Netlify</a>. It’s flexible and adaptable, meaning you aren’t “locked in” to, well, anything. </li><li>Powers better web experiences: Build faster, more accessible, and more scalable websites and apps without wrestling the framework.  </li></ul><h3 id="get-your-popcorn-ready-">Get Your Popcorn Ready </h3>Joel has been a mainstay within the industry for 20 years. He’s known for his engaging and insightful <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://agilitycms.com/resources/events">webinars</a>. And his ability to craft dad jokes out of thin air borders on the supernatural. All that to say, you’re going to learn quite a bit – and get some unexpected chuckles too – when you check out <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGoA-Jt52_c&amp;list=PLEI81bLU4t-uzsIOt1iaykzI4ZSsNQ9ao&amp;pp=gAQB">Building with Next.js and Headless CMS</a>.  <hr /><h4 style="text-align:center" id="looking-for-guidance-on-agility?-talk-to-an-expert.">Looking for guidance on Agility? <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/contact">Talk to an expert.</a></h4><hr /> <h3 id="upcoming-events">Upcoming Events</h3> <img style="width:24.53%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2025/03/image-1742910054704.png" /><h4 id="the-composable-conference-2025"><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://machalliance.org/events/composable-conference-25">The Composable Conference 2025</a></h4>April 22-24 – Chicago, USAExperience the future of composable and MACH principles in “The Windy City” and dive even deeper into the innovative world of MACH architecture and its benefits for your business. Building on the momentum of MACH THREE, this conference will provide your teams with the expert, impartial guidance needed to craft a winning transformation strategy and leverage the latest advancements in automation and Al to maximize efficiency and drive your organization forward. This event is ideal for executives, business leaders, technologists, and everyone in between who is looking to harness the power of composable. <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://machalliance.org/events/composable-conference-25">Secure your spot today.</a> <img style="width:30.46%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/11/cms-summit-25.png" alt="" /><h4 id="cms-summit-25"><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmssummit25">CMS Summit 25</a></h4>May 13-14, 2025 – Frankfurt, GermanyDon't miss the first European edition of our prestigious international conference dedicated to the global content management community! CMS Summit 25 will bring together top-notch speakers, our renowned learning format, and engaging social events. Hear from leading practitioners like Deutsche Bahn, Dr. Oetker, and more – and join customers, agencies, and CMS vendors as we discuss current trends and what's ahead for the content and digital experience fields. Connect and network at the only vendor-neutral, in-person conference focused on CMS. Space is limited for this exclusive event, <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmssummit25">so book your seats today.</a> <img style="width:31.83%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2025/01/cms-connect-2025-logo.png" alt="" /><h4 id="cms-connect-25"><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmsconnect25">CMS Connect 25</a></h4>August 5-6, 2025 – Montreal, CanadaWe are delighted to present the second annual summer edition of our signature global conference dedicated to the content management community! CMS Connect will be held again in beautiful Montreal, Canada, and feature a unique blend of masterclasses, insightful talks, interactive discussions, impactful learning sessions, and authentic networking opportunities. Join vendors, agencies, and customers from across our industry as we engage and collaborate around the future of content management – and hear from the top thought leaders at the only vendor-neutral, in-person conference exclusively focused on CMS. Space is limited for this event, <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmsconnect25">so book your seats today.</a>

