Frequently Asked Questions

Product Overview & Core Concepts

What is Hygraph and how does it work?

Hygraph is the first GraphQL-native, API-first headless CMS that offers Content Federation. It enables organizations to define content structures, empower editorial teams, and source content from other systems. Hygraph is both frontend and backend agnostic, allowing you to create or source content and deliver it to any frontend using its GraphQL API. Learn more at Hygraph Docs.

What is Content Federation in Hygraph?

Content Federation in Hygraph allows you to unify your tech stack into a single API, reduce architectural complexity, eliminate redundant data copies, and remove the need for expensive custom middleware. You can source content from any backend system and deliver it to any frontend. For more details, see Content Federation Fundamentals.

How does Hygraph support composability?

Hygraph's composability enables you to connect data silos into one API endpoint, future-proof your tech stack, and extend the platform to meet evolving business needs. This is achieved through its Content Federation and extensibility features. Learn more at Composability.

Features & Capabilities

What are the key features of Hygraph?

Hygraph offers GraphQL-native architecture, Content Federation, low-code content modeling, advanced caching, globally distributed infrastructure, granular permissions, and a rich set of APIs, SDKs, and integrations. It supports programmatic and API-driven content, complex schemas, and interactive services. For a full list, visit Hygraph Features.

Does Hygraph provide an API?

Yes, Hygraph provides a powerful GraphQL API for efficient content fetching and management. Developers can use the API Playground to test queries and mutations. Learn more at Hygraph API Reference.

What integrations are available with Hygraph?

Hygraph integrates with platforms such as Netlify, Vercel, BigCommerce, commercetools, Shopify, Lokalise, Crowdin, EasyTranslate, Smartling, Aprimo, AWS S3, Bynder, Cloudinary, Mux, Scaleflex Filerobot, Ninetailed, AltText.ai, Adminix, and Plasmic. For a full list, visit Hygraph Integrations.

How does Hygraph optimize content delivery performance?

Hygraph emphasizes rapid content distribution and responsiveness, leveraging advanced caching and a globally distributed infrastructure. This results in improved user experience, higher engagement, reduced bounce rates, and increased conversions. For more details, visit this page.

What technical documentation is available for Hygraph?

Hygraph offers comprehensive technical documentation covering setup, API usage, integrations, and best practices. Access it at Hygraph Documentation.

Pricing & Plans

What is Hygraph's pricing model?

Hygraph offers a free forever Hobby plan, a Growth plan starting at $199/month, and custom Enterprise plans. For more details, visit the pricing page.

Security & Compliance

What security and compliance certifications does Hygraph have?

Hygraph is SOC 2 Type 2 compliant, ISO 27001 certified, and GDPR compliant. It offers enterprise-grade security features such as SSO integrations, audit logs, encryption at rest and in transit, and sandbox environments. For more details, visit Hygraph Security Features.

Use Cases & Benefits

What problems does Hygraph solve?

Hygraph solves operational pains (reliance on developers for content updates, outdated tech stacks, conflicting global team needs, clunky content creation), financial pains (high operational costs, slow speed-to-market, expensive maintenance, scalability challenges), and technical pains (boilerplate code, overwhelming queries, evolving schemas, cache and OpenID integration issues). For more details, visit our product page.

Who can benefit from using Hygraph?

Hygraph is ideal for developers, IT decision-makers, content creators, project/program managers, agencies, solution partners, and technology partners. Companies that benefit include modern software firms, enterprises modernizing their tech stack, and brands scaling across geographies or re-platforming from legacy solutions.

What industries are represented in Hygraph's case studies?

Industries include Food and Beverage (Dr. Oetker), Consumer Electronics (Samsung), Automotive (AutoWeb), Healthcare (Vision Healthcare), Travel and Hospitality (HolidayCheck), Media and Publishing, eCommerce, SaaS (Bellhop), Marketplace, Education Technology, and Wellness and Fitness. See more at Hygraph Case Studies.

Can you share specific customer success stories using Hygraph?

