Content Sync’s DrupalCon 2025 Debrief: What Developers Really Think of Content Cloud

At DrupalCon Atlanta 2025, one of the most closely watched developments in the headless Drupal space was the debut of Content Cloud, a platform by Content Sync that automates content delivery and streamlines integration for decoupled front-end applications. Designed to eliminate the need for custom APIs and middleware, Content Cloud drew strong interest for its developer-focused features, including auto-generated TypeScript schemas and no-code API access. The platform’s reception signalled growing demand for tools that simplify headless workflows without compromising Drupal’s flexibility.

This interview is a follow-up to the article “How Content Cloud is Changing Headless Drupal Development”, written by Thomas Alias, former sub-editor with The DropTimes. Building on the technical insights and product context shared in that piece, the conversation continues with Thiemo Müller, CEO of Content Sync, reflecting on community feedback, live demos, and new opportunities that emerged during and after the event.

The discussion explores how Content Cloud was positioned at DrupalCon, what resonated with developers and agencies, and how the team is using that momentum to shape its roadmap for the rest of 2025. From solving long-standing headless pain points to forming strategic partnerships, this interview offers a deeper look at what’s next for Content Cloud.

TDT [1]: How would you describe the overall reception of Content Cloud at DrupalCon Atlanta 2025? Did it meet your expectations in terms of visibility and engagement?

Thiemo Müller: DrupalCon Atlanta was a great opportunity for us to present our new Content Cloud to a broader audience and outside of our existing network. I’ve had many great conversations with lots of people I hadn’t met before. Some were simply curious about what’s possible while others told me different variations of the same story: they had tried headless Drupal before and it was too complex and too time-consuming compared to other options. It was a great opportunity to validate some of our core concepts.

TDT [2]: Did Content Cloud’s live demos at the Pantheon and amazee.io booths generate new interest or leads? If so, can you share any early outcomes?

Thiemo Müller: We’ve been very excited about our chance to present Content Sync with multiple partners this year and they’ve both been very supportive. While the demos are mainly for visibility and awareness, I did have some follow-up conversations with developers who were keen to get a demo account to try it out as well.

TDT [3]: Were you able to onboard or secure any new clients during or shortly after the event? What types of organizations showed the most interest?

Thiemo Müller: We’re usually working either with larger organizations directly or with their agencies. I’ve had great conversations with universities, larger enterprises and agencies but also freelance Drupal developers like Jay Callicott who’s been a great advocate for headless Drupal and contributed a lot in this space through DrupalX.

It’s important to mention that Content Cloud does not have an SLA yet and is not recommended for production use until August/September of this year. While conversations are early, there are exciting opportunities from all of them from small one-off marketing sites all the way to a multi-brand, multi-market enterprise looking to publish content throughout their roughly 2,000 sites from React apps. It’s too early to call, but the feedback we have received has given us a lot of confidence.

TDT [4]: How did DrupalCon help in positioning Content Cloud as a solution to common headless Drupal challenges, such as API complexity and integration overhead?

Thiemo Müller: DrupalCon is always a great opportunity to connect to the amazing Drupal community and for our Content Cloud, it’s been a great way to get feedback on how we’ve solved the different challenges that headless Drupal comes with. 

Everyone I talked to with headless Drupal experience agreed that what they saw would make their work much easier. I have received a lot of “WOWs” this year because people haven’t seen anything like this before. 

We’re not just pushing the boundaries of Drupal, but of headless as a whole, and that’s crucial to make Drupal a more holistic solution that can compete with the large headless CMSs out there. If nothing is easier and more flexible to build with than Drupal, why should you go anywhere else?

TDT [5]: You’ve previously mentioned developer pain points like custom APIs and middleware. Did conversations at the event validate these issues across the Drupal community?

Thiemo Müller: For middlewares specifically, some had implemented them before, while others had tried to avoid them as much as possible. It’s not something that you would do for every project because it adds yet another layer of complexity. But I’ve had a handful of conversations about larger enterprise projects where they could have saved on writing a whole application (middleware) if they could have used our Content Cloud. And that’s crucial for efficiency and momentum in Drupal enterprise marketing.

TDT [6]: How did attendees respond to Content Cloud’s automation features, particularly the Typescript schema generation and no-code API integration?

Thiemo Müller: What gave us the most “AHA” and “WOW” moments was our auto-generated Typescript schema and API automation because of how seamless it made the whole experience as a developer. Developers have accepted dealing with APIs because that’s the norm in headless. Nobody is excited about it, it’s just something you have to deal with to bridge the gap that decoupled solutions create. But if you’re integrating a third-party tool like AWS or Stripe, do you make any REST calls or do you write any GraphQL queries if you can just use their package instead? Of course not, because it creates a lot of extra work and room for errors. 

That’s why it’s so important to think of your content API as a product and let developers focus on building engaging experiences instead of all these tedious integration tasks. If you have to create and maintain that yourself, it’s a lot of effort, so it’s not a priority outside of large organisations that may build custom middleware to remove some of the complexity for front-end developers. But if you can have that as a plug-and-play experience, why wouldn’t you use it? No front-end developer I’ve talked to was excited about having to deal with APIs and all the complexities of a manual integration process.

Having typed clients also makes AI-assisted frontend development a whole lot easier. If your frontend is aware of your content structure, you can automate much more with much less hallucinations. It’s crucial to provide the right frame for both developers and AI to work efficiently and effectively together and that’s the glue that Content Cloud provides.

TDT [7]: Did the event help build stronger partnerships or open doors with major players in the ecosystem like Pantheon, Acquia, or amazee.io?

Thiemo Müller: I’ve had great conversations both with Pantheon and amazee.io staff and leadership at the event, but also made many new connections to different agencies and development partners like the amazing Thomas Scola and Geoff Maxey from Bluefly that we’re excited to collaborate with.

TDT [8]: From a marketing standpoint, how do you evaluate the return on investment from DrupalCon Atlanta?

Thiemo Müller: To be frank, this year was a bit different than last year because of travel difficulties. I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to make it to DrupalCon Atlanta, which is why we didn’t sponsor this year either. But since I was able to make it, it’s been a great success. DrupalCon generated a lot of new and sizable leads for us given the exposure to agencies, partners and many large organizations in the ecosystem.

TDT [9]: What feedback, positive or critical, did you receive that might influence the next stage of Content Cloud’s development?

Thiemo Müller: We had a lot of conversations in the space before DrupalCon so most of the feedback we received was very similar. Most of the challenges developers told me about I could map to individual features that we offer. 

The only missing piece right now is a publisher API that allows users to push changes from React etc back to Drupal and that’s what we’re building out right now; so while not new, all of this helped reinforce our product strategy and roadmap.

I think the most important feedback was around messaging and noticing what resonated and what wasn’t immediately clear and needed further explanation. As we’re targeting many different personas from developers to marketers to business leaders, it’s important for us to understand all the nuances and different challenges that we can help our users and buyers with.

TDT [10]: Finally, how has DrupalCon Atlanta shaped your strategy heading into the rest of 2025? Any follow-up initiatives or collaborations planned as a direct result?

Thiemo Müller: We’re working with many agencies and developers and also have some additional initiatives planned for future Drupal conferences as a result of DrupalCon that I’m super excited about.

Besides the joy that DrupalCon brings to the community and me, connecting with the diverse people in the Drupal ecosystem creates many exciting opportunities for collaboration, and I think that’s what makes Drupal so strong. We’re not going to be around in 10 years just because of our technology or marketing buzzwords, but because we care deeply about Drupal and are open to collaborating to move Drupal forward as a whole. And that’s nowhere more visible than at DrupalCon.