What is a Headless CMS?
Last updated: March 24, 2024 Read in fullscreen view
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The concept of a headless CMS is no longer new. The headless CMS trend shows no signs of slowing. On the contrary, more brands are looking to headless to broaden their omnichannel customer experience.
What is a headless CMS?
An enterprise headless CMS enables a company to produce content once, and then publish it to any device or touchpoint without restrictions.
A headless CMS, on the other hand, doesn’t force any templates or themes (also known as “heads” or front-end delivery layers) onto the content created within it. Instead, APIs (Application Programming Interfaces)—which enable two technologies to communicate—are used to send that template-less content to any device on the market, from smartwatches to virtual reality headsets, and everything in between.
Front-end developers can create templates at will for each device, enabling the company to send content and spread their omnichannel digital experience to new channels. The only problem is, a typical headless CMS often leaves marketers out in the cold.
Benefits and Limitations of Headless CMS
Benefits
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Omnichannel Ready: A headless CMS uses APIs to connect and deliver content, no matter the channel. Thus, a brand can easily adopt new channels like IoT devices into their connected omnichannel ecosystem.
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No Content Duplication: With a headless CMS, marketers can create content once, and then re-purpose it for multiple channels, reducing duplication in the process.
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Reduced Time to Market: Because content doesn’t need to be duplicated or re-entered for new channels, time to market is reduced.
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Less Feature Bloat: Typically, a headless content management system focuses on being a content repository and content delivery system, offering little else in terms of functionality and additional features.
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API-driven Architecture: APIs don’t just enable the CMS to communicate with the front-end delivery layer, they also allow data to flow in the other direction. So, brands can collect data from all their touchpoints, and use it for personalization or marketing purposes.
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Security: Headless content management systems typically deliver content through a Content Delivery Network (CDN) instead of sending it directly from the database. This helps minimize the risk of distributed denial-of-service (DDOS) attack.
Limitations
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Unfriendly to Marketers: Without WYSIWYG editing and content previews, marketers won’t be comfortable using a headless CMS alone.
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Leads to MarTech Bloating: To facilitate a content authoring experience that marketers can use, additional MarTech tools will need to be drafted in.
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Hidden Costs: Replacing a full CMS with a headless CMS can leave many gaps, and not just on the MarTech front. Filling those gaps can get costly.
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Complex frontend engineering: Writing a rendering “head” can be a complex feat if no base implementation is already available or deep proficiency with the chosen frontend tech is given.
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Missing features: Quite a few of the basic features that are perceived as a given for marketing practitioners have to be custom implemented
Is Headless Right for Your Company?
By now you have an idea both of what is headless architecture and what makes a good headless CMS. But when it comes to making the decision to go headless, you have to weigh your own requirements carefully.
You may be looking specifically for a headless CMS that is open source, or to integrate with an ecommerce system, or to offer personalized in-store experiences. Look at your business goals and match any technology choices to those.
There's no shortage of headless content management systems to choose from. Making the switch to a headless or decoupled platform is not a simple undertaking. It's important to make sure the system has good support and the people who will be using it are on board with the transition. Test a few systems (i.e. open source) and make sure the one you choose has all the features your team needs.
Tip: While headless CMS is beneficial for developers especially in terms of user experience, it might not be needed for small websites with few pages. Using a traditional CMS for smaller projects is faster and more effective. Non-web content publishing - where you're not powering a website at all.
Frequently Asked Questions
What's the difference between headless and decoupled architecture?
A decoupled CMS is any system where the back end and front end are separate: content management and storage on one side, presentation to users on the other. A decoupled CMS may still include front-end architecture, where the content gets funneled into templates before it is displayed. A headless CMS, however, is a type of decoupled system where there is no established front-end environment within the CMS.
What are the major differences between a traditional CMS and a headless CMS?
The traditional and headless CMS platforms can be differentiated on various factors including the following –
- Investment – A traditional CMS has a large upfront cost while a headless CMS can offer a quick proof of concept.
