What Is the Best Headless CMS – A Comprehensive Guide

Content delivery is one of the most complex and important challenges for today’s businesses. It is the process of putting your offers in front of prospective customers. Whether you’re a D2C giant dealing in products or a B2B enterprise providing services, content delivery is of paramount importance. A content management system is the weapon that will help you overcome the challenges of sophisticated content delivery and win over more customers by providing smooth experiences. And we’re not just saying this: as of 2022, businesses spent $26.19 billion on content management platforms to present their content in the most appealing form.

While traditional CMSs have been around since the days of WordPress, the last five years have witnessed something new: the rise of Headless Content Management Systems. The word is that they help businesses increase productivity, shorten development cycles, expand microservice infrastructure and manage technical debt… But what is the best headless CMS? Can it truly help you build a better content ecosystem? How can it help you future-proof your content delivery infrastructure?

In this blog, we’re going to tell you everything you need to know about Headless CMS platforms, how they work and why you should consider migrating to one…

Let’s dive in!

What is Headless CMS?

A headless CMS is a back-end-only, front-end-agnostic content delivery platform. It separates the presentation layer of your content from the content itself.

That was a lot of words: so what do they all mean?

In simple words, the best headless CMS imagines your content delivery system is made up of building blocks. Let’s consider an analogy…

Imagine your website as a house. Your house will have basic structural features: load-bearing walls, pillars and bricks. It will also have things that make it presentable: paint, furniture, appliances and more.

In a traditional CMS, both things are dependent on each other. So, if you want to use blue paint, you need to use only a specific type of brick. If you want a swing, you need a robust load-bearing wall for it.

In website terms, if you want to deploy multi-lingual content, your entire system must be designed for it. Or, if you want to use a microservice like a multi-option payment interface, you must code it from scratch.

Here’s where a headless CMS is much different: it imagines your house and your website as having two different components, the structural features on the one hand and the aesthetics on the other. And one has nothing to do with the other.

So, you can use any color combination with any material or any furniture with any type of construction. In website terms, the kind of content you want to deploy is decoupled from its structure. So, changing the color has no effect on the website’s back-end infrastructure.

But why is a headless CMS more desirable than a traditional one? Let’s find out…

Why Are More and More Development Projects Using a Headless CMS?

As of 2024, 35% of businesses use a headless CMS, with up to 80 million websites run by a CMS. So, what explains the growing popularity of headless CMS platforms? There are four main reasons:

Omnichannel Content Delivery

In today’s world, more and more people are experiencing the internet through various devices. First, more and more people have access to smartphones, tablet computers and laptops. But, more importantly, even cars, tractors and refrigerators now come with interactive screens that can run various applications.

Additionally, people consume content through a wide variety of models: social platforms, forums, mobile applications and web applications.

So, omnichannel content delivery has become increasingly important for enterprises and businesses around the world.

CMS platforms are particularly helpful in this regard: They help creators create “blocks” of content that can be reused and deployed across different platforms.

Scalable Development

Expansion is the lifeblood of any business. Expansion doesn’t just mean new products and services. It also requires you to find a way to inform your users about the new offers with new features and experiences.

So, scalability is an important consideration when you’re choosing a content delivery system. And that’s exactly what the best headless CMS offers. Through its product-based content-building approach, minimal technical debt and omnichannel delivery, it lets you seamlessly scale your website at a fraction of the cost compared to traditional content delivery models.

Faster Deployment of New Features

One of the most important developments in the last five years has been the rise of microservice infrastructure.

Technology like chatbots, translation services, payment interfaces and maps can be integrated into any website through plug-ins.

The best headless CMS platforms are particularly helpful in integrating such technological developments into any website or app. They don’t require you to start from scratch or even program specific pieces of software to deploy these features.

This gives businesses a cost-effective and faster method of adopting new features and enriching the user experience.

Security

Whether we’re business owners or consumers, we don’t want our data and information compromised. So, security is a chief concern in 2024.

The recent Crowdstrike outage is a classic example of a security risk. It brought airlines, businesses and even F1 cars to a halt. Another example is the rise of FinTech, which requires enhanced security for financial websites.