Varty’s Videos: A CTO’s Take on Next.js

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<hr /> During a recent <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/agility">Agility CMS</a> “Ask Me Anything” webinar, I was subjected to a trifecta of “dad jokes” – courtesy of <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/playing-to-win-in-the-headless-cms-game-interview-with-joel-varty-cto-at-agility">Joel Varty</a>. In addition to his part-time standup vocation, Joel is the Chief Technology Officer of the Toronto-based headless <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/what-is-a-content-management-system-cms">content management system</a>, where he’s spent almost two decades innovating around digital experiences and supporting notable brands like Cineplex, Mitsubishi Electric, and ScotiaBank.As a comically blessed father myself (IMHO), I appreciated his technique and material – especially the closer about a sad math book that couldn’t solve its own problems. Insert rimshot.Dad jokes aside, Joel is as cool as they come on stage. I’ve seen him bake under the hot lights of the now-famous <a target="_blank" href="https://www.boye-co.com/blog/2024/8/kajoo-wins-cmsidol24-montreal">“CMS Idol” competition</a>, and from my perspective, he’s one CTO who keeps his demo muscle in solid shape (I’m sure there’s a dad joke in there). As advertised, Agility’s AMA session effectively “pulled back the curtain” on its new <a target="_blank" href="https://agilitycms.com/product/web-studio">Web Studio,</a> which promises enhanced features for customers to create, preview, and collaborate on web content. Web Studio reflects a tacit transformation we’ve been seeing across the headless CMS market, one where pure-play platforms have been bridging the visual gap. Content creators want a simple UI that enables them to see exactly what their stuff will look like when it’s live. At the same time, they need to collaborate with team members to preview, review, comment on, and approve their pages before publishing. Agility's Web Studio delivers the full monty and then some – with dynamite features already penciled in on the roadmap. The company has flown Web Studio with a few test pilots as part of what it calls its “Ambassador Program,” and the solution is getting solid reviews. As part of the AMA, I got a first-hand tour of Web Studio, and I concur. As billed, it’s a heckuva lot more than just a WYSIWYG editor. The entire experience feels intuitive, elegant, lightweight, and easy to navigate – and fits seamlessly into Agility’s clean, minimal framework while providing easy access to all the essential tooling. <figure class="image image-style-align-center image_resized" style="width:66.45%"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/11/joel-brendan-headshots.jpg" alt="" /></figure>Agility's AMA presenters: Joel Varty, CTO (left), and Brendan Cooney, Senior Manager Joel conducted the webinar with <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/bmcooney/">Brendan Cooney</a>, Senior Manager at Agility. They showcased how content creation and teamwork are central to the new experience and woven into its new attributes.A bit of history on the genesis of Web Studio: It began as a feature called Preview Center, which made its debut at the <a target="_blank" href="https://aarhus25.boye-co.com/">Boye Aarhus 2023 Conference</a> and ended up <a target="_blank" href="https://www.boye-co.com/blog/2023/11/agility-wins-the-2023-small-feature-award">winning the event's coveted “Small Feature Award.”</a> The achievement sparked some new thinking – both practical and blue sky – which Joel crystallized during the AMA.“What if Brendan’s typing in a field, and then I’m typing in a field? What happens there? That snowballed into ‘now we need Figma-style comments,’ [and] ‘now we need Google Docs style content editing.’ So it kind of turned into a whole lot of things, which is really exciting for us.”Here’s a snapshot of what I saw, and what you can expect as it rolls out.<h3 id="it’s-a-lot-less-lonely-with-presence">It’s a lot less lonely with Presence</h3>One of the coolest new features in Web Studio is the Presence Indicator, which visually displays an icon of who’s online in the system. With a click, you can jump to the specific page or asset that a person is working on and collaborate in tandem. It’s simple but super handy – and editors are sure to love it.  <figure class="image image-style-align-center image_resized" style="width:83.64%"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/11/agility-web-studio-presence.jpg" alt="" /></figure>The Presence Indicator (appearing at the top of the Agility UI) shows other team members actively working in the system As Joel and Brendan noted, Presence accentuates collaboration in a personal way, making the experience feel like hanging out with friends. By reducing the friction to share and connect within the system, Agility is offering a more human (er… humane?) experience – one that can reduce the challenges around communicating and collaborating.<h3 id="instant-field-locking-and-built-in-commenting">Instant field-locking and built-in commenting</h3>Content collisions are a pain, but version conflicts might be a thing of the past with Web Studio’s slick new field locking feature. Simply slide the lock button into place and you effectively control your session. At the same time, your collaborators can see what fields you’re working on and what changes you’re making in real time. Users can also leave comments with total ease. Just tag a team member with an “@“ and leave a notification, comments, or even reactions. You can also resolve the comment once you reply, making the function more like a task assignment or project management feature. You can also access a full history of comments. All around, it’s definitely a win for users and teams.Once you see the commenting and collaboration tools, it’s logical to thread the needle with other communication tools in the broader ecosystem. As Joel indicated, users can expect both email and Slack notifications in the near future.<h2 id="previews">Previews</h2>Out of the box, Web Studio provides both a staging and preview environment in addition to your live view. It’s all easily within reach. You can also leverage the <a target="_blank" href="https://github.com/agility/web-studio-sdk">Agility Web Studio SDK</a> to decorate the fields and components. Previews also work with pages and content items. A big upgrade: you’ll be able to switch between multiple deployments, an action that's been less flexible in the past in Agility.  <figure class="image image-style-align-center image_resized" style="width:86.64%"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/11/agility-web-studio-preview.jpg" alt="" /></figure>Web Studio provides a seamless preview within Agility as well as easy-to-use commenting features You can also manually expand or collapse your window to preview and inspect different device sizes. That might sound like a simple expectation with most modern CMS UIs, but it's more fluid than you think. The word “silky” comes to mind, and it's worth seeing in action.One other cool benefit is the commenting mode, which allows you to click anywhere and leave comments on your preview. It's just another example of how collaboration has been baked into the foundation of Web Studio.<h3 id="decorating-components">Decorating components</h3>This is where developers can customize their components for editors. As Joel demonstrated in real time, you can access code in Agility to decorate your component fields, making it easier for developers to render changes and empower content creators to do their thing. Once his changes were complete, it was all pushed to <a target="_blank" href="https://vercel.com/">Vercel</a>, and… presto. Ready in minutes.As he noted, it takes a little more time to set up new components the right way, but doing so ultimately enhances the editor experience. Joel reinforced the importance of this vital relationship between developers and content creators, and how it can unleash greater value.  <h3 id="the-critic-consensus">The Critic Consensus</h3>Visual editing and preview capabilities have become an expectation for every headless CMS. But delivering the right mix of capabilities – wrapped in a simple yet satisfying experience – is the real dealmaker. Agility Web Studio offers a differentiated visual experience and a fantastic upgrade to the platform’s easy-to-use interface. With trick features like the Presence capability, users should find it intuitive and (dare I say) fun to interact and collaborate around content. And in the high-pressure, high-stakes world of accelerating your marketing content, finding more productive and rewarding ways to make the journey is a win-win.The collaboration enhancements are slick, and the in-app commenting and task resolution capabilities are sure to please marketers, developers, and content creators alike. The seamless ability to share, review, and approve within Agility should help reduce bottlenecks and laborious back-and-forth emails.From a broader market perspective, headless CMSes continue to appreciate steady demand as fixtures across many RFPs. That’s also why we continue to see new platforms entering the market. While the noise has dampened from the peaks of 2023 and early 2024 (I must have been talking to a new headless platform every week), opportunity and choice continue to drive persistent growth.Generally speaking, choice is good for buyers. But above all, they want confidence and trust – and that’s where platforms like Agility have a key advantage in a sea of sameness. As a veteran player, they’ve amassed a solid track record with globally recognized brands, powering workloads with mission-critical performance and compliance considerations. <h3 id="one-last-note-on-the-‘art-of-the-live-demo’">One last note on the ‘Art of the Live Demo’</h3>No one wants to code in front of other people. It’s a bit like using a public restroom – which, for many people, is fraught with anxiety. When Joel started to manually update a component on the fly, he demonstrated how easy it is to customize. That said, when a few tags went off the rails, he kept his cool and made the whole process feel smooth and authentic. Call it Murphy’s Law, but there’s always a bump or two in the road. The “agility” (see what I did there?) to keep rolling when things don’t go as planned is, in itself, a testament to the presenter. If you’re evaluating a CMS, I still stand by the impact of a live demo from a qualified practitioner – bumps and all. Yes, good documentation is a must-have; ultimately, we're trying to empower our users and get out of the way. But a solid CMS in your composable stack is a critical decision, and Agility is doing it right by emphasizing the human part of its proposition.Speaking of which, you can learn more about Web Studio <a target="_blank" href="https://agilitycms.com/product/web-studio">here</a>. Dad jokes not included. <hr /><h4 style="text-align:center" id="looking-for-guidance-on-agility?--talk-to-us.-">Looking for guidance on Agility?  <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/contact">Talk to us. </a></h4><hr /><h3 id="upcoming-events">Upcoming Events</h3> <img style="width:29.58%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/01/cms-kickoff-2025-logo.png" /><h4 id="cms-kickoff-2025"><a href=" https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmskickoff25">CMS Kickoff 2025</a></h4>January 14-15, 2025 – Tampa Bay Area, FloridaMeet industry leaders at our third annual CMS Kickoff – the industry's premier global CMS event. Similar to a traditional kickoff, we reflect on recent trends and share stories from the frontlines. Additionally, we will delve into the current happenings and shed light on the future. Prepare for an unparalleled in-person CMS conference experience that will equip you to move things forward. This is an exclusive event – space is limited, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmskickoff25/tickets">so secure your tickets today.</a> <img style="width:30.46%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/11/cms-summit-25.png" alt="" /><h4 id="cms-summit-25"><a target="_blank" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmssummit25">CMS Summit 25</a></h4>May 13-14, 2025 – Frankfurt, GermanyDon't miss the first European edition of our prestigious international conference dedicated to the global content management community! CMS Summit 25 will bring together top-notch speakers, our renowned learning format, and engaging social events. Hear from leading practitioners like Deutsche Bahn, Dr. Oetker, and more – and join customers, agencies, and CMS vendors as we discuss current trends and what's ahead for the content and digital experience fields. Connect and network at the only vendor-neutral, in-person conference focused on CMS. Space is limited for this exclusive event, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmssummit25">so book your seats today.</a>

