Why we believe TYPO3 should play a bigger role in North America

A few weeks ago, the TYPO3 North America Summit took place. Unfortunately, we were unable to attend in person this year, yet we followed the event with great interest. Not because we are hoping for a short-term business opportunity, but because we believe that something is emerging there that could be of great importance for the entire TYPO3 ecosystem.

Anyone who has worked exclusively in Europe for many years easily forgets how differently TYPO3 is perceived in other markets. While many European agencies can already look back on numerous enterprise projects and know the strengths of the platform from their own experience, many North American companies are encountering TYPO3 for the first time. For them, TYPO3 is not the established standard but, initially, one of many possible alternatives.

That is precisely why we believe that the most important contribution in the coming years does not lie in selling as many projects as possible. It is far more important to build up knowledge and pass on experience.

A good product alone is not enough

In technical discussions, we often focus on features.

• What features does a CMS offer?
• What security mechanisms exist?
• How flexible is the architecture?
• What integrations are possible?

Of course these questions matter. But they explain only part of a platform's success.

At least as decisive is the question of whether companies can find partners at all who are able to deliver projects reliably. A powerful enterprise CMS does not gain importance simply because it has good features. It gains importance when agencies, developers, and consultants gather enough experience to apply those features successfully in client projects.

This is precisely where we currently see the greatest challenge outside Europe.

It is not the product that has to prove itself first. The ecosystem has to grow.

Why we see an opportunity in this

Many agencies in North America have enormous experience with complex web projects. They develop sophisticated solutions with WordPress, Drupal, Sitecore, or other enterprise systems and have supported international clients for many years. What is often missing is not technical know-how, but experience with TYPO3 itself.

From our perspective, that is a decisive difference. No one needs to learn how good software is developed. No one needs to learn how architecture works or how to organize large projects.

What is missing is experience with the particularities of TYPO3, its typical project structures, the established best practices, and the tools that have evolved within the community over many years.

That is precisely why we believe that knowledge exchange can have a far greater impact than classic sales activities.

Distance is rarely the real problem today

One of the most common questions is whether collaboration between European and North American agencies is even practical. Our experience clearly speaks in favor of it.

For some time now, we have already been working successfully with an agency in Canada. Of course there are time differences. Of course meetings have to be planned more carefully than within the same time zone. At the same time, we find that these organizational differences play a far smaller role today than they did a few years ago.

The actual challenges almost always lie elsewhere.

• How do you estimate a larger TYPO3 project?
• How do you organize an enterprise upgrade?
• Which extensions have proven themselves?
• Which architectural decisions make later development easier?
• How do you build a reproducible deployment process?

These questions can be answered regardless of the continent. They require experience, not geographic proximity.

We want to support agencies as they get started

Perhaps our perspective differs at this point from that of classic service providers. Our goal is not to take over as many projects as possible from North American agencies. Instead, we would much rather see as many agencies as possible emerge there that can use TYPO3 successfully in the long term.

That can take very different forms. Sometimes it is about an initial architecture discussion for an enterprise project. Sometimes we accompany a team through their first major upgrade.

In other cases, we support as a white-label partner in the background, while the agency retains direct contact with the client. Often, shared code reviews or a few workshops are already enough to overcome typical early hurdles much more quickly.

From our point of view, genuine knowledge transfer does not consist of permanently taking over work. It consists of enabling other teams to carry out the same tasks successfully on their own in the future.

Why this matters to us as an official TYPO3 Consultant Partner

Since 2024, we have been an official TYPO3 Consultant Partner of TYPO3 GmbH. We understand this partnership not solely as recognition of our work to date, but also as a responsibility toward the entire TYPO3 ecosystem.

From our perspective, that includes not only supporting existing clients or agencies in Europe. If TYPO3 is to grow internationally, it needs experienced companies that are willing to pass on knowledge, support new partners, and share their experience openly.

That is precisely why we are active in the community, invest time in exchanging ideas with other agencies, and take part in events such as the TYPO3 Surf Camp or international community initiatives. Not because new projects arise from them directly, but because we are convinced that a strong ecosystem benefits everyone involved in the long term.

Europe can share experience – North America will find its own paths

This is explicitly not about simply copying the European TYPO3 community. Every market develops its own requirements, its own ways of working, and its own priorities. That is exactly what makes an international open-source community so exciting.

Europe brings decades of TYPO3 experience. North America brings new perspectives, different business models, and a market with enormous potential for innovation.

We believe that both sides can benefit from each other. The European community can contribute its experience from thousands of enterprise projects. At the same time, new impulses from North America will help advance TYPO3 and open up new fields of application.

What we hope for in the years ahead

When we think about the future of TYPO3, there is one thing above all that we hope for:

• More companies that consciously choose TYPO3 because they recognize the long-term value of an open, professionally developed enterprise platform.
• More agencies that take the step of adding TYPO3 to their portfolio.
• More developers who gain their first experience with TYPO3 and discover that an exceptionally committed community stands behind the system.
• And more exchange between the people who advance this ecosystem every day.

If we can make a small contribution to this with our experience from enterprise projects, white-label collaboration, TYPO3 upgrades, and architecture consulting, then we are very happy to do so.

Not because North America would merely be a new market for us. But because we are convinced that TYPO3, as an open-source project, is strongest when knowledge, experience, and collaboration know no geographic boundaries.