A Directus development agency that runs it in production.
We built a 15-site platform on Next.js and Directus, launched it in 2025, and still run it. If you need a Directus team, here is what we build, and the rough edges we will warn you about first.
One Directus instance, fifteen sites.
ReelAbilities: four WordPress properties consolidated onto one Next.js + Directus platform, with 15 city festivals, streaming and a licensing marketplace.
15
city festival sites on one Directus instance and one codebase
26
content blocks the editors build pages from
15–20 min
for the content team to build a new page, no developer
$0/yr
CMS licensing, self-hosted, against $4,800–6,000/yr commercial headless
What we build on Directus.
Scoped before anything is built, fixed-quoted before you commit.
Content modelling
Collections, relations and translations designed around how your editors think about the content, not around how the old CMS stored it.
A block editor non-developers use
The biggest complaint about headless is no page builder. On ReelAbilities we built 26 blocks; the content team has built 30+ pages on their own after one two-hour training session.
Roles and permission filters
Multi-tenant access enforced in the CMS itself. Fifteen city teams share one instance with zero cross-city data leaks in 12+ months of production.
A typed Next.js front end
Types generated from the Directus schema and the official SDK, so a renamed field breaks the build rather than a live page.
Schema snapshots between environments
Directus has no built-in config sync between dev, staging and production. We version the schema as snapshots and apply them in deploys.
Hosting and running it
Self-hosted Directus behind Cloudflare, the automations around it (registration emails, guest itineraries, schedules), and someone on call after launch. We still run ReelAbilities a year after it went live.
Where Directus fits, and where it hurts.
We would choose Directus again for ReelAbilities. We would also budget for it differently.
Directus fits if
- You want to self-host your CMS and own your data in plain SQL. Directus is free to self-host below a revenue threshold; above it, check its licence.
- Your content has real structure: relations, several sites or regions, roles that must not see each other’s data.
- You have a SQL database already and want an admin panel and API on top of it rather than a migration into someone else’s cloud.
Look elsewhere if
- Your editors expect a visual drag-and-drop builder on day one and there is no budget to build blocks.
- Nobody will own the server. A hosted headless CMS will outlast a self-hosted one nobody patches.
- Your site is a simple blog. WordPress or a hosted CMS will do it for less.
What it cost us
- Directus took 20–30% more development time than we first estimated, all of it workarounds.
- Image uploads can fail silently, and images are not resized on upload by default.
- The admin UI lags with several editors working at once.
- There is no config sync between environments out of the box.
The code and the full list of problems are in our 12-month write-up of running Directus, and the editor side in how we built the 26-block editor.
Frequently Asked Questions
Moving off WordPress onto Directus? See WordPress to Next.js migration, with our published price bands.
Tell us about your Directus project.
New build, a migration onto Directus, or an existing instance that is fighting your editors. We will tell you what we would do first, and whether Directus is the right call.