Agility CMS Web Studio Aims to Streamline Content Creation and Collaboration

<a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/new-mach-alliance-maturity-assessment-tool-helps-organizations-evaluate-their-mach-readiness/">The MACH Alliance</a> continues its unabated upward trajectory in 2023.
The not-for-profit group, which advocates for open and best-of-breed enterprise technology ecosystems, has <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/stripe-joins-mach-alliance-bringing-organization-to-nearly-90-members/">added multiple technologies and system integrators</a> to its ranks since the beginning of the year. This includes some noteworthy brands like Stripe and Paypal. 
Now, <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/playing-to-win-in-the-headless-cms-game-interview-with-joel-varty-cto-at-agility/">Agility</a> – an API-first <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/top-free-headless-cms-platforms/">headless CMS</a> – has joined the prestigious industry organization.
This week, the company announced that it is now a certified member of the MACH Alliance, highlighting its commitment to utilizing modern, modular, and scalable software architectures to provide innovative digital experiences to its clients. 
"We are thrilled to be a part of the MACH Alliance community," said <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonvoigt/" target="_blank">Jon Voigt</a>, CEO of Agility. "At Agility, we’ve always had the belief that customers should use best-of-breed solutions and bring them together to create the best experience for their teams and their customers. Joining the MACH Alliance just shows external verification that we’ve always been on the right track." 
<h2>Building the composable future on the principles of MACH</h2>
The MACH Alliance is a community of technology companies and enablers dedicated to promoting the adoption of MACH architecture principles for building flexible, interoperable, and future-proof digital ecosystems. MACH (Microservices, API-first, Cloud-native SaaS, and Headless) represents the foundational principles that Agility was designed on from its conception – making it an ideal fit for membership.
"By leveraging MACH architecture principles at Agility, we empower our customers and partners to build and deliver personalized, omnichannel digital experiences that drive engagement and loyalty," said <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/playing-to-win-in-the-headless-cms-game-interview-with-joel-varty-cto-at-agility/">Joel Varty</a>, CTO of Agility. "I look forward to collaborating with other members of the MACH Alliance to drive innovation and advance the adoption of modern architectural standards." 
As a composable platform, Agility CMS allows clients to easily manage and distribute content across multiple channels and seamlessly integrate with other services. Additionally, its API-first approach enables clients to create content once and then distribute it anywhere, seamlessly integrating it with their existing technology stack.
From an infrastructure perspective, Agility is cloud-native, running on the latest technology and making it easy for clients to scale their solutions as their business grows.
Finally, Agility's headless approach – a key component in MACH architectures – allows clients to easily separate content from the presentation layer, giving them the freedom to deliver customized experiences across a variety of channels. 
<h2>Gaining agility in a rapidly-changing marketplace </h2>
Agility's membership in the MACH Alliance will give the company access to a network of leading technology companies, enabling it to stay at the forefront of technology innovation and continue delivering outstanding digital experiences to its clients. 
"At Agility, we always strive to provide the best possible digital experiences for our clients," said <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jina-zohori/" target="_blank">Jina Zohori</a>, Head of Customer Experience at Agility. "By joining the MACH Alliance community and leveraging modern, modular, and scalable software architectures, we will continue to innovate and provide our clients with exceptional digital experiences that engage and delight their customers. Our membership in the MACH Alliance will also provide us with access to a network of leading technology companies, enabling us to stay at the forefront of technology innovation and deliver even more value to our clients." 
Agility's <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/agility-unveils-refreshed-design-system-in-ui-delivering-enhanced-user-experience-and-accessibility/">recent announcement</a> of a new UI also reinforces its commitment to delivering a best-in-class customer experience. The upgrade reflected 18 months of research and innovation that improves the overall usability of the headless platform, along with new features and modernizations. 
<h2>About Agility</h2>
Agility is an API-first Headless CMS that enables organizations to build and deliver personalized digital experiences across multiple channels. With a Headless Architecture and White Glove service, Agility empowers its clients to easily manage and distribute content while seamlessly integrating with their existing technology stack. For more information, visit<a href="https://agilitycms.com/"> https://agilitycms.com/</a>

Agility Joins MACH Alliance, Bringing its Headless CMS to the Industry-Leading Composable Ecosystem

Last week, <a href="https://agilitycms.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Agility</a> announced its position as a “High Performer” in the <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/top-free-headless-cms-platforms/">headless CMS</a> category for the Winter 2023 rankings by <a href="https://www.g2.com/products/agility-cms/reviews" target="_blank" rel="noopener">G2</a>.
The API-first composable “content platform” attributed its success in part to a new user interface called <a href="https://agilitycms.com/resources/posts/what-is-plenum-ui" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Plenum</a>, which has delivered a more modern and dynamic look to the platform.
“We are thrilled to have had such a successful year and be recognized as a high performer by G2,” said Joel Varty, CTO of Agility. “We are continuing to innovate and provide the best content platform for our customers' unique needs.”
<h2>Driving growth around headless and composable</h2>
Aside from the new look, Agility also launched a new management API which gives users more flexibility and automation options when configuring the backend for content management.
With these updates, Agility stated in a news release they have “propelled to the forefront of the composable and flexible architecture movement, going beyond the headless CMS space.”
<h2>More planned enhancements for 2023</h2>
For 2023, Agility has outlined additional enhancements for their in-platform experiences, including:
<ul>
<li>Content modeling that visibly tracks the evolution of their content models and page module schemas</li>
<li>A markdown editor field that provides a convenient tool for developers and markdown users</li>
<li>A robust app marketplace that facilitates users with extensive tools and integrations to enhance their content management experience</li>
</ul>
Varty also announced an integration with <a href="https://nextjs.org/blog/next-13" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Next.js 13</a> and the relaunch of the Agility partner program.
"Our users are loving the new Plenum UI, while developers are taking advantage of our new management API,” Varty said. “Plus, our updated Next.js 13 SDK has generated a lot of excitement - it’s a super powerful framework that Agility takes full advantage of. Moving forward, we are continuing to innovate with lots of announcements coming in 2023! Our goal is to provide the best content platform to fulfill all of our customers’ unique needs."
<h2>About Agility</h2>
Agility is a premium Content Platform for unique solutions. Its API-first platform is more than a headless CMS. With its flexible, agile and composable architecture built from the ground up, the platform is designed for enterprise teams to solve all of their unique content needs.

