The End of the Composable Era: The Return of Unified Platforms

The Rise of Headless & Composable Architecture

From the late 2010s to the early 2020s, monolithic DXPs declined as composable headless architectures rose. During the same period, martech vendors surged from roughly 150 in 2011 to about 15,000 by 2025. The promised advantages were flexibility, power, scalability, and cost efficiency. In practice, they also introduced new burdens: procurement was a resource-intensive effort, organizations stalled in decision paralysis, and those that committed then faced integration and orchestration challenges. The benefits of headless and composable systems come with significant operational costs.

The Hidden Costs of Composability

While the popularity of headless and composable was increasing, mature DXP vendors were busy rebuilding their monolithic platforms piece by piece with modern architecture. Their incentive was clear: remain a one-stop shop by adding modern demanded capabilities such as search, personalization, customer data platforms, and AI. Many pursued this through acquisitions, but their acquired offerings resulted in a collection of different products rather than a unified platform.

DXP vendors then faced a marketing challenge. How do you position a suite of separate products? Most took one of two approaches:

1. Leaning into composability by highlighting the separateness of their modules as a strength, while also conveying a message of being a one-stop-shop via strong integrations within their suite of products.
2. Marketing and packaging their separate products as a unified solution in one way or another.

Regardless of approach, these companies faced the herculean task of integrating and unifying all of their different products. What’s notable is that DXP vendors themselves faced the same composability challenges that their customers did. Acquiring, integrating, and orchestrating multiple models and services at enterprise scale requires significant investment and time which is still very much in progress. The composable era was an industry-wide evolution that needed to happen to reach what comes next.

The Shift to Unified Platforms

The release of platforms such as SitecoreAI (Sitecore’s AI-native DXP) represents an important milestone in the evolution of martech and DXPs. The industry is moving toward truly unified platforms, where capabilities work together seamlessly rather than being merely connected. This shift benefits both vendors and customers, particularly when it comes to AI capabilities: when your entire stack is all on the same platform, and the data is all in one place, the value multiplies because a knowledge and orchestration layer can be built on top.

The composable era served its purpose, giving both vendors and customers the flexibility to evolve. Now, unified platforms like SitecoreAI are delivering on the original promise: powerful, integrated capabilities without the integration burden.

As a Platinum Sitecore Partner, One North is here to help. Whether you’re evaluating the move to a unified platform, or looking to maximize your investment in Sitecore AI, our team of experts can guide you through the process.

Photo Credit: Rosalie Gdy | Unsplash