Why Brands Are Moving Towards SaaS Content Management Systems

One of the biggest shifts that has played out in the digital landscape in recent years has been the move towards Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) Content Management Systems (CMS). This shift has primarily been driven by a desire to outsource the operational burden of managing a CMS.

However, SaaS can mean different things to different people, so it’s important to be clear on what you mean by SaaS, and to ensure your chosen CMS aligns with your understanding.

Fifty Shades Of SaaS

Fundamentally, SaaS means the software is managed by an external vendor, allowing the client to consume it as a service rather than owning and maintaining the underlying infrastructure. Within this broad definition, there are two main approaches to a SaaS CMS emerging.

Historically, most SaaS CMS offerings have focused on managing only the back end of a website, and providing APIs for content delivery. But now, with the growing popularity of the headless or ‘decoupled’ CMS, clients are finding themselves having to deal with the need to host the front end separately to the back end. So while you might have a SaaS CMS to deal with the back end, your public-facing website may still require separate hosting on a platform like Netlify or Vercel.

That’s where a new breed of fully managed SaaS CMS has started to emerge. A growing client desire for a single vendor to manage both the back and front end is leading some SaaS CMS providers – like Optimizely and Contentstack – to start offering front end hosting as a bundled product. This move aims to provide the best of both worlds: a truly comprehensive SaaS CMS solution with the freedom to choose how your front end is delivered, while the entire tech stack is fully managed by a single third party.

With the CMS back end being fully managed by the vendor, you do lose some control over the CMS application. This is where products on the other end of the SaaS CMS spectrum come in, like Optimizely PaaS, Umbraco Cloud, and Kentico SaaS. The infrastructure layer is managed by the vendor but you manage and deploy the application layer for the front and back end into their infrastructure.

But, What About Upgrades?

This shift towards fully managed CMS platforms has eased the burden of CMS upgrades, with those vendors now managing the underlying application and infrastructure. However, this often translates into a new set of responsibilities for development teams. Instead of dealing with traditional CMS upgrades, developers are now tasked with ensuring the compatibility and timely updates of front-end frameworks like Next.js, or Nuxt.js, which are crucial for rendering the content delivered by the SaaS CMS. This effectively moves the upgrade dilemma from the back-end CMS to the front end application, requiring a different set of skills and vigilance to maintain an up-to-date digital ecosystem.

Whereas, for those we described as being on the other end of the SaaS spectrum above, the CMS upgrade role still sits mostly with the client or their agency, not the vendor. This is because of the freedom one has to customise and extend the core CMS application, with every client instance being unique as a result.

In short, the whole ‘no more upgrades’ sales angle from SaaS CMS providers is one to be careful of. You will still have a role to play in the upgrade process, depending on the shade of SaaS CMS you choose, whether that be with the back end or the front end.

Why Are Organisations Embracing The SaaS CMS?

The main appeal of a SaaS CMS is that it removes the complexities of managing and maintaining the infrastructure layer. For IT teams, this means being able to offload hardware setup, server management, and storage to the vendor, freeing them up to focus on higher-value, strategic tasks that are unique to the organisation.

Other reasons that organisations are gravitating towards SaaS CMSs include:

Security: SaaS CMS platforms ensure best-practice security, with CMS vendors typically adhering to stringent security standards and certifications, such as ISO 27001. This provides a level of assurance and vigilance that can be difficult for organisations to maintain in-house.

Faster speed to market: With a SaaS CMS, the process of setting up and configuring hosting environments is streamlined. This accelerates deployment, allowing marketing teams to launch campaigns and deliver experiences to market more rapidly. Most modern SaaS CMSs also facilitate content reuse across multiple channels and simplify global localisation efforts, allowing organisations to deliver content to diverse audiences and platforms such as websites, wayfinding systems and in-store kiosks.

Scalability and performance: SaaS CMS platforms are built to be inherently scalable, designed to handle fluctuating traffic and content demands without requiring manual intervention. They are optimised for performance, and when combined with a high-quality front end implementation, they ensure a fast and seamless user experience.

When Would A SaaS CMS Not Be Appropriate?

While there are many benefits to a SaaS CMS, it’s not a one-size-fits-all solution. There are circumstances where this approach may not be the best fit. For example, organisations that prefer not to outsource data to a third party may prefer an on-premise solution, where they maintain full control and retain all data in their own data centres.

To SaaS Or Not To SaaS?

In most cases, the benefits of a SaaS CMS will outweigh the potential downsides. However, the decision to adopt a SaaS CMS should consider the specific requirements of the organisation and the internal resources available to maintain the CMS.

In situations where there are reasons not to adopt a SaaS CMS, a trusted digital agency may be able to provide some of the benefits of a SaaS platform – for example taking on the hosting, maintenance and upgrade management.

Either way, the days of IT teams having to shoulder the responsibility of managing and maintaining the CMS are largely behind us, enabling teams to focus on value creation and innovation rather than maintenance, and contributing to a more scalable, performant and future-proof digital presence.

Andy Thompson is CTO at Luminary.

Last Updated on August 11, 2025 by Andy Thompson