How to build a custom CMS (and when you shouldn’t)

In 2026, building a custom CMS is much easier than it once was. Developers can use tools like GitHub Copilot or Cursor to put together a working system that matches specific business needs. These tools help with coding and testing, so teams can move faster than before.

Even with this progress, turning a CMS into something that is ready for production and supports the business over the long term is still a formidable undertaking. It requires a deep understanding of content modeling, database architecture, caching strategies, permission systems, and API design—knowledge that goes far beyond what coding assistants can provide out of the box.

In this post, we will walk through exactly what goes into building a custom CMS. We will also look at why choosing a headless platform is often the smarter path, especially when teams want reliability and room to grow.

Step-by-step: How to build a custom CMS

Here are the exact steps you’d need to follow to build your own CMS.

Step 1: Plan your content architecture

This is where you define how your content will be shaped and connected. A weak start here will lock you into limits later, even if the first version seems fine.

• List your content types and map out how they relate to each other. Many teams start with pages and posts, then end up adding campaigns, products, authors, and other models that need clear links.

• Decide how flexible you want each model to be. Some teams want fixed fields. Others want fields that can change based on department needs.

• Define naming rules and validation rules for fields so content stays clean as your CMS grows.

• Choose your database. Some teams want strong schema controls that you get with relational databases like MySQL or Postgres. Others want a document store like MongoDB that can adapt as content types grow in number.

• Think about multi-language content and decide if it needs its own structure or shared fields.

• Plan how you will handle previews, since editors often want to check content before publishing.

Keep in mind that a headless platform like ButterCMS offers visual content modeling out of the box. You can shape models with simple controls and adjust them later without schema rewrites.

Step 2: Build the backend

This is the part where your CMS gains real structure. You decide how it runs, and how fast you can add new features in the future.

• Pick your programming language. Rust gives strong performance but the tooling (or the lack thereof) can slow teams down. Python or Node.js work well when you want quick updates. Java or C++ suit teams that want strict control and long-term stability.

• Choose your system style. A simple monolith helps small teams. A microservice setup or a Kubernetes-based setup works when you expect many teams or large workloads.

• List the endpoints you need, including those for content creation, publishing, locale management, scheduling, SEO features, and versioning. Once you have an exhaustive list, start building them.

• Set up secure user authentication (JWT tokens, OAuth etc.) and granular permissions for different content types. Consider how you'll handle API key management for programmatic access.

• If multiple editors will work simultaneously, you'll need to implement conflict resolution and live presence indicators for real-time collaborative editing.

• Build test suites that cover your main flows and your edge cases. Quality assurance should be a key part of your development process to catch bugs early and prevent regressions as you add new features.

ButterCMS offers a full API-first setup out of the box. You get an API explorer and clear docs, so you can get started with CRUD operations right away.

Step 3: Design the editor UI

This is the part your editors will use every day. A good UI keeps content teams fast, while a weak one slows everyone down.

• Choose your editing approach. A WYSIWYG editor works well for teams that want a simple writing space. A Markdown editor suits teams that want cleaner control. You will need knowledge of frameworks (E.g. Froala for WYSIWYG) and state management to build either one.

• Add media previews so that editors can confirm images and videos before publishing. This often needs custom rendering logic and stable upload handling.

• Add autosave to protect drafts during long writing sessions. You may need to handle partial saves and client-side syncing.

• Plan how the UI will show validation issues and basic content statuses so editors do not lose track of changes.

• Test the UI with real content. Some layouts look fine with sample data but break when the content grows in size.

ButterCMS already provides a solid editor with rich text and media support, so teams do not need to build these features themselves.

Step 4: Deliver content to the frontend

Next, you need a reliable delivery mechanism that serves content to your applications quickly, and at scale.

• Decide if an API gateway is needed. Some teams want rate controls and caching in one place. Others skip it and call the backend directly but this can lead to challenges as traffic grows.

• Connect your frontend (built in React, Vue.js etc.) to your backend endpoints. Set up handlers for fetching published content and draft content when needed.

• Choose if you want a CDN for faster delivery. A CDN helps with images and large files, and it can also help with static JSON responses.

• Add caching rules so your frontend avoids repeated calls that slow down pages.

• Set up build pipelines for sites that pre-render pages and add runtime fetch logic for sites that need fresh content.

• Plan how you will handle version changes on the frontend, since breaking field changes can cause layout issues.

ButterCMS offers a ready REST API that developers can use to connect a centralized content store to any frontend.

Step 5: Formulate deployment and ongoing maintenance processes

Once your own CMS is built, you need a plan to keep it running. This is where long-term work starts, and it often grows larger than the initial build.

• Decide whether you want to deploy on-premises or on a public cloud platform like AWS, Azure, OCI, or Google Cloud

• Create deployment pipelines so updates reach production in a steady and predictable way.

• Set up monitoring for your entire stack so that you can catch performance drops early.

• Plan how you will roll out schema updates without breaking existing content. This usually needs migration scripts and backup routines.

• Decide how you will scale the system during busy periods. This will depend on your architecture. For example, scaling with a Kubernetes cluster is much easier than scaling a traditional monolithic application running on a single VM

Since ButterCMS is cloud native and fully managed, you do not have to deal with upgrades, maintenance, security patches, or scaling tasks. The platform handles the upkeep so your team can stay focused on product work.

