Sanity CMS in action: Real projects, real results

From Wordpress to headless CMS, the world of content management systems (CMSs) has quite literally transformed in recent years. While there remains a place for the tried and true solutions, we’re all for seeing what the latest technology can bring, especially as new features and solutions offer the opportunity to empower our developers like never before.

That leads us to Sanity CMS. Do you want composability? You’ve got it. Customisation? No problem. AI innovation? Coming right up. Driven by the need to deliver excellent and multi-platform customer experiences, this headless CMS has quickly become a favourite of the Voyage team, featuring in some of our most impressive projects (if we don’t say so ourselves).

A snapshot of headless CMS

We’ve covered all of the ins and outs of headless CMSs in our previous blog post, but to summarise, a headless CMS differs from traditional systems by decoupling the backend (where we manage our content) from the frontend (where we present said, hopefully beautiful, content).

This separation allows developers to deliver content across multiple platforms and devices, providing much greater flexibility and scalability, which comes into play for a whole range of use cases.

We like headless CMS solutions because they allow us to more easily distribute content across an array of platforms, enhance performance and function of the final product - be that an app or website - through content optimisation, and it gives our developers much more freedom where templates and constraints can be happily tossed aside.

That brings us to Sanity CMS

Known for its real-time capabilities, flexible content structure and the ability to build custom content workflows, Sanity isn’t just a favourite with Voyage, it’s become a known name among modern development teams. And for good reason.

Sanity stands out with a range of impressive features. One is real-time collaboration, allowing multiple users to edit content simultaneously and see updates instantly - an invaluable feature for teams working in sync, or in our case when we’ve collaborated with other agencies and experts.

Another feature is its use of GROQ, the query language specifically for Sanity, that when coupled with a hardy API makes for efficient management and retrieval of structured content. This goes a long way in making sure data remains organised and accessible. Speaking to the flexibility of the solution, custom workflows allow our developers to tailor content processes to fit whatever our client needs, and can be adapted as required.

What’s more, Sanity’s flexibility and real-time editing capabilities are massive for our team, helping to simplify content creation and collaboration across the board. The solution’s strong API and developer-friendly tools integrate well with our existing workflows and tech stack, meaning we can build and extend value without constraints.

And finally, Sanity’s scalable architecture ensures high-performance content delivery, capable of meeting the evolving demands of our clients and projects alike. These combined features make Sanity CMS not just a tool, but a strategic asset in delivering exceptional digital experiences every time.

Continual innovation to move with the times

The Sanity team is also known to move at pace to bring new tech to their users. Two excellent examples of this are the more recently released Visual Editing tool and AI Assist.

While we’ve all heard the term ‘game-changer’ bandied about to describe any new product release, I truly believe the features and enhancements Sanity is releasing are, quite literally, game-changers.

As described by Sanity, “Visual Editing is an umbrella term that Sanity uses for the different features that make it possible for content creators to work with content in the context of a visual presentation.”

This includes global preview, with immediate visual feedback when changes are made, overlays, with clickable visual indicators to get you where you need to go fast, and the Presentation tool that brings content previews and click-to-edit into the editing environment to simplify working between modes. At a high-level, these features make working on development and content more seamless than ever.

Sanity AI Assist is designed to help our teams in automating content creation, and opens up whole new areas for how we can use content to connect with users and stakeholders. Common tasks can be easily automated with simple, repeatable prompts that are simple enough even non-developers can get high quality results. Examples of what AI Assist can do include language translations, SEO and search visibility optimisation, A/B testing and personalisation enhancements, imagery generation, and more.

Let’s take it to the real world

Two of our projects, Netsafe’s Kete Education Hub and Mike Greer Homes (MGH), have both been built on Sanity and are powerful examples of what makes the solution so good.

The Kete Education Hub is an online platform tailored to educators throughout New Zealand. Powered by Sanity, this initiative delivers a comprehensive array of resources, tools, and interactive elements to educators regardless of their location.

Built from the ground up with Sanity as the CMS backbone, the platform features a streamlined one-click login for visitors, allowing them to access and save resources conveniently through personalised profiles. Navigation is seamless, offering intuitive search functionalities by topic and age group.

Backend management is also streamlined to make sure the Netsafe team can easily upload and modify content, while the final design reflects the organisation’s re-brand with a sleek and inviting interface.

As the largest privately owned home-building company, Mike Greer Homes approached Voyage with a vision to improve their web presence, aligning it with their well-known brand. The resulting Sanity-powered website rebuild delivered a fully customised and feature-rich platform that allows the MGH team to focus on their first area of expertise: homes.

The backend is robust yet user-friendly, facilitating simple content management and updates. The design maintains MGH’s brand identity while infusing a modern and welcoming aesthetic, enhancing user engagement and navigation. Search functionalities are tailored to location preferences to optimise user experience and help visitors find relevant information.

Leveraging Sanity’s API-based architecture enables extensive customisation and efficient content modelling. With scalability in mind, the backend remains agile, allowing ongoing adjustments and expansions as MGH continues to grow and evolve in the housing market.

Future of Sanity and headless CMS

Looking ahead, the future of headless CMS appears promising. As Sanity continually improves its capabilities, introducing new features to cater to the ever-changing needs of the digital world, there are a few changes we see on the horizon. For one, I anticipate the team will continue to explore integrations with emerging technologies such as AI and machine learning, for richer content delivery and detail-oriented, hyper-personalised user experiences.

As Magnus Hillestad, co-founder and CEO of Sanity, himself attests to, Sanity is all about building a solution that genuinely speaks to both the pain points and incredible opportunities available when building content-driven web experiences.

At Sanity, we believe that the rigid and tangled web of CMSes today will yield to more elegant, developer-friendly ways to ship innovative experiences fast. Our ability to act quickly, tune in to our audiences, and create repeatable systems that serve users requires a new era of unity across departments. Starting down the path of practicing Structured Content, treating content as data, and building highly interoperable, composable systems requires strategic focus. But getting started is half the battle. It's time to put strategy into action, and go faster.
- Magnus Hillestad, co-founder and CEO of Sanity

No matter your preference of CMS, Voyage is here to step in as your partner in any digital transformation project. Give us a call or drop us a line to start the conversation.