What is Sanity.io? (2024 update)

By Ikius Team

5th February, 2024

Having a headless content management system (CMS) has become essential for creating and delivering content and digital experiences, but over the past years, more and more organizations have opted to go headless to achieve faster content delivery speeds, leverage modern architectures, and improve user experience.

Instead of a legacy backend-frontend architecture with pre-built visual themes like a traditional CMS, a headless platform decouples access through an API layer. This allows users to build their own custom display interfaces.

To further optimize delivery speed and performance, many companies are turning to Jamstack — JavaScript for frontend presentation logic; APIs for data exchange between client devices over HTTP; Markup used by static site generators like Sanity’s open source studio, which provides single-source truth on your database model using GraphQL queries from cloud CDNs plus real-time updates via webhooks.

But this alone isn’t enough to tell us what Sanity is or why it’s one of the best headless platforms for building all kinds of digital experiences. So, buckle up for a customer-centered, value-based dive into Sanity.io.

In this post:

What is Sanity?

TL; DR: Sanity.io –sometimes called Sanity CMS– is a cloud-based, open source unified content platform that enables you to easily manage, edit, and deliver structured content across every device. It's probably one of the hottest CMS systems right now.

In other words, it makes it easy for you to create websites and applications without worrying about the backend or underlying technology because it supports all meta-frameworks and static site generators.

This eliminates the need for developers to write custom code from scratch whenever they want to update a page or add new features.

Instead, they can use pre-built components that come with the platform, saving time and money in the long run.

What makes Sanity different?

Sanity stands apart from other headless CMSs because of its flexible data model and intuitive editing interface. Instead of relying on pre-defined templates, Sanity allows users to define their own structures for data and documents. This makes it easier for users to customize their content without worrying about coding or complex technical jargon.

In addition, Sanity has an easy-to-use drag-and-drop editor that allows users to quickly create and edit content in real-time via a web browser or mobile device. This ensures businesses can update their content quickly and efficiently - regardless of location.

However, four key features turn Sanity into the content juggernaut it is:

Content lake

Sanity Content Lake unlocks the power of your content. Thanks to Sanity’s cloud-based repository, you can seamlessly access and store all kinds of content and assets, allowing you to focus on what matters most –creating powerful experiences.

Sanity’s API makes everything simple; you can get started quickly by utilizing one of our client libraries or HTTP APIs to create a solid digital experience.

Structured content

Structured content is like a set of building blocks, each piece carefully arranged and classified for maximum understanding. By leveraging these pieces in an organized way, machines and people alike can gain insight from the components – maximizing efficiency and productivity.

Plus, with Sanity.io’s Portable Text, a revolutionary open-specification format that takes rich text to the next level. Now you can turn it into nearly any markup language imaginable –from HTML and JSX to Vue, Markdown, SSML, or XML.

Sanity Studio

Sanity Studio is a top-of-the-line, React-based, and open-source CMS. Streamline the creation of your content in Sanity Studio with their powerful tool kits and plugins.

Sanity Studio single page application also offers an abundance of powerful plugins from npm, plus the ability to craft seamless integrations into your applications. Unleash a world of design potential – get started today and unlock the ultimate workflow, optimized to work exactly how you need it to.

Developer experience

Sanity is the darling of developers. Unleash unlimited possibilities with Sanity Studio's ever-expanding ecosystem of plugins! Access a wide range of React components to create custom input, widgets, and tools.

Connect with a global community –from seasoned developers to beginners alike– who are joining forces to shape today's future tech landscape.

GROQ

GROQ (Graph-Relational Object Queries) is a cutting-edge language that allows users to effortlessly query collections of JSON documents without needing explicit schemas. Its advanced design objectives help organize and personalize.

With GROQ, you can maximize expressive filtering, enable the seamless joinery of multiple documents into one streamlined response, and create bespoke outcomes tailored for individual client applications.

Benefits of Sanity

Using a content platform like Sanity benefits CMOs and other professionals who need to manage large amounts of content quickly and efficiently.

