DatoCMS Cuts Build Times 60% by Consolidating on Next.js and Vercel
DatoCMS serves more than 25,000 businesses with a headless CMS built for modern web performance. When build times on their static CDN began to grow alongside platform complexity, the team moved to Next.js on Vercel—a switch that reduced build times from 10 minutes to 4 minutes while simplifying their infrastructure and improving the developer experience.
The core of the problem was architectural rigidity. DatoCMS needed flexibility in how pages were generated, rather than being locked into static generation alone. With Next.js on Vercel, they now use a hybrid approach combining Static Generation and Server Side Rendering, choosing per-page rendering strategies based on performance needs. This capability is available out of the box, saving the team development hours they would otherwise have spent building it internally.
Unified Preview and Deployment Workflow
A significant source of friction was the split between preview and production environments. Previously, DatoCMS had to run previews on one platform and handle deployments on another, creating unnecessary overhead in their development pipeline. By consolidating on Vercel, the team now builds, previews, and deploys through a single platform, eliminating that discontinuity in their workflow.
Realtime Updates API
This streamlined setup enabled a new flagship feature for DatoCMS: the Realtime Updates API. Users can now edit content in the CMS and see those changes reflected on their websites automatically, without requiring a manual rebuild or deployment trigger. The feature offers seamless real-time content delivery that their customers have responded well to.
"Being able to see updates in real time is one of the reasons why we recommend Next.js on Vercel to most of our customers. It's our preferred choice that we recommend at the moment."
Matteo Giaccone, Product Manager at DatoCMS
