What is a headless CMS?

Highlights

You’ll learn what a headless CMS is, its benefits and why you need one.

A headless CMS is a content management system that separates backend content creation from front-end presentation, delivering content via APIs to any digital channel.

Key Benefits:

• Omnichannel publishing: Deliver content to websites, apps and IoT devices from one source
• Enhanced flexibility: Use any front-end framework with no technical limitations
• Future-proof: Adapt to new channels without time-consuming system reconfiguration
• Cost-efficient: Reduce development time with reusable content across platforms

Transform your digital experience with Contentstack's industry-leading headless CMS solution. Talk to us today to unlock unlimited content possibilities.

Headless CMS has been a rising trend in digital content management for some time, but for some organizations, the reasons may not be quite clear. The headless CMS approach separates content from its presentation, enabling you to display content in any way you want on any channel of your choice.

It is quickly becoming a crucial component of the new digital experience platform (DXPs) generation.

DXPs go beyond web content management to create rich, engaging experiences for audiences across a multitude of channels. And what WYSIWYG (“What You See Is What You Get”) was to the CMS of the 90s, the headless CMS has become for DXPs and future generations of content management.

A full appreciation of the business significance and the need for a headless content management system warrants a more thorough discussion. For a closely related topic, please read the guide: What is a decoupled CMS?

Headless CMS explained in 2 minutes

What is a headless CMS?

A headless CMS is a content management system that manages content without an associated front end or presentation layer. It separates content management (back end) from its presentation (front end).

The headless CMS is not only decoupled; it resides as an API-first CMS where all your content and digital assets are stored. You can use a content API to share your content on different platforms, such as websites, mobile apps, email marketing and CRM.

It is an essential element of a composable architecture and a digital experience platform (DXP), a modular framework of customized software solutions. The headless CMS has an API for the front-end code to retrieve data from the back end. Since they are separate, the back end can make updates without affecting the front end or user experience.

How does a headless CMS work?

A headless CMS is a back-end-only CMS. It has no dedicated front end. So, you store content in the CMS and deliver it to the website, devices or digital touchpoints via APIs. Hence, content in a headless CMS is reusable. So, you can adapt them to various front-end frameworks or content needs.

It is a departure from traditional CMSes like WordPress, where the back end and front end are one and part of the same setup. While such monolithic CMSes restrict how you can display content, a headless CMS does not. In essence, you can look at it as a platform that stores your content, giving you complete control of what you do with it.

Headless CMS vs. traditional CMS

While the all-in-one approach of a traditional CMS might seem straightforward, there is a catch. These systems are not flexible, you are locked into their original design, meaning you cannot scale, adapt to new systems or meet new content needs.

Legacy CMS solutions handle 1:1 content deployment to a single web page. Hence, they cannot handle the omnichannel world of mobile sites, apps, touchscreen displays, Alexa integrations and smartwatch apps.

So, if you want to expand to new channels or scale your content needs, you need your dev team to reconfigure the entire setup. So, while monolithic systems are convenient and quick, you are trapped with only what the system has to offer, which inhibits innovation.

Here is a look at the main differences between headless CMS and legacy CMS:

Benefits of headless CMS

CMS confronts multifaceted digital content consumption

While numerous online platforms have been developed using conventional CMS like WordPress, Drupal or Joomla, the advent of the headless CMS presents substantial advantages for businesses that need to:

• Expand into new markets
• Introduce new products and integrations
• Engage with clients across various interaction points on multiple platforms and devices.

Headless offers some significant advantages that are impossible through most traditional CMS systems.

Why do you need a headless CMS?

The headless CMS is an essential piece of technology because we live in an omnichannel world. The content enterprises create for their website must also appear on apps, integrations, newsletters and more. Managing a duplicate copy of that content for multiple channels is a terrible, inefficient nightmare.

If your company updates how it describes a product, that update shouldn’t be copied and pasted into 20 different systems. You should be able to make the update in one centralized location and push the change out to all places where it matters.

That’s the power of a headless CMS.

It is one central source of truth for all your company’s content and assets. It gives you one place to manage, edit, update and publish that content.

How composable architecture can get you where you want to go

Consumers and users have more touchpoints than ever. Today, running a successful business is not just offering products on multiple channels, such as your website, stores and Amazon. It's more about having a deep customer understanding and orchestrating relevant experiences at the right place and time, regardless of the channel and the touchpoint.

