Changing the Game in Digital Experience Management

Changing the Game in Digital Experience Management

A Deep Dive into Builder.io's Revolutionary Experience Management Platform

John Schneider
Principal Consultant

Wednesday, Nov 15, 2023

As an experience management specialist with over two decades in the field, I've exclusively worked with top-tier Digital Experience Platforms (#DXP) such as Adobe, Sitecore, Optimizely, and Acquia. Recently, a client challenged me to find a platform that offers robust features at a cost-effective price point akin to WordPress. This quest led me to discover what I believe to be a gamechanger in the CMS market: builder.io.


What is Builder.io?

Builder.io is a comprehensive platform offering a headless Content Management System (CMS) and dynamic page-building capabilities. It is designed to streamline the web development process from design to deployment. The platform's seamless integration with design tools like Figma, coupled with its cost-efficient pricing model, makes it a formidable tool for developers and marketers alike.

Key Advantages

Here are some of the key advantages of Builder.io that stood out during my evaluation:

  • Fully Featured: Builder.io checks all the essential boxes for enterprise clients, providing a #FullStack solution.
  • Speed to Market: The platformโ€™s user-friendly interface allows teams to be up and running in minutes, exemplifying #AgileDevelopment.
  • Design Operations: With Visual Co-pilot, designs from Figma can be imported directly into Builder.io and even as Next.js components in your GitHub repository, a true #DesignThinking approach that bridges the gap between design and development and rapidly accelerates development.  

The following video gives a great overview of the process:

  • Cost Take Out: Offering a free tier with premium plans, Builder.io stands as a #CostEffective solution in the #SaaS world, potentially reducing annual software and licensing costs by up to 70%.
  • Composability: Embracing #MACH architecture, Builder.io ensures easy integration with other systems, which is a cornerstone of #DigitalTransformation.
  • Performance: With optimization for modern web frameworks like Next.js, Builder.io sites are blazing fast and SEO-friendly, adhering to #WebPerformance standards.
  • Simplified Support: Builder.ioโ€™s dual offering of a headless CMS and page-building capabilities provides a #UserFriendly experience, ensuring streamlined marketing website management.

Key Downsides

However, as with all software there were some downsides I noticed :

  • Hydration Errors: While working with #NextJS, I frequently encountered hydration mismatch errors, particularly in preview mode, which can be challenging to troubleshoot. This didn't effect the ability to serve the production website but definitely got annoying at times using the preview instance. My sense is that an experience development partner will know how to avoid these potholes but they were annoying none the less.
  • Development Quirks: The platform's denormalized content type approach can make interoperability between custom components and the page builder less intuitive, potentially leading to inconsistencies. You can lock the interface down to just using custom components created by your development team but it would be nice if there was bit more of a middle ground.
  • Documentation Gaps: Although Builder.io has a good amount of documentation integrated directly into the user interface, it can be fragmented and incomplete for advanced scenarios, posing a hurdle for developers.
  • User Base: Builder.io has been around for about 5 years but still is an emerging product in the market and hence it's probably not as easy to find people experienced in it to help as it might be for Adobe, Sitecore or others. That said, it leverages modern design principles of common tools like Node.js so it is fairly easy for folks who are experienced with similar tools and technologies to learn.

In Summary:

Builder.io has significantly impacted my view on developing B2B marketing websites, particularly for companies focused on #DigitalMarketing and #IT where cost optimization is paramount. It stands as a tool that can dramatically reduce expenses and optimize website performance. So if you are in a position where you are starting to reconsider the architecture of how you are running your website I strongly recommend businesses of all sizes to consider Builder.io.  As always, if you have questions or need help evaluating if Builder.io could be a fit for your organization please don't hesitate to reach out.