If you’re in the frontend or ecommerce development space, you’ve likely heard the term “headless CMS” being thrown around lately. But what exactly is a headless CMS and why is it becoming so popular?
A headless CMS is a back-end only content management system built as a content repository that makes content accessible via an API for display on any device or service. Unlike a traditional coupled CMS like WordPress or Magento, the front-end “head” for rendering content is decoupled and separate from the back-end repository.
Some example headless CMS’s include Prismic, Contentful, Sanity, Strapi and many more. A detailed list can be found on JamStack.org.
How a Headless CMS Works
With a traditional CMS, the back-end content repository and front-end delivery are tightly coupled. Content is authored in the CMS, and the CMS renders that content using templates and displays it.
With a headless CMS, the back-end content repository has no “head” for rendering content to users. Instead, developers maintain full control over the front-end experience and consume content from the headless CMS via API calls, normally using GraphQL but it could also be a Rest API
Benefits of Going Headless
So why would you want to go headless? Headless CMS’s offer some key advantages over traditional coupled CMS’s:
- Front-end Flexibility
Since the front-end presentation layer is decoupled from the back-end CMS, developers have complete flexibility to build the front-end experience using any modern framework like GatsbyJS, React, Angular or Vue. This means faster load times and better user experiences tailored for any device or service. - Omnichannel Content Delivery
Content from a headless CMS can be consumed via APIs by any front-end like websites, mobile apps, IoT devices, smartwatches, etc. This allows for true omnichannel content delivery from a single source of truth. - Improved Security
With a headless architecture, potential vulnerabilities are isolated to just the API layer versus traditional CMS platforms where all layers are coupled together. - Scalability and Performance
Headless CMS platforms are built as distributed, cloud-hosted services optimized to serve content rapidly at scale via APIs. - Future Flexibility
New front-end technologies inevitably emerge, and rebuilding monolithic front-ends on legacy CMS platforms is painful. A headless CMS future-proofs your content delivery.
While not necessarily a fit for every use case, the flexibility, security and future-proofing benefits have made headless CMS platforms especially attractive for ecommerce companies with complex content requirements across multiple front-end experiences. As headless continues gaining momentum, ecommerce brands looking to power better digital experiences should evaluate if making the move to a headless CMS makes sense.
