CASE STUDY

Self-realization Fellowship

Yogananda Website Maintenance

Platform

Craft CMS

Services

UX Design, UI Design, Systems Administration, Development, Project Management, Quality Assurance, SEO, Analytics

Overview

The Self-Realization Fellowship website exists to share the teachings of Paramahansa Yogananda and provide access to spiritual resources, lessons, events, books, audio, video, and community opportunities. With a large, high-traffic digital presence and a broad range of content, the organization needed a website partner who could do more than react to issues — they needed a team that could proactively maintain, modernize, and strengthen the platform over time.

The Challenge

When Yogananda engaged SunnyByte in 2021, the site had not been receiving the level of upkeep and responsiveness it needed. Built on Craft CMS, the platform required substantial technical attention, including a migration from Craft 2 to Craft 3, a PHP upgrade, server modifications and optimizations, plugin cleanup, and improvements to the content editing experience. Despite the size and visibility of the site, it was not being managed as effectively as it needed to be.

The Approach

SunnyByte began with a discovery and strategic recommendations phase to assess the platform, identify critical priorities, and create a path toward a healthier, more maintainable website. From there, we implemented a series of foundational technical improvements designed to stabilize performance, modernize the CMS environment, and support future growth.
As the partnership evolved, our role expanded well beyond maintenance. We became an ongoing development and support partner, helping the Yogananda team execute larger platform enhancements and improve how content and systems work together across the site.

Key Features

Craft CMS Modernization

Sunnybyte has helped guide the platform through multiple major upgrade cycles, including migrations from Craft 2 to Craft 3, Craft 3 to Craft 4, and Craft 4 to Craft 5. These upgrades have strengthened the site’s long-term stability, maintainability, and security while creating new opportunities to improve the CMS experience for internal users.

CMS Experience Improvements

In addition to keeping the platform current, we are now leveraging the benefits of Craft 5 to create a more seamless, intuitive, and user-friendly content management experience. This helps support more efficient publishing workflows and makes it easier for the internal team to manage a large and complex website over time.

Server, PHP & Performance Improvements

Our team completed important server optimizations, PHP upgrades, and plugin cleanup to bring the website closer to current best practices and improve overall health and performance.

Content & Workflow Enhancements

We implemented CMS enhancements that improved content editing and introduced a more sophisticated content approval workflow, helping support a more manageable publishing process.

Expanded Platform Functionality

Beyond maintenance, Sunnybyte also led larger feature initiatives, including a full redesign and development of the Teaching Library, integration between the user app and CMS-driven content, mega-menu improvements, OneTrust implementation for compliance, and ongoing support for multilingual content.

Outcome

Over the course of a multi-year partnership, SunnyByte has helped transform the Yogananda website into a more stable, modern, and actively supported platform. Our work has included multiple major Craft CMS migrations, ongoing technical improvements, and larger feature enhancements that have strengthened both the public-facing experience and the internal content management environment.
With the recent move to Craft 5, the partnership is now also focused on making the CMS more seamless and user-friendly for the organization’s internal team — helping ensure the platform not only stays current, but continues to become easier and more effective to manage.

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