Agility Ranked as High Performer by G2 with Additional Updates Projected in 2023

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Agility CMS logo and G2 Winter 2023 High Performer badge

The month of May is a wrap, and it was in full bloom with events – both live and virtual. In the last 30 days, we saw a bevy of industry meetings, product user groups, and lively sessions that seemed to coordinate around the same four-week period.
Talk about spring conference fever. 
In the mele, there were two that really stood out for our staff. The first was <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/netlify-to-host-headless-commerce-summit-for-talks-on-building-world-class-e-commerce-experiences/">Netlify's Headless Commerce Summit</a>, where e-Commerce on the Jamstack was front and center.
We also took in a few sessions from Sanity's new <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/sanity-to-host-structured-content-2022-conference-in-u-s-europe-and-online/">Structured Content 2022 Conference</a>, where a few thousand content fans assembled across the globe to discuss... well, content. Structured Content was particularly interesting as it positioned itself as a "movement" within the industry, intently focused on educating and inspiring the cross-disciplinary community of people who work on digital experiences. 
Elsewhere, we tracked a story from <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/amplitude-announces-new-testing-and-analytics-tools-for-making-smarter-product-decisions-at-scale/">Amplitude</a> as they announced new testing and analytics tools for making smarter product decisions at scale. Spoiler alert: we have some additional news from Amplitude in this recap, as they seem to be on a roll. 
We also tracked a big <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/civicplus-enters-into-agreement-to-acquire-optimere/">announcement from CivicPlus</a> – an integrated tech platform that powers websites for local governments. In a stunning move, the company announced an agreement to buy Optimere, the parent company of Monsido (among others). The purchase will expand CivicPlus' capabilities by adding Monsido's accessibility scanning resources to its ecosystem. The added suite of features should provide public sector organizations with a one-stop solution for managing ADA-compliant web experiences. 
Before you turn your spring fever into summer blues, check out a few other stories we noted from across the digital experience landscape.
<h2>Contentstack launches its no-code Automation Hub, making composable content experiences easier to build</h2>
<a href="https://www.contentstack.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Contentstack</a>, a leader in the new headless CMS Content Experience Platform (CXP) category, unveiled its industry-first Automation Hub. Aimed at simplifying the deployment of composable architectures at any scale, Automation Hub allows marketing and IT to overcome the technical and operational hurdles of adopting a composable architecture. 
Contentstack launched the new capability on stage at its inaugural customer conference, <a href="https://info.contentstack.com/online-registration-contentcon-2022.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ContentCon</a>, which featured presentations from Levi’s, Dawn Foods, Golfbreaks, and other leading brands. Automation Hub is available now as part of Contentstack’s Platform Beta Program, with General Availability scheduled for late Summer 2022.
Composable architectures (or stacks) are emerging as the next evolutionary step for enterprises, allowing companies to create digital experiences faster while responding to rapidly-changing market demands and business threats. In a <a href="https://www.gartner.com/en/documents/3994550" target="_blank" rel="noopener">recent report by Gartner,</a> the analyst firm predicted that by 2023, organizations that adopt an intelligent, composable approach will outpace competitors by 80 percent when it comes to new feature implementation. 
Moving away from legacy monolithic systems often introduces technical complexity and operational challenges. Contentstack’s Automation Hub addresses both of these issues head-on by infusing simple, no-code business logic into the front-end of a composable stack.
“Using best-in-breed technologies is the only way to stay competitive, but enterprises often end up bogged down in integration hell," said Conor Egan, VP of product and engineering at Contentstack. "Implementing business logic today involves writing code that is often slow, brittle, and requires constant maintenance. Our Automation Hub solves this by allowing teams to build complex, cross-vendor connections visually without code. It is a true game-changer.” 
Contentstack is also championing the mantra of  "Connect without Compromise." This has become the centerpiece of a new program that combines Automation Hub with Contentstack’s Blueprints – a library of best practices and expert guides for composable experiences – and its recently launched <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/contentstack-launches-new-marketplace-to-accelerate-composable-digital-experience-innovation-from-weeks-to-minutes-301492844.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Marketplace</a>. Now, businesses of all sizes can fully embrace composable architectures at any scale with confidence, choosing either a ready-made composable solution based on industry best practices or leveraging the foundation to easily customize to their unique business needs. 
Contentstack's "Connect without Compromise" program is also a complement to its "<a href="https://www.contentstack.com/company/press/contentstack-expands-customer-support-launch-industry-first-cross-vendor-service-commitment-program/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Care Without Compromise</a>" program – a multi-vendor ecosystem designed to ensure cross-vendor support in composable environments. Through "Care without Compromise," Contentstack and its Catalyst partners cooperate, communicate, and cross-train support staff to ensure seamless delivery of joint solutions to customers globally. Now with both programs, businesses of all sizes can move to composable architectures at scale and with ease.
"At Contentstack, we are committed to organizations who choose to challenge the status quo and adopt a modern, composable approach to power their digital experiences," said Neha Sampat, founder and CEO of Contentstack. "Combining 'Connect without Compromise' and 'Care without Compromise' embodies this commitment. We take on the burden of making it easy to work across multiple vendors – from both a support and integration perspective – so you don't have to."
<h2>Amplitude announces new customer data platform, industry’s first "insights-driven CDP"</h2>
<a href="https://amplitude.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Amplitude</a>, Inc., a leader in digital optimization, announced the launch of Amplitude CDP, the first insights-driven customer data platform (CDP). Unlike other CDPs that require connecting to third-party analytics solutions, Amplitude CDP both collects and analyzes event data with its natively integrated industry-leading product analytics solution. 
With Amplitude CDP, product and marketing teams can proactively improve data quality, analyze and discover new audiences, and sync data across their marketing and data stack. Amplitude’s CDP – coupled with analytics – helps customers become more operationally efficient and enables better, faster decision-making to increase customer engagement.
The goal of a CDP is to collect data that lead to insights – and ultimately enable data-driven decision-making that improves customer experiences. After working with thousands of companies and analyzing over 1 trillion customer data points per month, Amplitude discovered critical unsolved challenges in the CDP market, which is currently estimated to reach $20.5 billion by 2027. 
Data that is not proactively managed reduces the quality of insights. The various teams that collect, analyze, and take action on customer data struggle to collaborate across multiple solutions – and maintaining both a CDP and Product Analytics solution leads to duplicative costs and implementations. With Amplitude CDP, customers now have an integrated suite to turn high-quality data into actionable insights.
Key benefits of Amplitude’s insights-driven CDP include:
<ul>
<li>Improved data quality: Data planning and governance are built-in to help data and engineering teams proactively maintain trust and quality.</li>
<li>Better audience discovery: Many CDPs move right from data collection to activation, offering segmentation but assuming companies know what audiences to target. Now, deep segmentation combined with analytics helps teams discover audiences based on insights, putting audience discovery before audience activation for maximum engagement.</li>
<li>Reduced costs and redundancies: With analytics natively integrated within Amplitude CDP, Amplitude eliminates duplicative costs for customers by providing a single platform that serves as the foundation for data, the engine for insights, and the driver for action.</li>
<li>Accelerated time-to-insights: Built-in analytics unites product, growth, and marketing around shared data to unlock insights and actions anywhere in the stack.</li>
</ul>
“Customer data platforms entered the market with the promise of making personalization a reality, but aggregating data is only step one," said Spenser Skates, CEO, and co-founder of Amplitude. "As companies look to provide tailored product experiences, they need trusted data that provides insights about their existing audiences and helps them identify new ones, all without unnecessary costs for their business. At Amplitude, we have spent the last few years helping customers solve the problems that existing CDPs in the market were unable to. With the launch of Amplitude CDP, we are now providing customers with the ability to provide meaningful, personalized experiences all from a single platform.”
For years, Amplitude has been introducing capabilities that help teams collect, manage, and activate customer data. More than 50% of Amplitude customers currently send data from Amplitude to other tools in their stack and Amplitude’s integration ecosystem has grown to more than 65 out-of-the-box connectors. Today, customers like Kahoot!, Hex, InvoiceSimple, Marco Polo, and Thrive Market are already using Amplitude CDP and have access to expanded capabilities to drive accurate, actionable insights.
Key innovations include:
<ul>
<li>Unified user interface (UI): Create a single taxonomy for all digital analytics use cases to collect and capture consistent data in one UI.</li>
<li>Event streaming: Federate data to martech, ad, and attribution vendors as well as data pipelines like Amazon Kinesis and Google Pub/Sub through a no-code configurable UI in the Data Connections catalog.</li>
<li>Real-time audience syncing: Match the cadence of marketing campaigns and use customer behavior to drive in-the-moment engagement with real-time syncs that refresh audience lists every minute.</li>
<li>Developer toolkit: Proactively collaborate with developers to define tracking plans with a best-in-class developer toolkit that saves engineers time and helps automate data validation with tracking libraries – no more typos, forgotten properties, or inconsistent naming conventions.</li>
</ul>
A <a href="https://www.cdpinstitute.org/learning-center/what-is-a-realcdp/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">RealCDP-certified</a> solution, Amplitude CDP is available to Amplitude customers in the early access program today and will be generally available later this year. Amplitude CDP will be free of charge for customers streaming fewer than 10 million events per month, an offer more than 10 times better than some of the leading CDPs in the market. 
<h2>Agility CMS expands composability through its marketplace</h2>
<a href="https://agilitycms.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Agility CMS</a>, a headless content management platform for creating powerful Enterprise ready digital experiences, has announced the expansion of its composability offerings – specifically through the launch of its new marketplace and the redevelopment of its app framework to support its marketplace applications.
By introducing these changes, the headless platform aims to simplify how users integrate with third-party APIs and how developers build new applications. Agility has also enhanced the user interface and editor experience of its CMS and added several new integrations, APIs, and pre-built models – all designed to help enterprises get up and running faster than ever.
More than ever, organizations are moving their products and services online. However, each company has its own unique requirements. To meet these needs, Agility CMS embraces the best-of-breed concepts of <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/mach-alliance-releases-study-on-adoption-of-mach-technologies-by-tech-leaders-qa-with-sonja-keerl/">MACH architecture and composability,</a> providing customers with a future-proof design that allows them to iterate and swap components as the customer journey evolves.
“High-growth companies rely on multiple cloud-based tools to help them solve problems quickly," said Agility CMS CTO Joel Varty. "As these businesses evolve, Agility CMS’ microservices architecture enables them to swap out the tools for what can better serve them at each new stage. We don’t want our customers to feel like they need to change how they do things. Instead, our composable approach enhances your business, helping to increase profits in the long term."
“We’ve noticed that customers are looking at their previous monolithic systems and recognizing that it can’t do everything they want it to, and it’s slow to roll out,” said Jon Voigt, CEO of Agility CMS. “We’ve always believed that customers should be able to tie together best-of-breed solutions as they see fit, and we’re happy that the industry and businesses today are recognizing the value of this approach,” he added.
Agility CMS’ long-standing position as a hybrid headless CMS with an intuitive content authoring experience has enticed forward-thinking brands from various industries, resulting in doubled sales in 2021.

