Contentful Web Development

What is Contentful management? Well…Contentful is an alternative to other classic content management systems that you may already know, such as WordPress. What makes Contentful different from any other CMS is that it is headless. This simply means that it is a back-end only CMS, while a CMS like WordPress will have both a front-end and back-end.

So what makes a headless CMS so strong? A headless CMS does not care about how and where your content is displayed. It only cares about storing and delivering the website content. And what does this mean for website design? Won’t my website look ugly if it’s built using a headless CMS? Put simply – no, it won’t.

A website built in Contentful gives the front-end developer freedom to use any technology they like and are familiar with to build your site. It also gives the back-end developer the chance to optimise the website for search engines and fix any bugs without worrying about content being affected in the front-end.

Another amazing thing about Contentful is that it is not limited to websites only. Because of the headless CMS approach, it can be used for IOS apps, Android apps and even web apps. This makes it a powerful choice for mobile and website development.

Still confused by Contentful? Here is a summary of some key Contentful features that you might find extremely useful:

• Freedom for developers: Developers can use any technology that they are familiar with to develop your site.
• Optimised for speed: The caching techniques used in Contentful ensure your site is super quick at loading.
• Mobile-friendly: Built-in features, such as image auto-compression mean that your site will be fully mobile optimised.
• Rich editor interface: Author in any type of content you like with the built-in text editor and create your own custom content types.
• Multi-language Support: Contentful supports publishing content in multiple languages and helps your site launch on time in any country.
• Set Roles & Permissions: Keep your content safe and set different levels of access for different team members.
• Sophisticated Media library: Manage all your assets in one place without breaking public links.
• Third-party integrations: Integrate with third-party services directly from inside your site or web app.

Contentful is designed to make the life of developers and editors a whole lot easier. This can help to reduce delivery times for projects built in Contentful.

Is investing in Contentful worthwhile? Take a look at the pros and cons below to see if Contentful is suitable for your next development project:

Pros

• Easy to use for editors and your content team: Your team members can easily upload content using the built-in editor.
• Fast and clean development: Developers can use a technology that they are already familiar with – Making development time a lot quicker!
• Everything in one place: All your assets and content is kept in one place for web, mobile, social, apps and more.
• Flexibility: Developers can use any technology they like and the best technology for your project.
• Easy integration: You can integrate your current services with your new site easily, such as CRM systems, email etc.
• A great cloud solution: Everything is on the cloud, so there is no need to set-up your own infrastructure. This should significantly lower your operating costs.

Cons

• You’ll need a good head: Contentful is a headless CMS, meaning you’ll need a good front-end developer to make your website look pretty.
• Customisation options can be limited: Unlike WordPress, Contentful doesn’t have a library of plugins you can just slot in. You’ll need a good developer to build custom features and add-ons instead.

As Contentful partners, fastfwd can manage the whole process of developing a website using Contentful. From deciding whether Contentful is right for your project to post-launch services, such as website maintenance and support.

Our team of website developers have years of commercial experience in developing professional websites for a range of clients. They also live and breath the latest technology every day, so you know your project will be safe with us. We can even help you decide whether Contentful is right for your project and what technology you should be using to get the most out of your website. But that’s not all!

We also have a team of highly technical project managers with many years of experience working on web projects. They can easily communicate your vision to our developers and even cut out all that unnecessary technical jargon. And once your project is on the go, they’ll even keep you in the loop at every step of the way. This way you know you’ll get the result you want and more!

We at fastfwd pride ourselves on being the best Contentful CMS agency in the UK. So if you want to try out Contentful for your next project, give us a call!

Are you looking for a Contentful developer in the UK? We are an authorised Contentful partner.