From Directus to Builder.io

We are the Directus to Builder.io 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 Builder.io

Key advantages

Builder.io occupies a unique spot in the headless CMS landscape. It is not really a traditional headless CMS in the way that Sanity or Contentful are. It is more of a visual page builder with headless capabilities bolted on. That distinction matters because if your marketing team needs to ship landing pages fast without filing Jira tickets, Builder.io genuinely delivers on that promise. The drag-and-drop editor is solid, and the ability to register your own React components so that non-developers can compose pages from your actual design system is a legitimately powerful idea.

Where Builder.io really shines is in bridging the gap between developers and marketing teams. You build the components, register them with Builder, and then hand the keys over. Marketers can assemble pages, run A/B tests, and publish without touching code. For agencies like ours, this means fewer "can you just move this banner" tickets and more time spent on actual engineering work.

The framework support is also genuinely broad. Next.js, React, Angular, Vue, Svelte, Qwik, SolidJS, and React Native all have SDKs. If you are running a modern JavaScript stack, Builder.io probably has an integration for it. The AI features they have been shipping are interesting too, though still early days in terms of real production reliability.

Visual drag-and-drop editing in Builder.io

Visual drag-and-drop editor

The visual editor lets non-technical users build and edit pages using your actual codebase components. It is one of the better implementations of visual editing in the headless space.

Custom component registration

Developers can register their own React, Vue, or Angular components so editors drag and drop real design system pieces rather than generic blocks.

A/B testing and personalisation built in

Native experimentation tools let marketing teams run split tests and personalise content without needing a separate optimisation platform.

Broad framework support

SDKs for Next.js, React, Angular, Vue, Svelte, Qwik, SolidJS, and React Native mean you are not locked into a single frontend framework.

Marketing team using Builder.io autonomously

Marketing team autonomy

Content and marketing teams can ship landing pages, campaign pages, and promotions independently, which frees up developer time for product work.

Structured and visual content modes

Builder.io supports both structured data models for developer-driven content and visual page building for marketing-driven content, giving teams flexibility in how they work.