CMS Monthly Recap: Contenstack Launches No-Code Hub for Composable Content Experiences, Agility CMS Expands Composability, and More

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CMS Summit 25

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CMS. Content. AI. Where is it all headed?

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CMS Monthly Recap: Google Sunsets Universal Analytics, WordPress Releases a New Performance Plugin, and More

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Yup. July officially marked the "dog days of summer" in the Northern Hemisphere. While many of us were melting under the malaise of record-breaking heat, the news has yet to cool off.
Seemingly, neither does <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/aug/02/no-ones-invincible-fresh-mask-mandates-and-rising-delta-cases-hit-california">Covid-19 and its latest wave of hyper-contagious Delta variant</a>. The entire month was mired by headlines about hotspots and breakthrough cases that are once again challenging our world. Delta is the new version that no one wanted an upgrade to, and we're hoping for better days ahead.
But what does a prolonged Covid pandemic mean for the content and digital experience sector?
As more businesses mull the option of <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/22583285/companies-remote-work-home-office-tsedal-neeley-harvard">never returning to a physical office</a> – and consumers keep buying their drones and toilet paper online – it's clear that digital experience technologies, from CMS to DXP to eCommerce, will continue to drive transformation across the economy.
This was evidenced by <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2021/07/28/contenful-raises-175m-from/">Contentful's announcement last week</a> that it had raised $175 million in a round led by Tiger Global – valuing the company at $3 billion. After posting a banner 2020, the headless CMS player has a mighty wind in its sails with the confidence of a major investment firm. With 600 employees and room to grown, this news also led the Berlin-based firm to <a href="https://www.denverpost.com/2021/08/03/contentful-takes-three-floors-molson-coors-former-headquarters/">secure three floors of a Denver high rise</a>, formerly occupied by Molson Coors.
If that makes you want to crack open a digital brew, you're not alone. So cheers - and enjoy the rest of our round-up.
 