Yes. Komax achieved a 3X faster time to market, Autoweb saw a 20% increase in website monetization, Samsung improved customer engagement with a scalable platform, and Dr. Oetker enhanced their digital experience using MACH architecture. Explore more success stories here.

What business impact can customers expect from using Hygraph?

Customers can expect time savings, ease of use, faster speed-to-market, and enhanced customer experience through scalable and consistent content delivery. These benefits help modernize tech stacks and improve operational efficiency.

How easy is it to get started with Hygraph?

Hygraph is designed for quick onboarding, even for non-technical users. For example, Top Villas launched a new project in just 2 months. Users can sign up for a free account and access documentation, video tutorials, and onboarding guides. Start at our platform and Hygraph Documentation.

What feedback have customers given about Hygraph's ease of use?

Customers praise Hygraph for its intuitive interface and logical design, noting that even non-technical users can start using it right away. The platform is described as 'super easy to set up and use.'

Support & Implementation

What customer service and support does Hygraph offer?

Hygraph provides 24/7 support via chat, email, and phone. Enterprise customers receive dedicated onboarding and expert guidance. All users have access to documentation, video tutorials, and a community Slack channel. For more, visit Hygraph Contact Page.

What training and technical support is available for onboarding?

Hygraph offers onboarding sessions for enterprise customers, 24/7 support, training resources (video tutorials, documentation, webinars), and Customer Success Managers to guide users through adoption. See Hygraph Contact Page for details.

How does Hygraph handle maintenance, upgrades, and troubleshooting?

Hygraph provides 24/7 support for maintenance, upgrades, and troubleshooting. Enterprise customers receive dedicated onboarding and expert guidance, while all users can access documentation and the community Slack channel for additional help.

Technical Requirements & Documentation

What is the Getting Started flow in Hygraph?

The Getting Started flow guides users through planning content flow, designing and building content models, configuring reference fields and enumerations, adding components, integrating remote sources, creating and localizing content, connecting the frontend, setting up preview URLs, and using webhooks. See Getting Started Docs.

What are Starters in Hygraph?

Starters are end-to-end reference applications that include a completed Hygraph project, a code repository, and a frontend to help you quickly deploy and customize your own projects.

How can I get started with Hygraph?

To get started, visit our Get Started page and follow the setup instructions. Resources like documentation, video tutorials, and onboarding guides are available to help you navigate the platform.

Competition & Market Differentiation

How does Hygraph differentiate itself from other headless CMS solutions?

Hygraph stands out with its GraphQL-native architecture, backend and frontend agnosticism, Content Federation, scalability, and ease of use for both technical and non-technical users. It reduces developer reliance, streamlines workflows, and supports complex use cases. For more, see product page.

Why should a customer choose Hygraph over alternatives?

Customers should choose Hygraph for its unique GraphQL-native architecture, content federation, scalability, and ability to create impactful digital experiences while reducing costs and improving efficiency. See product page for details.

Customer Proof & Case Studies

Who are some of Hygraph's customers?

Hygraph is trusted by companies such as Sennheiser, Holidaycheck, Ancestry, Samsung, Dr. Oetker, Epic Games, Bandai Namco, Gamescom, Leo Vegas, and Clayton Homes. See more at Hygraph Case Studies.

KPIs & Metrics

What KPIs and metrics are associated with the pain points Hygraph solves?

Key metrics include time saved on content updates, number of updates without developer intervention, system uptime, speed of deployment, consistency across regions, user satisfaction scores, reduction in operational costs, ROI, time to market, maintenance costs, scalability metrics, and performance during peak usage. For more, visit CMS KPIs Blog.

Help teams manage content creation and approval in a clear and structured way
Hygraph
Docs

#Learn about Hygraph

Hygraph is the first GraphQL native, API-first, headless CMS that offers Content Federation. It provides all the capabilities of a headless CMS, which makes it frontend agnostic, with the advantage of also being backend agnostic thanks to its unique Content Federation features. This means that you can create content in Hygraph or source it from other systems as well.

