DX helps companies measure and improve developer productivity through data-driven insights. When their website began consuming excessive developer resources and limiting marketing performance, they made a change that would dramatically improve their operational efficiency and lead generation.

It was just a constant disaster — every day we were putting out fires. It was a nightmare.

Breaking free from daily website maintenance

The DX team was spending countless hours maintaining their ‘no-code’ website, dealing with maintenance and reliability issues that drained developer resources. Their previous Google PageSpeed score of 63 was actively hampering SEO efforts and reducing the effectiveness of paid advertising campaigns. Even worse, the marketing team's regular content updates could occasionally break sections of the site, requiring urgent developer intervention and creating a perpetual cycle of fixes and repairs.

Finding the perfect stack: CloudCannon and 11ty

After evaluating several options, including a range of headless CMSs and various static site generators, DX chose CloudCannon with 11ty as their static site generator. This combination promised to eliminate their maintenance burden while providing the marketing team with safe, reliable content management capabilities.

”I’d heard some good things about CloudCannon,” says Abi Noda, DX’s CEO. “I really liked how it integrated the hosting and the CMS all in one.”

CloudCannon’s built-in form handling capabilities, excellent documentation, and robust support system sealed the deal. Most importantly, CloudCannon allows the marketing team to work independently while implementing necessary technical guardrails.

Straightforward migration and setup

The DX team approached their implementation methodically, transitioning from their previous CMS to a static site architecture. Their migration focused on establishing a stable foundation that would minimize future maintenance needs.

DX configured CloudCannon to serve their five content editors and set up CloudCannon Forms to handle submissions directly to Zapier, eliminating the need for additional third-party services. A staging environment was established for content review, and they created a maintainable development workflow for their three developers.

Transformative results across the organization

The migration to CloudCannon and 11ty delivered remarkable results across multiple areas:

Financial impact

DX has saved $150,000 per year in operational expenses since switching to CloudCannon, primarily through reduced maintenance overhead and improved developer efficiency. The team were able to eliminate the equivalent of one full-time engineer's worth of website maintenance work.

Developer productivity

The development team now works three times more efficiently on website projects. Without the burden of constant maintenance and emergency fixes, developers can focus on strategic improvements and new features.

Marketing performance

The impact on marketing has been extraordinary. DX has seen a 400% increase in leads generated from their website, driven by multiple factors:

• Their Google PageSpeed score jumped from 63 to 99-100
• Improved SEO performance due to better technical foundation
• Higher conversion rates from faster page loads
• Marketing team can iterate and test more quickly

The marketing team now works confidently without fear of breaking the site. Content updates that previously required developer oversight now happen smoothly and independently. “The CMS experience is obviously different,” notes Brook Perry, DX's Head of Marketing, “but people on the team were pretty happy. People in our marketing team didn’t even need to understand what CloudCannon does behind the scenes until we turned it on and they were like, ‘Oh, we can edit!’”

Reducing risk with integrated features

The new setup has virtually eliminated content-related disasters. CloudCannon's form handling capabilities proved particularly valuable in reducing potential points of failure. “That was really important during our evaluation,” Noda explains. “We really needed forms and we really did not want to set up HubSpot and integrate that. We just wanted something that could go straight from the website to Zapier without a third-party tool in between.”

DX’s new staging environment on CloudCannon also provides an additional safety net, allowing thorough content review before publication. This two-step process helps catch potential issues before they reach the live site, further protecting their improved lead generation performance.

A foundation for continued growth

With maintenance costs reduced by $150,000, developer efficiency tripled, and lead generation quadrupled, CloudCannon has transformed DX's website from a liability into a powerful asset. The marketing team can now focus on generating results rather than managing technical issues, while developers can dedicate their time to strategic improvements rather than emergency fixes.

"We're considered experts on good developer tooling and good developer experience," says Noda. "We would naturally be inclined to want that for ourselves internally."

With CloudCannon and 11ty, DX has achieved this goal while significantly reducing their operational costs and empowering their marketing team to work more effectively.