<h2>Contentsquare Accelerates Machine and Deep Learning Capabilities with Acquisition of AI company Upstride</h2>
<h2><img style="max-width:768px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/07/contentsquare-upstride.png" /></h2>
It's hip to be square. And with this kind of investment capital, you can take almost anything in stride.
That must have been the sentiment at <a href="https://contentsquare.com/" target="_blank">Contentsquare</a>, a digital experience analytics platform, as they announced the acquisition of <a href="https://ww2.upstride.io/" target="_blank">Upstride</a> – a Paris-based deep-tech company. Upstride's engineers will join Contentsquare's data science and Clickhouse development team in their Paris product hub to accelerate the company's ambitious AI innovation roadmap. 
As far as we know, their offices are not located in the Eiffel Tower. Or are they...
The news isn't that surprising considering that in May, Contentsquare raised <a href="https://contentsquare.com/blog/contentsquare-500m-series-e-investment/" target="_blank">$500M in Series E funding – placing them at a $2.8B valuation</a>. At this time, Contentsquare revealed its plans to further invest in AI and accelerate innovation both organically and through acquisitions. 
"AI will fundamentally reshape our digital journeys towards better and more personalized experiences," said Gary Roth, Co-Founder, and CEO of Upstride. "With trillions of user interactions analyzed daily, Contentsquare is ideally placed to lead this transformation and become one of the world's top tech companies. We are very excited about joining such an amazing company and leveraging AI to its fullest potential!" 
As Contentsquare continues to transform the way teams use behavioral data to elevate the digital experience and transform their business, the company has also been investing in digital trust – and recently cemented its leadership on digital privacy with the launch of a cookieless version of its solution.
<h2>Salesforce Completes Acquisition of Slack</h2>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/07/salesforce-slack.png" />
Unicorns unite! After one of the most anticipated and gut-wrenching battles in recent M&amp;A history, Salesforce just <a href="https://www.salesforce.com/news/press-releases/2021/07/21/salesforce-slack-deal-close/" target="_blank">announced</a> that it has completed its acquisition of Slack. 
So... what happens when the world's biggest CRM and most used business messaging platform join forces? You show everyone how to navigate a pandemic. 
With the persistence of Covid languishing over the economy, businesses are still adapting to an unpredictable "normal" and continuing to rely on digital technologies to maintain continuity and drive revenue. While much has changed in the latest Delta wave, what hasn't is the need to connect people across systems, apps, and devices – from sales to collaboration. 
This acquisition crystallizes that connection and paves the wave to a more meaningful and integrated future for Salesforce. 
"We've learned over the past year that the workplace isn't snapping back to the way it was," said Bret Taylor, President and Chief Operating Officer of Salesforce. "Together, Slack and Salesforce Customer 360 will give every company in the world a single source of truth for their business and a single platform for connecting employees, customers, and partners with each other and the apps they use every day."
With the acquisition, Slack will be integrated into every Salesforce Cloud. Together with Salesforce Customer 360, Slack will provide a single source of truth for businesses – and a single platform for connecting employees, customers, and partners in one ecosystem. 
<h2>Optimizely Named a Leader in The Forrester Wave™ for Digital Experience Platforms (DXPs)</h2>
<img style="max-width:715px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/07/optimizely-logo.png" />
In the DXP Game of Thrones, Optimizely <a href="https://www.optimizely.com/company/press/optimizely-named-a-leader-in-digital-experience-platforms-by-independent-research-firm/" target="_blank">announced</a> its crown as a Leader in The Forrester Wave™ for Digital Experience Platforms (DXPs), Q3 2021. 
While no dragons were involved (at least to our knowledge), Optimizely – <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/episerver-rebrands-as-optimizely-following-acquisition/" target="_blank">formerly Episerver</a> – has had a series of industry-conquering <a href="https://www.crunchbase.com/search/acquisitions/field/organizations/num_acquisitions/episerver" target="_blank">acquisitions</a> in its rise to DXP domination. Their latest snack: Zaius, a Customer Data Platform (CDP) with key AI and ML capabilities and a decent industry footprint. Like other leading enterprise DXPs, Optimizely saw this acquisition as a necessity for addressing its critical data gap and improving its competitive posture. 
In its vendor profile, the Forrester report noted that "Optimizely has a highly acquisitive strategy as it grows beyond its content roots as Episerver. Compared with other vendors we evaluated, Optimizely shows strength in testing and optimization, digital commerce, and platform operations. It also has strength in campaign management, customer journey management, and platform certifications." 
All solid points in Optimizely's favor as the competition at the top gets heavier. 
You might recall that Optimizely was also recognized as a Leader for the second consecutive year in the <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/key-takeaways-from-gartners-2021-magic-quadrant-for-digital-experience-platforms/" target="_blank">Gartner 2021 Magic Quadrant for Digital Experience Platforms</a>, trailing right behind Adobe and <a href="https://www.acquia.com/" target="_blank">Acquia</a>. But the Forrester report reorients the players on the chessboard, with Optimizely trailing just behind Adobe but outperforming the likes of Acquia, Sitecore, and Bloomreach.
Optimizely's platform received the highest possible scores in experience management and delivery, vision, delivery model, supporting services, and average deal size criteria. According to the Forrester report, "Reference customers told us that they like Optimizely's flexibility in their licensing model when expanding the set of sites… one reference said, 'Optimizely was very simple to get up and running — more so than other DXPs I've implemented.'"
Not a bad place to be as the race heats up.
<h2>WordPress Releases "Tatum" 5.8 </h2>
<img style="max-width:632px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/07/5x8-album-1.jpg" />
There's a moment in "Kind of Blue" where Mile Davis and John Coltrane start merging into one being, completing each other's scales and echoing one another's brassy calls. Like anything in jazz, it's the improvisation – and the unexpected composition – that makes your toes tap. 
And like jazz, the latest version of WordPress attempts to bring a little more poetic soul to its code. Whether it hits the right notes is entirely up to users now.
Speaking of... WordPress <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2021/07/tatum/" target="_blank">released its new 5.8</a> record last week. They're calling it "Tatum" in honor of Art Tatum, the prolific jazz pianist. It's now available for download or update in your WordPress dashboard. 
Last month, we talked about WordPress 5.8's Beta and the features that it was expected to deliver, such as more powerful blocks, enhanced editing capabilities, and other <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/updates/2021/01/21/big-picture-goals-2021/" target="_blank">big picture goals</a> like <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/updates-on-wordcamp-2021-wordpress-5-8-beta-details-and-gutenberg-enhancements/" target="_blank">Full Site Editing</a>. Here are just a few of the highlights:
Manage Widgets with Blocks: The power of blocks has come to both the Block Widgets Editor and the Customizer. Now you can add blocks both in widget areas across your site and with live preview through the Customizer.
Display Posts with New Blocks and Patterns: The Query Loop Block makes it possible to display posts based on specified parameters, like a PHP loop without the code. Easily display posts from a specific category to do things like creating a portfolio or a page full of your favorite recipes.
List View: As blocks increase, patterns emerge, and content creation gets easier. As a result, new solutions are needed to make complex content easy to navigate. List View is the best way to jump between layers of content and nested blocks. Since the List View gives you an overview of all the blocks in your content, you can now navigate quickly to the precise block you need.
Edit Templates Around Posts: You can also use the familiar block editor to edit templates that hold your content. Simply activate a block theme or a theme that has opted in for this feature. Switch from editing your posts to editing your pages and back again, all while using a familiar block editor.
Global Styles and Global Settings APIs: Control the editor settings, available customization tools, and style blocks using a theme.json file in the active theme. This configuration file enables or disables features and sets default styles for both a website and blocks. 
You can see the complete list of new features and updates <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2021/07/tatum/" target="_blank">here</a>. 
<h2>Agility CMS Announces GraphQL Support</h2>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/07/agility-cms-graph-q.jpg" />
Agility CMS, an API-first headless CMS, has <a href="https://agilitycms.com/resources/posts/agility-cms-graphql" target="_blank">announced</a> the general availability of its GraphQL API, which provides users with a GraphQL Playground Interface – where they can query content from their Agility CMS Instance using a GraphQL schema based on defined content models.
"GraphQL powers modern e-commerce and digital transformation," said Jon Voigt, CEO at Agility CMS. "With this launch of GraphQL support, Agility CMS can help enterprises to build superior digital solutions with ease." 
Developed by Facebook, GraphQL has been the query language of choice for many CMSs, especially headless CMSs. GraphQL is designed to make APIs flexible, fast, precise, and developer-friendly, and it's rapidly becoming the standard for API-based data access.