In this respect, the best headless CMS platforms are very helpful. They offer several ways of safeguarding enterprise data through version control, user roles and multi-factor authentication.

Headless CMS vs Traditional CMS

One of the best ways to understand headless CMS platforms is by comparing them with traditional content delivery pipelines like WordPress. Let’s take a quick look at the difference between traditional and headless CMS platforms. Here’s how they compare:

Hosting

While a traditional CMS requires you to host your website in-house, headless CMS platforms offer cloud-hosted solutions for content delivery. This drives down the cost of developing, deploying and maintaining content delivery systems.

Development

Traditional CMS platforms offer a project-based development approach. So, you’ll have to develop your app and your website as different projects with different budgets and timelines.

Headless CMS offers you a product-based development approach. So, you can use the same product-based page for different projects. This accelerates the development and helps you manage different projects simultaneously.

Content Building

A similar difference is in the way the systems approach the content-building process.

Traditional CMS uses a single-page approach. Therefore, you must configure different pages for different websites and apps.

A headless CMS lets you focus on creating building “blocks” of content that you can edit, reuse and deploy for any platform.

Content Channels

Traditional CMS is limited in its ability to deliver content to different channels. So, you may not be able to deploy the same content for different devices, operating systems or even social platforms.

A headless CMS is extremely useful in redeploying content across channels, devices and operating systems. It caters to a limitless range of channels.

Workflow and Updates

Traditional CMS operates through a waterfall workflow process. This means your content flows in a singular fashion; there’s no stopping or reversing the flow. The only way to do that is to start from scratch. Plus, updates under a traditional CMS depend on the existing development trajectory.

Not so with the headless approach.

Through the best headless CMS, you can adopt an Agile approach to workflow and development. It offers you a way of continuously introducing updates. And if something doesn’t work as you had intended, you can even restore the system to the last working window.

This gives you the option of remaining flexible in your development.

Investment

Investment is the number one obstacle for many businesses, especially when it comes to expanding, introducing new products or integrating new features.

With a traditional CMS, expanding or introducing new features will require considerable financial resources. So, if you have a legacy app and want to build a new one, you’ll have to start a new project all over again.

With a headless CMS, you can start with a Proof of Concept to see if a website or an app works for you. If it does, you can go ahead with scaling it to your requirements. And if it doesn’t, no harm done; you can try once again at minimal cost.

So, the best headless CMS platforms offer your enterprise a way to grow without taking unnecessary financial risks.

Technical Debt

Technical debt refers to the gradual aging of your online infrastructure. Just as people are shifting from their old, clunky operating systems, businesses, too, have to transform their online infrastructure once in a while.

If you manage an enterprise or a business, you know that this requires a huge capital investment. But that’s the case with a traditional CMS, where technical debt is inherent: it’s part of doing business.

However, with a headless CMS, you can manage your technical debt. Most importantly, with a headless CMS, you can minimize the window where you have to make a single, huge investment. Instead, you can periodically update your content delivery ecosystem.

Benefits of Using a Headless CMS

A headless CMS isn’t just a good alternative to traditional CMS. It also offers many unique and positive advantages. Here’s how they stack up:

Reusable Content

The best feature of headless CMS systems is that they allow you to reuse content.

Imagine you’ve created a website page for a product or service and want to redeploy it as a mobile app.

The best headless CMS platform treats your product or service page as a block. You can use this block to build any app or website in the future.

This is very helpful if you want to sell the same product through different sellers and websites.

Easy to Use for Non-Technical Users

Content creators often find content delivery pipelines too difficult to use, especially if they don’t have a technical background.

With a headless CMS, creating, editing and deploying content is extremely simple. It can be as easy as a drag-and-drop mechanism. So, whether it’s images or videos, your creators don’t need any extra training: they can do it all by themselves.

Accelerated Development Cycles

Remember when developers would quote months-long development timelines for your new projects?

Headless CMS has made this history.

With a good headless CMS, you can develop and launch your website within as little as a week. And you don’t have to compromise on features, services or security either!

Headless CMS templates can help you build sophisticated online experiences in a fraction of the time required by traditional development processes.

