What is a Headless CMS ?

A headless content management system consists primarily of an API as well as the backend technology required to store and deliver content, therefore the “head” in “headless CMS” refers to the frontend.

The headless approach allows developers to provide content as a service, which simply means that content storage and delivery are handled by separate software. A headless CMS can make the following tasks less of a headache: modeling, creating and authoring content, organizing content repositories or improving workflow and collaboration.

The frontend component of a Headless CMS is decoupled from the actual serving of the website or app.

• Headless CMS can work either as purely API driven, where the end user connects to the api from the browser, or it can work by updating content in Git.
• Headless CMS’ are opposite of legacy systems like Wordpress, Drupal, Joomla, etc. They are all CMS’ that traditionally have to be hosted and built together with the site every time it’s served.
• A headless CMS doesn’t care where it’s serving its content to. It’s no longer attached to the frontend, and the content can be viewed on any platform.
• Any content management tool that can manage content on sites or apps that doesn’t need a server and can be hosted directly on a CDN, can be included on this list.

There are two Categories: Git-based / API Driven

On what type of CMS it fall under.

1. Git-based

With a git-based CMS you are pushing changes to git that then triggers a new build of your site.

Pros:

• Full version control on all content out of the box.
• All content lives as normal text files so developers can use all the normal tools they use as a developer.
• Much easier to rollback.
• Is the most homogenous approach with the existing git-based workflow of most web-developers.

Cons:

• Not a good solution if you want several apps or sites to pull content from the same CMS.
• If you have tons of content, you would in some cases want a database instead.

2. API-driven

A CMS that is purely API driven. It does need to run every time a site has a visitor, but it’s an external api instead of having to run it as part of your site.

For some API-driven CMS Like Contentful and Prismic, you can also just use the api in the build phase, eliminating the need for anything being build on the fly. Though that will lead to longer build times.

Pros:

• The best solution if you have several different apps or sites pulling the same managed content.

Cons:

• Not version controlled in Git.
• Not as integrated in developer workflow as git-based CMS.

The Benefits of Headless CMS Architecture

• Flexibility: freedom to build a frontend framework that makes sense for your project. Since every headless CMS comes with a well-defined API, developers can spend more time focusing on content creation rather than content management.
• Faster time-to-market: All updates are pushed across all digital properties which allows you to reuse and combine individual content items.
• Compatibility: You can display content to any device while controlling the user experience from one convenient backend.
• Extra Security: Since the content publishing platform isn’t accessible from the CMS database, using a headless CMS lowers your risk of attacks.
• Scalability: Keeping the backend and frontend separated usually means no downtime is needed for maintenance, so you can upgrade and customize your website without compromising performance.