CMS Monthly Recap: Salesforce Completes Acquisition of Slack, Contentsquare Accelerates ML Capabilities, and More

CMS Critic Monthly Recap image with piano background

Top Free Headless CMS Platforms

Image of man without head, hat floating above empty area would head would be. Text reads "Top Free Headless CMS"

Agility CMS has <a href="https://agilitycms.com/resources/posts/agility-pricing-structure">announced</a> a new pricing model for their all-in-one headless content management system, aimed at helping a broad range of customers ­– from developers to the enterprise – expand their digital strategies. 
Founded in 2002, Agility CMS has positioned itself as a “Content-First” SaaS headless platform, giving users a significant amount of flexibility over their digital experiences through powerful, lightweight APIs. This includes the full array of JAMstack (Javascript, API, Markup) and browser-based frameworks – including static React site generators like Gatsby – that simplify and accelerate website performance while acting as a unified content hub.
Agility’s new pricing tiers reflect a shift in the CMS market, where platforms are offering both developers and enterprise organizations expanded options while simplifying the procurement process. As licensing has shifted to more subscription and SaaS-based models, many CMS platforms have raced to add more value to their offerings, including free entry points and streamlined pricing at multiple levels.
"We want to give [users] more, yet simplify things,” said Jon Voigt, CEO of Agility CMS. “We kept hearing that people are upset with the complex pricing models out there; we wanted to provide a better free edition and an unlimited community-supported edition that was based on value."
The chief reason behind the pricing change is to provide greater access to the Agility CMS across the marketplace, allowing users to increase productivity and collaboration between marketing, sales, and development teams. In addition to their advanced headless capabilities, unmatched load speeds, rapid development, and low-code content management, each of Agility’s paid packages are loaded with features.
<h3>The New Agility CMS Pricing Model</h3>
Agility is now offering four pricing tiers: a free Developer option, a Standard package for small teams, a Pro tier for high-performing businesses, and a custom enterprise option. 
<figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/agility-cms-pricing.png" /></figure>
Let’s take a look at these <a href="https://agilitycms.com/pricing">packages</a> in more detail:
Free: Agility CMS offers a free package for web developers. This plan includes 5 users, 10GB bandwidth, 2,500 content items, and community support – and it’s free forever. You can even <a href="https://account.agilitycms.com/sign-up?product=agility-free">sign up</a> without giving your credit card information. This plan is ideal for users who want to learn web development and content management, do some general tinkering, and have fun building. If you feel like you reached the limits of the free package, you can easily upgrade. 
Standard: For $47 per month, this package delivers unlimited users and content items. Community support and 500GB of bandwidth is also included. Starting with the Standard Package, every Agility CMS tier includes Content Management, Ecommerce, Ticketing, Search and User Generated Content. If you're running a small site with 500 pages or less, this package is ideal. 
Pro: At $579 per month, the Pro package is designed for high-performance business websites and includes unlimited users, unlimited content items, 1TB of bandwidth, and direct support from the Agility CMS team. With Pro, you can sell more products with rich eCommerce, generate custom reports, manage federated search over multiple domains, and more. 
Enterprise: Starting at $2,500 per month, the Agility CMS Enterprise package is for large-scale organizations that need highly customized setup with world-class support. Enterprise includes more direct support, a dedicated account manager, and greater control over the granular needs of your organization. Pricing varies based on the bespoke requirements of an organization; for a custom quote, contact their sales team.
All Agility CMS plans – including the free tier – include these features:
<ul>
<li>Roles &amp; Permissions     </li>
<li>Approval Workflows</li>
<li>Content Modelling and Versioning</li>
<li>Rich Text Editor</li>
<li>RESTful API &amp; Webhooks</li>
<li>Open Source SDKs (Javascript &amp; .Net)</li>
<li>Single Sign-on (SSO)</li>
<li>24/7 Monitoring</li>
<li>Unlimited Languages/Locales</li>
<li>Unlimited Content Definitions</li>
<li>Unlimited Asset Requests</li>
<li>Unlimited API Requests</li>
</ul>
<h3>Focused on Developers</h3>
One of the best parts of Agility’s pricing is its free tier for developers. Like most “freemium” models, it’s limited in its scope and capabilities. But it can still power an actual production solution, including access to APIs. An enterprising coder can build a basic proof-of-concept for a project or even power a small website – all for free. But be warned: the API will not charge overages for this package, so if you hit your limits, your calls will be blocked.
With a path for easy upgrades – and even alerts to tell you when you’re approaching your limits – Agility helps its users to scale more seamlessly based on their needs. As a headless platform, this is even more advantageous, as developers have more freedom to create in the language or framework of their choice and shape digital experience across a multitude of channels.
Because it’s a multi-tenant SaaS-based solution, Agility appears to have more control and flexibility over their pricing, and they’ve endeavored to make it easier to understand. However, because it’s a multi-tenant SaaS-based solution, it might be a limitation for organizations that require on-prem hosting or security governance for all of their websites and CMS platforms.
You can try Agility CMS for free <a href="https://account.agilitycms.com/sign-up?product=agility-free">here</a>.
<h3>About Agility CMS</h3>
<a href="https://agilitycms.com/">Agility CMS</a> is a SaaS headless “Content-First” platform with fast, flexible development and familiar authoring tools. Designed for developers, marketers, and enterprise organizations, Agility CMS is trusted by customers in the US, Canada, and across the globe – including Visit Orlando, PepsiCo, Polaroid, Hockey Canada, California State University Long Beach, Cineplex Entertainment, Scotiabank and more.

