You hire a CloudCannon developer when your marketing site lives in a Git repository, built with Jekyll, Hugo, Eleventy or Astro, and editors still depend on a developer for every text change. CloudCannon adds a visual editor on top of those files and hosts the result. Our engineers configure it so editors can work on their own, and developers keep the repository clean.
What does a CloudCannon developer do?
- Write the configuration. The
cloudcannon.config.ymlfile tells the editor which collections exist, which fields each one has and which inputs editors see. A good config reads like a content model. - Make pages editable in place. Editable regions and component previews let editors click on the page and change it, instead of hunting through front matter.
- Build a component library for editors. Reusable blocks that marketing can stack into new pages, with sensible defaults and no free-form HTML.
- Connect the build. Wire your static site generator, preview builds and deploys, including the staging flow your team already uses.
- Move a site in. Bring an existing Jekyll, Hugo or Astro repo into CloudCannon without breaking URLs, or convert a WordPress export into Markdown files.
What do we check before we send someone?
CloudCannon skills are mostly configuration skills, so we test them with a real repository. A candidate shows how they would model a blog, a landing page with repeatable sections and a data file for navigation. We look for:
- Comfort with at least one static site generator, plus the build step that produces the preview editors see.
- Clean front matter and data files, because messy files make the editor confusing.
- Restraint with input types. Editors should see a dropdown or a date picker, not a raw text box where a typo breaks the build.
- Awareness of the trap that matters most: a site the editor can change but cannot preview correctly. We ask how they would keep the visual editor in sync with the real templates.
What happens in the first weeks?
In the first week the developer reads your repository, your build and your editors’ habits, and asks for access to CloudCannon, the repo and your deploy target. Then they ship one narrow change: a single collection or page type that editors can fully manage. Later weeks extend that pattern to the remaining templates, add component blocks, and write a short guide for the editing team. You review pull requests throughout, because everything lives in Git.
Which engagement model fits?
A scoped project suits a first setup or a migration. A dedicated developer suits a team that ships new page types every month. If you already have a front-end team and need more hands, staff augmentation adds a CloudCannon engineer to your process. For a full group with a lead, see how a dedicated team works. Hourly rates across roles and seniority run from $50 to $150.
Is a developer enough, or do you need a project?
If you are still choosing a stack, start with our CloudCannon development services, which cover audit, setup and migration as a package. Teams comparing editors read our guide to the best Git-based headless CMS platforms. For the site itself, we build on Astro, Hugo or Eleventy, and we shipped an Astro Jamstack marketing site for a B2B SaaS where LCP fell from 4.2s to 1.4s. Broader needs, such as a different CMS, go through hire headless CMS developers.
