The Case Against Using a CMS in 2025

The problem has shifted.

In 2010, the hard part was publishing content to the web. CMSs like WordPress, Contentful, and Sanity solved this beautifully with visual editors, media libraries, and one-click publishing.

In 2025, publishing is trivial. AI can generate thousands of words in seconds. What's hard now is getting that content found.

And CMSs weren't built for that.

The Real Bottleneck in 2025#

Let's be honest about what's changed:

2010s problem:

Writing and publishing content was time-consuming
Non-technical people needed visual editors
Managing media and formatting was manual
Getting content online required technical knowledge

2025 reality:

AI generates content in seconds
Developers write markdown faster than navigating admin panels
Git-based workflows are superior for version control
Deployment is automated via Vercel, Netlify, Cloudflare

The new bottleneck isn't publishing—it's discovery:

Is your content indexed by Google?
Does it have proper schema markup?
Are internal links optimized?
Is the title length correct for mobile?
Are there technical SEO issues preventing ranking?

CMSs optimized for the wrong problem.

What CMSs Promise vs. What You Actually Get#

The Promise#

"Use our CMS and you'll publish content faster, easier, and more beautifully."

Visual editors. WYSIWYG formatting. Drag-and-drop media. Instant preview. Beautiful admin panels.

The Reality#

You're locked into their paradigm:

Custom field types (can't easily migrate)
Proprietary APIs (vendor lock-in)
Plugin ecosystems (bloat and security risks)
Database schemas (not portable)
Hosting requirements (performance overhead)

You optimize for publishing, not discovery:

No built-in SEO intelligence
Schema markup? Install a plugin (maybe)
GSC integration? Third-party service ($$$)
Internal linking? Manual guesswork
Indexing status? Check weeks later

You sacrifice developer velocity:

Navigate admin panel → find post → edit → save → preview → publish
No version control (or clunky git integration)
No local development (or slow Docker setups)
No code review workflow
No deterministic builds

The Cost of Convenience#

CMSs sell you on convenience. But what's the actual cost?

1. Vendor Lock-In#

Your content is trapped in their structure:

WordPress custom fields
Contentful content models
Sanity schemas
Prismic slices

Migration is painful. You don't own your data in a portable format—you own it in their format.

With code-based content (MDX, markdown):

Plain text files in git
Portable between any framework
No vendor lock-in
No API rate limits
No pricing tiers

2. Optimization Happens After Publishing#

CMS workflow:

Write in CMS → Publish → Wait 2 weeks → Check GSC →
Notice issues → Return to CMS → Edit → Republish → Wait again

The gap between publishing and optimization is measured in weeks.

By the time you discover your blog post isn't indexed (no internal links, missing schema, title too long), you've moved on to other work. Fixing it requires context switching back to the CMS, remembering what you were trying to accomplish, and hoping your changes help.

Most issues never get fixed. Not because you don't care, but because the friction is too high.

3. The WYSIWYG Theater#

Let's talk about visual editors.

They promise: "See exactly what your content will look like!"

They deliver: A rough approximation that breaks on different screen sizes, doesn't match your production styles, and adds hidden formatting cruft.

The reality:

Developers want markdown or MDX (clean, portable, predictable)
LLMs can generate markdown instantly
Code editors have better autocomplete, search, and refactoring than CMS text fields
Git diff shows you exactly what changed (WYSIWYG doesn't)

Visual editors optimize for people who don't code. If you're a developer, they slow you down.

4. Scale Without Strategy#

CMSs make it easy to publish 1,000 blog posts.

But if none of them rank, what did you accomplish?

The bottleneck in 2025 isn't publishing volume—it's optimizing each piece of content to actually get found.

Would you rather have:

1,000 unoptimized posts (2% indexed, no traffic)
100 optimized posts (95% indexed, consistent traffic)

CMSs optimize for the first. Code + LLM + CDD optimizes for the second.

Code + LLM + Context-Driven Development: The Modern Stack#

Here's the workflow that actually works in 2025:

1. Write Content in Code#

// content/blog/my-post.mdx
 
---
title: "How to Optimize Images for SEO"
description: "Learn image optimization techniques that improve load times and search rankings."
date: "2025-01-09"
---
 
Images are critical for user experience, but unoptimized images slow down your site and hurt SEO.
 
## Why Image Optimization Matters
 
[Your content here...]

