From Directus to Adobe Experience Manager

We are the Directus to Adobe Experience Manager migration experts

Challenges with Directus

Key pain points

Directus looks fantastic in demos, but things get rocky once you actually try to use it at scale. Cloud plans jump to enterprise the moment your team grows past five users, and the API limits are tight enough that any traffic spike means aggressive caching or a surprise bill. It feels flexible until you realise the platform has a lot of operational overhead baked in.

On the dev side, updates can introduce breaking changes, the documentation doesn’t always keep pace, and the extension ecosystem is pretty thin. Localization is technically supported but fiddly and easy to misconfigure, and large datasets make the UI noticeably sluggish. And if you want anything deeply custom, you’re suddenly living in Vue.js land, which is not where most teams want to spend their weekends.

Breaking update changes

Directus has a habit of shipping updates that occasionally break things you weren’t planning to fix. Unless you're on an enterprise plan, you don’t get clean version control.

Limited extension ecosystem

The plugin ecosystem is still pretty bare. Anything even mildly niche ends up becoming a “let’s just custom build it” moment, which defeats the purpose of picking a CMS with extensions.

Complex localization setup

Yes, it supports multilingual content, but setting it up feels like assembling IKEA furniture blindfolded. It works, but expect extra config, extra steps, and extra patience.

Version control paywall

Want safe rollbacks, controlled releases, and predictable deployments? Great, Directus will tell you to upgrade first. Versioning is locked behind higher-tier plans, which is… bold.

Vue.js knowledge requirement

Custom interfaces and deeper tweaks need Vue.js, so if your team only speaks React, prepare for a small identity crisis (or a hiring plan).

Large dataset performance issues

Heavy tables and deeply relational data can slow down queries and the UI, forcing you to optimise more than you probably wanted to.

Benefits of Adobe Experience Manager

Key advantages

AEM is the kind of platform you only choose if you’re a Fortune 500 company or enjoy voluntarily suffering. I hate anything Adobe builds. It’s bloated, overpriced, and aggressively designed to lock you into their ecosystem. But fine, here are the positives: the Adobe integration is unmatched. If your entire organisation already lives inside Creative Cloud, Analytics, and Target, AEM becomes this giant DXP monolith that handles assets, personalization, segmentation, and multi-channel delivery without breaking a sweat. The DAM is legitimately powerful, and it scales like a tank.

If you’re not operating at scale, you’ll spend absurd money for problems a clean Sanity + modern composable stack solves better and cheaper. If you are considering AEM or escaping it, get in touch. We’ll help you choose something that won’t haunt your ops team for the next decade.

Integration with Adobe tools

AEM connects with Creative Cloud, Analytics, and Target, letting teams move assets, data, and personalisation logic across tools without friction

Robust digital asset management

The DAM is genuinely powerful. It has AI tagging, smart cropping, versioning, and bulk optimisation for massive media libraries.

Consistent multi-channel delivery

AEM can push content to web, mobile apps, email, and more from one central source. Ideal for enterprises that need consistent messaging across every customer touchpoint.

Flexible architecture

Supports both classic and headless approaches, letting teams mix legacy setups with modern frontends. It’s adaptable enough for companies with complicated stacks.