- Content model – A traditional CMS is built for a single page while the headless CMS is a building block for many products.
- Supported devices – There is a limit to the number of devices a traditional CMS can support as opposed to a headless CMS that can support limitless devices.
- Updates – There are scheduled updates on a traditional CMS as opposed to a headless CMS where there are continuous updates.
- Development mindset – A traditional CMS is project-focused while the headless CMS is product-focused.
- Workflow – A traditional CMS has a waterfall workflow while a headless CMS adopts an Agile workflow.
- Reach – When it comes to reach, a traditional CMS only has one-to-one reach as opposed to a headless CMS that has one-to-many reach.
- Back-end system – The back-end system in a traditional CMS is monolithic and all-in-one. Whereas, in a headless CMS, it is a microservice and best-in-class.
What is a hybrid headless CMS?
Hybrid headless CMSs are also referred to as decoupled CMSs, as they “decouple” content from the frontend delivery layer without totally removing the “head” from the equation, allowing marketers to make use of templates and authoring tools when needed.
What do I need to consider first when looking at headless CMS?
Headless architecture isn't automatically great. It needs to be implemented correctly, and that requires an experienced team to ensure the back end and front end are well planned from the beginning so they can sync up seamlessly later. To start, define your expectations regarding the three requirements of any modern CMS: content creation and delivery, development and publishing speeds, and integration with your existing systems. You'll also want to consider the fact that in going headless, you're splitting up your codebase and responsibilities, so you'll need specialized engineers for both front end and back end.
Can Admin/Editor user still preview content in a headless system?
It's a common concern: If my CMS isn't rendering the content, will I still be able to review how it looks before publishing? The short answer is yes. The not-as-short answer is that some additional development may be required, depending on your front-end system (e.g. React, Angular).
Is your editorial team educated on how a headless system works?
A headless CMS can push content to any device or channel and provides you with the ultimate flexibility in deciding how and where your content appears, including design, display of content, delivery of content, and content build. This gives editorial and product teams the freedom to focus on content creation and distribution over content management.
While developers are ultimately responsible for creating the environment, editorial teams need to be aware of how it all comes together.
Will going headless lower my project costs?
The answer to that depends on a variety of factors, but in many cases, yes, a headless CMS can help cut costs. If you're starting from scratch, you may need to invest more up front to make sure you have both the back-end and front-end developers you need, depending on the size and number of sites, along with a technical manager. That said, the up-front cost for a new app is about the same, and a headless CMS can save on long-term maintenance costs because you don't have to worry about changing the back end every time you add a channel. So, if you expect that you'll continue to expand your support for different audiences, headless is more cost-effective in the long term.
Do we have to choose between a headless CMS, decoupled CMS or traditional CMS?
Not necessarily. You can have a headless API to support some downstream systems, and you can also use native view-rendering system. Some clients may go the traditional route and choose a theme to get up and running quickly, while others will want the control and flexibility of going headless.
Why should one consider a headless CMS?
A headless CMS can offer the following benefits, making it an ideal choice –
- Flexibility – Headless CMS is more flexible, along with being easier and faster. Since headless CMS is API-driven, one can choose any front-end. One can develop it as per their preference without having to conform to any development constraints. Headless CMS also allows a single content item to be reused and combined with several different presentation outputs. It offers an unlimited number of front-ends.
- Cost efficiency – Headless CMS allows for the development of proof of concepts. It allows organizations to start with smaller solutions and then scale it up as per their needs. This reduces the upfront costs.
- Future proof – By separating the presentation layer from the data layer, it makes the applications future-proof. Using a headless CMS, one can easily structure their content to make new projects easier for futureproofing.
- Scalability – In a headless CMS, the back-end and front-end are separated. Moreover, one has unlimited hosting options with a headless CMS. This makes it more scalable than a traditional CMS.
- Upgrades – A headless CMS is always up-to-date. This is a huge benefit because upgrading can often prove to be costly.
- Software architecture – A headless CMS offers better software architecture since the CMS platform and the published content are separate. It also offers better security, scalability, and availability.
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