Web Development
Headless CMS
A content management system that stores and organizes content and delivers it through an API to a separate front end, instead of generating the website's pages itself.
In a traditional CMS, such as a standard WordPress install, one system stores the content and also renders the pages. A headless CMS keeps only the first job. Editors still work in an admin screen, but the content goes out through an API to a separate front end, which can be a static website, a mobile app or several channels at once.
The benefits are speed, security and reuse. The front end can be built in advance as static pages and served from a CDN, the CMS can sit behind a login where public traffic never reaches it, and one source of content can feed several outputs. The costs are two systems to maintain, preview and editing features that may need rebuilding, and developer time for changes a theme setting used to handle.
A simple brochure site rarely needs it. Headless earns its keep when content feeds several channels, or when an established editing workflow, often WordPress, has to survive a move to a faster front end. Our headless CMS vs. WordPress decision framework walks through the choice.
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