From Contentful to ButterCMS

We are the Contentful to ButterCMS migration experts

Challenges with Contentful

Key pain points

With all good things, there’s a “depends on how you use it and who is using it” clause. Contentful usage-based pricing can quietly snowball, especially for smaller teams or projects running on lean budgets. Its API-first approach might make developers grin, but the non-technical users might find themselves staring at setup screens, wondering, “Wait… where’s the editor?”

More often than not, the main reason Contentful sucks is that the developer has built it incorrectly, as it has a whole host of opinionation that isn't widely known. E.g.

You need to be extremely careful with the number of documents you build, as you could very easily push yourself into enterprise from an early stage.

We'd always recommend speaking to us first, before completely writing it off.

Potentially high costs

Contentful isn’t a cheap CMS. As your traffic, models, or team grows, pricing can climb faster than expected.

Complex for non-technical users

Marketers and editors may need a small learning curve before they feel at home. It’s powerful but not always plug-and-play.

Integration dependency

A lot of magic happens through third-party tools. Great for flexibility, but it does mean extra setup instead of getting everything out-of-the-box.

Limited native features

Contentful keeps the core CMS clean and minimal, but that also means more building and configuring to get advanced functionality.

Learning curve for new teams

If your team is moving from a traditional CMS, expect some onboarding time. Structured content is amazing but new for many.

Requires careful management

Because it’s so flexible, projects need good governance. Without it, content models can get messy and harder to maintain over time.

Benefits of ButterCMS

Key advantages

ButterCMS is one of those headless CMS platforms that genuinely nails the onboarding experience. We've seen content teams go from zero to confidently building pages and blog posts within a few hours, which is rare in the headless world. The dashboard is clean, the API explorer is thoughtfully designed, and the starter templates for popular frameworks mean developers aren't starting from scratch every time.

From an agency perspective, the standout quality is how little hand-holding editors need after launch. The interface is intuitive enough that marketers can create pages, manage blog content, and handle SEO metadata without constantly pinging the dev team. The built-in blog engine is a genuine differentiator. Most headless CMS platforms treat blogging as an afterthought, but ButterCMS was originally built around it, and it shows in the quality of the authoring experience.

The API performance is consistently fast, and the SDK support across languages like JavaScript, Python, Ruby, and PHP is solid. Their customer support team is also notably responsive and genuinely receptive to feature requests, which is something we don't often see from CMS vendors. For small-to-mid-sized projects where you need a reliable content API without overcomplicating things, ButterCMS delivers.

We'd particularly recommend it for teams that need a polished blog alongside structured page content, and who value simplicity over infinite extensibility. It's a CMS that knows what it is and does that thing well.

Exceptionally easy onboarding

Content teams can be productive within hours, not days. The dashboard is clean and the learning curve is one of the gentlest we've seen in headless CMS land.

Built-in blog engine

Unlike most headless platforms where you have to model blog content from scratch, ButterCMS ships with a purpose-built blog engine that includes categories, tags, authors, and SEO fields out of the box.

Fast and reliable content API

The read API is consistently quick with global CDN delivery. For content-heavy sites, the performance is solid and predictable.

No seat limits on any plan

Every plan includes unlimited users, which is genuinely unusual in this space. You won't get punished for growing your content team.

Responsive customer support

Their support team is quick to respond and genuinely open to feature requests. We've seen roadmap items added based on customer feedback, which builds real trust.

Strong SDK and framework coverage

Official SDKs for JavaScript, Python, Ruby, PHP, and more, plus starter projects for React, Next.js, Vue, Angular, and other frameworks that actually work out of the box.