What We Use at GES Development, What Else Exists, and When to Upgrade
Ideas · Digital Asset Strategy
At GES Development, we believe that building revenue-generating digital assets is fundamentally different from building agency websites or one-off projects. Your tech stack needs to scale with your brands, support multiple content distribution channels, and enable increasingly sophisticated monetization strategies.
This isn’t just about picking tools. It’s about choosing an architecture that supports the “Build Out, Then Build Up” framework: launching quickly with proven, reliable tools, then scaling your capabilities as your portfolio matures.
Here’s an honest look at the tools we use, why we use them, what else is available in the market, and where the industry is heading—especially as AI reshapes what “scaling content” actually means.
What GES Development Uses (And Why)
Our stack is built on three core pillars:
1. Sanity CMS
Sanity is our content backbone across all four brands (paintinga2.com, annarbor.help, annarbor.click, davidgstetler.com). It’s a headless CMS built on the philosophy of treating content as structured data.
Why Sanity?
- Real-time collaboration. Multiple team members (and eventually AI agents) can edit simultaneously without lockouts.
- Fully customizable content models. We define our schema in TypeScript, version-control it, and deploy changes safely.
- Portable Text: structured content that renders cleanly across web, mobile, email, and AI contexts.
- GROQ query language. Powerful, precise content retrieval without the complexity of GraphQL.
- Generous free tier. We build production projects on the free plan; scaling costs are predictable.
2. Next.js & React
Next.js handles the frontend across all our brands. It’s the bridge between Sanity and user experience.
Why Next.js?
- App Router with dynamic routing. We build 100+ pages from structured content without hardcoding templates.
- Server components and incremental static regeneration. Fast-loading pages that update without full rebuilds.
- First-class TypeScript support. Fewer bugs, better developer experience as projects scale.
- Image optimization and SEO tools built in. Core Web Vitals out of the box.
- Seamless Vercel deployment. Automatic preview builds, analytics, edge functions, all connected.
3. Vercel (Hosting & Deployment)
Vercel isn’t just hosting. It’s an extension of Next.js that handles deployment, analytics, edge functions, and preview environments.
Why Vercel?
- Native Next.js integration. Deploy with a git push; Vercel handles everything else.
- Edge functions. Run code at the edge for ultra-fast redirects, rewrites, and dynamic content.
- Analytics and performance insights. See real Core Web Vitals, user geography, and traffic patterns.
- Global edge network. Pages served from the nearest data center to your visitors.
Why This Combination?
These three tools share a philosophy: developers own the infrastructure, content is decoupled from presentation, and you’re not locked into a monolithic vendor.
For a portfolio of digital assets, this matters. You can:
- Publish the same content across multiple websites. A blog post in Sanity renders on paintinga2.com, annarbor.help, and your LinkedIn, all from one source.
- Scale without proportional cost increases. Sanity’s free tier and Vercel’s analytics-first pricing mean you pay for traffic, not infrastructure.
- Experiment with monetization. Want to add a membership tier to annarbor.click? Add authentication without rearchitecting.
What Else Exists (And What the Trade-offs Are)
Our stack is well-matched to our mission, but it’s not the only path. Let’s look at alternatives and their tradeoffs.
Strapi: The Open-Source Alternative
What it is:
An open-source Node.js headless CMS with REST and GraphQL APIs, built-in authentication, and a JavaScript-first content modeling approach.
Strengths:
- Complete control. Host it anywhere, modify the core code, add custom plugins.
- No vendor lock-in. Your data lives in a standard PostgreSQL database.
- Deeply customizable. Add custom fields, plugins, and workflows without restrictions.
Weaknesses:
- Infrastructure overhead. You manage servers, backups, scaling, and security.
- Steeper learning curve. More powerful, but more complex to set up and maintain.
- Limited real-time collaboration compared to Sanity. Editing experience is functional but less polished.
Best for:
Teams with deep technical expertise who need absolute control and have the capacity to manage infrastructure. Good for startups in regulated industries (healthcare, fintech) with strict data sovereignty requirements.
Contentful: The Enterprise Option
What it is:
A fully managed, cloud-native headless CMS with GraphQL and REST APIs, built for large teams managing content at scale.
Strengths:
- Fully managed. No infrastructure to worry about; Contentful handles uptime, scaling, and security.
- Powerful content modeling. Built for complex, multi-channel content strategies.
- Role-based workflows and approvals. Built for large editorial teams with governance requirements.
Weaknesses:
- Expensive at scale. Pricing starts at ~$300/month for minimal usage; enterprise plans run $5k+/month.
- Less customization than open-source alternatives. You’re constrained to Contentful’s API and content model structure.
- Steeper learning curve for developers. GraphQL is powerful but more complex than GROQ.
- Limited real-time collaboration. Contentful is built for publishing workflows, not simultaneous live editing.
Best for:
Large organizations with dedicated content teams, complex multi-channel publishing needs, and budgets to support premium pricing.
Webflow: The No-Code Alternative
What it is:
A visual website builder with an integrated CMS. You design in a visual editor, publish content without code, and Webflow generates the underlying HTML/CSS.
Strengths:
- No coding required. Designers and marketers can build entire websites without engineering.
- All-in-one. Hosting, CMS, and deployment are integrated.
- Beautiful out-of-the-box. Webflow-built sites look polished and load fast.
Weaknesses:
- Not truly headless. You’re building within Webflow’s visual paradigm; exporting to another platform is difficult.
- Limited customization for complex applications. Great for marketing sites, poor for dynamic, data-driven products.
