Strapi fits when an editorial team with roles and approvals runs the website itself after the build. Proven by the new AIHK social insurance fund website: Typo3 replaced, content hosted in Switzerland, website built with Astro.
When Strapi fits
Three situations where Strapi is the right choice
Strapi is an editorial system without a website of its own. Content lives in an admin interface, the visible site comes from a separate Astro build. The build belongs in experienced hands, the daily work afterwards sits with the editorial team.
Another system fits better when the website is small and rarely changes. The same applies when content may live in a vendor's cloud and editing directly on the page matters most. The headless CMS overview sorts Payload, Sanity and Strapi by data location, editing experience and operating model.
Editorial teams with roles and approvals
Authors write drafts, editors approve. Strapi ships with three roles, more come without an extra licence. For insurance funds, associations and public administrations with several writers.
Existing Strapi installations
Strapi 4 is running, the team knows the interface, the website in front of it has aged. The move to Strapi 5 and a new website with Astro build on the content you already have.
Data on your own or Swiss infrastructure
Strapi runs where you decide: on your server or with a Swiss provider. For social insurance data, member data and public-sector content, the data location is often a requirement.
Reference
AIHK social insurance fund: from Typo3 to Strapi 5 and Astro
Strapi 5 on a Swiss server, the pages built with Astro
The Aargau Chamber of Industry and Commerce's social insurance fund serves over 1,500 companies and replaced its Typo3 site. Three requirements were fixed: data location Switzerland, usability for a small editorial team, speed in building and delivery.
Strapi 5 runs on a Swiss server with daily backups. The content moved AI-assisted from the old Typo3 source into the new structure, the editorial team approved the texts. Since go-live on 25 May 2026, three editors maintain the content themselves. The speed measurements are in the custom website design overview.
Licence, data location, operations
What is settled with Strapi before the project starts
The agency handles the build: content structure, input forms, roles and the visible website with Astro as the frontend. Your editorial team handles operations: posts, pages, images and translations, with no developers in the daily routine. The design framework is predefined and protects the appearance, whoever writes.
The service packages cover smaller adjustments and further development, including AI-assisted monitoring of the system. Licence tiers, Strapi Cloud and costs in detail: the article Strapi CMS for Swiss SMEs.
Licence
- Community Edition: open source, no licence fees for the software
- Roles, draft and publish are included
- Content history in the paid Growth plan
- Multi-step review workflows in the Enterprise plan
Data location
- Self-hosted: on your server or with a Swiss provider
- Database and media stay in the same place
- Daily backups in the service package
- Strapi Cloud offers no Swiss data location
Operations
- Build by the agency, operations by your editorial team
- Visible website with Astro, delivered as finished pages
- Hosting, updates and support in the service package
- Design framework predefined, the appearance stays consistent
Process
Three steps from review to operations
Review
Check what exists, clarify the goal
A conversation clarifies roles, approval paths, languages and data location. With an existing Strapi installation, version, extensions and content structure join the list. The result is a recommendation: continue with Strapi, move to Strapi 5 or evaluate another system. The chosen path comes with a binding fixed-price quote.
Build
Content structure, roles, website
The content structure takes shape in the Content-Type Builder, roles and approvals follow your team structure. The visible website is built with Astro and delivers the pages as finished files. Existing content moves AI-assisted from the old system into the new structure, at the AIHK social insurance fund from Typo3. You see a clickable preview before the editorial team steps in.
Handover and operations
The editorial team takes over
An introduction for the editorial team, then posts, pages and translations run day to day without developers. The service packages cover hosting on your own or Swiss infrastructure, updates, backups and support. Smaller adjustments are included, and the system is monitored with AI assistance.
Strapi or another system – one conversation settles it.
Roles, approval paths, data location and the state of an existing installation go on the table. The result is a recommendation for your editorial team, with no sales pressure.
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Strapi 5
Strapi in practice: articles and reference
The Strapi article, the AIHK case study and a piece on why the editing interface decides a website's success.
ArticleWeb design12 minStrapi CMS: The Open-Source Headless CMS for Swiss SMEs — and When It Pays OffStrapi CMS is considered the open headless system for teams that want full control over their data. But the decisive question is not openness — it is this: do you have access to developers? This ar…
ArticleUX & Content Strategy9 minEditor-friendly CMS: why the admin interface decides whether your website succeedsWith a new website, all eyes are on the visible side — design, speed, copy. Hardly anyone asks how the site can be maintained afterwards, and that is exactly what decides whether content stays curr…
ProjectWeb design9 minNew website for the AIHK social insurance fund AargauThe AIHK social insurance fund in Aarau wanted to replace its outdated Typo3 site. The result: a modern website whose content the AI took over entirely — instead of the handful of sample pages the …
All posts Answers to common questions about Strapi:
Do you take over an existing Strapi installation?
Yes. We start by reviewing the installation: Strapi version, extensions, content structure, hosting and who holds which rights today. If it still runs Strapi 4, we plan the move to Strapi 5, because some technical foundations change with it. Your content stays, and the visible website is rebuilt with Astro where needed. If you wish, operations move to your own or Swiss infrastructure and then run under a service package with updates, backups and support.
How do roles and approvals work in Strapi?
Strapi ships with three roles: Author, Editor and Super Admin. Authors create and edit their own content, Editors approve and publish, the Super Admin manages the settings. We add further roles with their own rights in the Community Edition without an extra licence, and draft and publish is built in. Content history belongs to the paid Growth plan, multi-step review workflows to the Enterprise plan. At the AIHK social insurance fund, three editors work on the Growth plan.
What separates Strapi from Payload and Sanity?
Strapi builds the content structure visually and runs self-hosted, Payload defines it in code, Sanity keeps the content in the vendor's cloud. All three deliver content through APIs to a website built with Astro, Payload and Sanity also to Next.js. Which combination fits depends on data location, editing experience and operating model. The headless CMS overview sorts the three systems by those three questions.
