49+ components migrated from Contentful to Payload CMS, cutting translation time from weeks to days — with 0 vendor lock-in and a 2+ year ongoing partnership
Challenge
Glimble, a fast-growing mobility platform, was trapped by its content stack. Their SaaS product was scaling across multiple markets (NL & IT), but their reliance on Contentful had become a bottleneck. The marketing and content teams were entirely dependent on engineers for routine updates, while escalating vendor costs and a rigid, one-size-fits-all feature set blocked critical business needs.
Manual, error-prone translation workflows delayed market expansion. The platform lacked enterprise-grade security like 2FA and granular roles. And without full control over their backend, they couldn’t build the custom features (like advanced filtering or feature flags) needed to compete. Their growth was outpacing their platform’s capabilities.
Solution
We engineered a full migration from Contentful to a self-hosted, open-source Payload CMS to eliminate vendor lock-in and deliver a scalable, long-term content system. This strategic move gave Glimble complete control over their data, architecture, and roadmap. Our solution focused on three core areas:
AI-Native Content Operations: We designed and built a custom, AI-assisted translation workflow directly within Payload. This system automates initial translations and integrates a human review gate, slashing the time-to-market for new content in different locales.
Marketing & Editorial Autonomy: We created a library of 30+ custom components, enabling the marketing team to build and launch campaigns without developer intervention. We also implemented a CMS-driven feature flagging system and an email template builder, empowering non-technical teams to run experiments and manage communications independently.
Enterprise-Grade Foundation: To support multi-market complexity, we architected a scalable system with country-specific content, pricing, and regulatory logic. We implemented robust security, including two-factor authentication (2FA) and a five-tier role-based access control system to ensure proper governance.
Results
49+
Components Migrated and Rebuilt
30+
Custom CMS Components Created
5
Admin Roles Implemented
100%
Vendor Lock-in Removed
2+
Years Technical Partnership
Before FocusReactive vs. After FocusReactive
Marketing and content teams were entirely dependent on engineers for routine updates.
Marketing team is fully autonomous, building campaigns with 30+ custom components without developer intervention.
AI-assisted translation workflow cuts time-to-market for new locales from weeks to days.
Trapped by a proprietary platform with escalating vendor costs and vendor lock-in.
A self-hosted, open-source CMS, eliminating 100% of vendor lock-in and unpredictable scaling costs.
Lacked enterprise-grade security, with no 2FA or granular user roles.
Enterprise-grade foundation with robust security, including 2FA and a five-tier role-based access control system.
A rigid, one-size-fits-all system blocked the creation of custom features like feature flags.
Complete control over the backend, enabling CMS-driven feature flagging and custom logic for multi-market complexity.
Project Tech Stack
Payload CMS
Modern self-hosted headless CMS built with TypeScript and Node.js, offering full control over data structure, API, and business logic.
Next.JS
React framework for building fast, SEO-friendly web applications with server-side rendering and static site generation.
Vercel
A cloud platform for hosting and deploying frontend applications, built to work seamlessly with Next.js and modern frameworks.
Tailwind
A utility-first CSS framework that lets you build custom user interfaces directly in HTML or JSX by composing small, reusable utility classes instead of writing traditional CSS.
Swell
Modern e-commerce platform and API that enables developers to build custom online stores and commerce experiences without traditional platform limitations
How we work
Governed and Scalable, by Design
We design content models, editorial workflows, and governance into the architecture from day one to make you Information Architecture clean and usable as your team, markets, and channels grow.
Editorial UX boosts your marketing team's speed and freedom. They can build pages, launch campaigns, and manage content without needing developer help.
Performance & AI SEO by Default
Each project includes a complete SEO + LLM optimization. Performance baseline as standard: Core Web Vitals, structured data, rendering strategy, and AI SEO setup.
Scalable Next.js architecture derived from 7+ years of experience.
Already live? Our Next.js SEO audit gives you an actionable, dev-ready assessment of where you stand.
Predictable & Efficient Delivery
90% of our projects fit the initial budget. That comes from the time we invest upfront — understanding exactly what we're building before a single line of code is written.
Our CMS Kit has page builders, navigation, localization, content models, and SEO settings. It boosts every engagement. Plus, it won’t limit your choices. It's a smart starter refined across dozens of production deployments, not a constraint.
Key Features
1
3
E-Commerce Integration with Swell
Integrated Swell’s e-commerce platform via the Swell.js SDK to synchronize products, pricing, and inventory directly with the CMS
2
3
CMS-Managed Email Service
Email templates built directly in the CMS with variable injection, webhooks, and ready-to-use transactional templates
3
3
Image Management with Focal Point Control
Advanced image cropping system with focal point selection and real-time preview across device breakpoints
What our client says
Gerben Dijkstra
FocusReactive successfully took over and enhanced our existing site and shop, making the platform faster, more stable, and significantly improving the user experience. The team delivered high-quality work on time, reduced development overhead, and proved to be proactive, knowledgeable, and highly reliable throughout the collaboration.