As a frontend and backend agnostic API-first solution, Hygraph enables over 50,000 teams around the world to create, enrich, and deliver content programmatically.

#How it works

As a headless content management solution, Hygraph helps organizations define content structures and empower editorial teams to create content within a defined structure.

You can use our schema builder to create the content structure of your project. You can define your schema by creating models and adding fields, reusable components, and sidebar widgets to them, as well as integrating remote sources and establishing relationships with other models.

Once you have set the content structure of your project, teams can use our content editor to create content of their own, or you can use our Content Federation capabilities to source your content from an external system.

Developers can then deliver this content to any frontend of choice and work with their preferred frameworks (React, Next.js, Vue, etc.), using Hygraph's GraphQL API.

Team collaboration is made easy through the use of our Commenting feature, and different roles ensure your project works smoothly across different teams. Editorial and business teams can add content to the CMS in parallel, while administrators can define granular rights and permissions to ensure governance and security.

#Why choose Hygraph?

While most headless web content management solutions are frontend agnostic, Hygraph stands out by being backend agnostic as well, through Content Federation. You can source content from any backend system into Hygraph, then deliver it to any frontend of your choice using our GraphQL API.

You can connect any web service or API to your Hygraph content model to query and join data across multiple sources with a single GraphQL query.

With our Remote Sources feature, you can access remote content & data through the Hygraph GraphQL API, allowing you to create a single content endpoint without having to migrate everything to a single platform.

With Content Federation, you can unify your stack into a single API, reduce the complexity of your architecture, remove redundant copies of your data and get rid of expensive custom middleware code that glues your services together.

Here's why 1000s of businesses, developers and content teams prefer Hygraph to build innovative digital products:

#Composability

Content Federation and extensibility of the platform allows you to connect data silos into one API endpoint and also to future proof your tech stack.

#Developer tools

Hygraph equips your engineering teams with the tools to build what you need, from simple to complex digital products. Developers can define schemas using low-code content modeling capabilities, then use the rich set of GraphQL APIs, SDKs, integrations and tools that we offer to deliver excellent performance in a sustainable way.

We can integrate with your processes (CI/CD), do the heavy lifting at the backend and connect with systems and frameworks of your choice, while you focus on building the best experience for your users.

#Performance

Build ultra-fast scalable digital products such as media, e-learning, digital event platforms, b2b publishing apps, and any other solution leveraging programmatic and API driven content.

We offer industry leading Graph APIs for content delivery, mutations and content management, as well as a globally distributed infrastructure with advanced caching.

With Hygraph, you can boost web performance, rank higher on Google, increase end-user satisfaction, and support large volumes of globally distributed visitors.

#Enterprise ready

Using Hygraph, you will benefit from enterprise-grade security, compliance, certifications and support. Hygraph is recognized by analysts from Gartner and Forrester, trusted by 1000s, certified and secure - SOC 2 Type 2, GDPR, MACH -, and offers the capabilities needed by large-scale enterprises such as granular permissions, support SLA, etc.

#Use cases support

Hygraph enables the following use cases:

  • Programmatic and API driven content: applications where content is not only created by users using the Hygraph UI, but also from other sources by using the API.
  • Content rich applications: platforms with large volumes of rich and detailed content (combination of text, videos, images), usually contributed by large content teams or multiple external stakeholders. Examples include media platforms, recipe sites, gaming platforms, etc.
  • Content Federation: applications that source content from multiple systems (public APIs such as data about weather or internal systems, etc.) and query it all through one GraphQL API.
  • Interactive services: digital products that provide end users with ability to create and submit content; such as self-serve portals, membership platforms, etc.
  • Complex schema: applications hosting content with complex structured information and relationships such as statistics publications, public records publications, etc.

Once you're logged in you'll see a list of all projects you have access to. Clicking on a project will take you to the project directory.

