Strapi

In today’s fast-paced development environment, time is everything. Whether you’re building a startup MVP, a content-driven web app, or a full-scale mobile backend, developers are constantly under pressure to deliver working software fast — without sacrificing flexibility or scalability. That’s where Strapi shines. What Is Strapi? Strapi is an open-source headless CMS built with Node.js. Unlike traditional CMS platforms like WordPress, Strapi doesn’t dictate how you present your content. Instead, it gives you full control over the API and lets you decide how, where, and in what format your content is consumed — be it web, mobile, or IoT. Why I Recommend Strapi for Quick Development 1. Instant REST or GraphQL API — No Backend Coding Needed With Strapi, you get a fully-functional API (REST or GraphQL) out-of-the-box just by creating content types from the admin panel. There’s no need to write any backend code to create, update, or fetch data. Build your API in minutes, not weeks. 2. Customizable Yet Minimal Boilerplate Unlike rigid CMS platforms, Strapi offers a perfect balance between out-of-the-box functionality and custom code freedom. Need to add custom routes, controllers, or middleware? It’s just Node.js — extend it easily. You save time but never feel locked in. 3. Powerful Admin Panel Strapi comes with a beautiful and intuitive admin dashboard that lets non-developers manage content effortlessly. This means developers can focus on code, while content creators and clients manage the actual content. Clear separation of concerns = faster workflows. 4. Authentication and Role-Based Access Control Built-In User authentication, permissions, and role management are built-in. Whether you’re creating public APIs or private dashboards, you can set access rules without writing everything from scratch. Skip weeks of building your own auth system. 5. Supports SQL and NoSQL Databases Strapi supports multiple databases like PostgreSQL, MongoDB, MySQL, and SQLite, making it flexible enough for prototypes and scalable enough for production.  Start fast on SQLite, scale to PostgreSQL later. 6. Seamless Integration with Frontends Because Strapi is headless, it works seamlessly with any frontend: React, Vue, Next.js, Nuxt, Flutter, or even native mobile apps. You’re never locked into a frontend stack.  Freedom to choose your frontend, now or later. 7. Open-Source and Actively Maintained Strapi has a thriving open-source community and regular updates. You’re building on a foundation trusted by thousands of developers and teams worldwide — including IBM, Toyota, and NASA.  Community support + enterprise-ready = smart choice. Use Cases Where Strapi Excels MVPs & Startups – Get your product to market in weeks, not months. Mobile App Backends – Deliver content-rich APIs for iOS & Android. Marketing Sites – Empower content teams without dev bottlenecks. E-commerce CMS – Customize product catalogs and content workflows. Internal Dashboards – Quick internal tools with secure access layers. Final Thoughts If you’re looking for a tool that lets you build fast, customize freely, and scale confidently, then Strapi is an ideal solution. It saves time on the backend, empowers non-technical teams with a powerful admin panel, and gives developers full control under the hood. For any project where speed, flexibility, and maintainability matter — Strapi is a no-brainer.   Related reads: Why My Strapi Deployment Kept Failing: Lessons from the Free Tier Trap Why I Recommend Strapi for Quick Development External resources: Strapi Official Documentation

Deploying a Strapi application should be straightforward — clone your repo, install dependencies, build the project, start the server, and you’re good to go. But what happens when you’ve done everything right, and the server still crashes, hangs, or simply gives you a white screen? That’s the frustrating experience I went through recently. Let me walk you through what happened, what I learned, and what you should absolutely check when deploying Strapi — especially if you’re doing it on a free-tier instance. The Setup I followed the standard process: Spun up an EC2 instance Installed Node.js, npm, and all required dependencies Cloned my Strapi project Built and started the app Everything seemed fine at first. But just when I thought I was done… The First Sign: The Instance Hung After finishing the setup and starting the Strapi server, the instance froze. No access via the browser. I couldn’t even ping the IP. When I tried to connect again, it was unresponsive. First thought? Security Group settings.I checked all the security group rules — they were open for the required ports (1337 for Strapi, 22 for SSH, etc.). Everything seemed perfect on that end. I tried re-adding the port for Strapi again, hoping something might reset. Still no progress. The Hunt for a Cause I started suspecting a memory issue. It’s not uncommon — Strapi is powerful, but it’s also resource-hungry. So I logged into the instance using SSH (thankfully that still worked) and started trying to free up space. Deleted unused files Checked running processes Killed unnecessary services But no matter what I did, Strapi still wouldn’t load properly — only a blank white screen in the browser. The Realization: Free Tier Limitations That’s when it hit me — I was using an EC2 free-tier instance (t2.micro). The problem wasn’t my code, or security groups, or even the OS. It was simply that the server didn’t have enough resources (CPU, RAM) to run Strapi effectively. The white screen was the result of the front-end admin panel timing out or not rendering at all due to insufficient power. The Fix: Upgrade the Instance To confirm my suspicion, I spun up a new instance — this time a t2.small (still relatively low-cost, but better than free-tier). I repeated the exact same setup process: Cloned the repo Installed Node and dependencies Built the project Started the server And it worked! Strapi loaded fine. The admin panel appeared, and I could log in, configure content types, and everything else I needed. Final Thoughts & What’s Next While t2.small worked, I noticed some minor sluggishness during production prep. So in my next test, I’ll try running the project on a t2.medium to ensure smooth performance under production load. Key Takeaways for Anyone Deploying Strapi Avoid free-tier instances for Strapi, especially t2.micro. They simply don’t have enough memory or CPU to handle the app, especially once you build it for production. Don’t assume it’s your code — sometimes the environment is the issue. Start with a small paid instance like t2.small or t2.medium for real-world testing. Monitor resources with tools like htop or top during deployment. Always SSH in to verify what’s happening, even if the browser shows a white screen. Next Up: Testing Strapi on t2.medium In the next article, I’ll share the results of running the production-ready version of Strapi on a t2.medium instance — including performance benchmarks, memory usage, and tips for optimizing your deployment even further. Have you faced similar issues deploying Strapi or any other headless CMS? Drop your experience in the comments let’s learn from each other! Related reads: Deploying Strapi on AWS EC2: A Comprehensive Guide Why I Recommend Strapi for Quick Development External resources: Strapi Official Documentation AWS Official Documentation