Unparalleled Developer Experience

Build enterprise websites with the technologies developers know and like.

Anatomy of a Jahia Module

No time to waste, let's start with the code. And then you can scroll for the marketing copy.

Development starts with telling Jahia what you want to store, and let Jahia figure out the structure of the storage layer and generate interactive edition interfaces for your editors.

This is done with a simple and expressive language: the Compact Node Definition language (CND). Here is how this very code snippet is defined in CND:

[example:codeSnippet] > jnt:content
 - language (string, choicelist) mandatory < 'js', 'html', 'css'
 - code (string, textarea) mandatory

State-of-the-Art Paradigms

We understand the needs of developers to offer the best software solutions.

Declarative Content Modeling

  • Define the structure of your content using a clear and straightforward language
  • Build on top of the many Jahia-provided components
  • Instantly get a full-featured edition interface without any specific development

Jahia is a CMS that walks the extra mile for you. Focus on defining your content model: we handle the complex editing and storage mechanics automatically.

Render Content With React

We chose React for our server-side and client-side templating language:

  • Render content using an expressive and secure-by-default language
  • Reduce code duplication by using the same code for both editor and visitor rendering
  • Benefit from multi-layered caching and performance features—no specific development needed
  • Access a vast ecosystem of existing components and tools

Island Architecture

Fully static websites are a thing of the past, all websites need a sparkle of interactivity. We deliver that experience without sacrificing global website performance.

Write all your server and client-side code in React, and let our engine handle the magic: only the required components are made interactive, not the entire page.

This approach also means we ship 0 bytes of JS by default. Your rendered pages and content scripts can be fully cached at the edge for maximum speed.

Want to know more? Read our introduction to Island Architecture.

A Modern Stack

Jahia strives to offer the most comfortable and up-to-date development stack.
Pick your favorite technologies in the JavaScript ecosystem.

Vite

Does Vite still need an introduction? It is the de facto standard for modern JS stacks, and we are no exception. Here's what you get, fully configured out-of-the-box:

  • CSS Modules support
  • Transpilation for TypeScript, SASS, and Less
  • Lightning-fast incremental compilation during development

And if that's still not enough, you get access to a vibrant ecosystem: Tailwind, UnoCSS, and all your favorite tools already have a readily available Vite plugin.

React

As the industry's most-adopted JS rendering library with over 80% developer usage, React offers an enormous library of high-quality tutorials and support. Stop reinventing the wheel: the React ecosystem already offers solutions for nearly every need.

If you already have a React design system, we have great news: you can use it directly within your Jahia modules, without modification.

GraphQL

Building advanced headless features, like lazy-loading contents? We've got your back.

Every single piece of data stored in Jahia is exposed and queryable through our GraphQL API. This means you can filter, paginate, and render content right from your frontend. You get to skip the usual REST API headaches like underfetching, overfetching, and frustrating waterfall requests.

We're serious about this API: we use this exact same endpoint to render all of Jahia's editing interfaces. If it can handle that, it can handle anything you throw at it.

Tired of Reading? Give It a Try

Start building your first Jahia module with a single command:

npm init @jahia/module@latest

100% free and runs locally. 
You'll need Node.js, Yarn and Docker installed.

Get Started with JS Modules

Don’t Reinvent the Wheel

We build the hard features, leaving you the fun ones.

Editing Interfaces

At its core, Jahia is a head-on CMS. Your editors get a fully featured interface before writing a single line of code:

  • Edit and preview content in context (where it lives on the site)
  • Full control over the editable page tree
  • Integrated media manager to sort and manage assets at scale

Full-Text Search

All your content is automatically indexed by a language-aware search engine. Build a site-wide search experience in minutes.

User Management

We handle all your user needs: login and registration, single or multi-site access, and full support for both traditional passwords and SSO.

And of course you can edit user accounts through the interface.

Robust Caching & Invalidation

Cache invalidation is still one of the two hard things in computing (along with naming things and 0-indexing). We strive to make it accessible through a declarative approach:

  • Manage cache lifespan with static duration, or define complex policies using explicit dependencies
  • Ensure speed and relevance by choosing between per-user or global cache
  • Get optimal performance thanks to automatic multi-layered caching strategies

Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)

Jahia gives you a powerful permission system with fine-grain access control—down to a single content item. This applies across all aspects of Jahia: editing, visitor access, API consumption, and more.

Use it as-is, or easily extend it with your own custom permissions and access checks.

SEO

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is never an afterthought. Generate sitemaps, manage vanity URLs, and set OpenGraph metadata all straight from Jahia.

Ease of Deployment

Jahia is designed as a combination of modules, each of them providing clearly defined features and easily upgradable independently. Compose and extend modules to build powerful and maintainable digital experiences. The era of monoliths is over.

Zero-Downtime Hot Updates

We build on the battle-tested OSGi standard. You don't need to be an expert to enjoy the full potential: you can update Jahia modules on a running instance. No more system-wide downtimes caused by upgrades.

Automate Eveything

  • Create fully automated CI/CD deployment workflows using our Provisioning API
  • Plan and execute blue-green upgrades for complex, cluster-wide operations
  • Host everything seamlessly on our cloud platform

Fully Extensible Platform

Make Jahia your own.

Backend Extensions

Extend Jahia's core backend capabilities with custom extensions:

  • Build your own API endpoints (GraphQL or REST) to fit your architecture
  • Leverage Jahia's dependency injection to enrich native Jahia features

UI Extensions

Extend Jahia's editing interface using 30+ extension hooks—from custom data pickers to complete visualization dashboards.

We use these exact same hooks for all official Jahia modules, guaranteeing you have access to everything we do.

Head-On or Headless

Jahia lets you pick your favorite approach or even use both at once.

Headless CMS

With Jahia, you can achieve full decoupling between the content layer and the render layer:

  • Render content using the frontend technology of your choice
  • Interact with Jahia through its extendable GraphQL API
  • Tailor the Jahia interface to your editors' needs
  • Deploy your frontend independently from Jahia

Head-On with Islands

Head-on doesn't mean you're limited to server-side-only templating. By leveraging React, you enable both server-side and client-side rendering.

Create true islands of interactivity in your pages—getting the speed of static rendering alongside the dynamic feel of a modern SPA—and still interact with Jahia through its extendable GraphQL API, just like in a pure headless context.

Open-Source Principles

Jahia fully embraces the open-source philosophy, using permissive licensing for its core products.

  • Open Core model based on permissive Apache 2 licensing
  • Full access to source code for transparency and modification
  • Streamlined documentation for quick starts and standard development tooling for all modules—yours and ours

Check out our GitHub

Get a personalized demo

A tailored walkthrough aligned with your teams, architecture, and delivery model (hybrid or headless).

Request a demo