Collaborate on Sitecore XM Cloud via Vercel

As part of an RFP process, Sitecore and uxbee were asked to demonstrate how collaboration between users could take place within Sitecore XM Cloud. Normally, content collaboration happens outside the CMS, in tools like Microsoft Word, Sitecore Content Hub, or Bynder Content Workflow. Each of these systems has its own collaboration model, typically involving comments and annotations.

But what if you could enable that same level of teamwork inside XM Cloud?

Collaboration within XM Cloud workflows

Within Sitecore XM Cloud, you can use workflows to collaborate and exchange comments between users.
However, this approach doesn’t work when you’re dealing with external contributors who shouldn’t have direct access to your Sitecore environment.

To solve that, there’s an elegant workaround using Vercel's Collaborate feature.

Using Vercel Collaborate for external users

By deploying a shared and protected Vercel deployment, you can share a preview website connected to your Sitecore XM Cloud preview context ID.

According to the documentation:

"When you share a preview deployment with an external user, they will not be added to your Vercel team."

That’s great news! It means you don’t need extra developer seats to enable external review access.

Setting up Vercel as an External Rendering Host

Once your preview site is deployed, you can configure it as an external rendering host for Sitecore XM Cloud.

This effectively replaces the native XM Cloud rendering host with your own Vercel-based rendering host, which can be set up with just a few configuration tweaks.

Because the deployment is protection-enabled, you’ll need to use a protection bypass token to access it. This makes it possible to use the Vercel Deployment protection feature with JSS applications.

Real-time collaboration in action

When you open the preview functionality via Sitecore Pages, the Vercel collaboration tool becomes available.
From there, external users can be invited to the deployment. After logging in with their one-time access code, they can start annotating directly on the site.

Content authors will see these annotations live on the preview website - they can respond, make edits, and resolve comments just like in dedicated content collaboration tools.

The result?
A fully integrated, real-time collaboration system inside Sitecore XM Cloud - without ever needing to give external users CMS access.

Special thanks to Sitecore's Federico Mujica for pitching and demonstrating this solution in a real-life demo.

Wrapping up: collaboration, simplified

With this setup, Sitecore XM Cloud evolves from a content management platform into a true collaboration hub — one that bridges the gap between internal teams and external stakeholders without compromising security or workflow.

It’s a smart, scalable solution that turns “review rounds” into real collaboration.
And that’s exactly the kind of clever thinking we like at uxbee.