Suveto Bonfire

CMS Platform Comparison · Prepared for Suveto

Sixty websites.
One platform.

Suveto's hospital network runs on a fragmented collection of individual WordPress sites. We evaluated the leading headless CMS platforms to find one that can unify them while preserving each hospital's identity.

Working draft · Updated July 28, 2026 Recommendation: Sanity, still under evaluation

At a glance

Five platforms, one clear direction

The full evaluation is below. Here is where each platform landed.

  1. Headless WordPress Weak fit A modern frontend on the same operating model
  2. ButterCMS Fair fit Simpler editing, still one environment per site
  3. Storyblok Moderate fit Great editing that fragments across 60 Spaces
  4. Payload Strong fit One codebase with more operational responsibility
  5. Sanity Excellent fit · Working recommendation One governed platform for the whole network

Before the detail

The idea in plain terms

Today each Suveto hospital runs its own WordPress site, so every update happens 60 separate times. A headless CMS moves all content into one central platform, and every hospital website reads from it. Content is managed once, and each site keeps its own look, its own pages, and its own local information.

Headless CMS
A content platform that stores and serves content separately from the websites that display it.
Structured content
Content stored as reusable pieces, such as a doctor, a service, or a location, instead of text pasted into individual pages.
API-first
Any website or app can request the content it needs. Future products use the same platform instead of a rebuild.
Content model
The agreed shape of the content: the fields that make up a hospital, a doctor, or a service.

What we heard

Suveto's objectives

Based on our conversations, the new platform should enable Suveto to:

  • Manage 60+ veterinary hospital websites from a single platform
  • Maintain each location's unique identity while centralizing shared content
  • Eliminate repetitive updates to individual locations' websites
  • Simplify onboarding of newly acquired hospitals
  • Support future integrations with EzVet and other third-party APIs
  • Give Marketing greater autonomy while maintaining corporate governance
  • Provide a scalable foundation for future digital initiatives

How we judged

The questions we asked

Every platform was held to the same seven questions. Can this platform…

  1. Scale to 60+ websites without operational complexity?
  2. Support centralized content with localized overrides?
  3. Model structured business data such as doctors, services, locations, and pricing?
  4. Support enterprise workflows and permissions?
  5. Integrate cleanly with existing business systems?
  6. Support future growth beyond websites?
  7. Reduce long-term maintenance costs?

The field

The platforms we evaluated

Headless WordPress

A decoupled implementation of the world's most widely used CMS. It keeps the familiar publishing workflow and mature ecosystem while opening the door to a modern frontend.

ButterCMS

A SaaS headless CMS focused on simplicity and rapid implementation, with proven success on enterprise multi-location websites.

Storyblok

A visual headless CMS combining API-first architecture with an intuitive page-building experience and strong marketing tools.

Payload

A modern open-source headless CMS built with TypeScript and code-first schemas. It offers flexibility, developer control, and long-term ownership.

Sanity

An enterprise-grade, API-first CMS built around structured content, with exceptional scalability, strong governance, and a natural fit for complex multi-site platforms.

Platforms we considered but didn't evaluate
Contentful
Strong APIs, but its pricing model and implementation complexity made it a less compelling fit for Suveto's multi-site publishing and governance needs.
Sitecore
A comprehensive DXP whose enterprise scope, licensing costs, and implementation overhead exceed the needs of this project.
Adobe Experience Manager
Built for large global organizations, carrying licensing, infrastructure, and operational complexity beyond Suveto's current requirements.
Builder.io
An excellent visual editor, but centered on page composition rather than managing complex structured content across dozens of independently branded websites.

The verdicts

Platform assessments

In order of fit, from weakest to strongest.

Headless WordPress

Weak fit

Technically capable, but it doesn't solve Suveto's core challenge: centrally managing a growing network of independently branded hospital websites. It would continue to rely on multisite architecture, plugins, and significant administrative overhead to coordinate shared content, functionality, and governance.

Strengths

  • Familiar publishing experience
  • Large ecosystem and community
  • Flexible frontend architecture
  • Strong SEO capabilities

Challenges

  • Recreates many of today's multi-site management challenges
  • Heavy reliance on plugins and multisite infrastructure
  • Complex global updates across dozens of sites
  • Higher long-term maintenance burden

A significant frontend improvement that leaves Suveto's operating model largely unchanged.