Benefits:

Version controlled (git)
Portable (plain text)
Fast to write (no admin panel navigation)
Code review workflow (PRs, diffs, comments)
Local development (instant feedback)

2. Use LLM + MCP for Real-Time Optimization#

While writing, ask your AI assistant (via Rampify MCP):

Developer: "Check this blog post for SEO issues before I publish"

AI: *calls get_page_seo() via MCP*
    "Issues found:
     1. Title is 68 characters (recommend 50-60 for mobile)
     2. No internal links (reduces indexing probability by 70%)
     3. Missing Article schema markup

     Want me to suggest internal links based on your existing content?"

Developer: "Yes"

AI: *calls suggest_internal_links()*
    "Based on content analysis, link to:
     1. 'image compression' → /blog/image-compression-guide
     2. 'Core Web Vitals' → /blog/core-web-vitals
     3. 'lazy loading' → /blog/lazy-loading-images

     Want me to add these links to your markdown?"

Developer: "Yes, and generate Article schema"

AI: *calls generate_schema()*
    "Added schema to frontmatter. Your post is now optimized.
     Ready to commit?"

What just happened:

Real-time SEO intelligence (no context switching)
Deterministic data from Rampify API (not LLM hallucinations)
Automated optimization (schema, links, meta tags)
Fixed before publishing (not weeks later)

Total time: 3 minutes

CMS equivalent: 30 minutes (if you even remember to check SEO)

3. Deploy with Confidence#

git add content/blog/my-post.mdx
git commit -m "Add image optimization guide with schema and internal links"
git push
 
# Vercel auto-deploys
# Post is optimized from day 1
# No post-deployment scramble

Your content is:

✓ Indexed quickly (proper internal links)
✓ Rich result eligible (schema markup)
✓ Mobile-optimized (correct title length)
✓ Version controlled (rollback if needed)
✓ Portable (not locked in)

Real-World Workflow Comparison#

Writing a Blog Post: CMS vs. Code + CDD#

WordPress/Contentful Workflow:

Open browser
Navigate to CMS admin panel
Login (or refresh session)
Click "New Post"
Wait for editor to load
Write content in WYSIWYG (fight with formatting)
Add featured image (upload, wait, crop)
Fill in SEO fields manually (guess at character counts)
Preview (wait for preview to generate)
Notice formatting issues, fix
Preview again
Publish
Wait 2 weeks
Check Google Search Console
Notice: not indexed (missing internal links)
Go back to CMS admin
Add links manually
Update post
Wait another 2 weeks
Check again (maybe it's indexed now)

Time: 45 minutes initial + 20 minutes fix = 65 minutes Result: Maybe indexed, maybe not

Code + CDD Workflow:

Open VS Code (already open)
Create content/blog/my-post.mdx
Write content in markdown (fast, clean)
Ask AI: "Check SEO before I publish"
AI analyzes via MCP, suggests fixes
Accept suggestions (links, schema, meta tags added)
git commit -m "Add post" and git push
Vercel deploys (optimized from day 1)
Post gets indexed within 24 hours

Time: 10 minutes total Result: Optimized, indexed quickly

When CMSs Still Make Sense#

Let's be honest—CMSs aren't always wrong. There are legitimate use cases:

1. Large Non-Technical Content Teams#

If you have 50 writers who don't code and won't learn, a CMS might make sense.

But consider:

Do you really need 50 writers publishing unoptimized content?
Or 5 developers publishing optimized content with AI assistance?

In 2025, quality > quantity. A smaller technical team with LLM + CDD can outperform a large team with a CMS.

2. Clients Who Demand It#

If you're an agency and your client insists on a CMS (because that's what they know), fine.

But educate them:

Show them the velocity difference
Demonstrate real-time SEO optimization
Prove that code-based publishing ranks better

Many clients think they need a CMS because that's what everyone uses. Show them there's a better way.

3. E-Commerce with Thousands of SKUs#

If you're managing 10,000 products with complex inventory, CMSs (or e-commerce platforms) might be necessary.

But for marketing content? Use code + CDD for your blog, guides, and landing pages. Let the CMS handle product data.

Hybrid approaches work.

The Missing Piece: Context-Driven Development#

Here's what makes the code-based approach superior in 2025:

CMS Approach:

Publish → Wait → Discover issues → Fix → Republish

Context-Driven Development (CDD):

Get context → Optimize → Publish once → Ranks immediately

The difference is when you get feedback.

CMSs give you feedback weeks later (when GSC finally indexes your content).

CDD gives you feedback before you publish (via deterministic SEO intelligence).

That's the paradigm shift.

You're not guessing. You're not hoping. You're not scrambling post-deployment.

You know your content is optimized because AI verified it against real data from Google Search Console, site crawls, and indexing APIs before you committed.