Agility CMS Introduces Simplified Pricing Tiers For Headless Content Management

paris-tuzun

<a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=2661776-1&amp;h=3751995207&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fagilitycms.com%2F&amp;a=Agility+CMS" rel="nofollow">Agility CMS</a> announced its first round of funding with <a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=2661776-1&amp;h=3863242703&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fvenbridge.com%2F&amp;a=Venbridge%E2%80%AFLtd.%E2%80%AF" rel="nofollow">Venbridge Ltd. </a> This capital will be used to help promote new packages and offerings,  available today, that support a Content-First approach to building and  managing digital properties. This approach makes it easier  to create faster websites, mobile apps, and essentially any digital  solution using content from a central repository.
<blockquote>"We are thrilled to be able to contribute to Agility CMS's growth trajectory through this funding," said Garron Helman, CEO of Venbridge Ltd. "At  Venbridge, our goal is to support Canadian companies as they scale  their operations, develop their technologies, and reach a wider  client-base, so we're very excited for Agility CMS's future expansion."</blockquote>
Agility CMS is building on the momentum they initiated upon selling  their professional services division in 2018 and strengthening their  partner network. While a decoupled architecture has always been a  strength, now the company is more tightly focused on the newer tools and  practices to enable those partners and developers to work faster with  more flexibility. Their reference architecture allows content to  be defined, federated and shared across an entire organization.
<blockquote>"This funding will allow us to invest time and energy into the  Content-First approach of our platform and educate customers, partners  and developers on how to execute on this," said Jon Voigt, CEO. "We're  helping people digitally transform their whole mindset on new ways to  build their content and platform architecture in order to empower their  team. The result is faster teams, better platforms and more digital  success."</blockquote>
Unlike traditional models, where a single website is tightly linked  to a CMS installation, Agility CMS uses a different approach. An  organization can arrange its content in an appropriate structure and  share that content to any of its online properties. That structure is  called Content Architecture, and it includes Shared Lists, Items and  Templates, as well as custom fields that are specific to each  organization. This structure can last well beyond the lifetime of any  single app or website.
<blockquote>"Many of our top customers have re-used or built upon the same  Content Architecture for many iterations of their web properties," said Joel Varty, President. "Website  and app front-ends come and go, and our customers can now build them  even faster by leveraging their existing content investments, using  technologies such as JAMstack and Static Site Generators."</blockquote>
Agility CMS has also combined its other offerings into all-in-one  bundles, something no other Content-First or Headless CMS vendor has  done. These packages include Page Management, Ecommerce, Online  Ticketing, User Generated Content, Website Search, and a robust Support  package with an SLA.
Please visit <a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=2661776-1&amp;h=3376631391&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fagilitycms.com%2Fproduct%2Fpricing&amp;a=agilitycms.com" rel="nofollow">agilitycms.com</a> to explore the new packages.

Agility CMS Secures Funding to Help Customers Build a Faster Web

<a href="https://www.agilitycms.com/" target="_blank">Agility CMS</a> has rolled out an update along with several bug fixes to polish off 2015.
The cloud-based, enterprise-grade platform was the focus of a <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/search/?q=agility+cms&amp;sort=-date" target="_blank">featured week here on CMS Critic earlier this year</a>. I personally got to explore the <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/fun-fitness-community-outreach-why-working-at-agility-cms-looks-truly-awesome/" target="_blank">community feeling within the Agility camp</a>, as well as the <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/why-agility-cms-doesnt-partake-in-feature-bloating/" target="_blank">platform's aversion to “feature bloating”</a>.
Here's a look at what's new.
<h2>Media, Documents, Reports &amp; More</h2>
Notably, Agility's “Choose Files” fly-out has been updated with a “New Folder” button.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/media-and-docs-flyout-new-folder.jpg" />
This fly-out appears when a user chooses to upload and insert a new image within a Rich Text Editor, for example, or chooses to upload/insert an image within any module.
According to Agility, this update gives users the option to create a Media folder for easy organization without having to navigate to the Media &amp; Documents Section. Much simpler.
Also, Reports within the Legacy content manager are now available in Beta. These reports include; Recent Changes, Ready to Publish, Domain Status and Configuration Status.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/new-reports1.png" />
The Save Validation pop-up has been updated too. It now includes an itemized list of all fields that have been edited but not saved. So, when a user navigates away from a page, module and other Agility CMS elements, they will be made aware of exactly where their unsaved changes are.
Furthermore, Agility CMS has unveiled a fair few bug fixes that come bundled with this update. Those bug fixes revolve around URL validation, page re-ordering, multi-language copying, and more.
To find out more about Agility CMS, <a href="https://www.agilitycms.com/" target="_blank">visit their website</a>, or check them out through our <a href="/products/agility-cms/" target="_blank">CMS Directory</a>.

Agility CMS Caps Off 2015 With an Update

mike-johnston

<a href="http://www.agilitycms.com/" target="_blank">Agility CMS</a> has started to roll out the redesigned version of its popular web content management solution.
The platform provides users with a cloud-based digital content management solutions. It's aimed primarily at large companies, and caters to some of the top brands around the world.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/agilitypaw-1365x0-is.jpeg" /> 
Some Agility users have already received the update, transitioning from the old interface, to the new one. According to Agility themselves, those users have responded with “rave reviews.”
<h2>A Brand New Interface &amp; The Introduction of Dashboards</h2>
Agility has revamped their interface, which now provides an increasingly intuitive and visually attractive experience. A responsive framework and touch-friendly elements modernize the platform and enable users to update their website from anywhere, at any time.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/agility-screenshot1608x0-is.png" />
The redesigned also brings about robust workflow improvements and performance updates in order to provide marketing and development teams with more flexibility. The aim here was to make more tasks doable in fewer clicks.
One major Agility CMS update is the introduction of Dashboards, which provide improved insights to users on overall website performance, as well as user activity and recent changes made within the platform.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/agility-screenshot2608x0-is.png" />
The Homepage Dashboard includes integration with Google Analytics, and and pulls in metrics like weekly page views and average session duration. In addition to the Homepage, other Agility CMS Sections now include unique dashboards that consolidate information specific to their functionality.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/agility-screenshot3.png" />
The Pages Section, for example, displays information about each webpage’s performance and activity, including a website’s top-viewed pages and top entry pages.
<h2>Sleeker, Faster &amp; Better Value</h2>
According to Agility's CEO Jon Voigt, who was recently interviewed by CMS Critic, this update is highyl significant in the products' history.
<blockquote>“This a huge step forward for Agility CMS. The legacy content manager was built out 8 years ago, and it served us and our customers well.
This new, upgraded version provides the same user-friendly experience – but it’s sleeker, faster and provides more value to all that login to the platform.”</blockquote>
Agility plan to have everybody upgraded by the end of Fall 2015.
<a href="http://agilitycms.com/ui/rebuilt-and-redesigned" target="_blank">Learn more about what’s new and improved in Agility CMS</a>.
Also, check Agility out through our <a href="/products/agility-cms/" target="_blank">CMS Directory</a>.

Agility CMS Starts Rolling Out Rebuilt & Redesigned Interface

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