DatoCMS
Headless CMS. Done Right.
170 followers
Headless CMS. Done Right.
170 followers
DatoCMS is a cloud-based headless CMS designed to work with static websites, mobile apps and server-side applications of any kind. Freelancers, agencies and startups use DatoCMS to allow non-technical clients and team members to manage the content of their digital products within a web-based CMS.
This is the 2nd launch from DatoCMS. View more
Visual Editing by DatoCMS
Launched this week
Headless CMS and Visual Editing have a long-standing love-hate relationship. Our approach to is aimed at making it dead easy for developers to implement Visual Editing in DatoCMS, to let content editors get the WYSIWYG effect seamlessly.
Combined with draft mode and real-time updates, making changes is a breeze. No more hunting through record forms to find the right field.
Free
Launch Team
DatoCMS
Hi Product Hunt, maker here 👋
We started building DatoCMS about 10 years ago, when headless CMS was just becoming the "next" architecture for the modern web. The core idea's become very well established: structured content, API-first delivery, and full freedom on the frontend. One of the weak spots has always been the same though: visual editing. We always felt that the editors were missing out on what a Headless CMS could do for them because of how technical it has been by nature.
For a long time, headless meant great DX, but editors had to mentally map content and pages to models and blocks. Over the years, many platforms introduced their own versions of visual editing, often relying on iframes, CMS-rendered previews, or tightly coupled page builders.
Today we’re launching Visual Editing for DatoCMS, which is our take on solving that problem without breaking the headless model. Our primary goal with this feature is to make it dead easy for developers to implement Visual Editing in DatoCMS, so editors can work on their websites as frictionlessly as possible!
Our approach is based on:
Real frontend previews running your actual app, not a CMS abstraction
Content-aware deep links that connect any record or field to its exact usage in the UI
A framework-agnostic setup that works with modern stacks (we have SDKs for Next.js, Nuxt, SvelteKit, and Astro) and supports drafts, preview environments, and production safely
The goal isn’t to turn DatoCMS into a visual page builder. It’s to add visual context where it’s missing, while keeping developers in full control of rendering, data fetching, and architecture.
This feature is the result of years of feedback from our users and customers, and we’re excited to hear what you think! I'll be around and happy to dive into implementation details or trade-offs in the comments.
Thanks for your support 🧡
Humans in the Loop
Product Hunt
@curiouskitty Hate to say it depends, but reallly depends on why/if you'd want to switch. In our case we find that existing users of other Headless CMS typically talk to us for one of these reasons (when "frontend editing" is a part of the discussion):
Overall editor experience bundled in (specifically for Structured Text, Plugins, and overall UI)
Overall dev experience with the schema, our CLI/API/SDK packages, and the "ease" of implementing frontend preview with the plugin that this release builds on, or
General support/pricing
In this case specifically, these Visual Editing releases are still new, and we've shaped it around quite a lot of user feedback, so it's a bit early to say why other CMS users would switch just for this, but some of the discussions we've had make us think that this approach (invisible metadata in API responses vs. manual field-to-component wiring) would be less brittle or high-maintenance.
Happy to dig into specifics for your use case if you'd liek to reach out!
We're currently evaluating headless CMS options - will check this out!!
Humans in the Loop
@bob_mohan That's great to hear! Feel free to ping me if I can show you around
Stakpak.dev
Looks like it would make life easier!!
@noureldin_ehab Would love some feedback if you try it out!
It seems to me that soon all CMS platforms will be enhanced with AI tools that significantly automate development. And in your visual editor concept, AI fits perfectly. Are you planning to implement such features?
@mykyta_semenov_ We're pretty conservative with implementing AI into the CMS (we did roll out an MCP in beta late last year though), so not saying "no", but at the moment we haven't considered if/how we'd implement AI here
Invisible metadata in API responses is a much cleaner path than iframe sandboxing. Most headless CMS visual editors add a rendering layer that fights the frontend framework instead of working with it. The ContentLink component approach keeps the editing surface native to whatever stack you're already on, which means editors don't hit that weird lag between clicking and seeing the right field. Smart move shipping it on every plan including Free.
@piroune_balachandran That's why it probably took us a while to roll it out into the open 😅 We wanted to focus on the implementation being as easy and logical as possible over anything else. Would love some feedback if you end up checking it out!