Future-Proof Content Ecosystem

Headless CMS systems offer a combination of factors that make your content ecosystem future-proof.

The most important of them are:

• Managed technical debt
• Cloud-based hosting services
• Continuous updates
• Enhanced security services

By eliminating or outsourcing the clunky tasks associated with content delivery, the best headless CMS platforms ensure that your content infrastructure is as light as possible.

SEO-Friendly CMS

Building immersive online experiences is one part of the content delivery process.

The other part is ensuring that the content reaches the right audience. The headless approach to CMS helps in this regard as well. It offers you a variety of tools to boost the visibility of your content with the right audiences.

From site speed to accurate metadata, SEO audit tools and multilingual presentation, headless CMS platforms can help you make your websites extremely appealing to search engine algorithms and users alike!

Best for Microservice Infrastructure

Today’s users want hyper-personalized experiences. This means you must incorporate new features to legally collect data and new features that cater to their preferences.

Plus, you must have attractive product carts, hyper-responsive chatbots, a multi-payment interface and more!

Integrating these features is extremely easy with a headless CMS, which allows you to deploy them through a plug-and-play mechanism.

This saves you both time and money while ensuring that you don’t fall behind the requirements of a modern user experience.

Examples of Traditional and Headless CMS

Some of the most popular traditional CMS platforms include WordPress, Joomla, Squarespace, Wix and Magnito.

The most commonly used and best headless CMS platforms are Strapi, Contentful, Prisic, Directus and MotoCMS.

Who is Headless CMS Best For?

How can you be sure that you’re ready to shift to a headless CMS? After all, deciding whether you want to change your content delivery style can be very challenging.

So, if the reasons we’ve discussed are not enough to help you decide, see if you fall into any of these categories:

You Want to Deliver Sophisticated Experiences

2024 has been the year of alternative media. Infographics, videos, reels and TikTok posts have become the new norm.

The past five years have also witnessed the rise of AR/VR experiences. These have been important in helping users experience live sports events or launch new product experiences.

So, if you want to take advantage of the new way people are consuming content and experiencing products or services, you need a headless CMS platform.

It is a cost-effective way of pivoting to the new methods of content delivery.

You Run an e-Commerce Platform

Traditional commerce has been losing ground to eCommerce since the start of the pandemic.

The advent of same-day and one-day delivery has also contributed to the exponential growth of online retailers.

However, eCommerce websites require a strong product-based development approach. With millions of products and thousands of platforms to sell on, they also require periodic updates, personalized experiences and microservice infrastructure.

If you want to launch an eCommerce platform or already have one but want to expand further, migrating to a headless CMS is one of the best investments you can make!

You Want to Launch a Mobile App

As of 2024, 83.58% of Google visitors were mobile users. This means mobile users are steadily taking over the internet.

If you’re operating a B2C business, launching a mobile version of your app is a necessity. On the other hand, if you’re a B2B enterprise, policies like Bring-Your-Own-Device mean you must also prepare for the wave of mobile users.

And if you want to develop a mobile app quickly without compromising on security, the best headless CMS is your best friend. You can launch your mobile app within as little as a week and then gradually optimize its features through Agile development.

Looking to Migrate to a Headless CMS? We’re Here to Help…

In today’s market, perfecting your products or supercharging your services is a priority, but it’s not enough. To stand out, you also need a better way of delivering your message to your users.

As we’ve seen, a Headless CMS is one of the best ways of delivering a meaningful message in a sophisticated manner. But, we understand the anxiety that comes with migrating to a new content management system…

It is, no doubt, a challenging task that requires careful planning and strategic execution. So, how can you overcome this challenge as smoothly as possible? By working with a reputed, trustworthy and experienced CMS enterprise…like ours!

At Green Apex, our engineers and consultants have helped high-value businesses and enterprises seamlessly integrate their existing content ecosystems with the best headless CMS platforms like Moto’s.

Whether you want to prioritize microservices or need a robust content pipeline, we are here to help you develop customized solutions for all your content delivery requirements.

Explore our expert headless CMS services, or connect with Green Apex to brainstorm your roadmap to a future-proof content delivery infrastructure!