From Basehub to Magnolia

We are the Basehub to Magnolia migration experts

Challenges with Basehub

Key pain points

BaseHub is one of those platforms that feels like it was built by a developer, for a developer, and at no point did anyone ask, “Won't marketers need to be able to edit on the go?” Once you’re inside, it’s tables inside tables inside tables, like a Russian doll but somehow less fun. And as we’ve said before, we genuinely appreciate good engineering… but BaseHub often feels like someone shipped the database schema and called it a CMS.

BaseHub is painful to use, in our opinion. Because the platform is still young, features sometimes glitch, real-time collaboration hiccups, and localization or migration workflows can get messy fast. Documentation gaps and unpredictable branching only add to the frustration. If you're determined to build on BaseHub, we can walk you through the safest path… or at least help you avoid the inevitable “why is this breaking again?” moments.

Occasional feature glitches

New features sometimes ship a bit wobbly, so expect the occasional “why is this suddenly broken?” moment.

Not yet enterprise-ready

It’s great for small teams, but big orgs will hit walls fast. Workflow maturity and stability just aren’t there yet.

Limited third-party integrations

If you rely on a rich ecosystem, BaseHub won’t meet you halfway. You’ll be wiring a lot of things yourself.

Localization support gaps

Multi-region content teams will feel the pain quickly as language handling still needs serious tightening.

API rate limiting constraints

Push it too hard and you’ll hit rate limits faster than you expect, which can block larger deployments.

Sporadic stability issues

Real-time collaboration and branching can hiccup under pressure, making scaling workflows frustrating.

Benefits of Magnolia

Key advantages

Magnolia shines if you’re the kind of organisation that genuinely needs the full DXP kitchen sink. It packs personalisation, workflows, multi-site orchestration, multilingual publishing, DAM, marketing automation hooks, and every enterprise acronym you can think of. If your teams run complex global content operations with strict governance, Magnolia’s mature permission system, stability, and long-standing enterprise reputation make it a safe, compliant option.

To be transparent, we don’t actually prefer or build with Magnolia (or any of the DXP-flavoured headless CMSs). They try to do everything, and like most jack-of-all-trades platforms, they don’t excel at the things modern teams actually need that is speed, flexibility, clean workflows, and sane pricing. We’d happily point you toward modern alternatives like Sanity that give you 10× the agility without the enterprise bloat.

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Java-based enterprise integration

Built on Java, Magnolia plugs neatly into large enterprise stacks that already rely on Java systems and legacy infrastructure. If your organisation lives and breathes JVM, Magnolia won’t fight your architecture.

Secure, scalable architecture

Magnolia’s core is engineered for high-security, high-traffic environments, with strong access control, clustering, and enterprise-grade stability. It’s built to survive heavy editorial activity and large content delivery demands.

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Real-time page templating

Editors can adjust components and layouts and immediately preview results, making large enterprise content operations faster and less error-prone.

Editable component previews

Magnolia’s component-level previewing gives editors clarity on how complex pages come together, reducing back-and-forth with developers and keeping multi-team workflows sane.

Multi-site management tools

Designed for global brands, Magnolia supports multiple sites, languages, and regional variations under one roof.

Advanced workflow automation

From multi-step approvals to compliance-driven publishing flows, Magnolia handles heavyweight governance. This is the stuff big enterprises actually need when 20 departments want access but only 2 should publish.