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We are the Dato CMS to Contentstack migration experts


Challenges with Dato CMS

DatoCMS gives all the vibes of Prismic, but is somehow less flexible. It can feel like a glorified drag-and-drop schema builder. The moment you want to do anything mildly custom, the walls start closing in. And yes, the pricing stings. It scales fast, which is great for Dato, not so great for anyone trying to run a startup without selling a kidney.

The ecosystem is small, the extensions are thin, and deeper customisation often turns into “well, I guess we’re building that ourselves.” There’s no real visual editor, no guardrails for inactive billing, and once your project grows, you quickly realise drag-and-drop doesn’t magically give you validation or extensibility. If you need something genuinely custom or long-term scalable, there are better choices. Just contact us before you start one of the most expensive journeys.

Key pain points

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Limited customisation options

DatoCMS hits a ceiling fast if you need deeply custom logic. The drag-and-drop model is convenient, but it doesn’t give you the freedom a code-first setup would.

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Pricing based on traffic

Costs scale with usage, which can get painful quickly for growing sites. Traffic spikes = surprise bills.

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Steeper learning curve

While the UI is simple, the API-driven side demands more technical understanding. Non-developers may struggle once things get complex.

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Need for additional plugins

Out-of-the-box features only go so far. More advanced workflows often require plugins or custom development to bridge gaps.

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Limited feature set scalability

Great for small–mid projects, but larger, more demanding setups can outgrow what DatoCMS offers out of the box.

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Potential integration issues

Certain frameworks and tools need careful configuration, and edge cases appear more often than you’d expect in more mature CMS ecosystems.

Benefits of Contentstack

Contentstack is one of the more polished enterprise headless CMS platforms. It has API-first, composable, and loaded with the usual DXP buzzwords. It actually backs some of it up. The workflows are strong, role-based approvals are genuinely helpful for large editorial teams, and the visual builder plus modular blocks give marketers enough power to ship pages without pinging developers every 30 seconds. Its omnichannel delivery, multi-region CDNs, and fast APIs make it a solid fit for global brands with heavy traffic and complex localisation needs.

But this is firmly in enterprise territory. We generally don’t recommend platforms in the “DXP with 47 whitepapers” category, but if you must pick one, Contentstack at least has a smoother developer experience than most. The composable architecture is well thought out, integrations behave predictably, and the SDKs play nicely with modern frameworks like Next.js. If you're a Fortune-500-sized team and want help figuring out whether this is the right bet, or want a modern alternative instead, get in touch.

Key advantages

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Enterprise-grade composable architecture

Built for large teams shipping across markets. The stack scales fast, stays stable under heavy traffic, and doesn’t crumble the moment your marketing team schedules a global launch.

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Advanced workflow and approvals

Contentstack’s workflow engine handles multi-step approvals, roles, and governance without duct tape. Perfect for teams that need structure instead of Slack chaos.

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Multi-region CDN delivery

Your content gets pushed worldwide through edge CDNs, keeping delivery fast even when your customers are nowhere near your servers.

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API-first microservices design

Developers get flexibility without wrestling with legacy monolith logic with REST, GraphQL, and webhooks.

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Extensive React/Next.js SDKs

Strong developer tooling means faster builds and fewer hours wasted writing boilerplate just to fetch and render content.

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MACH-compliant infrastructure

Fully modular, cloud-native, and replaceable in parts. Plays nicely inside modern composable stacks instead of dragging you back to 2010.

Get in touch

Book a meeting with us to discuss how we can help or fill out a form to get in touch