Tomorrow's industry leaders understand the need for business agility that can rapidly transform new opportunities by opening new sales channels and creating new services. A composable architecture — or microservices architecture — delivers this level of agility and scalability. It is based on different services and features divided into agnostic building blocks that can operate independently.

A headless CMS is well-suited to a composable architecture. In a headless CMS, the decoupled front and back end allow content to be reused across multiple channels and devices without rebuilding the entire app. This flexibility gives developers greater control over how content is presented and makes creating seamless user experiences across channels easier.

Who uses a headless CMS?

Beyond the theoretical, many industries and verticals have embraced the headless CMS as a central platform that powers their digital experience across all devices and platforms. Headless CMS enables businesses to engage with clients on a large scale, swiftly react to new market possibilities and simplify content processes to maintain uniformity while preserving flexibility.

Some of the industries using a headless CMS include:

Sports teams

Sports teams can build an omnichannel fan engagement platform powered by a headless CMS. By marrying content with personalized data, teams can help fans feel more connected than ever to the players they love most.

Read: Miami HEAT Delivers Realtime Personalized Digital Experiences with a Headless CMS

Airlines

Air carriers face some of the most complex content requirements of any industry. Their teams manage critical, real-time communications, global content translation and localization, plus an omnichannel presence that spans hundreds — if not thousands — of individual customer touchpoints. Across owned web properties, mobile apps, email, third-party search sites and physical displays, a headless CMS enables clear, up-to-date, consistent and simplified communications.

Read: Icelandair Irons out Integration Issues and Improves Automation and Workflows by Moving to a Headless CMS

Financial services

Customers in the financial service sector rely on real-time content to inform some of their most important life decisions. They also demand personalized content that helps them navigate complex processes and make smarter financial decisions. Firms need the flexibility to innovate while maintaining a rock-solid, reliable foundation for managing content and how content is personalized and presented to each customer.

Read: Ellie Mae Increases Content Delivery and Decreases Development Costs with a Headless CMS

Online retailers

In online retail, the customer experience is king. Customers quickly criticize brands that fail to meet their needs or even introduce a tiny amount of friction into the buying process. Headless CMS allows online retailers to form 1:1 connections with customers, tying marketing and product content into customer purchase history and other data to deliver a truly personal shopping experience at scale.

Read: PhotoBox Streamlines Content Publishing with Contentstack’s Powerful APIs

Beyond these four core sectors, we also see many companies in other industries using a headless CMS to build a modern tech stack that marries flexibility, speed, innovation, security and reliability.

These industries include:

• Companies in gaming and media
• Technology corporations
• Retail industry
• Travel and transportation sector
• Sports industry
• Financial Services

See all of our composable case studies by industry.

FAQ section

What is meant by headless CMS?

A headless CMS is a content management system (CMS) that separates the backend (content creation and storage) from the front end (design and deployment). It offers a backend-only functionality, enabling you to access content for display on any channel via GraphQL or REST API.

What is the difference between headless CMS and regular CMS?

A traditional CMS offers an all-in-one setup that tightly couples content creation with its presentation. It is suitable for web-only publishing, while a headless CMS separates both components, offering more flexibility on how and where you display your content.

Is a headless CMS just an API?

A headless CMS is not an API. However, it uses APIs to fetch and display content to any front-end framework of your choice.

What is the headless concept?

The headless concept treats the back end and front end as completely separate concerns. It focuses on what happens in the back-end, giving you the flexibility to choose a front end of your choice.

Who needs headless CMS?

Modern enterprises in any industry that want to deliver unique content experiences, power diverse content delivery needs, scale content operations and adapt to new channels would benefit from using a headless CMS. 

Learn more

Traditional CMS platforms trap organizations with rigid frameworks, making multi-channel content delivery inefficient and costly. 

Headless CMS offers a way out. By separating backend content management from front-end presentation, you can publish unique content to the platforms your customers use the most, be it the web, mobile apps, IoT devices and more.

Contentstack leads the industry with our pioneering headless CMS solution, offering unparalleled flexibility, enhanced security and significant cost savings through content reuse and streamlined workflows. Talk to us today to learn how our headless CMS can empower you to deliver engaging omnichannel experiences.