- Costs add up. Premium hosting, CMS, and transactions can run $100+/month per site.
- Vendor lock-in. Your data and site structure live inside Webflow with limited portability.
Best for:
Small marketing teams and freelancers who prioritize speed-to-launch over long-term flexibility and cost optimization.
The Emerging Trend: GEO & AI-Powered Content Tools
Here’s where things get interesting. Your choice of CMS will matter less in the next 18 months than your choice of content automation and distribution strategy.
GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) is replacing SEO as the primary lever for traffic. Instead of optimizing for Google’s algorithm, you’re optimizing to be cited by AI models like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews.
This fundamentally changes the tool ecosystem:
AI Content Generation & Automation
Tools emerging in 2025:
- Frase: One AI agent researches, writes, optimizes, and publishes content on your site. Generates structured schema data for AI citations.
- SEO.ai: Automates keyword research, content generation, publishing, and link building at a fixed monthly price.
- Surfer SEO: Analyzes top-ranking pages in real-time and scores your content against them before publishing.
- Copy.ai: Workflow automation that chains content generation, social distribution, and email sequences into single automated pipelines.
What This Means for Your CMS Choice
If you’re building a portfolio of digital assets in 2025 and beyond, your CMS needs two capabilities:
- API-first architecture. AI content agents need to read and write content via APIs, not through a UI.
- Structured content models. For GEO, content needs to be queryable by AI systems—which means schema, metadata, and relationships matter more than ever.
On these dimensions, Sanity is ahead of the curve. It was built with API-first architecture from the start, and its structured content model makes it ideal for AI agents to work with.
Contentful and Strapi also score well. Webflow lags because it couples content and presentation; AI agents can’t easily extract and repurpose content.
What We’re Building: The Next Layer
At GES Development, we’re not replacing our Sanity + Next.js + Vercel stack. We’re layering new tools on top of it.
What we’re adding:
- AI-powered content agents that research, write, and publish directly to our Sanity projects via API.
- Programmatic content generation using structured data (e.g., generate 100 location-specific landing pages from a CSV).
- Multi-channel distribution that publishes one blog post to our blogs, LinkedIn, newsletters, and social feeds simultaneously.
- GEO optimization using llms.txt files and structured schema markup to maximize citations by AI models.
This is why our “Build Out, Then Build Up” philosophy is so important. We started with a reliable, proven stack. Now we’re adding layers of sophistication without replacing the foundation.
The Monetization Angle
A good tools stack is worthless if it doesn’t generate revenue. Here’s how your tech choices directly impact monetization:
Traffic & Citations = Advertising & Affiliate Revenue
Sanity + Next.js + Vercel is optimized for search visibility. Faster pages, better Core Web Vitals, and structured data all feed into higher rankings. For display ad networks (Google AdSense, Mediavine, AdThrive), higher traffic = higher revenue.
With GEO optimization and AI citations, you’re not just visible in Google Search—you’re visible in AI overviews. This is new territory, but early data shows AI citations drive high-intent traffic.
Flexibility = Premium Monetization
A headless CMS architecture makes it trivial to add membership tiers, paywall content, lead capture forms, or email list building. Webflow can do this too, but Sanity + Next.js gives you more control over the UX and more flexibility to pivot your monetization strategy.
For brands like annarbor.click (a premium student concierge platform), this flexibility is non-negotiable.
Scale = Predictable Unit Economics
With Webflow, every new site adds fixed costs. With Sanity + Next.js + Vercel, you can publish 10 new brands and your core costs stay the same. Vercel bills on bandwidth, Sanity on API calls—both scale proportionally with revenue, not headcount.
This is what enables the portfolio strategy: each brand can be a small, profitable unit, and overhead is shared.
The Recommendation (For You, For Your Brand)
If you’re launching a new digital asset brand in 2025:
Start with Sanity + Next.js + Vercel
You get the reliability, flexibility, and scalability you need. The learning curve is real if you’re new to code, but the payoff is significant.
If you’re a non-technical founder who values speed
Webflow is a reasonable starting point, but know the constraints. You’re trading flexibility for speed. If your brand succeeds, you may need to rebuild on Sanity + Next.js. Plan for that.
If you’re an enterprise with multiple teams and complex workflows
Contentful is worth the investment. The cost is high, but the governance, real-time sync across channels, and role-based workflows justify it.
If you need absolute control and have engineering resources
Strapi is your answer. Host it, customize it, own it completely.
What Changes This Calculus?
The tools ecosystem is moving fast. Keep an eye on:
- AI agents that can fully automate content workflows. If a tool emerges that reliably writes, optimizes, and publishes GEO-friendly content without human oversight, it changes everything.
- Pricing changes. If Vercel’s pricing becomes prohibitive at scale, or if Sanity raises free tier limits, the math shifts.
- Real results from GEO. If brands that optimize for AI citations see measurable traffic lift, that becomes the primary KPI driving tool choice.
- New competitors. Payload CMS, Tina, and others are evolving rapidly. One of them might become the obvious choice in 24 months.
The lesson: choose your tools based on today’s mission, but build with tomorrow’s flexibility in mind. Headless architecture, API-first design, and structured content give you that flexibility.
Final Thought
Building revenue-generating digital assets is a marathon, not a sprint. Your tools need to get out of the way and let you focus on the core mission: creating valuable content that attracts, engages, and monetizes an audience.
Sanity, Next.js, and Vercel do that. But they’re also tools—not the strategy. The real work is figuring out what each brand stands for, who it serves, and how it sustains itself financially.
Pick solid tools. Then get back to the real work.