Superior content management: Managing your content structure and digital experiences and offers powerful analytics tools that help measure performance across multiple devices and platforms in real-time. All of this helps your content team make informed decisions about optimizing digital strategies for maximum impact.
Intuitive user interface: In Sanity, editing content is pretty simple. You can save time tinkering with code and let your content team focus on creating great customer experiences.
Unparalleled flexibility: You can easily adjust your designs and content quickly without worrying about breaking existing functionality or creating complex new code blocks. With this platform, CMOs can optimize their online presence by creating a custom content type that closely resembles what they need –just like I did with my podcasting app about tuxedo cats.
User-friendly. Even if you don't have much technical knowledge or experience with web development tools, you can make changes quickly and easily thanks to Sanity Studio’s react-based interface.
Great for marketers: It's flexible for marketing teams who need to quickly make changes without relying on developer resources every time. This gives them more control over their content strategy while ensuring quality results in less time. Sanity also offers a range of features designed specifically for marketing teams. This includes A/B testing capabilities, scheduled delivery options, and analytics tracking tools.
Easy to start with: Plus, it integrates seamlessly with popular meta-frameworks like React, Next.js, and Gatsby, so you can get a site up and running quickly. You can say goodbye to struggling through complex setup processes or compatibility issues.

Keep in mind: If you’re not proficient with the coding aspects of setting Sanity up, contact a Jamstack agency.

Pricing

Sanity has currently three pricing tiers for users of all shapes and sizes, from solo devs who want to test a new content platform to unicorn companies looking to scale up. Their free version which is obviously free is great for doers on an individual level that want to get started experimenting with the CMS. The growth plan, which 15 USD/ per month (and per user) is great for teams that are collaborating togehter on bigger projects. Then there is the enterprise version, which is most suitable for corporations and bigger enterprises that need heavy-duty features.

Our experience working with Sanity

Sanity is one of the most flexible CMSs in the market. If you're looking to implement Sanity, we can help.

With several successful Sanity projects under our belt, we can advise you on implementing Sanity CMS for all projects, from eCommerce stores to marketing sites.

Here's what our team thinks about Sanity:

"Sanity is a super versatile headless CMS, allowing it to be used in a wide range of software development projects. We at Ikius have a long and successful history of implementing Sanity as a headless CMS for our clients' website projects.
Aatu Väisänen - Head of operations

Services: Sanity.io development

Teleport

Our dedicated development team worked with Teleport's marketing team to develop their enterprise website with Next.js. Our consultants integrated seamlessly with Teleport's team, enabling efficient collaboration between Ikius and Teleport.

Read more: Team extension for website development

Blue Nose

We built a new marketing website to optimize reserving cruises and increase brand awareness. The site is built with Next.js and hosted on Netlify. Before moving to Jamstack, Blue Nose's site was hosted on a legacy CMS that was being deprecated and didn't even support mobile browsers! After migrating to Next.js, Blue Nose's site is optimized and ready to sail to the next-gen waters.

Blue Nose: From legacy to headless with Sanity, Next.js, and Netlify

Brightway Careers

We migrated Brightway's site from WordPress to Jamstack and saw an astonishing increase in Google Lighthouse's performance score. We also provided guidance and help regarding UI/UX when working with Brightway's designers to create a refreshed style for the brand.

The multilingual site features a fully customizable page structure with modular components and content for each locale. The content is managed with Sanity - an excellent Headless CMS for Brightway's use case.

Brightway Careers: From WordPress to Sanity and Gatsby.js

Closing thoughts

As you can see, Sanity is one of the most advanced headless CMS solutions available today. Its flexible data model and intuitive editing interface make it simple for users to customize their content without worrying about technical details or coding knowledge.

On top of that, its marketing features give CMOs powerful insights into customer behavior so they can deliver personalized messages tailored to each customer’s needs – making it easier than ever for them to reach out directly to potential customers easily.

With all these advantages in mind, it’s no wonder why many businesses are choosing Sanity as their go-to platform for managing digital assets online.