The drawbacks of a custom-made CMS

A homebrew CMS that you build from the ground up does have its appeal. Your marketers get a user interface shaped for their own needs, with controls that match how your business works. But as you may have picked up from the steps above, the amount of work involved is long and complex. There are several challenges to consider:

Development and maintenance costs

The total cost of ownership extends far beyond the initial CMS development process. Consider an average breakdown: 6-12 months of development time with a team of 3-5 engineers at $150k-$200k annually each ($225k-$1M in initial development costs), plus a dedicated designer ($100k-$150k). 

Cloud infrastructure costs ($500-$5k monthly, scaling with traffic)

Third-party services for media processing, search, and CDN etc. ($200-$2k monthly). Ongoing maintenance requiring at least 1-2 engineers part-time indefinitely ($50k-$150k annually). Over three years, you're looking at $500k-$2M+ in total costs, and that's assuming no major rewrites or pivots.

Skills and effort spread across many areas

A working CMS needs backend and frontend developers and content specialists. It also needs engineers who understand caching, access control, schema planning, and database tuning. Most teams underestimate how many skills are pulled in once the system grows.

Scalability limits that can break the system

If your architecture has weak caching or poor database structure, the CMS slows down once content grows. Long queries cause timeouts. Media operations fall behind. Editors feel the slowdown first, which affects release cycles.

Security gaps and missed safeguards

Developers may forget to add checks for rate limits, permission leaks, encryption key rotations, or SQL injections. It is common for teams to also overlook audit logs or forget to patch dependency chains. One missed detail can expose content or user data.

Dependency on internal knowledge

If the developers who built the CMS leave, the system becomes hard to modify. New engineers spend weeks decoding design choices and old patterns.

Lack of ecosystem and integrations

Commercial CMSs benefit from extensive plugin ecosystems and pre-built integrations with analytics platforms, marketing automation tools, e-commerce systems, and DAM solutions. With a homebrew CMS, every integration is a bespoke development project. Each integration requires understanding another platform's API, handling authentication, managing webhooks, and maintaining the connection as both systems evolve.

Why a headless CMS is the smarter approach

Now that you’ve seen what it takes to build a custom-made CMS and the challenges that follow, it makes sense to look at an option that gives you the same freedom without the heavy work.

With a custom content management system, you want flexibility and custom controls. You also want smooth connections to your systems and a clean experience for your editors. A headless CMS gives you all of that while removing the overhead of running your own platform. Let’s explore how:

[Also read: what is headless CMS]

Speed and ease of development

A headless CMS gives you starter kits, client libraries, and ready endpoints so you can build features quickly. You get tools for schema updates, content sync, webhooks, and API testing. This cuts out large parts of backend work and shortens timelines for both prototypes and production rollouts.

Scalability without extra planning

You do not need to think about load balancing or database growth. A managed headless system adjusts as your traffic grows and keeps the content API steady during busy periods.

Flexibility for any frontend

You can pair the CMS with any framework or runtime. The system sends clean JSON through its API, which makes it easy to plug into web apps, mobile apps, conversational interfaces, and kiosks. Content models can be shaped through a visual interface, and changes appear in the API right away.

Dedicated support when you need it

When you encounter roadblocks with a homebrew CMS, you're on your own. With a managed headless CMS, you have direct access to technical support teams who know the platform intimately and have seen thousands of use cases.

Reduced security pressure

A headless CMS is tested by many users and scanned on a regular basis. Vulnerabilities are patched quickly, and the attack surface is smaller than a custom system that mixes content and frontend code.

No maintenance or patch cycles

Platform updates, dependency upgrades, vulnerability scans, and scaling tasks are handled by the vendor. Your team does not need to run servers or manage upgrades around release deadlines.

Clearer focus for your engineering team

Your engineers can work on product features instead of building and fixing your CMS features. This keeps your roadmap stable and reduces long-term technical debt.

ButterCMS covers all of these areas. You get the flexibility of an adaptable setup and the stability of a managed platform, without the long effort that comes with building everything yourself.

Conclusion

Before you start the journey (and it’s a journey) to build your own CMS, take a close look at the long list of tasks, costs, and skills it demands. The freedom can feel appealing, but the upkeep can grow fast once content teams rely on the system. 

If all you want is a flexible and interoperable CMS that’s easy to use for your developers and content teams, then a headless option like ButterCMS gives you a far smoother path. Ready to give it a try? Sign up for a free plan here.

FAQs

1. What is a custom CMS?

A custom-made CMS is a specialized system with business-specific content management workflows. 

2. What’s the difference between a custom CMS and a headless CMS?

A custom content management system is built and maintained in-house. On the other hand, a headless CMS provides a managed backend and API-first approach that lets you serve content from a centralized repository to multiple frontends simultaneously.

3. Is it worth building your own CMS?

For most organizations, building a customized CMS is not worth the investment. The total cost typically ranges from $500k to $2M+ over three years, plus the opportunity cost of engineering time that could be spent on your core product.

4. Can I customize a headless CMS like ButterCMS?

Yes, ButterCMS lets you define content models and structure content through a visual interface, while keeping the system fully API-accessible and flexible for any frontend.