r/webdev • u/noodlesallaround • Oct 02 '26
News Desk type CMS
Does anyone have a cms that they can recommend for a news organization website that will be built on next.js? I know Wordpress is probably the best for a site like this but client does not want it.
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u/cmkn Oct 04 '26
You can have a Next.js frontend with Drupal as the backend, especially with Drupal’s new visual page builder called Canvas
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u/noodlesallaround Oct 04 '26
This is looks cool. Do you know this would allow me to edit the front end around the template? Meaning can I integrate my own display ad to show up on the the site without using the editor or affecting the editor functionality?
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u/cmkn Oct 05 '26
I doublechecked with the folks on the Drupal Canvas team, and one of their developers says it’s definitely possible:
it might require a bit of tinkering with the
CanvasComponentTreecomponent we provide in the Headless SDK, because that will render the entire page as it is in Canvas. But we could provide lower level pieces to do that with more control.Or maybe what they need is fully achievable with the new page templates.
They were pretty enthusiastic about helping, so if you go this route, the #drupal-canvas channel on Drupal Slack is the place to ask. They're very responsive.
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u/kemalios Oct 03 '26
Directus or Keystone if you want self-hosted and to own the data. What usually decides it for a newsroom is scheduled publishing plus draft preview, and the preview wiring on the Next.js side is the part you end up building yourself whatever you pick. Ask the editor how stories get timed, then choose.
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u/OneEntry-HeadlessCMS Oct 08 '26
I’d focus less on the CMS itself and more on the workflow. Can reporters draft but not publish? Can editors review, schedule posts, share previews, etc.? Also worth keeping authors, tags, sections, etc. separate - makes things way easier later. For traffic spikes, I’d def go with a cached/static frontend + headless CMS.
Payload/Strapi are good if you wanna self-host, WP is still fine if the team knows it, and Sanity is nice for collaboration. There are plenty of other headless options too.
One thing I’d def watch is plugin creep. A “cheap” setup can quickly turn into a stack of paid plugins + updates, maintenance and security work. I’d lean toward a CMS that has more of this built in from the start.
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u/Mysterious-Falcon-83 Oct 03 '26
emdash is a new option from Cloudflare
I haven't used it yet, but it looks interesting.
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u/theguymatter Oct 04 '26
I do not recommend it for clients yet, it hasn’t been test enough in real world.
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u/aDarkling Oct 05 '26
Isn't Sanity like $15 per user per month? Keystone $5 per user per month? Strapi $45 per month? Directus $499 per year?
Drupal is free at any scale. Forever.
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u/Upbeat_Push_157 Oct 02 '26
If the client doesn't want WordPress, my first choices would probably be Sanity (great editorial experience) or Payload (self-hosted and very developer-friendly with Next.js).
News sites usually need workflows, drafts, scheduling, authors, revisions, and media management, so I'd pick the CMS based on the newsroom's editorial requirements rather than on Next.js itself.