What is a headless CMS?

While traditional CMS platforms manage the creation and display of content to a website, a headless CMS ‘decouples’ the management of content from the platform that displays it (e.g. website, mobile app, in-store touchscreen, internet-enabled device etc). A headless CMS therefore offers greater flexibility to deliver content beyond the web, allowing you to embrace existing and future omni-channel possibilities. 

Benefits of a headless CMS

• Create once, deliver broadly: A headless CMS eliminates the need to duplicate your content efforts. It provides a centralised source of content for distribution across a wide range of channels, saving time and resources, and making it easy to keep content up-to-date across a range of channels. 
• Faster project timelines: With a traditional CMS, there is a high degree of dependency. In other words, one stage of the process cannot begin until another is complete. With a headless CMS, all members of the team can be working simultaneously, enabling speedier project delivery. 
• More design flexibility: With a headless CMS, you have the flexibility to create the presentation layer of your digital experience with any tools or programming language you like. 
• Freedom to deploy best-of-breed microservices: A headless CMS provides the ideal foundation to take advantage of a microservices architecture approach. Rather than being locked into the tools provided by a traditional all-in-one CMS – such as email, marketing automation, forms and analytics – you have complete control to choose the tools that work best for the needs of your organisation.

Is a headless CMS right for me?

If you’re trying to decide whether to ‘go headless’, below are a few considerations that may help to guide your decision. If you answer yes to any of these questions then a headless CMS may be a good option for your organisation:

• Do you have multiple delivery channels for your centralised content?
• Are you already reliant on one or more existing systems (such as mailing lists, forms, or e-commerce) that you wish to continue using?
• Do you have a strong preference for a presentation technology which does not provide content management?
• Do you have a need to quickly deploy a stand-alone campaign, range or product site?

Conversely, if you answer yes to these questions, you may be better off with a traditional CMS:

• Do you require your marketers or content editors to create their own pages with a high degree of flexibility?
• Do you need an all-in-one solution that provides content management, marketing automation, e-commerce, or other connected digital features?