ButterCMS

Fair fit

A meaningful improvement over Suveto's current WordPress environment, with a straightforward editing experience. However, managing dozens of independent websites still requires coordinating content models, schema changes, and deployments across multiple CMS environments, which limits its scalability for a rapidly growing hospital network.

Strengths

  • Simple, intuitive editor
  • Proven API-first platform
  • Fast implementation

Challenges

  • Multi-site management remains environment-based
  • Global schema changes require manual coordination
  • Shared functionality becomes increasingly difficult as the network grows

A solid modernization of today's platform, but less optimized for centralized multi-site governance.

Storyblok

Moderate fit

Storyblok offers one of the best editorial experiences available. Its architecture, however, centers on independent Spaces. For a network of 60+ hospitals, that introduces additional operational complexity when managing shared components, content models, and platform-wide updates.

Strengths

  • Excellent visual page editing
  • Strong marketing autonomy
  • Reusable content components
  • Mature enterprise workflows

Challenges

  • Separate Spaces increase operational complexity
  • Global updates require synchronization across environments
  • Less efficient for centrally governed multi-site platforms

Excellent for content authors, but not ideally aligned with Suveto's operational model.

Payload

Strong fit

Payload aligns extremely well with Suveto's technical requirements. A single codebase and shared data model can power every hospital website while supporting centralized content, custom integrations, and future expansion. The primary tradeoff: Suveto and Bonfire would assume greater responsibility for hosting, maintenance, and ongoing platform operations.

Strengths

  • Single platform for all hospitals
  • Highly flexible structured content
  • Excellent integration capabilities
  • Complete ownership and portability
  • Strong long-term scalability

Challenges

  • Greater responsibility for hosting, maintenance, and platform operations
  • Requires standalone deployment and self-hosting
  • Admin interface is less polished than managed alternatives
  • Open-source dependency carries some long-term stewardship risk

An excellent technical solution that prioritizes flexibility and ownership over managed services.

Sanity

RecommendedExcellent fit

The strongest overall fit for Suveto's vision. Sanity enables every hospital website to operate from a single content platform while supporting shared data models, centralized governance, hospital-specific customization, and future expansion into additional digital products. It delivers the best balance of scalability, usability, enterprise maturity, and long-term flexibility.

Strengths

  • Single platform for all hospitals
  • Centralized structured content and governance
  • Flexible permissions and editorial workflows
  • Real-time collaboration and content history
  • Excellent developer experience
  • Enterprise-ready with a strong long-term roadmap

Considerations

  • Still under evaluation: we have not yet installed and tested Sanity locally, and that hands-on work comes next
  • Requires initial investment in content architecture
  • We build the editing interface custom to Suveto: content types, hospital data, user roles, and editorial workflows
  • Discovery should validate licensing and infrastructure requirements

The best balance of operational efficiency, editorial experience, scalability, and future-proof architecture for Suveto's long-term growth.

Side by side

Platform comparison

Five capabilities that matter most for a 60-site network, across all five platforms.

Capability Headless WordPress ButterCMS Sanity Payload Storyblok
Multi-site orchestration Good (Multisite)Shared network plugins, but isolated databases and heavy backend bloat. ModerateDashboard instances; data pushed manually between environments. ExcellentCode-driven workspaces and datasets from a single Studio setup. ExcellentNative multi-tenant plugin; one codebase dynamically routes domains. FragmentedIsolated Spaces; scaling creates billing and operational bloat.
Media libraries & backups Self-managedLocal server or S3 via plugins; tagging lives in the relational DB. SaaS-hostedLocked to their CDN; bulk metadata backups need heavy API extraction. RobustAsset pipeline with rich metadata, exportable via CLI/API datasets. Developer-ownedNative S3/GCS integration; tags are native database fields. SaaS-hostedHighly visual manager, but structural tags stay in their cloud.
Locales & localization Plugin-reliantHeavy translation plugins (WPML/Polylang) degrade API speed. BaselineStandard language keys; structural nesting needs enterprise tiers. Native & fluidField-level and document-level localization supported natively. Native & fluidBuilt-in, strongly typed field localization without duplication. Excellent visualDirectory-based folder translation built into the dashboard.
Component support Gutenberg blocksJSON page output can be heavy and messy for a clean Next.js frontend. Page typesConfigured in SaaS dashboards; functional but developer-isolated. Schema as codeComponents written as React/TypeScript objects in git. Blocks fieldStatically typed objects mapping directly to Next.js components. Visual blocksIndustry gold standard for visual, reusable components.
Repeaters ACF / Flexible ContentAdvanced plugins needed for clean dynamic arrays. CollectionsDashboard-configured repeaters; structured but rigid. Array typesNative schema support for infinitely nested data blocks. Array fieldsNative array tracking out of the box; clean and performant. Nested componentsHandled seamlessly in the component builder.

