Case Study: Bank Grader

Full website build with Dato CMS and Next.js

Summary

Client: Bank Grader

Visit their site

US-based Bank Grader is a tool that analyzes the best private student loan options and gives students a personalized recommendation based on their location.

  • Scope and challenges

    • Create a new site based on Dato CMS 
    • Build a modern frontend based on Next.js
    • Serve static content using APIs
    • Google analytics implementation

  • Solutions and results

    • Implement Dato CMS and build hand-crafted content models
    • Create an easy-to-use setup they could manage on their own
    • Build a mobile-friendly website 

Website rebuild with Dato CMS, Next.js, and Vercel

Our team worked with Bank Grader to build a brand-new website based on headless architecture. Building a headless website on Dato CMS allowed us to provide Bank Grader with greater mobile-friendliness and faster loading speeds.

We created a next-gen
website for a student loan finder

  • Mobile-friendly

    user experience

    Bank Grader's previous website was slow and almost impossible to use for mobile users. We changed that. with Next.js' help. We built a snappy, mobile-friendly website that students without computers could benefit from.

  • +3,000

    monthly users

    Thanks to Next.js and Vercel, Bank Grader is now capable of handling thousands of requests and visitors per month without breaking, helping more students get the best loans than ever. 

A next-generation website
for a student loan application

Building a website capable of handling thousands of visitors at a time requires careful planning and execution. Here's how we did it: 

  • 1. Model content in Dato CMS

    The first step in the migration process was to model content in Dato CMS based on the existing website structure. We did this by going through the website pages and different content types to re-create them as modular content models in Dato CMS.

  • 2. API implementation

    We created a service that fetches student loan data from colleges and banks using a third-party API that gives the loan data to the student based on the college they chose. Next.js provides several built-in API methods, making it easy to fetch data from external sources and manipulate it within your application. 

  • 3. Front-end development with Next.js

    Now that all data was modeled and migrated, it was convenient to start working on the front-end software code with Next.js as provides an excellent architecture for creating modular, highly customizable, efficient page layouts when used in conjunction with headless CMSs.

  • 4. QA and publication

    The final step involved extensive quality assurance, where we ensured all pages contained correct data from SEO tags to H tag ordering. After extensive QA the site was published on Vercel.

What our clients say

Ben Arent

Director of DevRel

The Ikius team quickly became an extension of the Teleport Team, and completed two key site launches in record time. They continue to build systems and tools that scale and are force multiplies for our marketing efforts.

Anttoni Aniebonam

Co-Founder, CEO - Veri

We worked with Ikius' development team for our Next.js website development. We had previously worked with freelancers for web development, but chose to work with an agency such as Ikius to ensure code quality matches our expectations. Ikius did not disappoint and we can only recommed Ikius as tech partner for Next.js development.

Shubham Khenat

Partnerships

“We are excited to partner with Ikius, increasing our presence in the Nordics and bringing more implementation power to that part of the world. We will tackle new projects together that look for innovative solutions that hinge on flexible, composable architectures.”

Brad Bates

Varcroft & Bianco

Ikius has helped tremendously with the development of the Drawer Insert Designer. Max and Aatu have great knowledge regarding what technology to use and how to implement it. They worked seamlessly with other members of the team and everything was completed in a timely professional manner. We have already started working with them on our next project.

Antti Valtola

Blue Nose cruises

My company’s website was in need of renewal in late 2020. I received offers from multiple companies but in the end I ended up making an agreement with Ikius.

Olga Voigt

Agility CMS | Marketing

Ikius team is professional, knowledgeable, and extremely helpful. They are on top of web development trends, they understand the demands of modern digital solutions and deliver. It is always a pleasure to work with Ikius, and I can not recommend them enough to all seeking for modern digital implementation

Aaron Hazan

Director at Hotel Radio Ltd.

The team at Ikius have not only proved an invaluable resource for both guiding us through the process of the build for our site and advising on best practice for user experience, but have seen to it that every aspect of our commerce website is honed to perfection and able to execute on any deliverable required, no matter the complexity.

Ilkka Lehto

CEO at Brightway Careers

I'm very happy how our new company site turned out. The site's performance is absolutely impressive, thank you team Ikius 👍

Alex Stoykov

CEO at Olifant Digital

Working with Ikius for our Jamstack website was a flawless experience. The development team is super fast and reliable. The speed of our new website is unbeliavable. I highly recommend Ikius as a serious development partner for web development projects involving Jamstack.

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