2021 Contentful year in review

Contentful’s big 2021 numbers

Contentful reached some amazing milestones in 2021 and we can’t wait to see where things go this year. 

Here’s a quick look at some numbers we’re celebrating: 

• 72 new features releases and updates for the web app, APIs and more

• 44 technical blogs posted on topics such as rich text, Next.js and GraphQL

• 5,500+ custom apps created using the App Framework

• 1,700 questions asked and answered within the Contentful Slack Community 

• 1.3 billion GraphQL API requests served throughout Black Friday weekend

• 4.2 billion Content Delivery API requests served throughout Black Friday weekend

Community projects powered by Contentful

Let’s give a round of applause to all Contentful projects that were built in our community this past year. So many apps, tutorials and videos were created showcasing the things that can be done and the problems that can be solved with Contentful. Here are some community project highlights. 

1. Apps

5,500+ apps were created in 2021. Here are three that might inspire or enhance what you work on next!

Repeater App

Contentful’s David Fateh created an app that provides a repeatable list of key-value pairs within our web app. 

Reference Matrix App

Martin Schön developed an app that’s just begging to be used for recipes or on a food blog. 

TypeScript Type Generator App

Marco Link built an app that generates and retrieves TypeScript types in the Contentful UI.

Tip: Check out our App Framework video course for a walkthrough on creating custom apps. For apps you can install today, visit our app marketplace.

2. Projects and resources

The Contentful Community created some amazing projects last year, including tools, blogs and courses using a wide range of technologies. Here are a few:

Visual directory of Contentful content models

Contentful’s Ante Šepić created a useful tool — which I use when starting new projects — for viewing, exporting and sharing Contentful content models.

Build your own blog app with SwiftUI (and Contentful)

Roman Luzgin walks you through building a blog with Contentful and SwiftUI. 

Tweet planner app with Azure Functions and Contentful

Chandan Rauniyar created a tutorial that teaches you how to create an app that publishes scheduled Tweets. 

Next.js and Contentful course

The Net Ninja produced a 14-part video course covering everything from setting up a site to deployment.

Contentful tutorials and resources

Last year we made it our mission to create fun, useful content to help you make the most of Contentful. Below are some of our favorites!

While 2021 video content spanned many topics, the community was most interested in React. Our most viewed videos of the year include: getting started with Gatsby, Next.js with Vercel and how to render rich text in React apps. 

On the developer blog, GraphQL was a major hit. Our three most-read posts of the year were: how to query GraphQL in multiple languages, how to use GraphQL variables and how to filter linked references in GraphQL.

We’re still cooking up some great things for you in 2022. In the meantime, check out this recap of our top 10 developer blog posts of 2021 for even more resources.

Our favorite events

A final shout out to Fast Forward 2021, our annual, digital three-day conference – it really covered a lot of ground, including new Contentful features, informative workshops and music by Contentful’s in-house band, the Content Types.

Some of my favorite presentations include Ben Brook’s talk on consent management and all things cookies (not the ones with chocolate chips).Jayne Mast’s discussion about jQuery and gatekeeping in tech. And finally, Dr Kelvin Wong’s talk (which had the best opening ever) on migrating publication processes from Microsoft Word to Contentful. 

If you haven’t already, check out our Fast Forward 2021 recordings. You won't regret it! 

A year of feature releases

Early in the year, we released Compose + Launch, apps that improve content editing for non-technical users and management of content releases. We also released tags and tag-based permissions.

In the summer, default values for entry fields became available, allowing default values to be assigned to specific fields in content models. The App Framework received some major upgrades, including hosting, sharing and customizable icons. To end the year, we updated our Images API to support AVIF images. 

Stay tuned for new features and updates. We’ll try to make them even more exciting than those unveiled in 2021.

Next webinar: How to render content on the fly for faster builds with Jamstack

No more waiting around for builds to complete! Join Contentful’s Stefan Judis and Netlify’s Jason Lengstorf on January 20 for a webinar on iterating faster with Jamstack using Netlify's On-demand Builders and Contentful. After this webinar, you’ll be able to generate web content for users at the exact moment they need it. Save your spot now.

Join our team at Contentful

Our Developer Relations team is still growing! We’re looking for a U.S.-based Director of Developer Relations and an EMEA-based Developer Advocate. These roles could be a great fit if you have experience with front-end technologies, developer communities and building fun projects. Please don’t hesitate to apply or make referrals — we’d love to have you on our team.

Enjoy the rest of the month!

That’s it for January! Visit the Contentful Developer Portal for even more news. The portal also houses developer blog posts, videos and tutorials. As always, feel free to contact us on Slack or Twitter to let us know how we can better support your awesome builds.