Our recommendation

Why Sanity fits Suveto

  • One platform for 60+ hospitalsSingle Studio with shared schemas
  • Corporate + local contentStructured document model
  • Shared doctors & servicesReusable structured content
  • New acquisition onboardingNew hospitals are added as data on the existing platform
  • Marketing autonomyFriendly editorial UI
  • Corporate governanceGranular roles and permissions
  • Future applicationsAPI-first architecture

Based on our evaluation so far and our understanding of Suveto's goals, Sanity provides the strongest balance of scalability, governance, editorial experience, and long-term flexibility.

This is a working recommendation, still under evaluation. Before making it final, we plan to install and test Sanity in a local build, and Discovery with Suveto's technical leadership will confirm licensing and infrastructure requirements.

What success looks like

  • Marketing updates once instead of 60 times
  • New hospitals onboard in hours rather than weeks
  • Shared content stays consistent across every location
  • Hospital-specific content remains easy to manage
  • Integrations are built once and available network-wide
  • The platform scales as Suveto grows through acquisition

A closer look

Sanity Studio, in practice

Friendly for every editor

An attractive, extensible interface with real-time collaboration, so multiple editors can work on the same page without overwriting each other. Editors also get in-context comments, task assignment, and live editing when paired with Next.js.

Folders that mirror the network

Each hospital's content lives in its own clearly separated folder, with a global folder for content shared across every website, so editors always know where they are.

Roles that mirror the org

Custom user roles scope each person's view to specific collections: a hospital team sees its own site, while only designated roles touch global content.

Enterprise staying power

Sanity is an established player in the enterprise space with a strong roadmap, and it is unlikely to be abandoned or deprecated the way purely open-source tools can be.

Version control at every layer

Schema changes live in git with true separation between Dev, QA, and Production. Content History lets editors track and roll back individual document changes.

Hosting, to be confirmed

The Studio is deployed and managed as part of the platform codebase. Sanity also offers hosted options, and licensing and infrastructure details are a Discovery topic.

How it fits together

How we see the architecture

One codebase serves every Suveto website behind a CDN, with content, appointments, CRM, and assets connected as services that are added once and available network-wide.

Visitors60+ hospital communities
CDN gatewayCloudflare edge caching

Single codebase powers every Suveto website

Hosting infrastructure: Azure · Google Cloud · AWS

Sanity CMSAll content, structured and governed
EzVet appointmentsAppointment management
EzVet CRMContact system
Digital asset managerImages, video, documents
Third-party APIsBuilt once, shared by every site

The next three years

How we see the platform growing

A directional view, to be shaped together during Discovery. Because the foundation is API-first, each step extends the platform already in place.

  1. Year 1 · Unify

    One platform

    • All 60 hospital websites migrate to the new platform
    • Shared content model, with each hospital keeping its own identity
    • Marketing updates once, network-wide

  2. Year 2 · Scale

    100 hospitals

    • New acquisitions onboard in hours as data on the existing platform
    • EzVet and third-party integrations built once, live network-wide
    • Admin workload stays flat as the network grows

  3. Year 3 · Extend

    Beyond websites

    The same content platform is ready to power what Suveto builds next:

    • Client portal
    • Careers
    • Recruiting
    • Mobile
    • Internal tools
    • AI search
    • AI assistants

Next steps

Where we go from here

  1. You review this evaluation

    Tell us whether this direction matches your expectations for the platform.

  2. Discovery Workshop

    A quick working session to review these findings together and confirm direction while we complete initial discovery.

  3. Hands-on test build

    We install and test Sanity in a local build to validate the recommendation against real content.

  4. Final recommendation

    We deliver the final platform recommendation, including licensing and infrastructure details.

  5. Implementation planning

    Together we plan the content model, migration, and build.

If this direction looks right, let's put the Discovery Workshop on the calendar.