Upgrades every three years, fragile extensions, scarce specialists — we show what running TYPO3 really costs you, and what a SaaS headless CMS makes possible instead.
The vendor runs the platform. The lean frontend is the only part that needs care — and we run that for you as part of our Stability as a Service.
No servers, PHP versions, databases or Composer dependencies to maintain. Security, scaling and availability of the CMS are the vendor's responsibility — backed by their certifications, not your on-call rotation.
TYPO3 requires a major upgrade roughly every three years — or you pay for Extended Long Term Support. A SaaS CMS updates continuously. The version you use is always the current one, without a project of its own.
Custom features connect through APIs and apps, outside the CMS core. Platform updates do not break them — unlike TYPO3 extensions that must be re-certified, patched or replaced with every release.
Content — rich text included — is stored as structured JSON, not HTML mixed with layout settings. That makes reuse, integrations and any future migration dramatically simpler and cheaper.
Storyblok, Contentful and Optimizely SaaS CMS operate their own hosted MCP (Model Context Protocol) servers. AI agents get secure, permissioned access to your content — nothing to install, nothing to harden yourself.
TypeScript, React and Next.js are the most widely used web technologies in the world. You find developers easily — and any qualified partner can take over the frontend, including away from us.
What IT, marketing and management leaders ask us before leaving TYPO3.
For most mid-sized and large companies, no — not because TYPO3 has stopped being developed, but because its operating model is outdated. You host, patch and upgrade it yourself, roughly every three years, and depend on extensions and TYPO3 specialists to keep it running. SaaS headless CMS platforms such as Storyblok, Contentful and Optimizely remove that burden entirely. How much switching saves in your specific case is exactly what a TCO comparison answers.
Three sourced facts before we argue anything.
of all TYPO3 websites run in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The rest of the world builds differently.
of free support per TYPO3 LTS version. After that: a major upgrade project — or paid Extended Long Term Support.
Extra costs per year and instance - on top of your maintenance contract - just to keep receiving security updates after three years.
Sources:
BuiltWith (September 2026), TYPO3 GmbH ELTS pricing, typo3.org release lifecycle.
With TYPO3, you operate the CMS yourself. You patch it, upgrade it roughly every three years, keep dozens of extensions compatible and depend on specialists who speak TypoScript. Most of that budget keeps the lights on. Very little of it moves your business forward.
None of those costs appear on a single invoice. The maintenance contract covers minor updates — the major upgrades, extension replacements and extended support licences arrive as separate quotes. That is precisely why they rarely get questioned.
Meanwhile, the market has moved on. Headless CMS platforms like Optimizely, Storyblok and Contentful are run by the vendor. They store content as clean, structured data and let your team spend its time on what customers actually see — and on what AI search engines and agents can actually read.
Staying where you are is a decision too. We will show you what it costs — and what changes if you don't. And if your current TYPO3 setup is the right answer for your situation, that is what our assessment will say.
Switching a CMS is never one person's decision. Jump to the part that is yours.
The licence is free. The upgrades, extension replacements and specialist hours are not. Here is what sits outside every maintenance contract.
Your team should publish campaigns, not wait for sprints. Here is what editing looks like when the system is built for editors.
TYPO3 has no licence fee. That is exactly why its real cost is so easy to overlook.
A typical TYPO3 maintenance package covers minor updates. Everything else arrives as a separate quote:
Major upgrades — roughly every three years, each one its own project.
Extension replacements — when a module is abandoned or no longer compatible with the new version.
Extended Long Term Support — if an upgrade slips, around €2,200 per year and instance on top of the maintenance contract, just to keep receiving security patches.
Specialist hours — for changes your team cannot make independently, because TYPO3 requires TYPO3-specific knowledge.
Opportunity cost — the features and integrations that never get built because the budget went into keeping the platform alive.
None of this appears as a single line item. That is precisely why it rarely gets questioned.
The vendor operates, patches and scales the platform. You pay a fixed licence, plus lean hosting for the frontend. No surprise upgrade quotes — total cost becomes something you can actually plan.
The bigger shift is what the budget buys. In our own projects, a native headless CMS combined with AI-assisted engineering cuts development effort by up to 75%. Coordination and project management stay — the build work shrinks significantly.
That means lower cost for what you already have, and budget for what used to be out of reach: dealer portals, product configurators, deeper ERP and Product Information Management integration.
And because every building block can be swapped individually, you never have to rebuild the whole platform again — just replace the component that aged.
TYPO3 can be made editor-friendly — with enough configuration work. Modern headless platforms start there.
Click on the page, change the text, see the result live, publish. Visual editing is built into Storyblok, Contentful and Optimizely — not an extension you have to retrofit or re-certify with every platform update.
New landing pages are built from approved, on-brand blocks. Your team launches campaigns, markets and product pages in minutes — without waiting for the next development sprint or opening a ticket.
One clear content model, one way to get things done. New editors learn the basics in a single session, and the public documentation stays valid because everyone runs the same current version.
Two Austrian companies that left TYPO3 behind — and what they run today.
The TCO comparison is part of our DXP Assessment: fixed scope, fixed timebox, and both paths costed — staying on TYPO3 and moving to a SaaS headless CMS.
For mid-sized companies running one to three systems. Two to three weeks from kickoff to presentation. Interviews across editorial, marketing and IT. Six dimensions scored against evidence. A TCO comparison of both paths. A clear recommendation: stay, fix or move. No prices on this page — details on the DXP Assessment page.
For large organisations and multi-system estates. Starts at three weeks. Interviews up to C-level. Current-state architecture and integration analysis. A TCO comparison with budget estimates per phase. A half-day on-site workshop with a decision paper for your board. If you commission a follow-up project with us within six months, we credit the full assessment fee against it.
No servers to patch, no upgrade projects, no extensions breaking on the next release. Here is what changes for operations.
Product information, campaigns and news live as structured content — ready for your website, shop, app, dealer portal and the AI search engines deciding which brands get cited and surfaced.
![Mischek's new site built on Contentful — UX/UI from scratch, scheduled onOffice CRM property sync, mobile-first and WCAG-accessible, replacing their previous TYPO3 setup. [TO CONFIRM: Mischek 'from TYPO3' wording cleared]](https://a.storyblok.com/f/179330/d2d271d240/mischek_cd_09.jpg/m/2700x0)
