Modern Platforms
Modern CMS platforms that cost less to run, move faster, and are built for AI from the start.
Platforms like Payload and Pantheon's P1 take a different approach to the traditional CMS: less to maintain, quicker to build and change, integration treated as normal work rather than a plugin hunt, and content structured so your team can genuinely use AI to write and edit it.
Modern platform work we do
Most of what makes an older site expensive is accumulated rather than essential: plugins to patch, a theme nobody wants to touch, and an integration that works until the plugin behind it is abandoned. A modern platform removes most of that category of work. Everything we build for you, both code and design, is yours. You paid for it, you own it.
We build on Payload and Pantheon's P1. Client project pages on these platforms will follow; in the meantime this site is built on a modern stack of the same kind, so what we recommend is what we use.
Modern CMS Platforms
We build on Payload and Pantheon's P1. Both separate your content from how it is displayed, which is what makes everything else on this page possible. Payload defines your content model in code, so it is version-controlled and reviewed like any other change. P1 adds visual, AI-assisted page composition on top.
- Payload CMS
- Pantheon P1
- Content Modeling
Built to Integrate
These platforms are an API before they are a website, so connecting them to a CRM, a payment system, a booking tool or an internal database is ordinary work rather than a hunt for a plugin that somebody still maintains. The same content can feed a website, an app and a partner system at once.
- CRM & Business Systems
- Custom APIs
- One Source, Many Outputs
AI in the Editor
Because the content model is structured and reachable over an API, AI can genuinely work with it rather than guessing at a page. We wire assistance into the editing experience, including MCP connections that let an assistant read your content model and draft, revise or restructure content under your team's review.
- AI-Assisted Drafting
- MCP Integrations
- Editor Guardrails
Ongoing Support
A modern stack moves faster than a traditional CMS does. Framework releases, dependency updates, and build pipelines that break for reasons unrelated to anything you changed. We keep it current and keep it deploying. We offer retainer and as-needed plans, and we support sites whether or not we built them. Every plan includes dedicated hours beyond the update work, so you can spend them on whatever matters most that month.
- Platform and dependency updates
- Build pipeline and deployment monitoring
- Content API and integration monitoring
- Performance and Core Web Vitals tuning
- Hosting, CDN and caching configuration
- Editorial workflow and AI assistance tuning
- Feature development and content model changes
- Documentation and handover for your team
How we approach modern platforms
The decision is rarely about the technology. It is about how much of your budget currently goes on keeping a site alive rather than improving it, how quickly you need changes, and what you want your team to be able to do without calling us.
Lower cost to own
A traditional site accumulates plugins, each one a dependency somebody has to patch, test and occasionally replace when it is abandoned. A modern platform has far fewer moving parts, which shows up as a smaller maintenance bill and fewer urgent security calls.
Faster to build, faster to change
Defining the content model in code rather than clicking through admin screens means it can be reviewed, repeated across environments, and changed quickly. Projects reach a working version sooner, and the changes you ask for after launch land sooner too.
It does not rot the same way
The usual decline is plugin conflicts, a theme nobody dares update, and a site that gets harder to touch every year. Fewer dependencies and a clear separation between content and presentation means year three looks much like year one.
Ready for how teams will actually work
Structured, API-reachable content is what AI tools need to be useful rather than decorative. It is also what search engines and AI assistants read when deciding how to describe you, so the same groundwork serves both.
Questions we get asked
What is a modern CMS like Payload?
It stores and serves your content through an API rather than rendering pages itself, and its content model is defined in code rather than assembled through an admin interface. That means the structure of your site is version-controlled, reviewable, and consistent across environments, the same way the rest of your codebase is.
How is this different from WordPress or Drupal?
Mainly in how much you have to look after. A traditional CMS leans on plugins and themes, each needing updates and occasionally breaking each other. A modern platform has fewer moving parts, treats integrations as ordinary API work instead of a plugin hunt, and keeps content separate from presentation so either can change without disturbing the other.
Does this really reduce maintenance costs?
In our experience, yes, and mostly by removing work rather than doing it more cheaply. There is no weekly queue of plugin updates to test, a much smaller surface for security advisories, and far fewer of the compatibility problems that eat retainer hours on an older site.
Is development actually faster?
The build itself is faster because the content model is written and reviewed like code rather than configured by hand in an admin interface. The bigger difference usually comes later: changes after launch land faster, because the structure is explicit and there is less risk of breaking something unrelated.
What about connecting to our other systems?
This is where the difference is most obvious. These platforms are API-first, so integrating a CRM, payment provider, booking tool or internal database is normal development work rather than a search for a plugin that is still maintained. One content source can also feed a website, an application and a partner system at the same time.
Can our team use AI to create and edit content?
Yes, and this is a genuine advantage of the structure. Because the content model is explicit and reachable over an API, we can connect AI assistance directly into the editing experience, including MCP connections that let an assistant read your content model and draft, revise or restructure content, with your team reviewing before anything publishes.
What is Pantheon P1?
Pantheon's newer product, currently in beta, offering AI-native visual page composition: building pages from components, AI-assisted editing, and review and publishing workflows. We work with it alongside Payload, and which one suits depends on how much visual page-building your editors need.
Do we have to leave WordPress or Drupal?
No. Both can serve as the content source behind a modern front end, which is sometimes the right call when a CMS is working well and the team knows it. More often, organizations coming to us for this are ready to move off the maintenance treadmill entirely, and we will give you a straight view of which applies to you.
How do you work with our team?
However suits you. We work in whatever your team already uses, whether that is Slack, Teams, email, or a project tool like Monday, Wrike, Teamwork or Asana. For some clients we are effectively the web team: their editors and staff come to us directly with requests rather than routing everything through one point of contact, and we take in, prioritize and run that work ourselves. For others a single contact is simpler. Either way the developer doing your work is the one managing it, so there is no account layer between you and the person writing your code, and none to pay for. We fit how you already work rather than asking you to adopt our process.