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Visual Editing by DatoCMS

DatoCMS: The Friendly Headless CMS with GraphQL API and Real-Time Visual Editing

Introduction:

DatoCMS is a comprehensive headless content management system designed to provide an exceptional developer and editor experience. It features a powerful GraphQL API, structured text editing, and a modular content schema builder. With built-in localization, AI automation, and a worldwide CDN, DatoCMS scales from modern websites to enterprise-level eCommerce and digital publishing. The platform uniquely offers Visual Editing, allowing content creators to edit elements directly on the page with real-time updates, significantly reducing development overhead while increasing content velocity for digital marketers and teams.

Added On:

2026-02-13

Monthly Visitors:

--K

Visual Editing by DatoCMS - AI Tool Screenshot and Interface Preview

Visual Editing by DatoCMS Product Information

DatoCMS: The Friendliest Headless CMS for Modern Digital Products

In the evolving landscape of digital content, DatoCMS stands out as the most user-friendly and powerful headless CMS available today. Designed to bridge the gap between technical flexibility and editorial ease, DatoCMS provides a robust infrastructure for building modern websites, eCommerce platforms, and complex digital publishing systems. Whether you are a developer seeking a high-performance GraphQL API or a content creator looking for a seamless Visual Editing experience, DatoCMS delivers a world-class solution.

What's DatoCMS?

DatoCMS is a cloud-based headless content management system that centralizes your digital assets and content into a single source of truth. Unlike traditional CMS platforms, DatoCMS decouples the back-end content management from the front-end presentation, allowing developers to use any technology stack—such as Next.js, Astro, SvelteKit, or Nuxt—to deliver content across multiple platforms. It is built to support global brands with complex needs, featuring multi-language support, enterprise-grade security, and a scalable architecture that handles 200+ locations and 55+ locales with ease.

Key Features of DatoCMS

High-Performance GraphQL API

DatoCMS and GraphQL are a match made in heaven. The platform provides a performant API that allows developers to fetch exactly the data they need, reducing payload sizes and improving site speed.

Revolutionary Visual Editing

The latest Visual Editing feature allows editors to click directly on website elements to edit them within DatoCMS. This eliminates the need to hunt through record forms. It includes:

  • Click-to-edit: Content links that open the correct field in a new tab.
  • Side-by-side editing: A preview on the left and an edit panel on the right for instant live updates.

Structured Text and Modular Content

DateCMS offers a sophisticated Structured Text editor and a Schema Builder. Users can build dynamic pages using models, blocks, and plugins, providing a flexible page-building experience that creators love.

Advanced Developer Tools

  • Cache Tags: Fine-grained invalidation for high-performance delivery.
  • Plugin SDK: Easily expand and customize the CMS capabilities.
  • AI & Automation: Features designed to satisfy LLM-friendly and token-hungry automation needs.
  • Steganography-based Metadata: Invisible encoding in API responses that maps frontend elements to CMS fields automatically.

Localization and Global Reach

With i18n available out of the box, DatoCMS makes it simple to meet customers wherever they are, supporting massive scale across dozens of countries.

Use Cases

  • Modern Websites: Build fast, SEO-optimized sites with a focus on developer experience.
  • eCommerce: Manage product data and marketing content for global online stores.
  • Digital Publishing: Empower hundreds of editors to ship updates 50% faster with less code.
  • Knowledge Management: Organize complex internal data and documentation efficiently.
  • Mobile Apps: Power offline wayfinding and specialized applications using the robust API.

How to Use DatoCMS Visual Editing

Setting up the new Visual Editing workflow in DatoCMS is a streamlined three-step process:

  1. Enable Stega Encoding: Add specific headers (X-Visual-Editing: v1 and X-Base-Editing-Url) to your GraphQL requests when fetching draft content.
  2. Integrate the Component: Add the <ContentLink /> component from the DatoCMS SDK to your site's layout. It automatically scans for metadata and renders edit overlays.
  3. Configure Web Previews: Optionally install the Web Previews plugin to unlock the full side-by-side editing mode within the CMS dashboard.

"DatoCMS is fast, flexible and a pleasure to use — for both our clients and our developers. It's become an essential tool for us." — Tim Chesney, Director at Make

FAQ

Q: Does DatoCMS support real-time updates? A: Yes, when combined with Draft Mode, DatoCMS supports real-time updates, allowing editors to see changes instantly as they type.

Q: Is Visual Editing available on the free plan? A: Yes! Visual Editing is available on every DatoCMS plan, including the Free plan, with no feature gates.

Q: Which frameworks are supported? A: DatoCMS provides dedicated SDKs and integration guides for Next.js, React, Astro, Svelte/SvelteKit, and Vue/Nuxt.

Q: How does the CMS handle high-performance needs? A: Through the use of Cache Tags for fine-grained invalidation and a worldwide CDN, ensuring content is delivered with minimal latency.

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