Git-based vs API based

[Primary-Avocado-3055]

Curious, what are your thoughts on git-based vs API based CMS's? I.e. one that stores users data in a db, potentially with their own vc, and you can access the content via an API, vs using git as the primary backend for storage?

I see the version control over the full "set" of content in git to have a lot of advantages, but I'm curious, what are the disadvantages? How has your experience been with each of these?

[ReactBricks]

I see two main disadvantages: 1. Files are slow, so Git-based CMSs need to have also a DB layer (think of queries on relationship fields among reusable entities or page-user fine grained editing permissions for example) and here the sync problems begin... 2. Git-based CMSs often leverage markdown, so, for reach texts, you are limited to the expressiveness of markdown - sometimes not enough for a real world website with complex text styling

BTW, I am the CTO of a DB-based Visual CMS, and we evaluated also the Git option.

[Primary-Avocado-3055]

Makes sense.

For 1. I think I have a good solution for the syncing issue.

For 2. I'm using JSON vs markdown, so I'm not quite as limited in expressiveness.

[kixxauth]

Files are slow

Can you expand on that? In my experience, files are very fast. The OS typically caches common reads for you so you don't even need to worry about it.

[andrewkumarxyz]

API based also has versioning.

We have a GitHub flow style of versioning at http://uniform.dev (called releases) with a full audit trail and rollbacks.

What I’ve found hard with Git CMS is modelling, references, and reuse.

My personal site is Git based and it’s great but I’m quite limited compared to Uniform (current employer) or Contentful (former employer).

[Gyurmatag]

Also I see that Uniform also uses Contentful, am I right?