As the world becomes more connected, an increasing number of companies are turning to content management systems to better engage with their customer base. We have all heard of WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, Sitecore, and Squarespace. However, many of these traditional CMS tools do not seem to keep up with the rapid evolution of technology.
Their implementation and maintenance are costly and can present a significant number of security risks. They are also not very flexible, bogged down by layers of multiple templates and framework constraints that can hinder the introduction of mobile functionality.
But there is a simple solution: go headless.
Integrate with any codebase
A relatively new concept, a Headless CMS essentially removes the interface from the equation, allowing developers to integrate with any codebase. The focus is on the API and the backend technology used to store and deliver content to any device or website.
The same editing capabilities are still available to users, but without all the views and responses that govern many traditional CMS approaches.
Headless CMS provides us with a lot of freedom on how to implement the content itself. We can have full control over the look of the final product, and no valuable time is wasted building templates from scratch.
A traditional CMS requires a lot of time, while a Headless CMS is relatively easy to deliver, as developers generally find pre-made templates that are suitable for many variations of an online product.
When we talk about multiple applications consuming the same API, it makes sense to extract them and place them in a real API, this helps to keep the process of each application and ensure they have the same data.
When to go for a Headless CMS
Is there a time when a traditional CMS would be better than going Headless?
As with all software-related answers, it depends on the product, although a better question is whether or not I need a full CMS.
Many clients often want to do some kind of CMS, especially for landing pages, which requires time and money. However, if you only plan to change your site's content once or twice a year, do you really need a CMS? Probably not.
If, on the other hand, you have content that is constantly changing, like a news website, then your best solution would be a headless approach.
What are the benefits of a Headless CMS? Is a traditional approach better for our projects? And is investing more money and time in a custom solution a better strategy?
We will delve a bit more in a future blog post about the benefits of Headless CMS. In the meantime, you can learn more about Headless CMS at https://headlesscms.org and https://jamstack.org.
I hope this has been helpful and/or taught you something new!