The Technical Stack#

Here's what the modern code-based content stack looks like:

Content Layer#

MDX or Markdown - Portable, version-controlled content
Frontmatter - Structured metadata (title, description, date, tags)
Git - Version control, rollback, branching

Build Layer#

Next.js, Astro, or Remix - Modern React frameworks with static generation
Zod - Type-safe frontmatter validation
Tailwind CSS - Utility-first styling
TypeScript - Type safety across the stack

Optimization Layer#

Rampify MCP Server - Real-time SEO intelligence in your editor
Google Search Console API - Indexing status, coverage, search analytics
AI Assistant (Claude, GPT) - Natural language interface via MCP

Deployment Layer#

Vercel, Netlify, or Cloudflare - Automated deployment from git
GitHub Actions - CI/CD for automated checks
Edge CDN - Global distribution, instant cache purging

No CMS required.

The Future Is Code-Driven#

In 2025, the advantages of CMSs have evaporated:

Publishing is solved → LLMs generate content instantly Visual editing is obsolete → Developers write markdown faster Version control is critical → Git beats CMS revision history Optimization is the bottleneck → CMSs don't help with this

The future is:

Code-based content (portable, version-controlled)
LLM-assisted writing (fast, high-quality)
Context-Driven Development (optimized before publishing)
Deterministic SEO intelligence (not guesses, real data)

CMSs optimized for the publishing bottleneck of 2010.

Code + LLM + CDD optimizes for the discovery bottleneck of 2025.

If you're a developer building a content site, marketing site, or blog in 2025—you don't need a CMS.

You need git, markdown, an AI assistant, and real-time SEO intelligence.

You need Context-Driven Development.

Frequently Asked Questions#

Don't CMSs have SEO plugins?#

Yes, but they're reactive, not proactive.

Yoast SEO (WordPress) checks your content after you write it and gives you a score. It doesn't connect to Google Search Console. It doesn't know if your page is indexed. It doesn't suggest internal links based on your actual content inventory.

CDD tools (like Rampify) connect to authoritative data sources and give you real-time intelligence before you publish.

What about non-developers on my team?#

Teach them markdown (it takes 20 minutes).

Or, if they refuse, use a hybrid approach:

Developers write optimized content with CDD
Non-technical writers use a lightweight markdown editor (like Obsidian or Notion)
Content goes through git PR workflow with AI optimization before merging

You don't need a full CMS to accommodate non-coders.

Isn't this just for developers?#

Yes—and that's the point.

Rampify is built for developers. If you're building modern web apps with Next.js, Remix, or Astro, you already know git, markdown, and TypeScript.

Why would you add a CMS layer when you can publish directly from code?

CMSs made sense when developers needed to hand off content management to non-technical people. In 2025, with AI assistance, that handoff isn't necessary.

What about collaborative editing?#

Git PRs are collaborative editing.

Branch for new content
Write in your editor
AI optimizes via MCP
Open PR
Team reviews (inline comments)
Merge when ready
Auto-deploy

This is better than CMS collaboration because you get:

Code review
Version history
Rollback capability
Automated checks (via GitHub Actions)

How do I migrate from a CMS?#

From WordPress:

Export content to markdown (tools exist)
Clean up frontmatter
Set up Next.js or Astro
Deploy to Vercel

From Contentful/Sanity:

Export via their API
Transform to MDX
Commit to git
Deploy

From Webflow:

Export HTML
Convert to markdown (Pandoc)
Rebuild in code
Deploy

Yes, it's work. But you're investing in portability, not renting from a vendor.

Don't CMSs scale better?#

Publish volume? CMSs win (you can publish 1,000 bad posts faster).

Ranking volume? Code + CDD wins (you publish fewer, better-optimized posts that actually rank).

In 2025, ranking matters more than publishing.

Conclusion#

The problem shifted.

Publishing is solved. Discovery is hard.

CMSs optimized for a bottleneck that no longer exists.

If you're a developer in 2025, choose code over CMSs:

Write content in markdown (portable, version-controlled)
Use AI + MCP for real-time optimization (Rampify)
Deploy with confidence (Vercel, Netlify, Cloudflare)
Ship optimized content from day 1

Context-Driven Development beats CMS-driven publishing.

Because in 2025, getting found matters more than getting published.

Ready to ditch your CMS?

What is Context-Driven Development? - Learn the methodology
What is Rampify? - Our philosophy and approach
Join the waitlist - Get early access to the MCP server

The future is code-driven. And we're building the tools to make it happen.