Insights, Web Development

7 Things Our Developers Love in HubSpot CMS (And How They Matter To You)

Insights from htmlBurger’s experience in working with HubSpot CMS

Whether you are a business investing in its online presence, a professional marketer looking for better results, or an agency building websites for its clients, you have almost certainly heard of HubSpot. In this article, we will take a closer look at one specific tool that HubSpot launched and that’s the CMS Hub. While testing a variety of platforms for building websites, we came across the HubSpot CMS. So let’s see what, we as developers like about it and why this matters to you as well.

Short Summary

If this is the first time you have heard about HubSpot CMS, here’s a helpful short summary about the platform:

  • HubSpot released their COS (content optimization system) in 2013, an integrated website, blog, and landing page system.
  • The system was developed for marketers and worked with HubSpot Marketing Hub.
  • In 2018, HubSpot re-launched the platform as a standalone product.
  • CMS for Marketers to create and manage websites pages, personalized for different visitors
  • The platform features SEO coaching to improve marketing strategies
  • It allows you to create A/B tests of web pages
  • Built-In customer service integrations

You could also check out our full review on its purpose, benefits, and features.

7 Things We Love About HubSpot CMS

With no further ado, these are the 7 strong sides that made us, the developers, fall in love with the HubSpot CMS and they matter to you as well.

1. No Server Setup and Maintenance

This is one of the perks that comes along with the platform. Everything is up and running and we won’t need to think about a database or server setup, CMS updates, and all that jazz. HubSpot handles that for us so we can focus on writing code and creating user experiences. We simply get started right away without wasting time setting everything up.

In addition, the platform has a globally distributed CDN (content delivery network) that ensures fast loading times for all visitors wherever their location.

How this matters to you: You don’t need to worry about potential issues with the servers, hosting support, etc. Your website is always up and running.

2. HubL templating Language

Hubble (HubL) is an extension of Jinjava, a templating engine based on Jinja, which is one of the most used templating engines for Python. HubL does not fully support Jinja, but it comes with other unique features added from HubSpot. The learning curve is short and it’s quick to get used to and start coding. In short, HubL templating language gives us the power to build complex dynamic templates with ease.

How this matters to you:  The code looks pretty organized and easy to read even for non-developers. This means people with less technical skills can do some small modifications on their own.

3. Powerful Search API

The support for numerous filtering options that HubSpot’s search API provides, is another thing that makes HubSpot CMS so great. The built-in site search functionality allows visitors to find relevant content to their search queries pretty easily. With the API we can customize the search experience of the website. And HubSpot automatically indexes the content in its native search engine which saves us time setting up a third-party search tool.

How this matters to you: The powerful search means you can provide relevant results for visitors, which makes the UX on the website much better.

4. Meaningful Website Structure

The CMS Hub is based on a series of building blocks each with its own purpose and different level of flexibility. The blocks are – theme (a top-level block), templates, modules, fields, global content, menus, forms, and settings. This structure allows us to utilize an efficient and intuitive organization.

How this matters to you: Organizing and structuring content of all forms gives more flexibility.

5. Synced Staging Environment

We’re fans of the content staging tool for relaunching redesigned pages in a staging environment. This means we can redesign and replace existing pages or create new ones and everything will be hosted on your-domain.sandbox.hs-sites.com . Once you’re ready to go live, we can replace the live pages at the same time.

It’s good that we can work on a staging environment, so the live site can continue to operate, but the best is that the staging env. is almost identical to the live site – on the same servers, with the real content from the live site, so no unexpected surprises.

How this matters to you: You can preview how the actual site is going to look like before it’s released to the public.

6. User-Friendly Editor

The HubSpot CMS features a drag & drop editor for rearranging layouts and applying custom styles. It’s a very powerful editor with a variety of features, where all settings for the page are stored in one place. In addition, the content could be edited using a website theme. What bases the default styles in the theme are fonts, colors, spacing, and styles we set within the global theme settings. With that being said, we can also add, remove, or rearrange theme modules in any template from that theme. These theme modules support smart content and personalization.

How this matters to you: It’s in the title 🙂 The editor is user-friendly and using it is a joyful process.

7. Great Knowledge Base & Additional Resources

As you can expect from HubSpot, the knowledge base is at a very high level. First, we have the HubSpot CMS Developer Documentation and the CMS API Documentation. They are both very well organized. Additionally, at their academy, there is a good set of courses & lessons, that help developers stay on top of their game. And finally, if we still have any questions unanswered through these resources, we can count on their amazing support, which makes us confident that we can help our clients with anything they need.

How this matters to you: All resources there, are very useful for both developers and non-developers. Everyone can take advantage of them.

Conclusion

In many ways whenever something is good for the developers is good for the other users of the CMS as well. And HubSpot CMS is definitely a platform loved by everyone – content creators, marketers, developers, website administrators, business owners, etc. The platform is specially designed with a marketing angle in mind. It’s an ideal choice for capturing leads, websites aimed at huge traffic, and detailed reporting.

Considering HubSpot CMS for your project?

Our team of HubSpot CMS experts would be happy to help you with your project. Check more information about our HubSpot CMS services or book a call with a manager from our team.

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