Traditional content management systems (CMS) contain solutions for both editing content (text, images, etc.) and editing and publishing the website itself. In other words, both editing, publishing and presentation of the content.
A headless CMS has nothing to do with the presentation, so it has nothing to do with how the website looks.
Wondering if this could be a great solution for your company's website? Get in touch here!
What are the benefits of headless CMS?
At first glance, it may seem that a headless CMS is cumbersome to use, as you cannot edit the website itself in the same system. You need a separate system to build and run the website.
However, there are many advantages to doing it this way. In brief, the benefits of a headless CMS are:
- COPE - create once, publish everywhere. Make content production and publishing more efficient by having all your content in one place. This makes it easier to communicate the same message in multiple places, giving your business a more cohesive marketing approach.
- Connect to multiple platforms with API. To achieve the point above, most headless CMSs have good support for connecting to different communication platforms with API keys. This ensures good integration between systems and makes publishing quick and easy.
- A platform specialized and tailored to content production. As the platform is only designed to work with content, it is specialized for this. Traditional CMSs, such as WordPress, can in some cases be a bit cumbersome to use for professional content editing, as this is just one of many tasks the CMS has to solve.
- Easier to switch website platforms. Many companies find themselves outgrowing the platform on which their website is built. In this case, it is an advantage that the important content on the website is on an independent platform, so that it does not have to be moved and reorganized too much. This makes it possible to change the front-end solution and then reconnect the headless CMS solution so that existing content is connected to the new website.
Read more about what your company needs to consider when transitioning to a new website here.
Disadvantages of headless CMS
There are also disadvantages to such a solution. The most obvious one is that you have more systems to maintain. Another disadvantage is that the technical setup can be a little complicated compared to simpler solutions such as WordPress and Webflow. For example, you may need to make some adjustments to the front-end system to ensure that the content is published with the correct structure.
Who is a headless CMS suitable for?
There is no set formula here, but such a solution can be particularly useful if your company wants to publish the same content on multiple platforms. It can also be a smart choice if your company wants a greater separation between the systems for content and the website itself. Splitting the systems increases the security of the website itself, and fewer people need to have access to the website platform.
If you want to know more about publishing solutions and different types of CMS - read here.