Nuxt Studio, the content management solution for Nuxt Content websites, has been released as a free and open-source self-hosted module. The release marks a change from the previous hosted platform to a fully self-hosted approach, giving developers complete control over their content editing infrastructure with no external dependencies.
Nuxt Studio introduces a set of features designed to bridge the gap between developers and content creators. The module provides a Notion-like visual editing experience with full MDC component support, allowing users to insert Vue components, edit props visually, and drag-and-drop content blocks directly within the production site.
An important developer experience feature is the real-time preview capability, which allows content editors to see changes instantly on the production website. Draft changes are stored locally in the browser until users are ready to publish, at which point they can commit directly to GitHub or GitLab. This Git integration ensures that all content changes flow through the same CI/CD pipeline as code changes, maintaining a single source of truth.
To get started, developers can install the module in their projects:
npx nuxt module add nuxt-studio
The module also includes a centralized media library for managing files in the public directory, with the ability to browse folders, upload files, and insert images directly into content. Authentication is handled through flexible OAuth providers, supporting GitHub, GitLab, and Google, with the option to implement custom authentication flows. The interface itself supports full i18n, with translations available in English, French, German, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, and numerous other languages.
Developers migrating from the hosted Nuxt Studio platform will find the process straightforward. According to the official migration guide, migration involves installing the module, configuring authentication providers, and removing the legacy preview key from the Nuxt Content configuration. The transition is seamless because content always resided in Git repositories, meaning deployed sites remain unaffected when switching from the hosted editor to the self-hosted version. MasteringNuxt notes that this transition gives you control
, and zero cost removes barriers
, calling it the right direction for the project.
In the Git-based CMS landscape, Nuxt Studio competes with solutions like Tina CMS, Decap CMS, and Static CMS. A comparison by LogRocket positions Nuxt Studio as ideal for all kinds of Nuxt-based websites, though it notes that the framework specificity differs from framework-agnostic alternatives like Tina CMS, which supports larger-scale projects with advanced media handling and custom field components.
A recent post on reddit asking how the experience is for end users received the following reply:
While the intention is commendable, the execution lacks user-friendliness.
Adding some examples of where this is an issue:
The sidebar UI is not always in sync with the page and editor updates. The way components are inserted in the editor is not intuitive. It’s hard for user to know the available props options. There is no way to exclude pages from being editable. Should have an explicit editor excludes. Cannot edit the UI config files (i.e. change the “theme”). The editor has a tendency to format and remove content on page load, even though you have no intention of editing the particular page. MD files are easier to edit than YAML. No document statuses (draft > published). No revision history. AI features are forced onto the UI even though they are not explicitly used. AI features are strictly using Vercel.
On a seperate thread, a user asked about branch support with PRs:
But what I am missing is, that they promised branch support with PRs. A big downside of Nuxt Content is that everything runs on main production branch…
Sebastien Chopin, the creator of Nuxt replied:
It will be in the roadmap, I do need it as well to edit our docs.
Nuxt Studio is an open-source content management module developed by the Nuxt team. Released under the MIT license, it extends Nuxt Content to provide visual editing capabilities directly on production websites. The module is designed for teams that want full control over their content infrastructure while maintaining a Git-based workflow and modern developer experience.