You can navigate between the different sections of the project using the sidebar. These areas are:

Project directoryProject directory

UI SectionWhat you can do
1. OverviewHome screen with a start guide and links to support, documentation and examples.
2. Schema BuilderSetup of the content models as required by your project.
3. Content EditorAccess existing content, create custom content views, create/ edit content, review content, and publish content.
4. Digital Asset ManagerTab to manage and upload your assets.
5. API PlaygroundAn API playground where you can test out API calls.
6. NotificationsA section to manage your notifications.
7. AppsA section to manage apps.
8. WebhooksA section to manage webhooks.
9. Project SettingsDetails about project information, API access, billing, environments, locales and members
10. HelpDocumentation on concepts, code examples, reference apps, features etc.
11. Contact supportHygraph Public Slack Channel
12. User SettingsLogout, User Configuration, Studio/Classic app switch.

#Section contents

This section offers a contents map to help you readily find what you're looking for.

#Fundamentals

DocumentContents
About HygraphContains information about Hygraph, such as how it works, its advantages and use cases. It also offers information on how to navigate the CMS.
Hygraph Studio vs ClassicLearn about the differences between Hygraph Studio & Hygraph Classic.
App walkthroughOne-page app walkthrough showing you the entire app and all of its sections.
QuickstartQuickstart guide containing all basic mechanics involved in creating a project, a model, adding a basic field, creating a content entry, publishing/querying/mutating content, and enabling API access.
Content modelingContains information about the basics of content modeling with Hygraph, and why it is important for all projects.
Content FederationContains information about what Content Federation is and its advantages.
Migrating to HygraphContains information about the process of migrating to Hygraph.
GlossaryContains lists of useful Hygraph related concepts and terms.

#Content modeling

DocumentContents
5 essential questionsLearn the basics of content modeling with Hygraph, and why it is important for all projects.
Structured contentLearn about structured content, what is it and why you should be using it.
Content modeling tipsLearn how to model content effectively by involving your stakeholders and keeping your business goals in mind.
Full process exampleThis example shows the full content modeling process, from research to a finished project schema in Hygraph.
Best practicesLearn about the dos and don'ts of content modeling.

#Getting started

DocumentContents
1.1 Plan your content flowYou'll learn how to plan your content flow before you start building a schema.
1.2 Design your content modelsYou'll learn how to design your content models before you start building a schema.
1.3 Build your content modelsYou'll learn how to build your base content models. You'll add complexity to them as you advance in this tutorial.
2.1 Configure reference fieldsYou'll learn how to configure different types of references and add them to your content models.
2.2 Configure enumerationsYou'll learn how to configure enumerations that we will later use as parts of component fields.
3.1 Build componentsYou'll learn how to build components that you will later add to your models as part of basic and modular component fields.
3.2 Add components to your modelsYou'll learn how to add the components we just created to the models in your schema, using basic and modular component fields.
4.1 Add a Remote SourceYou'll learn how to add a Remote Source to your project in order to fetch information from external third-party web services.
4.2 Remote FieldsYou'll learn how to add Remote Fields to your models.
4.3 Top-level Remote FieldsYou'll learn how to add Top-level Remote Fields to the Query system model.
5.1 Content creationYou'll learn how to create and modify content in the content creator screen and in the Assets system model.
5.2 Content localizationYou'll learn how to add a locale to your project and localize field in your content entries.
5.3 Additional content featuresYou'll learn how to work with content stages, content duplication, and content publishing.
6.1 Exercises: QueriesThis document contains exercises to provide queries practice in our API Playground.
6.2 Exercises: MutationsThis document contains exercises to provide mutations practice in our API Playground.
7.1 Creating a frontend using NextYou will learn how to create your frontend for the getting started project using Next.
7.2 Connecting our storefrontYou will learn how to connect our e-commerce storefront to our existing Hygraph project.
7.3 Preview URLYou will learn how to configure the Preview URL feature. We'll use it to add a Preview button to the sidebar of our content creation screen.
8.1 Configure webhooksYou will learn how to configure a webhook.
Wrap-upThis document contains a recap on our learning objectives, a list of best practices for your Hygraph projects, and some useful links so you can continue learning.

#Resources